Hello everyone! I’ve had a bad week already and it’s only Tuesday, however today my second Degustabox arrived, how exciting is that! It seems like only a few weeks ago that I received my first degustabox and it was, or one of, the most exciting things I’ve received in the post!

I loved the surprise element of it and here’s my post on the November box in case you missed it!

My favourite thing in the box would have to be the fajita flavour shots, I ate fajitas all of last week…I’m excited to try the chutney as well but I’m taking that home for Christmas!

So here is what I got in my December box…

First up is Oats+Chia from The Chia Co. At first I was quite disappointed but I’ve just read a bit more about it and I’m quite interested in seeing how it tastes! This is a blend of wholegrain oats, chia, fruits and coconut oil. Then you just add water to get a smooth and creamy texture. Sounds good so far right? It also says that chia seed offers the highest combined plant source of omega-3, fibre and protein and is packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Fun fact eh?

Next up is Pukka Herbs, in other words green tea with lemon! I got way too excited by this. It’s another brand of green tea that I get to try and my all time favourite is when it’s got lemon in it as well. Stay tuned!

The next 3 products are Bahlsen Choco Leibniz, Eisburg Alcohol Free Wine and Bonne Maman Orange Marmalade. All of which will be taken home for Christmas to share with my family.

When I first opened the box I was greeted by a large bag of salt and vinegar Popchips, personally these have nothing on the Kettle Chips I got last month but I’ll give these a chance as I haven’t had this flavour before!

Third to last (saving the best till last of course), are 4 cans of Gloworm mixer drinks. These come in some of the most intriguing flavours, Raspberry and Orris for Vodka, Cucumber and Apple for Gin, Pear, Spice and Lime for Rum and Ginger and Lemongrass for Bourbon. I only drink vodka so I might have to give a couple to my parents for them to mix or just have more with vodka! This is the first mixer of its kind, which are specifically blended to compliment a selection of spirits. They are sugar-free (IT’S A MIRACLE), they also have a lower caffeine content.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find another product from Kent’s Kitchen, the fajita flavour shots I was talking about are from Kent’s Kitchen and in this box I got a “Meal Kit” for Madras curry. Are they trying to set my mouth on fire?! I’m excited to try it though, a new kind of cooking that I haven’t tried before so it will be a nice new experience.

So last up is my favourite by far, Frylight Infuse Chilli oil. This is a way of getting the oil you need without pouring out too much. It comes in a little spray bottle, which is handy and can be used for all sorts of pan-fried or roasted food. It adds a great spicy kick, which is good for me, as I love having a spicy kick to food. Something that they pointed out on the information sheet in the box is that because it is controllable, you can custom flavour the heat level for each member of the family!

This month I paid £12.99 for the box, and for all of the products, they retail at £25.75, which is pretty good going by my standards! This means I paid half of what these products retailed for and that makes me very happy!

How great is this months box? Have I tempted you to buy your own Degustabox yet?

Ilumi

This is one of the most exciting blog posts I’ve done so far.

Ilumi are based in County Durham and they have produced a wonderful range of nut-, gluten- and milk-free foods.

The meals are so well thought out that they are safe to eat for people with certain allergies.

Taken straight from their website, their mission is: to create delicious, colourful, deeply flavoursome foods that our customers can trust, to make them accessible and convenient, and to spread the word about eating for wellness to the wider community.

I personally think that this is an amazing mission to have. I’m sure that many food companies out there have this, or similar, as their mission when creating food products but it is not always written so obviously on their website.

The products that I have been trying this week are under the 7-day meal plan, in which you get 10 x meals, 5 x sides, 4 x soups and 3 x ilumi-endorsed products. That’s 22 products for £44.99, bargain!

These meal plans are new and there are 4 options – 7-day, 14-day, 28-day and “try me pack”.

They are all portion controlled and so yummy plus you get to choose which meals you receive which is so much better than other companies who choose for you. I’m quite a fussy eater so I’d like to choose my food!!

The best part about their meal plans is that they can help you to:

• Lose weight
• Increase your energy
• Sleep better
• The meal plans are better value as you save over 30% than if you buy the products individually.

Not only do they send you your meal plan for your selected amount of days, on their website there are some helpful hints and tips that you can print off for yourself. On this page they give you a small shopping list that shouldn’t cost you too much, but it does help to ensure that you get all of your 5 a day. They also suggest to only have alcohol in moderation, as you should be anyway!

First up, the Spanish rice and vegetables. It comes in a tray and similar with your typical ready meal, you remove the sleeve, pierce the film lid and heat in the microwave for 2 ½ minutes.

In this pack there are 277 calories, I don’t think you can get a meal better than that!

It’s packed full of vegetables like butternut squash, yellow and red pepper, onion and tomatoes. Plus it’s made with brown rice instead of white rice.

Before I even sit down to eat it, I’m sold!

And once I’d eaten it, it turns out I got my hopes up a bit. I prefer my vegetables a bit al dente but these were really soft. The rice was perfect but it felt like there was just a bit too much seasoning for my liking!

It comes in a microwavable tray so it’s easy to cook!

Packed full of goodness!

The second product I want to share with you is the tomato and red pepper soup. At the time of deciding what to eat, I’d just done a long shift and wanted something I knew I would enjoy.

And it was so delicious! The balance of flavours was just right, and there were little pieces of tomato and red pepper, which gave it some texture. It wasn’t watered down at all and it wasn’t too thick like some soups can be, for me it really was the perfect soup!

Can you tell I enjoyed it?!

