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Degustabox – Healthier January Box {Food Subscription Box Review}

Degustabox Discount Code

This month’s DegustaBox arrived today and it’s filled with fab goodies – the majority of which we’ve never tried, and probably wouldn’t choose off a shelf, which is what makes the Degustabox great: it makes you try new things, and find new favourites.

The Degustabox Snacks

The snacks in this month’s box are Popchips Ridges, Yushoi  Snapea Rice Sticks and Snacks Seeds and Sea Salt crakers. Sweet stuff this month are the Fruit-tella sweets.

We’ve had Popchips before, but these are Crazy Hot Popchips Ridges. They are super hot – the kids didn’t like them at all. I couldn’t eat them as they were, but melted some mozzarella over them, and they were delicious. The cheese cuts the spice and makes it very flavourful.  Add some avocado and sour cream and you have a spicy nacho snack. Yum.  These crisps are gluten free, and not fried, so they’re lower in calories. Although, probably not, smothered in cheese!

Speaking of nachos, the Snacks Seeds & Sea Salt crackers have a brilliant little recipe card with ways to use them and the Cheese-Glazed Snack Casserole turns them into a hot nacho meal without crisps. It looks brilliant.  The recipe booklet includes a variety of other dips, all of which look fabulous.  These are wholegrain rye crackers.

Yushoi Snapea’s have been on the shopping list for us since we had them in a Degustabox last year, but I think these are a new flavour for us. The Coconut & Chilli is really tasty, with a light coconut flavour and a very gentle chilli flavour rather than heat. Even the kids liked them (after I assured them they weren’t actually made from peas. Which they are. I’m a terrible mother.) Snapeas are gluten free, made from peas and rice, they are baked and a source of protein. They are high in fibre, nut free, have no MSG or artificial colours or flavours, consist of 72% green peas, suitable for vegetarians, and don’t really taste of peas at all. They are awesome.

Fruit-tella are your standard chewy soft sweet, but they have 30% less sugar. You wouldn’t know it in the eating though. Watch out if you have fillings, they are chewy indeed, but they are delicious. And I’m quite happy with the less sugar thing.

The Degustabox Foods

The Degustabox food this month is Ready cooked Organic and Fairtrade Pearl Quinoa with split peas. This organic, fair trade staple is a great alternative to rice and it’s gluten ffree and suitable for vegetarians. This would be great stuffed in hollowed out pepper.

This moth’s box also includes a 100% off voucher for a pot of The Collective yoghurt. It’s a ‘ridiculously tasty gourmet live yoghurt with a double layer of fresh fruit compote’. I’ve seen these in my local Waitrose, so I will collect one next time I’m down there.

The Degustabox Drinks

There are loads of drinks in this month’s Degustabox.

Firstly there’s Aspire Health Drinks – we received Cranberry and Mango Lemonade.

These are Green Tea extract drinks that are meant to reduce body fat. They contain no calories, no sugar and no fat. They use sucralose as a sweetener, which doesn’t have the same aftertaste as aspartame, so I already like them a lot, just for that.

The Cranberry flavour has a hint of the tartness you’d expect, but it’s not enough to make you pucker up. It does contain taurine (the stuff in red bull too) so shouldn’t be had more than four cans a day. This is not recommended for children, breastfeeding or pregnant women, but is suitable for vegetarians (I expect that means the Taurine is synthetically produced.)

The Mango Lemonade flavour gives you exactly what you expect – a fresh burst of mango, and a refreshing green tea flavour.

Protein Boost offers 20g of protein in a handy little bottle. It tastes like chocolate milk and is quite a thin milk drink. It’s very tasty and certainly doesn’t feel like you’re having a meal in a bottle, but it’s good if you have a busy day and need a bit of endurance.

Crabbies Alcoholic Ginger Beer took me by surprise. I don’t like ginger beer, so expected to have a little taste and bin the rest, but the overwhelming flavour is the sweet raspberry, with a ginger aftertaste. Really delicious!

Hibiscus Drink with Fiery Ginger – well, I don’t like ginger beer – but this was lovely. Initially, there’s a sweet flavour you can’t really put your finger on – that’s the hibiscus – then there’s the after taste of ginger, which it turns out is quite soothing on the throat when you have a cold!

