M&S Christmas 2017- Takeaway Lunch Sandwiches, Rolls & the 1st Ever Vegan Xmas Wrap- With Proceeds To UK Charity Shelter

This time next month the Marks & Spencer Christmas takeaway food will be in store, and I got a chance to see what’s coming when I visited the Xmas launch party last month in London. 

Once again M&S are teaming up with the homeless charity Shelter,  giving them a percentage of sales of takeaway food and drinks.

There is one very colourful, exciting addition this year- their first ever fully vegan Christmas wrap. It looks so cool that everyone I’ll wll want to try it, roast chestnut with grape & cranberry chutney.

With offerings of Lobster & Prawn Thermidor, and Mustard Crusted Beef, I’m really looking forward to these ranges arriving in store.

I’ve noticed a few Christmas items sneaking into the Bloomfields Bangor store already, so you can see what’s on the way in my video tour of the food launch last month, below. 

Rustic Artisan Breads & Scrumptious Cheeses at M&S

There’s a whole new range of rustic, British artisan breads in store at the M&S Bakery counter. Paired with their wide range of cheeses, they make for a homely comforting afternoon snack.

M&S Pizza Offer for Autumn 2017 Is Their Best Yet! 2 Pizzas & 2 Sides for £10

Marks & Spencer's £10 Pizza Deals are legendary, second only to their Dine In weekend meals which should go down in history as one of the best ideas they ever came up with. 

Their pizza deal for autumn 2017 is beyond a bargain and should feed a whole family easily. You can choose two pizzas, and two sides for £10. 

The pizzas can be from their classic selection, but it's worth noting you can try their brand new Detroit style pizzas, which have just hit stores this week, in the offer also.

The Detroit Style pizzas are thin based and fully loaded. The Philly Steak has Colby cheese, green peppers, house sauce, mozzarella, mature cheddar and comes with American mustard mayo for drizzling once cooked. Three cheeses on one pizza!

All Fired Up is a classic American Hot, with pepperoni and red hot chilli sauce for drizzling. The Whole Hog is a pork lovers dream and the Meatball Marinara combines your two favourite Italian dishes in one delicious handheld snack.

With two sides to choose from, there's coleslaw, potato salad & fresh side salads, or for a real treat you can pick from Mac N Cheese Bites, Cheesy Pizza Fries & Spicy Chicken & Rice Bites. These can really bulk the meal up if there are more than three of you.

The offer is on in stores now, so the choice is really up to you. Any two pizzas, and any two sides for £10. 

I will update with some cooked pizza shots over the next few days as we work our way through these beasts! 

Fruit & Nut Salami, Chocolate Olives, Sparkling Rose and Coffee Flavour Drinks, & Nougat That Looks Like Gourmet Sushi- Curious Candy For Your Sweet Tooth From M&S Spirit of Summer 2017

Gastro Book £5

We are at the half way point of the summer holidays, but there's still plenty of time to be adventurous and try the inventive treats from the Marks & Spencer Spirit of Summer range for 2017. Mediterranean inspired goodies are to be found in every aisle and every food department. 

This week we were invited to try the sweet delights of the confectionary, dessert and drinks ranges. What struck me about the choices in the colourful fridges and tempting shelves were how unusual some of the products were. There are 'chocolate olives', which are milk chocolate coated almonds. 

Chocoate Fruit & Nut Salami at first sounds crazy, but then thinking about it- yes please. Peach Bellini Truffles and a Mocha, Lemon, Pistachio and more selection of Gelato Truffles make up the Spirit of Summer confectionary selection.

Summer Nougat £4

Jellies £3 : Fudge £4

Of course my eye was instantly drawn to these beautiful little packages of nougat and fudge. They look like gourmet pieces of hand rolled sushi, but sweet! Heaven! The nougat has apricot, pistachio & rose flavours, while the fudge has pecan, ginger & Valencian Orange nibbles to enjoy.

Smix just loves watermelon anything, so the selection of watermelon and lemon & blueberry juice jellies are perfect for his dessert. 

Lemon & Rose Presse £2

Agua Fresca £2.20 : Yoghurt £1.50

Continuing the watermelon theme, we picked up a freshly squeezed Agua Fresca.

