Aldi Veggie Meal and Food Shopping

 This is another of the Vegetarian things Aldi have in each December for Christmas. 'Melting Centre Nut Roasts'. I've looked back in the posts labelled 'Vegetarian Taste Test' and can't find that these have been tried before but last year they had one called 'Root Vegetable and Brie Nut Roast' which sounds similar, just different veg this year.

I tried  one last Monday and I've still got a few of the  potatoes left from the pre-Christmas 5p pack so cut one into wedges and popped in with the nut roast to roast.

The nut roast looked OK but had a very weird dry texture - when I eat the second in the pack I'll make some gravy to go with it............or maybe cheese sauce - not sure either sounds appealing to make it better but I'll persevere! It's nowhere near as nice as the homemade nut roast I made (after buying these frozen things - yes I'm an idiot!). I know I've said before that potatoes are my  least favourite vegetables and Never eat mashed- ugh. These cheap potatoes weren't very good either - very floury texture (variety was Electra and will be avoided in future)

On Wednesday I finally got around to cooking the red cabbage which was the last of the 5p things from Aldi before Christmas, I meant to do it boxing day but forgot and we had plenty of other veg anyway. Then kept putting it off as it needs a long time in the oven to braise nicely (I add onion and red wine vinegar and a bit of brown sugar) it's delicious done like that,  I can't eat it raw. Good thing red cabbage keeps for ages.

The  fruit and veg. bought New Years Day from Tesco on the way to Son's had all gone, as had several other bits of store-cupboard stuff and my list was bigger than usual....I don't like to get too short of store-cupboard food in January/February as you never know what the weather will be.......... so I popped to Aldi on Thursday early and detoured via Tesco on the way home for a couple of other  things before the weather turned nasty again.........much rain was forecast.

I know everyone loves looking at other peoples shopping so here you go, a HUGE (for me) shop. 

Although I'm not enthusiastic enough to go through it one by one!

Not in the photo as they went straight into the freezer were 2 x 4 pints milk, frozen peas and 2 UPF  things - mini vegetable spring rolls and Proactive cholesterol reducing spread (although the latter is classed as a useful UPF).  2 other UPF's are the Aldi Cheese and Onion rolls and the tub of Bisto cheese sauce. Vegetables are mini potatoes, celery, leeks, carrots, onions and Cavolo Nero kale. Fruit is a dozen apples and  3 packs of Aldi dried prunes. Store cupboard items are 2 tins salmon, rapeseed cooking oil, brown sugar, plain flour, spaghetti, decaf ground coffee and tomato sauce. Things that go in the fridge were 2 packs of extra mature cheddar, Shropshire blue cheese and butter.

Total spend was £58.69 (total food spend to date for January £66.94) and now I don't need to buy anything  for ages as I have plenty of things for the main part of a meal in the freezer.

There was no snow or gales in this part of Suffolk on Friday just plenty of heavy rain.......all day . Really nasty dismal day, I went nowhere.

Have a good weekend - I'll be back Monday

 

Vegetarian Christmas

 Aldi always have a few special vegetarian things in their freezers for Christmas. It's handy to have something a bit different for the main part of a meal that can be just popped in the oven. Individual  'bakes' - useful for people on their own. I wouldn't want to eat them everyday - too many strange ingredients, but useful now and again .

This is one of the packs  I bought. Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Rostis.

I served up with a few Aldi ziggy chips and veg. The rosti was quite tasty with good flavour and plenty big enough. It looks burnt but that was just the 'basil melting centre'.

Then the opposite - a home-made nut roast. I had to search the blog for the recipe used earlier in the year,  as  I'd forgotten to add it to the recipe page and found it from back in February. HERE is the blog post. I had more nuts this time so upped everything else too and made a deeper loaf. Last year I cut into slices and froze in twos, which was a bit too much, this year as the loaf is deeper I've sliced, wrapped and frozen individually. The slices need to be defrosted before re-heating in the microwave. It made 7 good sized slices.

