August’s Degustabox

This month’s Degustabox has been a real goodie for me.  It’s got lots of lovely snacks and treats, with a great balance between the healthy ones and the slightly naughty, but ever so nice ones. Perfect!

It’s been a while since we tried Ryvita, but it’s been great to try this again at a time when we have been thinking about keeping an eye on the waistbands again after having quite a gastronomic summer.  Ryvita has moved on since the original rye crispbreads and we tried out two new varieties: Cracked Black Pepper Crispbread and Sesame Crispbread.  The Cracked Black Pepper one had a great flavour and we liked the Sesame one too.  I’ve tried out The Primal Pantry’s snack bars before and I love them.  The idea is to make great tasting paleo and primal foods that anyone can enjoy.  I don’t follow that sort of diet, but I think we can all benefit from food that is less processed.  These are raw, coldpressed and handmade in the UK, plus they are gluten and dairy free.  Did I mention that they taste great too?

Some more indulgent treats came our way in the shape of Walkers Shortbreads.  Walkers are a premium brand and it shows in the quality of their biscuit products – yum!  This wasn’t the first time that we’ve tried Bahlsen’s Choco Leibniz White.  I’ve not so keen on white chocolate and prefer the other flavours including the wonderful chocolate orange, but the white chocolate fans of this house love Choco Leibniz White.  More my sort of thing was PICK UP! as this is made with lovely dark chocolate.

I really enjoyed Life Tonics Hydration Plus.  I have a love/hate relationship with coconut water and this drink gave me all the fabulous hydration benefits plus vitamins and minerals, but tasted great too.  There are no refined sugars or artificial sweeteners too, which is good to hear.  Scheckter’s OrganicEnergy is a natural and organic energy drink/.  It’s made from simple ingredients:: spring water, pomegranate, elderberry and lemon juice.  To provide the energy there’s a blend of raw green coffee beans, green tea, guarana and ginseng.  For a bit of fun there’s Dr.Oetker’s Mug Cakes.  You just need to add milk to the mix and microwave.  The range includes rich chocolate, chocolate chip and lemon flavours.

It’s lovely when you get sent something that means dinner time is sorted.  We used Barilla’s Penne Rigate and Arrabbiata Sauce to create a quick and tasty evening meal.  I picked some veg from the garden and fried it up, added the sauce and left to simmer for a while.  Meanwhile I cooked the pasta.  So easy and so tasty too.  The quality of the pasta and the sauce really showed through.