M&S Marks and Spencers 2022 Valentines! Dine at home for £20

There is no excuse for Valentines because everything is all sorted Thanks to M&S with the dine at home for £20.

The meal deal lets you choose a starter, main, side, dessert, chocs and wine, fizz or soft drinks for only £20!

My picks were the D'eclair my love eclair, love heart macarons, duck liver parfait in plum glaze, love heart lasagne ravioli and much more!

The Alphabites by Birdseye - The original

I was at Iceland to get some chips and instead I walked out with this!!
Faced with too many chip options, I reduced it down to Harry Ramsdens chips, McCoys Ready Salted frozen potato shapes and this.
Justice had to be done for these Alphabites when there are no cameras back in those days or even social media.
I am so glad I got them and they still taste as good as they used to be.
There was a comforting potato smell while they were in the oven and when you eat them, there is a delicious potatoey taste along with that slight stickiness.

Everything in terms of taste and texture was perfect while it was not even a bit dry inside.

Normally, I will choose the letters first but as I haven't had them in a long time I decided to leave it to fate and poured them on a tray to see what I got.
I was pretty chuffed I got the STAR word out of it as I love anything that is star shaped as well as being a star.

Coop GRO Plant based no cheese & slaw sandwich

I got the GRO Plant based no cheese & slaw sandwich because I don't think I have tried Coop's vegan cheese yet.

The slaw turned out to the star of the show because it wasn't too sickly sweet or tangy but it was full of crunchy onions and cabbage.

Overall, the filling had a strange slimy texture but I was ok with that but the cheese was a bit waxy and plasticky so I think it would have done better without the cheese.

Galaretka wieprzowa Z ogórkiem (pork and gherkin aspic jelly)

Ever since I tried Romania called Piftie (Turkey Jelly) which is made with pork trotters, rind, ears and feet I totally fell in love with it.
This time I spotted pork and mini pickled cucumbers (cornichons) which was even better.

It turned out how I expected it to be, the jelly was really tasty and the quality of the ham was actually really good and it was not mushy.

The jelly was consistent with the jelly one, it was really bouncy and not as soft as your regular Hartleys dessert jelly or the jelly from jellied eels.

Overall, I really recommend trying this.

Iraqi Kubba Trabulsia by Al Najma

Iraqi dumplings.

I love trying different cuisines so this time I tried Iraqi Kubbeh which are croquettes that visually look similar to Chinese dim sum croquettes filled with pork.

Kubbeh is filled with minced beef and spices encased in a cracked wheat pastry. 

The usual spices in Kibbeh are cinnamon, cloves and cumin so nothing wildly new for me.

Strangely, it tasted like haggis minus the offal with a sweetness.

I think its the cracked wheat mouthful which makes it taste like haggis along with spices.

It was definitely a flavourful morsel that isn't spicy.

There are various dips which you can pair it with and strangely I like it with a tart chilli sauce.

As well as cracked wheat, you can also get Kubba Halab which is coated in crispy rice.

The crispy rice texture is just like the rice stuck at the bottom of the pot.

I am still trying to get my hands on the potato chap which is mashed potato on the outside which can be filled with meat/veg.

Iceland Chicken Drumsticks Southern Fried

I have seen these Iceland Southern Fried chicken drumsticks around for ages but have always pulled back from trying because I wasn't sure how they would turn out.

Finally tried because of the new Southern Fried gravy and I am now gutted why I didn't try them earlier.

It costs £3 and you get roughly 8 drumsticks in the bag.

Each drumstick was uniformly coated and they just looked good before they were cooked.

I don't know if the chicken is raw inside or already cooked but they came out perfectly nice when it was ready to eat.

The coating was good but the black pepper was a minus for me as it over powered the Southern flavours, but otherwise I highly rate these as you don't feel thirsty after eating them and I would say they are healthier because they are not fried.

Lidl Deluxe Blood oranges

I didn't have any expectations for these blood oranges as last years batch fro Lidl were an utter disappointment.

This year was more promising because the blood orange stock at different supermarkets looked decent.

Anyway, someone got these blood oranges from Lidl so I was able to try them and the colour was much better.

As for the taste, it was the usual citrusy taste.