If you like your flavours unusual, the Spirit of Summer drinks choice is inventive also. You can be adventurous with a sparkling lemon & rose presse, a coffee spritzer, or for a party with some surpirses why not serve some Olive Vodka, Murcia Lemon Buck's Fizz, or Peach Frizzante?

Chocolates £2 : Drinks x4 £2.30

For grab from the fridge & go, handbag-sized chilled cans, there are Spirit of Summer Sparkling Grape, Sicilian Lemon & Grapefruit mini-cans. There's also an orange flavour if you prefer. 

There are some more interesting flavour combos in smaller snack packs, like the Hazelnut Coffee Vanilla Custard Chocolates. 

Lastly, for the ultimate summer dessert, it's got to be cinnamon sugar dusted, oven-warmed churros, with a side of hot chocolate sauce.  Hopefully those will stick around after summer 2017 is gone.

Churros £4

More Sausage For Your Sizzle- 3 for £10 BBQ & Grill Delights From M&S

Much as I love a good old fashioned sausage, I'm rather partial to the wealth of fancy BBQ treats Marks & Spencer have on offer each year. King prawn skewers, chilli & halloumi kebabs, smoky ham & cheese warmed on the BBQ grill.... I'll take one of everything please!

Handily, M&S have a number of offers on right now that means you can try more of the products. The BBQ Grill meats are all 3 for £10 mix and match, so for one bundle I got the two different skewers above, plus the Lemon & Herb Salmon Flatties. Then a second £10 selection of 12 Cornish Cove & Bacon Posh Puppies (hot dogs), BBQ Beef Brisket in a chilli glaze, and the Mixed Slider Selection- 4 chorizo pork & 4 Moroccan spiced lamb mini burgers.

Chorizo sliders, Moroccan lamb sliders & Cornish Cove and bacon Posh Dogs on the grill!

M&S also have a range of delicious BBQ Grill sides, which fall under the 2 for £4, or 3 for £6 offers. I picked the Smokey Spiced Potatoes (above) and the Sweet Potato Wedges (below). These can simply be placed in the oven to cook while the meat is BBQed.

Weird Judy, BBQ Defender

Marks & Spencer is the home of exotic salads, and their long running 2 for £4 offer on the mini boxed fresh salads includes the new recipes for Spirit of Summer 2017. The Orzo Pasta below is excellent, it will be a summer-long repurchase for me. 

Hopefully we will have lots of sunny weather for BBQs! 

M&S Spirit of Summer 2017 is In Store Now- 20% Off Meals, Deli & Salad Offers, Plus a Summer Meal Deal for £7

Spirit of Summer has arrived in store at  Marks & Spencer and there are a selection of offers to take advantage of to try the new dishes and meals.

The first is the £7 Summer Meal for Two. It's a main, a side and a salad, for two to share. There are chicken, fish and meat options, but I really found myself fancying the vegetarian offers. I chose the tomato & mozzarella stuffed peppers, above, but there were also very tasty looking stuffed aubergines. It was tricky to choose, which became the theme or selecting items for this blog post. There is a lot of fab new products on the shelves in the Spirit of Summer 2017 range, dishes and ingredients I haven't seen in supermarkets before even, so choosing is tricky, due to wanting to try everything at once!

After oven cooking and trying the mozzarella stuffed peppers, I HIGHLY recommend them. The pesto drizzle was heavenly. I'll be buying them again. 

So it's handy to be able to choose from the deli 3 for £7 deal, and the new Spirit of Summer deli dishes are included. There are also summer meat selections in the 3 for £10 offer and I had to try the new calamari with pomegranate dressing. 

The new summer deli items are from all over the world so there are a lot of exotic tastes to try. Last summer season the ranges seemed fixed in the Americas for flavours, but Spirit of Summer 2017 is all new, and already I'm loving the variety this year a lot more. 

Another deal you can take advantage of right now is 20% off a wide range of the summer meals and desserts. This includes much of the range that doesn't fall under the deli or meat deals. For example the lamb flatbread was only £2.40 with the offer, which is a bargain for a fancy pizza for one. 

The new desserts I haven't investigated too much yet, but there are cakes, cupcakes and fridge desserts in the 20% off deal. The Valencian Orange & Almond cupcakes are a delight. I'm fond of anything with almond, and the flavours balance each other nicely. Perfect for afternoon tea.