The Degustabox Extras

Extra’s are those things that don’t fall into the above categories, and for this month’s box, that includes Natvia Sugar Substitute and The Chia Company Chia Seeds.

I’ve never used Natvia before, so I thought I’d try that first in something I know very well – my coffee. I normally have no sugar in coffee, but found the flavour unchanged and definitely sweeter than normal. That’s a bonus if you want your coffee with no extra calories, but you miss the sugar. I also tried it in the Chia Mocha recipe, instead of honey, and again, was quite happy with both the flavour and sweetness. I’ll have to try it in baking soon.

Chia seeds are one of those things you buy, then can’t remember what recipe you bought it for, so sit with it in the kitchen for six months. (If you’re like me). Either that, or you know what it is and what it does and use it all the time. I know people enjoy chia porridge and chia jam. For me, I don’t like lumpy things, even soup, so it’s something I really struggle with. If you like bubble tea or sago or rice pudding, you’ll love chia. And it’s meant to have tons of health benefits.  The Degustabox came with two recipes for chia seeds. I’ve adapted them a little to our tastes and circumstances, and you can do the same. The Chia Mocha is here, and the (adapted to) Chia Raspberry & Cacao Nib Peanut Butter Slice is here.

Discount code for new subscriptions

If you’d like to try the Degustabox for yourself, head over to Degustabox and use the discount code below for a whopping £7 off your first box, making it just £5.99.

Degustabox Discount Code

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30 Second Yoghurt With The Easiyo Yoghurt Maker

Easiyo

I’ve been using the Easiyo for a number of years now and last year I posted about how I use the Easiyo along with the Thermomix® to make yoghurt for breakfast, and yoghurt pouches for the girls snacks too. I posted a recipe for stewed fruit to have with my daily yoghurt as well as one for a fruit bottom compote, so you can see – yoghurt makes up a huge part of our day to day diet.

When Easiyo got in touch to ask if I’d like to review the yoghurt maker I declined, since, well I have one already! But when they invited me to an event I had to oblige – I’m a sucker for a good event! – and boy was I surprised! The new Easiyo is totally different to the old one!

How is the new Easiyo different to the old Easiyo?

Easiyo
There are plenty differences. The first is in appearance.

  • The new Easiyo is slicker, and will fit right into the modern kitchen

It’s a lovely red, with rounded edges. It looks very stylish.

  • The new Easiyo is shorter and will fit on at least one of the shelves in kitchen*

The old Easiyo was really tall and didn’t fit on any of the shelves in my kitchen, so I stored it on top of the boiler, which isn’t the ideal spot to store anything, really. It was a bit ‘clutter’-ish. This new one is shorter, and fits nicely on the shelf when not in use.

*Unless you have a really off-speck kitchen

  • The new Easiyo has sticky feet underneath

This is great as it’s less likely to move around the counter and crash onto the f loor when your washing machine is on the spin cycle!

  • The new Easiyo is filled with New Zealand Lambs Wool

Inside the Easiyo, between the red external and white internal walls is a square of New Zealand lambs wool, rather than the polystyrene that used to fill the old version. Apparently this makes for better insulation, but I’m pretty sure it’s better for the environment too, should the time come to recycle.

  • There’s an Easiyo mini maker too

I think this is a great addition for smaller families or individuals. It’s a 500g maker in green and does the same thing, but in half the quantity.

So what’s the same then?

Easiyo

You still get the freeze dried milk starters that you can use to make your yoghurt. It still takes about 30 seconds to make the yoghurt, which you then set aside for 8 – 12 hours depending how thick you want your yoghurt, and then chill and enjoy.

There are 35 flavours of starter, and contrary to what you might think of something that comes out of a bag, there’s no preservatives, no added sugars and there’s still a live acidophilus culture in each bag. So it’s really all good stuff. The plain yoghurt will last for two weeks in the fridge, those with ‘bits’ in them for about a week. If your family is anything like mine, however, it won’t last more than a couple of days.

Of course you can use the yoghurt in a variety of other recipes too, and at £2 a kg of yoghurt it’s cheaper than other luxury brands, even if not as cheap as the cheapest brands – (but if you use some of the current batch to make your next batch, it costs you the price of milk. Then just make up a new batch from the powder when you need it/have run out and so on.) But the pouches are really convenient and fantastic for when you are short on time. Over the next few weeks I’ll be trailing some of the flavours and will let you know what I think of them!