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The weather really was grim yesterday, it was still dark when I got up at quarter to eight, it was gloomy in the church in Stowmarket (tree festival photos another day) even though they had all the lights on. It started pouring at home just after midday and it was dark again long before 4pm.

I found a comment from few days ago that I'd not seen, it was from a reader from way up north in  the Faroe Islands! Wow! Included was a link to a collection of Christmas youtubes . I'll be having a look at some later - there are dozens!

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwykVSaCN9CRMr1C37wwT5gOcV0N6hCwa&si=AcAOVoJ4b1_zpuA2

Veggie Burger Comparison

Thanks everyone for comments about the old photos, not ever so interesting to other parts of the country but a good look at Edwardian life - and villages everywhere would have looked similar I guess.

 Having discovered that Aldi do a mozzarella vegetarian burger that sounds just like the Linda McCartney ones I've tried and enjoyed in the past I though a  comparison would be a good idea.

Price-wise Linda McCartney were £2.50 for the two from Morrisons. Aldi's were £1.75 for two

Above is how they look when still frozen. There is an obvious difference. The Linda McCartney is thinner and darker with visible pieces of mozzarella, while Aldi's on the right is thicker and pinker. 

Ingredients in the Linda McCartney are Soya Protein, rapeseed oil, mozzarella cheese, onion, chickpea flour, flavouring, yeast extract, stabiliser: methyl cellulose; garlic puree, malted barley extract, onion powder,salt, garlic powder.

Calories 266 after cooking

The Linda McCartney looked like this, nicely browned after 25 minutes in the oven

 

.   

And in a bread roll with a little mayo, my red tomato relish and lettuce with fresh beetroot and my homemade cucumber pickles on the side

 As usual it was nice and moist with lots of flavour , making a filling meal.

Then a week later I tried the Aldi Burger..............

Ingredients in the Aldi burger are Soya Protein, mozzarella cheese 9%, rapeseed oil, thickener: Methyl cellulose; shea oil, flavourings, bamboo fibre (!), rice flour, coconut oil, chickpea flour, dried yeast, yeast extract, onion powder, barley malt extract, colour:beetroot red; sea salt, maltodextrin, cornflour, salt, dextrose.

Calories 211 when cooked.

When cooked the Aldi one looked like this.

and I used the same accompaniments in a bread roll with lettuce,  a smidge of mayo and my homemade red relish. With homemade cucumber pickle and fresh beetroot on the side.

I found this just about OK but a bit too thick and rather dry. Not a huge amount of flavour so I was glad of all my extras. Quite filling and enough for a meal. 

So you pays your money and makes your choice! Mine is the Linda McCartney brand, and Not every week either!

Back Soon

 

Possibly the 16th Vegetarian Taste Test?

 As mentioned on last Saturdays post I came across another 'new' vegetarian oven bake to try from Aldi. I like the way they state "I'm New" on the packet so you know you haven't tried it before and dismissed it as rubbish!

Three cheese and tomato lattice. The cheeses are listed as Cheshire, halloumi and 'medium fat semi hard cheese' - whatever that is! They are mixed with a tomato sauce and inside puff pastry with a sprinkling of dried parsley.

They look very good on the pack and just as good on the plate after cooking. But as happens so often it didn't have a lot of flavour.

 £1.99 for a pack of two but quite high in calories and fats. Good to try but after I've eaten the other one I won't be buying again. 

Eating this and writing the post has nudged me back to making my own oven bake type things, which I've not done for a while for some reason, so puff pastry has been added to my shopping list.

That's almost the last of my Sweet and Sour Pickled Cucumber on my plate, I've been eking it out - must make a lot more this year, it's lovely as an extra vegetable through the winter. The recipe is on the separate recipe page.

Back Soon

Sue

 

Bought for Christmas - Another Vegetarian Bake

 These were in my freezer, bought from Aldi before Christmas so about time at least one was tried. So yet another taste-test.