On the back of all their packets is a bout themselves with a line “irresistible taste you can trust”.

They claim to have their flavours locked in and 100% natural ingredients.

Nice and easy to understand!

*This post was sponsored by Ilumi and all views and opinions are 100% my own.

October

Honestly I can’t believe it’s October already. It feels like last week I turned 21! This week is going great for me already, and I’m not exaggerating at all.

It’s probably not a surprise to a lot of people but I didn’t manage to get into the last year of my degree and sure I was completely gutted at first but now that I no longer have the constant stress and worry of studying and doing a dissertation, I’ve never felt so great. I don’t particularly regret going to University because I gained so many more skills, knowledge and experience that I wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t gone in the first place, and in some ways that is worth so much more than a degree.

This leads on to why this week has been so great!

At the beginning of this week I got the job that I really wanted, booked my tickets for the Good Food Show and I’ve got several reviews lined up that I know all of my readers will love. I'm also going home to see my family at the end of the week, it's been 3 weeks since i've been home and for me that's almost like forever and also because of my job it's likely i won't be home 

I’ve also been baking and cooking but I haven’t go round to writing up the recipes yet. I’ve got a very busy couple of weeks writing before I start my new job!

I love hearing from you guys so I would love to hear what you guys like reading the most so I can write more posts on those topics!

Don’t worry though, there will be so much more positivity throughout my blog from now on.

Upbeat Review

Here’s some exciting news for you all, I got some goodies from the lovely people at Upbeat on Saturday! A nice surprise in the middle of my two exams. They sent me some great things! 

Of course the idea was to try the product so they sent me some vouchers to try two of their drinks and then some money off vouchers, so I treated my housemates to a few for them to try as well! 

They also sent me a little information leaflet, an oyster card holder (handy as mine is breaking!), a pad of paper (I’m always writing notes down!), an adorable little USB stick, a canvas bag (to carry my upbeat drinks in!) and a little diagram where you turn it to say how active, your weight and it tells you how much protein you should have daily.

So I’ll get on with the review now! They do three flavours of the drink – strawberry, mango and passion fruit, and blueberry and raspberry. I only managed to get the last two; they didn’t have the strawberry one left :(

The thing that caught my eye first was the “fuel the gap” next to the logo. It is a high protein dairy drink, which you find the dairy aisle by the milk. All of the drinks are no more than 150 calories and they are low in fat, sound good yet? 99% of the drink is made from three ingredients, which are fresh whey protein, fruit puree, and fruit juice from concentrate. It is also suitable for vegetarians don’t you worry!

If you look at the nutrition information per bottle:

You can see that there is 20g of protein in just one little bottle, how great is that? There is 11.9g of carbohydrate of which sugars is 11.3g, in the information leaflet I received it says that they have half the sugar of most fruit juices and smoothies. Also from the nutrition information you can see that there is 130mg of calcium, which it says is 16% of your daily intake, again that’s pretty good too!

So the list of ingredients looks like this:

Whey protein concentrate (an extract of milk) blended with fruit puree, juice from concentrate and sweetener.

Ingredients: whey protein concentrate from milk (91%), blueberry puree (4%), raspberry puree (3%), raspberry juice from concentrate (1%), stabiliser (pectin), acidity regulator (lactic acid), natural flavourings, sweetener (sucralose).

As you can see they were right about the 99% of the ingredients and the rest are just to help balance out all the flavours and blend it all together, plus a bit of sweetener never goes a miss!

They are really big on the whole protein as part of your diet! It’s quite nice to see that because a lot of the time companies are all about lower sugar or reduced fat products and they don’t focus on all the requirements needed in a food product. So I’m amazed at how much is packed into only 250ml!

So here are some fun facts about protein that was in my information leaflet:

Did you know protein maintains muscles and supports strong bones, which helps keep you in great shape?

It’s a core nutrient that is essential to stay healthy and maintain your natural stamina.

Try aim for around 10-20g of protein as a snack and 20-30g with each main meal.

I tried both the flavours for breakfast on consecutive days. On the first day I had the mango and passion fruit drink before a long day in the library! It wasn’t to my taste at first, I haven’t always liked the taste of mango and it was a bit thicker than I had expected. You can really taste the mango with only a hint of passion fruit (a shame if you ask me). I think if I had a few more of this flavour then I would like it a lot more! It’s just me being my fussy self!

While I’m writing this I’m drinking the blueberry and raspberry drink and it is a whole other experience! I’m not overly keen on blueberries, I’d normally choose a different berry before choosing blueberries, but I think I’ve been swayed! This drink is also thick and creamy but it is quite a bit sweeter and the blend of blueberry and raspberry really works together. I LOVE it! I will definitely stock up my fridge at university with these in case I get an early morning start and need to grab something on the go!

5 reasons to grab an upbeat:

1. Around a third of your daily protein needs in one bottle
2. Helps keep you in great shape
3. Healthy alternative to snacking
4. Tastiest protein drink out there (but we’re a bit biased)
5. Packed full of goodness on the go

I can hear you all screaming through the computer screen right now – “where do I go to buy upbeat?”

Well here is the answer! As I said before you find it in the dairy aisle of:

Tesco Extras and Superstores

Holland & Barrett

Waitrose

And online at:

Ocado

Tesco.com

I am certain that this is going to be a great product and they will be selling in more and more shops in the future, but you should all have a local shop from the list above to go and buy it from!

It is such a cute little bottle too! Handy to just grab from the fridge and chuck into your bag to have as a snack to pick you up or for breakfast to get you going for the day! I would really recommend trying a bottle or two!