Finally, the small square salads are 2 for £4 and there are a good half dozen new dishes to choose from. The feta, tomato and morello cherry salad was a must try for me. The green courgette salad was fresh and light and would make a great side for an early BBQ.

Let me know what Spirit of Summer treats you've tried this week, @rudedoodle on Twitter. 

M&S Launch THREE New Hot Cross Bun Flavours for 2017- Which Will Be Your New Favourite?

It's Marks and Spencer Hot Cross Bun season! The 2 for £2.50 deal is back, and very hard to resist.

The retailer sells 42 million hot cross buns every year and for 2017 is selling an exciting range of hot cross buns with nine different varieties for customers to enjoy. All of the M&S hot cross buns are made by Gunstones in Sheffield. To meet demand for the buns in the run up to Easter, the factory produces 24 hours per day.

The first new flavour to introduce you to is the ‘Savoury Cheese Bun’ is made with a blend of two cheeses, juicy Turkish sultanas, onion, chives and of course the traditional hot cross bun spice mix. It is said to be the perfect pairing of fruit and cheese and delicious stuffed with bacon for a gourmet bacon butty. It's the first savoury Hot Cross Bun, and it's well worth picking up to try.

M&S has also launched the first carrot cake/hot cross fusion – the Carrot Cross. A delicious bun made using carrot slithers, citrus and spice flavours and of course stuffed with a moreish cream cheese frosting. As this is a stuffed bun, you get two per pack, but they are handy on the run as you don't need to find butter or a knife to fill them yourself.

Cream cheese filled carrot cake Hot Cross Bun  

M&S Hot Cross Bun Product Developer, Sadia Usman, commented, “We wanted to have some fun with our hot cross bun and create a range of new flavours for our customers to enjoy. Our savoury bun is amazing served as a bacon butty, whilst the Carrot Cross is perfect for afternoon tea.”

My favourite new addition however, is the Chocolate Orange flavour buns. I've already gone through two packs. I'm not a huge sultana fan, so I always loved the toffee and fudge variety, but this new delight is even better. There's just a slight hint of spice to it. 

Chocolate orange and toffee & fudge varieties  

Of course there are all the traditional favourite flavours too, luxury Hot Cross buns in both mini and regular size.

Cranberry & orange flavour and Kentish Brambley Apple, plus Clementine Orange varieties too. 

Stay tuned for a look at the Easter treats and eggs in store for 2017 later this week. 

M&S Balanced For You: A Refreshed Menu of Healthy Eating & its 3 for £10 Right Now

If you don't put on weight over Christmas, you haven't done the holiday season justice. The average person puts on half a stone, which can easily be shifted in January with careful watching of calories for a week or two. I never begin trying to lose this weight on January 1st. There are still so many left overs to indulge in, and boxes of sweets to work through. Once we get about two weeks into January and Smix is back at school, I can turn to losing the Christmas chub.

A nice way to do it is with simple calorie counting and the Marks and Spencer Eat Well ranges. You watch for the sunflower symbol and know those ranges, including all the fresh fruit and veg, is a good choice for healthy eating sessions.

I usually skip breakfast and just have coffee, but when I'm trying to lose weight I actually add in this extra meal. It helps get your metabolism working and stops snacking cravings later on. M&S have these snazzy little on the go porridge pots, shown above, for £1. You can also buy packs of sachets of porridges for £2.50

There are several healthy eating ranges at M&S. Count on Us is a low calorie range of typical meals made with less calories. Fuller Longer is a range of meals with ingredients specially picked to fill you up with good stuff.  

The range I chose from this week is Balanced for You. Again it focuses on keeping calories down, but also using great, healthier ingredients, so it's a bit of a mid way point between the previous two ranges. 

It also has a selection of fresh new dishes this January, and who can resist prawn & crab macaroni cheese? Hard to believe this can be used as 'diet food'.  

Lastly I chose Balanced for You for this post as the meals were all on 3 for £10 mix and match when I was in store on Monday. Means you can stock up on 6 meals to cover your whole week evening dinner for £20, taking one day a week off for dinner as a cheat meal. 

So porridge for breakfast, Balanced for You for dinner, but what for lunch. When you are watching your weight soups are a great way to fill up at lunch. M&S are kings of delicious soups, and again their range just happens to be on offer, buy one soup, get the other half price. The beetroot soup is my favourite,  but I'm keen to try the crab bisque. 

I'll let you know how my weight loss goes!