A hand finished blend of butternut squash, sweet potato, cashew nuts and parsnips, with an indulgent melting brie and cranberry centre.

I served it up with fresh cooked carrots with frozen green beans and a dollop of my red hot relish

Surprise, surprise - It was actually very tasty, which makes a change. 318 calories and rather too high in the fats, sugars and salt % for  regular eating but as they only had them at Christmas and may never have them again, that's not really a problem.

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Sue

Another Vegetarian Taste Test

It's been an age since I did a taste test and  these have been in the freezer since Christmas, I bought them from Aldi when I didn't know what was happening and when and who would be here.

About time I tried one. Like so many of the other vegetarian lattice bakes I've eaten in the last few years

it was OK but not exceptional. There weren't many cranberries to be found inside.

I'll eat the other one but won't buy them again. 

But I'm definitely Not trying something DiL tried recently from Aldi.......... Spinach and Cheddar Grills - she said they were really nasty!

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Sue 

The Most Recent Vegetarian Taste Test

 I thought I'd tried enough various frozen vegetarian supermarket foods since October 2021 to put me right off for ever.  The last three tests were two things Lidl get in for Christmas, then a  fresh farm shop pie tried in February. 

Since then my veggie meals have been things I've made and frozen myself but the freezer was down to one Thai Fish Curry, one vegetable Korma curry, the salmon and broccoli bakes made last month, a couple of boxes of pizza toppings and my experimental two-cheese and vegetable pasties (and very good they are too but can't remember what I put in them!)

Because I usually go to Aldi on my way into town I rarely buy frozen things there but  a couple of weeks ago I was in town first and Aldi on the way home and I spotted these in the freezer at £1.69 for 4, and thought they were worth a try as they don't have any 'fake meat'  (quorn and soya protein) which I'm avoiding and aren't bean based either (can't eat chick peas etc.)

I added my home made tomato chutney, a smidge of mayo and some salad leaves and it made a very nice meal. Much nicer than the soya protein based Linda McCartney vegetarian mozzarella burgers (2 for £2.50) which I had tried in the past.

 I looked online to compare and spotted some Tesco burgers which seem to have the same ingredients but 2g less fat and are priced matched to Aldi (at the moment) so also £1.69 for 4.

Conveniently Aldi white and wholemeal baps are also in packs of 4  for 69p making a meal for  about 60p.

 I'll definitely be buying again and will eat with tomatoes and cucumber when I have my own.

Back Soon

Sue

A Pie From a Farm Shop

 On the last of my vegetarian taste tests Tasker in Yorkshire mentioned buying vegetarian pasties from a farm shop - "now that's an idea" I thought and as I was near an 'award winning' farm shop when taking the Mustard Pot photo I popped in to see what they had. 

This is what I found and really explains why farm shops in Suffolk are for people who don't need to look at the price! and why I won't be buying another from there.

Small Sweet Potato, Spinach and Feta pie. This was £3.65. - that seemed a lot for one small pie.

Made by a company called Country Pies from near Ipswich. Unfortunately their ingredient list is as long as a pie made in a big factory anywhere.

Here you go.........................Homemade pastry(fortified flour(wheat flour, maize flour, calcium, iron, vitamin b1,vitamin b3) margarine (palm and rapeseed oil, water, salt, natural flavourings) water), puff pastry (wheat flour (calcium, iron , niacin, thiamine) margarine (palm and rapeseed oil, water, salt) water, salt, preservative e202, sweet potato 25%, vegetable stock (salt, modified maize starch, hydrolysed vegetable protein (soya colour e150), flavour enhancer  e621, non hydrogenated rapeseed oil, sugar  dried tomato, flavouring (contains wheat, barley) yeast extract, dried onion, dried spinach, colour e150c, pepper extract (salt, spice extract, herb extract) ground nutmeg, acidity regulator citric acid) béchamel sauce (modified maize starch, wheat flour, palm fat, maltodextrin, skimmed milk powder, sugar, salt lactose (milk), milk protein, yeast extract, sunflower oil, flavourings (milk) citric acid, onion) feta cheese (milk), spinach, pepper, salt, egg.

