Delivery Day – Degustabox Review and Recipe – Slow Cooked Lasagne

I was quite excited to be given the chance to review this food parcel delivery service from Degustabox. A parcel of unknown food products arriving on my doorstep each month – YES please. I wasn’t sure what to expect and I deliberately didn’t look at other reviews as I wanted a surprise.

Well I was more than happy with my first box. It arrives well packaged and by a courier who lets you know approximately what time of day it will arrive – which I love.

The box..

Inside the box..

Contents..

So what did we get:

Shaken Udder Milkshakes In Strawberry,banana and Choc. A new breed especially for kids.. Perhaps so but there’s a reason why there is no pic of the strawberry one and that’s because it lasted little more than a few mins of the box being opened and ahem it wasn’t drunk by Izzy. We already liked Shaken Udder goodies having sampled their wares at Camp Bestial several times but this was the first time I’d tried these ones. Delicious and the other two flavours which were consumed by Izzy were enjoyed very much! There were also two vouchers for free Milkshakes included in the box 🙂

Schwartz Flavour Shots in Spanish Paella and Italian Tagliatelle. It was great seeing Schwartz products in the box as they are so reliable for great tasting products. I’m yet to try the paella but the tagliatelle is superb.

Drink me Chai I must be the only person in the world that hasn’t yet tried tried a chai latte but I’m really looking forward to sampling these. I especially love that its 99% caffeine free as I don’t have much caffeine anymore. We received a 250g tub of chai latte and a sachet of the earl grey.

Moma Porridge Pots In Cranberry And Raisin and Plain – No Added Sugar varieties.
I’m keeping these for our first camping trip of the year as I think they will make ideal breakfasts as they only need hot water to mix them up. Izzy loves porridge so a great way to keep her healthy eating habits up on hols.

Tyrrell’s Proper Popcorn In sweet n salty flavour. I love anything sweet and salty especially snacks such as popcorn. These are really tasty and it was nice to try a new brand out as I’d seen these before but never tried. This is what is great about the Degustabox – trying out new products you may not have otherwise.

Organico Italian Durum Wheat Pasta 500g bag of brown penne. I like different types of pasta and I tend to use wholemeal pasta when I make a pesto pasta salad so I will let you know what I think when I make that.

Mexican Dave’s Nachos Cheese Flavour. These are really good Nachos. We initially planned on making a tortilla dish in the oven with them but ended up munching them dipped in sour cream whilst enjoying a film. Yum.

Organico Tomato and Basil Sauce Another Organico product which we have already used and loved. This is a product you can feel good about feeding to your family. Straightforward natural ingredients including tomatoes, olive oil and basil with no nasty colourings or preservatives. I’ve used this in my recipe for slow cooked lasagne below.

Degustabox costs £12.99 per month including delivery and you do not have to sign up for a set amount of time which is great. You can get £3.00 off your next box by using this discount code: W4BMD

I will also be running a competition to win a box later this week to coincide with my blog birthday celebrations.

Slow Cooker Lasagne

You will need:

1 jar of Organico Tomato and Basil sauce
1/2 carton of chopped toms( I used one with added onions and basil)
1 pack of beef mince
75g of Lardons or diced bacon
Garlic paste (just a large squirt will do)
1 small red pepper diced
1 chunk of courgette diced
1 stick of celery diced
Dried herbs ( I used Schwartz perfect shake pasta blend)
Lasagne sheets

For the white sauce:
Milk 1.5pts
50g plain flour
50g butter
100g grated Cheese ( I used cheddar)

To top:
1/4 tub of creme fraiche
I large tomato
Few basil leave
Parmesan or hard cheese
Black
Brown your mince and bacon before adding your diced courgette, peppers, garlic paste, dried herbs and celery.

Lightly sauté for a few mins before adding your Organico sauce and chopped tomatoes and stir through, leave to simmer. Make up your white sauce – melt butter in a sauce pan, beat in your flour and then whisk in your milk and simmer until thickened, season with salt and pepper and mix in about 50g of cheese.
Turn off the heat on your pans and put your first layer of bolognese sauce into the slow cooker and turn on to high. Add a layer of lasagne sheets and then white sauce ( sprinkle with some remaining cheese) and continue until you run out.

For the final later top your white sauce with creme fraiche, grated Parmesan and black pepper then decorate with sliced tomatoes and basil leaves. Drizzle with olive oil and put your lid on.

Leave for 5-6 hours until golden.

This method would work with your usual lasagne recipe but this one was particularly good. Tomatoey, cheesy, basilly goodness.

It was the nicest lasagne I’d had in a long time and I definitely think slow cooking is my new method. Thanks to Mamaowl blog for the tip 😉