New and Improved Warburtons Thins*

If we cast our minds back a couple of months, at the free from show Warburtons were promoting their new and improved recipe for their sandwich thins. I know it's taken me a while to get around to blogging this product, but I feel they still deserve a post as they are so good!

Previously the thins were visibly smaller and were not half as soft to squish in the pack. Not that I recommend doing that around the shops though, you'll certainly get some funny looks! There are 4 thins per pack and retail at around the £2 mark. I loved the previous thins and had them regularly toasted. I found that the new ones are much softer and much easier to eat without being toasted, as although the previous recipe didn't seem chewy at the time, these make that more prevalent as they are so incredibly soft and fluffy.

I have tried these thins in a variety of ways:

Pizzas
For this I used the white ones. Just add some margarita sauce, mozzarella and any topping you desire then grill until the cheese has melted. That's all there is to it, a10 minute dinner! If you really want to you can even do some micro fries to go with it.

Toasted
I tried these thins just toasted and I added some peanut butter with a smoothie on the side. Perfect with both the white and the seeded thins!

Sandwich
As I was saying previously, you can happily eat these un-toasted, I just added some lurpak and grilled some sausages. I found that I could have eaten another one! There was no dry textures and I had added very little butter to the bread.

Nutella
I tend to eat the raisin and orange thins with just a tad of butter as toast, but I saw on twitter someone adding Nutella to make it like a chocolate orange, so I just had to try! I have to say it was rather fantastic!

The new recipe is so much more palatable than it's predecessor and I have enjoyed them so much more. I believe the guy at Warburton's also told me that these are less calories than the previous recipe, which for all you who like to watch the calories is great too! Plus you get more, tastier bread, what a bonus!

If you see these on the shelf I would recommend giving them a go, if you are only wanting to buy one pack and unsure of which to choose, I personally would recommend the white as they are so much more versatile than the other two varieties!

Hannah  x

*These items were gifted to me to try

Doherty Gluten Free Sausages

Sausages are something that infuriate me more than they should. I feel that all sausages should be gluten free, this particularly bothers me when you look at the finest range in the supermarkets which want you to believe they have high meat content for the price and it's full of gluten filled fillers! When I ordered from Ocado I reached out to you all on twitter and I found that there was a lot of people who enjoyed Doherty sausages. Finding that they were such good value and frozen so I don't have to cook the whole lot, I picked them up.

Eight sausages retail at £2 but I did get mine on offer for £1.60, which even for £2 I think that is a fab price. There is only 67% pork in these compared to the 97% heck sausages, but you have to bare in mind that those are £3 for 6. If you are looking for a cheaper alternative, these may be the product for you. I found in comparison they tasted just as meaty and they didn't shrink or drip any fat when I grilled them.

Eating them for breakfast, James and I made them into sausage sandwiches using the new Warburton sandwich thins. I found that they were super filling and kept me satisfied for most of the day. The next day I had two of these sausages with scrambled egg with spinach and cooked mushrooms. Textually these sausages feel very thick and had I not read the pack I would have thought the meat content would be much higher as they are quite dense too. The skins crisp nicely and if anyone knows me I like when my food is well charcoaled on a BBQ, so these would be perfect!

I worked out two sausages to be around 360 calories, I could be wrong, but for a main part of a meal I don't think this is too bad. Of course the fat content is high but what do you expect from a product such as this! As long as they are not consumed too often, these sausages are a filling treat. Perfect in the freezer for those times that everyone is around and an impromptu BBQ is on the menu!

I could appreciate they may not be for everyone, as I know some would prefer a high meat content sausage. But as all the ingredients are understandable and I know what are in them, this will not bother me too much, particularly if it saves me a few pounds here and there! Gluten free living can be pricey particularly if you are feeding a whole family! I feel taste wise these are comparable to my normal Heck sausages, and the fact they are cheaper, in the freezer and an easy dinner, I think they may become a staple for our naughty weekend breakfasts!

Hannah x

Rule of Crumb Breaded Cod Fillet

I placed my first Ocado order recently for the main reason of trying some Rule of Crumb products. I have seen them at the free from show but as I travel on the tube to the show I don't like to buy anything that is frozen. But as they sell them on Ocado I thought I would give them a go!

James and I decided that the fish fillets would be a perfect option to make a fake-away fish and chip night, so I created a slimming world style chips and added some mushy peas to the meal. Retailing at around £4.50 for two fillets, these are a more expensive option but are great for a treat and those days where you don't want to, or have time to stand in the kitchen for hours.

When opening the pack the first thing I noticed was the size of this product, they were huge! I tend to find free from products such as this tend to be a little small considering the price you pay, but these are a hearty portion. Each breaded fillet is around 333 calories which when you consider the size, I am quite impressed! I love easy cooking on a weeknight and the fact I could just throw these in the oven and let them do their own thing for half hour or so is perfect when multitasking weekday evening tasks.