I nearly lost the will to live typing that!! so many parenthesis or are they brackets?

Do not confuse brackets [ ] with parentheses ( ). Parentheses are used to enclose additional information in your own writing; brackets are editorial marks used to insert comments into someone else's words that you are quoting, or to insert material into a passage already in parentheses.

It had more filling than the Lidl pies I tried but the overall taste was just pepper. I know many of the ingredients used are necessary for safety, but it still seemed rather a long list.

I've still got 3 home made vegetable bakes , that were made in January,  in the freezer so I need to eat those rather than trying anything else from supermarket or farm shop! Then I'll be making more of my own.

(Note to self - don't get side-tracked into things by comments on the blog!)

Apologies for not replying to all comments. I'm not opening the laptop in the evenings as I've got such a huge heap of library books!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

One More Vegetarian Taste Test

 

These were something I also bought from Lidl before Christmas. I think it's the only time they have them although I may be wrong. They were bought when I didn't know who would be here to feed but won't be bought again. 

The pies are quite large so no potatoes needed but the contents didn't really fill the pie. I wasn't surprised at some of the odd ingredients but it was the number of things they'd used  in the Vegetable Stock that amazed me - carrot juice concentrate, water, dextrose, salt, dehydrated onion, lovage juice concentrate, sunflower oil, yeast extract, leek concentrate, sugar, tomato concentrate, extra virgin olive oil, garlic concentrate, spices and herbs.........15 different ingredients! and who knew there was such a thing as lovage juice concentrate!

The pies were edible but not very interesting - more pastry than anything else.

That's the last of the  bought vegetarian things from the freezer except for the small party bits that I use one or two at a time with my home made curries or home made stir fries. I'm not going to stop buying them as they come in boxes of 12 (onion bhajis, vegetable spring rolls, vegetable samosas, tempura prawns etc) and by just having one or two with curry and rice or stir-fry and noodles. I make them last for ages.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Another Vegetarian Taste Test

 Way before Christmas I went to Lidl to get a vegetarian nut roast thing that they only have in for a short time each year. DiL recommended them a few years ago. But when I saw these similar but individual roasts I thought they would be better as I could always use them later if Christmas plans changed....which they did.

It was only after eating one that I looked at the ingredients - with my glasses on - Oh dear, it also had chick peas and brown lentils as well as hazelnuts. Luckily they were far enough down the ingredients list and didn't upset my stomach but I shall pass the others onto DiL just in case.

The one I ate was OK, nothing special just a soft and squidgy fairly tasteless 'thing' and I can't remember how much they cost but as they won't have them again until November I just have to remember not to buy them then.

And Yippee - now up to 800 on the followers. Hello and welcome and thank you - it had been stuck on 798 for months!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Home Made Vegetarian Taste Test

 I've had another batch make session - something I've not used before (coming late to the vegetarian party!)........ Quorn mince made into 6 portions of Bolognese sauce - using up more of my own onions and frozen peppers. 

Sometime before hot weather I need to clear out the garage chest freezer and organise Son and Brother-in-Law to be here at the same time to move it, and then it's contents, into the new store room at the back of the bungalow. So a bag of peppers out but 6 boxes of  a "meat" sauce in is not really helpful. Plus I still have a few boxes of  spinach and ricotta lasagne and vegetable squash curry left and many more boxes of aubergine and tomato pasta sauce.  

Cost for these 6 meals is £1.50 for the mince(on offer), nothing much for the onions and peppers. Plus a tin of tomatoes (going up in price every time I buy them) and extra pennies for the odds and ends like tomato puree, garlic puree, oregano, pepper. 

Having not used Quorn mince before I wasn't sure how it would be after reheating, but it was very delicious, served on spaghetti with a grating of cheddar and a home made Tomato/Herb bread roll.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Short of Things to Write About

I'm not going far at the moment, saving fuel for the things I really want to do but that means not much to write about.

