Haagen Dazs White Chocolate & Almond Ice Cream Bars review

Haagen Dazs have been on a bit of a roll recently with all of the new products they have been releasing and being an ice cream lover, I was desperate to get my hands on all of the new varieties. I started with these white chocolate and almond bars since you can't really go wrong when white chocolate is involved! These are basically like a posh Magnum but the ice cream also contains caramelised almonds and so these are a little more special.

The ice cream is 30ml in size and came coated in a smooth layer of white chocolate. The chocolate itself wasn't very thick but was sweet, creamy and very tasty. The ice cream itself was the usual luxurious and very rich vanilla that Haagen Dahs are famous for and the addition of the caramelised almond pieces only made these even better. There were plenty of almonds which were noticeably sweet and I loved the addition of the crunchy texture to the smooth and creamy ice cream.

Hats off to Hagen Dahz for releasing such a delicious and high quality ice cream without any gimmicks. These are a simple and yet very impressive product and I would highly recommend them. These made for a slightly more sophisticated ice cream dessert and I am sure that I will be buying these again throughout the warmer summer months.

Costa UK Maple & Pecan Brioche Swirl review

You know that spring is approaching when the maple flavoured products start appearing in store and I for one am not complaining. Being a massive fan of maple syrup, pecans and brioche I was more than happy when I saw this new addition to the Costa range. It came wrapped in some red paper with a layer of maple icing on top and plenty of pecans.

Brioche is typically incredibly light and buttery and so when I bit into this cake I expected it to be soft and fluffy. I have to admit however, I was really disappointed with the brioche itself. Although the flavour was decent with a slightly rich taste, it was beyond dry. It was practically all air with just a hard exterior. The maple icing had a lovely flavour and was harder than I expected but I didn't mind that. The combination of the flavours of the pecans, maple and brioche worked quite well so it is a real shame that the texture was so poor. I will definitely be avoiding this product in future and hope that it is only a limited edition product that will be replaced soon with something better.

FUEL Chocolate Porridge Pot review

Porridge pots are always my first choice of breakfast when I'm on the go and I love finding new varieties so that I don't get bored of plain old oats. The FUEL brand puts a high focus on the amount of protein packed into their porridge pots (14g), as well as the large amount of fibre. This variety combines jumbo rolled oats with chocolate flakes and claims to be ideal for those people with an active lifestyle. Personally, it was the promise of chocolate for breakfast that tempted me to try these out. It only requires the addition of boiling water then stir and wait.

I will start by saying I took the following photograph a little too early and I did add a lot of water and so the actual product was a lot thicker in consistency than this photograph makes it look. The porridge itself was filing and a fair sized portion. The flavour was pretty impressive. It was sweet without being sickly and it didn't taste overly artificial as many similar products do. I don't know if it provided me with any more energy than a generic porridge pot but I certainly enjoyed the taste!

I am glad that I got to try this porridge pot and am now intrigued to see how the other flavours from the FUEL range compare. This made a nice change from my usual porridge pots and is ideal for any chocolate lover. This was a convenient and (relatively) healthy breakfast that I really did enjoy. I don't think that I would eat this everyday, however I am sure I will pick up again in the future when I fancy something a little different.

Jamie's Italian Oxtail Lasagne review

I have visited Jamie's Italian once before and had a really good meal and so I was eager to go back and try something else from the menu. I opted for the oxtail lasagne which is described as "a Herby 12-hour slow-cooked oxtail & Chianti ragù layered with pasta, béchamel, mozzarella & Parmesan". Costing £13.95 this sounded delicious and I was intrigued to see how the oxtail would compare to traditional beef.

The service wasn't great and the meal did take a while to come but I was so hungry I just wanted to get stuck in. The dish came topped with rocket and looked very attractive. The flavour was great, Cheese-y with a rich and thick tomato sauce. The pasta was quite thin and so it did seem as though there was a  lot of sauce but it had a very tasty flavour and so I cant complain. I loved the addition of the oxtail to this meal in terms of both the meaty flavour but also the shredded texture. It was very well cooked and moist and went very well with the flavours of the rest of the lasagne. I would highly recommend this oxtail lasagne to any pasta lovers and I think it is great to see an alternative meat option available.

CrepeAffaire UK Cinnamon Crepe review

I love pancakes of any description and as dull as it sounds my favourite type of crepe is just simple and smothered in sugar. I visited crepeaffaire for the first time this week and decided to go for something slightly different but still not full out crazy and loaded with toppings. Being a lover of anything cinnamon, this was an easy decision to make when I saw the crepe filled with cinnamon, butter and sugar.

This came and I have to admit that compared to some of the fancier crepes around me, it looked very boring with the simple dusting of icing sugar. I took a bite and no longer cared what anyone thought. For me, this was perfect. There was a lot more cinnamon nd butter inside than I was expecting resulting I a sweet yet spicy flavour.The crepe itself was cooked incredibly well, soft and doughy with a slight crisp to the edges. This was sweet but not sickly and I enjoyed every mouthful. The range of fillings means that you can get something a little more adventurous of something simple but tasty like myself and I would happily return to the store to try some other fillings out.