Out of the oven, the crumb had gone golden and crisp, I can't remember how long the recommended cooking time was but I tend to add a good 15 more across the board with breaded products in general as I love them a little overdone (not burnt!) so they have a more crisp texture! Beautifully flakey and moist, the cod was superb quality. Considering these are frozen it did resemble the distant memory of chip shop fish, before I knew I couldn't eat it!  The quality is certainly reflected in the price and although I was on the fence due to the cost, I am now converted and would 100% buy them again. The flavours and textures are outstanding, I would happily eat this fish if it was served to me in a restaurant.

Ingredient wise, there is not too much to this product, which is something else that I feel is important as sometimes I feel too many ingredients are added to products that are not necessary. This product contains Cod Fillet (65%), Maize, Sunflower Oil, Maize Flour, Rice Flour, Modified Starch (Maize), Maize Starch, Salt. This means that though not stated there is no dairy or egg in this product, which means a much larger audience can enjoy them! 

The only drawback to this product is that it is only available from Ocado. Ocado tends to be a slightly more expensive retailer, mainly for the fact you can only order online and the minimum order spend is £40, which for two people you don't always need. It makes these products so much harder to access. I was hoping they would be available in Waitrose too as I live locally to 6 different Supermarkets, one of which a Waitrose, but as of yet they are not.

If you are a regular Ocado shopper or just fancy trying something new, I would suggest trying as many Rule of Crumb products as you can, I loved all that I tried and I am slightly disapointed I didn't pick up any of the muffins as I will not be ordering from Ocado for a while!

Hannah x

WOW Cake Company Gluten Free Carrot Cake Mix

I felt that I haven't baked something for months, so when I was on my own on Saturday afternoon I thought I would look through my baking cupboard to see what I could find to make, for a cake baked from scratch they were pretty bare. But there was plenty of packet mixes, one of which that I've never tried is the WOW cake carrot cake. So I dug this one out and gave it a go!

To make this cake you need eggs, butter and three carrots. The mix does say to use margarine but I much prefer butter to bake with so I substituted this. Very simply cream the butter and the mix together until smooth, then add the eggs and combine. Finally grate 3 carrots into the bowl and fold them into it. This mix wasn't hard to combine and I didn't feel like I was mixing for hours so it was great! Although the mix gave the impression that you should put the mix into one baking tin, I always bake these kind of things in our sandwich tins as a carrot cake isn't complete without cream cheese icing and I am awful at cutting a cake in half! These went into the oven at gas mark 3/4 for half an hour and came out beautifully risen!

Once cooled and iced I tried this cake out on 5 of my gluten eating friends and family. I initially did not tell them it was gluten free and I was told it's the best cake I have ever baked. Once I revealed my free from secret, they could not believe it. Not a crumb was wasted and they even asked if I could bake it again! If anything I am a little disappointed I only bought one to try as I would happily try the others now! I found the sponge consistency was very moist, light and airy. The flavours were spicy and nutmeg-y with a freshness from the carrot which had seemed to absorb the spice, making an outstandingly professional flavour easy to achieve. The cream cheese icing that I decided to add really finished this bake perfectly and of course you can use dairy free alternatives to create a similar affect.

Being packaged in a tin, it feels like this mix should be able to be bought in refill packs too, this would be something I would do! As this is something that I enjoy about the Honeybuns mix because it creates a nice display on a shelf but minimises packaging waste.

Overall, from baking to devouring, this mix was brilliant and I would use it again! Everything was so simple and just worked, plus once baked it tasted fantastic too!

Hannah x

Isabels Gluten Free Batter Mix

Walking into a chip shop and smelling all the batter and gazing upon all the treats that you just can't eat is one of the worst things! So fake-aways are surely the best thing for all of us with allergies! Onion rings are just one of those things that even if you go to a fish and chip shop, or even in burger places are something you never find gluten free. So James and I thought that this would be the perfect excuse to use the Isabels batter mix.

Being extremely simple to make, all this mix needs is 180ml of water. I popped the mix into a bowl and slowly poured in the water as I mixed them together. As they were only slices of onion I shallow fried them using some vegetable oil. I fried them for about a minute on each side and they were done!

The batter coated the onion well and was very consistent, even the first ones looked good, which is unusual in any batter type products. If anyone says that their first pancake comes out perfect, they are lying! The fact that it feels like nothing is wasted and that I know I could cook these for guests and they will all be perfect is very reassuring as cooking for friends is something I love to do!

Out of the pan, this batter is crisp and has a lovely consistency. The ease of making this batter means it is perfect for a weekday evening too! James also loved it flavour wise and texturally and commented on how there was no difference to regular ones he has and that they were delicious, so a winner in my eyes!

I loved this mix and I would love to try this in more ways, finding out it was so easy and quick I feel I can be more adventurous with what I try next. I am thinking of trying some chicken nuggets and trying to make a Mcdonalds fake away!

Hannah x