 I put a photo of the first two yellow tomatoes, eaten about  two weeks ago on Monday's post

 

First two Artisan Tomatoes from Thompson and Morgan seeds

 

 but this is how they should look, after waiting a while........picked this week ......... a bit bigger and with a red blush on the yellow. Good flavour too and quite prolific.. I'm hoping there are 5 of equal size to pick and enter in the Bacton Flower and Produce show in a couple of weeks. Unusual varieties and labelled with their name sometimes helps when it comes to the judges awarding a prize!

I will probably grow them again

But here's something I won't buy again. Someone mentioned fish cakes when I last did a post about trying various supermarket vegetarian products.So I looked to see what Morrisons had in their freezers. These were a bit bland and could have done with some black pepper or perhaps chili..............anything!

I used to make salmon fishcakes years ago for the family, bit of a faff for one person even if I froze them plus I'd have to buy potatoes that mash, which I don't really like for anything else. I can manage quite easily without.

Thanks to the blog............. while looking for posts about aubergines I discovered they'd been used with a Red Thai Curry Kit to make a batch of vegetable curry..............long forgotten. So a kit has been added to the shopping list and curry will be made as soon as there are a couple more aubergines big enough.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Vegetarian Taste Test (Home Made This Time)

 Having tried all the weird and wonderful pastry lattice things from various supermarkets, I made my own.

Using a pack of ready rolled puff pastry, filled with a mix of potato (chopped small and cooked for a few minutes) defrosted peppers from the freezer and grated cheddar cheese plus plenty of black pepper.

I ate one and put the others in the freezer. It certainly had more flavour than many of the supermarket things I've tried but I thought there was a bit too much pastry, so need a way to squash in more filling, yet still keep the edges sealed.

The Aldi Puff Pastry is 85p so I think these must cost less than 50p each  - a guesstimate as I didn't note how much cheese I used.

I need to stick a reminder  on the lap-top to remind me to look in spam. Forgot for a few days and Everyone was in there ! Pat, Sue and Joy - for goodness sake blogger they are NOT spam!
 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Yet Another Vegetarian Taste -Test

As my service to man(and woman)kind and being a glutton for punishment, when I saw these in Aldi I thought "haven't tried those,  better give them a go".

They were bought and the first one tried and ..............

not particularly enjoyed.......again!

 

The pastry was nice, the chia seeds added nothing, and the inside was a bit gloopy and tasteless .

Someone thanked me for trying out all these different things so they didn't have to! 

 

You're welcome!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Another Vegetarian Taste-Test

 Keep trying and one day there will be something worth buying again...........

But probably not these

After 40+ years of cooking from scratch everyday, now I'm on my own it's good to sometimes have something that can be kept in the freezer and made into a meal in half an hour without any effort and these fit the bill and looked good but they didn't have a lot of flavour. They were a good size and a nice firm texture but not tasty enough to bother with again.

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Another Vegetarian Taste Test

Aldi Emmental and Asparagus Parcels.

 Not tried these before and in theory they should be good, what's not to like about puff pastry, asparagus, sweet potato and spinach in a cheese sauce?

 

But the texture of the inside was just so weird, sort of jelly-like - not like the photo at all. Guess I'll have to eat the second one, at 90p each I can't afford to waste it, but I'm not looking forward to it.

Certainly wouldn't buy them again because apart from being weird they also have lots of odd ingredients which I found after getting home and putting my specs on! 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Just Two More No-Meat Products

 I'm  enjoying trying all these new-to-me vegetarian things, well, I say "enjoying" but that's not been true with all of them. Here are the previous taste testings.

 This one below comes from Aldi.

This is the description Wholemeal seeded pastry case filled with chedder cheese, feta cheese and spinach in a savoury custard with cream and free range egg.Topped with feta cheese,red peppers and pine nuts.