Lir Baileys Easter Egg review

Okay, so although technically its a few weeks too early to be eating Easter eggs, with so many tasty chocolatey treats around I decided that if I didn't start opening some now then I wouldn't have the time to get through enough! I couldn't think of a better place to start than this Milk chocolate Baileys Easter egg from Lir. If I'm honest, despite being one of the more luxurious chocolate brands available, I don't think that I have tasted Lir chocolate before which made this even more exciting. The promise of baileys flavoured milk chocolate sounded like absolute bliss and it also came with a selection of milk, dark and white chocolate baileys truffles!

The egg itself was attractive to look at with a caramel coloured swirl on the front. It was also quite large in size and there were eight truffles in the box. The egg itself was a good thickness. Not the chunkiest egg that I have ever had but definitely nothing to complain about. I took my first bite and was eager to see if this would be a bit of a gimmick with the baileys flavour being pretty unnoticeable, luckily it was spot on! The initial flavour that hit me was a creamy milk chocolate followed almost immediately by the rich and more-ish Baileys flavouring. After tasting the chocolate I am interested to see how other versions of Lir chocolate compare but so far I am a fan. The truffles were also very indulgent tasting with the white chocolate being my personal favourite. They had a delicious creamy flavour but I don't think that I could eat too many without feeling a little sick.

The overall egg and truffles have a very rich flavour and so this is definitely a treat for those of us with a sweet tooth but I absolutely loved it. At £10 this is one of the slightly pricier Easter eggs available but then again it is probably more aimed at adults than children so it's kind of expected. I don't mind paying a little more if I am getting a good quality product and this Egg certainly ticked all of the boxes. I loved the fact that the Milk chocolate egg itself was flavoured since most eggs available are just plain chocolate with some fun kind of treat next to it in a packet. This is a very unique egg and one that I would highly recommend to any Irish cream fans because I really was impressed.

Brewers Fayre Sweet Potato & Feta Lasagne review

I have never visited Brewers Fayre before but have always imagined it to be a typical pub grub type place with very basic, mass produced food. However, since they have recently opened a restaurant near where I live I decided I may as well give it a try since there was bound to be something on the menu that tempted me. I was actually really surprised with the range of items on the menu and a lot of the options were slightly unusual considering the type of restaurant that I expected Brewers Fayre to be. I opted for the sweet potato and feta lasagne which is described as  having thick layers of pasta with sweet potato, spinach, and feta sauce with tomato ragu, mozzarella & Cheddar. Being a lover of sweet potato, lasagne and anything cheesy this sounded right up my street and it was even served with garlic bread.

The lasagne came and I tucked in. Let me put this bluntly and say that this was absolutely delicious. The layers of pasta were actually pretty thick as was the layer of sweet potato. There was plenty of spinach which was cooked well and went perfectly with the creamy feta sauce. I was slightly worried that I was going to find this too tomato-y but the amount of ragu was perfect to match the cheesiness of this lasagne. The cheese on top was gooey and delicious and I was really impressed with this lasagne. The garlic bread was pretty basic, crispy on the outside and soft in the middle but it made a nice addition to the dish and I enjoyed it. After this experience I would happily return to Brewers Fayre to try out some of their other menu options and think that this would be an ideal venue for a family meal if you are trying to find something that would please everyone.

Kettle Bites Sweet Chilli Lentil Curls review

I have enjoyed all of the kettle bites range that I have tried and so I am currently still working through the newer varieties that have been released. I previously tried and reviewed the sea salt and peppercorn wholegrain bites but today I decided to try these sweet chilli lentil curls. I have also previously reviewed the mozzarella and pesto lentil curls which are a regular purchase of mine and so I hoped that these would be just as good.

There seemed to be an impressive amount of lentil curls in the bag which I was pleased about considering these only contain 94 calories and many companies reduce the calorie count by offering tiny portions. Like the other varieties from the kettle bites range, the bag stated that these lentil curls have 50% less fat than standard crisps so no need to feel guilty when you fancy a savoury snack. These curls had a good crunch to them and I really enjoyed the texture. The flavour was predominantly sweet chilli which was mild but still had a fair hit of heat. I could also really notice a strong flavour of lime which confused me but when I took another look at the packet there was a picture of a lime. This actually worked really well with the flavour and I thought that the combination of the lime and the sweet chilli made for a very tasty snack.

Yet again I was impressed with the kettle bites range and this new addition is just as good as the other varieties. These curls have a good amount of heat but also a nice zesty flavour due to the lime and I would highly recommend these. The fact that these are low in fat and calories just makes them even better and I am now even more eager to try any flavours that I haven't yet tasted.