Several of the things tried previously have been tasteless but this was the opposite, it had a bit too many flavours. As well as all the above there was garlic and thyme in there too. So many different things that it was difficult to work out if it was good on not. And it was Very Big for one person but not really big enough and much too squishy for cutting in half.

Wouldn't bother buying this again, it's just a glorified quiche! So I could make it myself but with fewer ingredients and with the new chest freezer now holding a store of home-made pastry cases, I can  whip up a quiche to last me several days in no time at all. 

 

And finally Linda McCartney Burgers. I never eat meat burgers anywhere but tried these a few weeks ago and they were surprisingly good. I'll be buying them again.

 

I reckon that's enough of trying things unless I come across something completely different somewhere.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Taste Testing More Vegetarian Products

Following on from a few weeks ago  HERE.   Here are three more veggie meals....................

I use these to save me spending too much time in the kitchen preparing a meal (something done for 40 years that I don't want to do so much now)

First these from Birds Eye. They were OK although not a lot of flavour but a good crunchy coating. Plenty big enough for 2 meals at 75p each, I served them topped with a big spoonful of my sweet onion chutney which added a bit of ooomph and  lots of fresh vegetables of course.

 

And an Asda own brand below which was really REALLY nasty! I ended up eating just the pastry (with a good heap of carrots and cabbage) and I have no idea what was in the middle but it looked nothing like the photo. Extremely gelatinous. Ugh.   It does say it's a Limited Edition, thank goodness, as it means I'll never buy it again by mistake.Even worse is that it's the most expensive thing I've tried!

 

And finally nut cutlets or burgers something I've been buying for a while as they are one of Asda's earlier vegetarian things.

I always load up a bap with lettuce, tomatoes and chutney  before adding the burger. When I first started buying these they were £1 for 4 now they've gone up to £1.75. Still a cheap meal at 44p each.

 

 Despite not wanting to spend too long in the kitchen I don't eat supermarket frozen stuff everyday! 

One of my favourite speedy things is a warm pasta salad. While the pasta is cooking I chuck a big handful of mini plum tomatoes cut in half, a big bit of cucumber cut into chunks and lots of olives into a bowl. Plus either a smoked mackerel fillet or some feta. Then tip in the strained pasta and a spoonful of mayo, mix it all and Yum!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Taste Test

 I'm not vegetarian but I rarely eat meat now, I just don't like it much anymore.( Plus after nearly 20 years of producing our own, nothing bought can compare). So I've been trying out some different frozen vegetarian things that I can pop in the oven and then eat with a big heap of fresh veg.

The Co-op Goats Cheese and Vegetable Lattices.........bottom right.......... are delicious, I've been buying these for several years. They are full of flavour and are (I think) £1.79 for the pack of two - so 90p for my meal. I eat these with a big heap of steamed or quickly boiled vegetables but NOT potatoes, mainly because the Lattices are pastry so spuds are not needed but also because after cooking potatoes for Colin for 38 years (he loved potatoes mashed ((shudder)) and whole plain boiled ) I just don't buy them or eat them often. (Except when I have pensioners fish and chips!)

A few weeks ago  when I went to the Co-op they didn't have the Lattices so I bought the Quorn Garlic and Mushroom Escalopes instead. I think of  Quorn as  "artificial meat", it's OK but not wonderfully tasty and I  avoid eating it very often . My verdict on these is.............. Edible but not outstanding and they need something  really tasty served with them to give a bit of flavour. I ate the second with some sweet onion chutney(marmalade) on top and that improved it immensely. I think they were a bit more expensive than the Lattices.

Next time I went to Morrisons and saw The Spinach, Leek and West Country Cheddar Parcels I thought they would perhaps be a bit similar to the Co-op bakes but they weren't. Instead I found the first one Totally Tasteless, and  I'm not sure where the cheddar was. So when cooking the second I added some grated cheese on top for the last few minutes in the oven which improved things a bit but they won't be bought again. They are £2 for the pack of two at the moment.

Back Tomorrow

Sue