M&S’s Pan Fry Range Will Transform You Into a Super Summer Stir-Fry Chef, Plus New Street Food Wraps and Salads

Beef burrito £3.30 : Southern Fried ChiCKen £3

A little bit of a mixed bag of what’s new from Marks and Spencer this month, as I like to show you what catches my eye in store from the new launches, as well as products I think are nifty. I’ve two ranges I want to tell you about, the first being found in the sandwich aisle.

Marks & Spencer’s ‘sandwich aisle’ is a bit of a misnomer, certainly an understatement, as my local Bloomfield Bangor store’s sarnie fridge is home to wraps, artisan sausage rolls, protein pots, quinoa salads, regular salads, vegan options of all of the previous, and more varieties of sushi than you can shake a chopstick at.

The latest addition to their luncheon menu is a Street Food range. Inspired by food stalls in markets around the globe, the new items include some absolute flavour favourites like a Beef Burrito Wrap for £3.30, or Southern Fried Chicken for £3. There are also vegetarian options like the Veggie Falafel & Spinach Wrap with Feta Dressing £3, and a Veggie Samosa you could enjoy either hot or cold for lunch for £1.50.

Other Street Food sandwiches include Katsu Chicken £3, Chicken Vindaloo £3, and Hog Roast, which has a pork, sage & onion stuffing filling, for £2.80. Why I mention the stuffing is that with a little tweak at home (or your office desk!) by whipping out a jar of cranberry sauce, you could DIY a ‘Christmas in July Sandwich’.

There are also some fresh recipes from this range if you like an M&S salad on your lunch break. Bang Bang Prawn Noodle Salad is a Vietnamese inspired dish with a spicy peanut & coconut dressing. There’s also an Indian Style Spiced Chicken Salad, Both are £4 each. Street Food also has a vegan option, the Roast Butternut & Tabbouleh Salad, for £3.50.

I also picked up a couple of their Super Waters, which are priced between £1.50 and £2 a bottle. I chose the Watermelon & Lime flavour infused with Protein & Collagen, and the Apple & Elderflower which has Vitamins C,B3,B5,B6 and B12.

Teriyaki Beef £4 : Fajita chicken £3

Moving on from lunch, to dinner. I enjoy cooking, but I don’t often follow recipes, I’m very much a chef of two disciplines- 1. throw it all in the oven, or 2. throw it all in the pan. So when I was browsing the aisles of the Food Hall and spied this range, I’m not sure if it’s brand new, but I hadn’t noticed it before, and it’s right up my street.

The Pan Fry range has beef, chicken and lamb options for stir frying, which come complete with pre-cut veg and sauce and seasonings. All you need to do with the pack is follow the three or four step instructions on the labelling.

Tandoori lamb £6 : coconut & lime chicken £3.50

You can make a quick meal for two in minutes, and add the side of your choice. No washing and chopping veg, marinading meat, it’s all there ready to go. Ideal for busy folks, or those who just would like a hand in the kitchen.

Even better, they are really well priced. The Fajita Chicken pack is only £3, which you would struggle to find chicken, veg and seasoning for two for less than that yourself. The Teriyaki Beef costs £4, with the Coconut & Lime Chicken at £3.50, and the Tandoori Lamb Chops for £6.

A stir fry makes a great summer dinner, and with these M&S tricks up your sleeve, you’ll have more time to enjoy the sun and not be stuck in the kitchen.

There’s a VEGAN Chocolate Liqueur at M&S and You Can Get TWO Bottles for £16 Right Now: Plus All The Other Special Tipples To Make Your Christmas-Tree-Decorating Weekend Merry & Bright

£12 or two for £16

Can you believe your eyes? Marks & Sparks have made an all vegan chocolate liqueur, so if the temptation of a Baileys on ice makes you go back to plain vegetarian at holiday time, now you can stick to your guns and sip their Coconut Chocolate Vegan liqueur of an evening (see below).

Lots of the speciality drinks are on offer right now, which I will share with you in this post,  but with the liqueurs especially you can buy two bottles for £16, or even buy a crate online at £8 each here.

In the deal you can mix and match flavours, so you can try the exotic Yule Log Flavour Liqueur, or Salted Caramel, Egg Nog Cream, or Chocolate Peanut.

£12 or two for £16

£2

There are also offers on their mulled wines, both red and rosé (see further below), and their traditional Non Alcoholic Mulled Punch is a reasonable £2 a bottle. 

Mulled Rosé seems super posh, doesn’t it? 

The wines & spirits aisle in Marks & Spencer is a veritable treasure trove right now, with a tonne of different delicious concoctions to serve at parties and gatherings to wow your friends and family. 

As I said many of the speciality drinks have the bonus of being on offer too, so it’s well worth having a nosy in store if you have a few more gifts to buy, as they are great value, look substantial and festive too.

There’s up to 30% off Christmas drinks here, and you can save £3 off bottles of spirits and cocktails from this selection.

Another mix and match offer in store that I love, are these boxes of hot toddies in several different flavours (below). You can get 3 for 2. There’s Gingerbread Brandy Hot Chocolates and Salted Caramel Rum Hot Chocolates, £6 for a box of two, and they include the glasses.

You Just whizz them in the microwave for 45 seconds. It’s pretty cool that the cream in the drinks comes from a Northern Irish farm, just outside Coleraine too. 

So there’s plenty of choice of tipples for the adults for this weekend and the holidays beyond, but for the teetotal amongst us, and under 18s, there are lots of tasty, seasonal drinks in M&S to try too. 

There’s the Non-Alcoholic Punch I mentioned before, as well as two different Mulled Juices in the fridges that can be enjoyed hot or cold.

My absolute favourite however is the Spanish Clementine Juice. I buy it throughout the year too, but I challenge you to try it and not get the massive wave of nostaligia I always get when I drink it. It doesn’t taste like ordinary, fresh orange juice, it tastes EXACTLY like the orange you got in your Santa Stocking every year. It’s so sweet and delicious. The usual two for £3 applies to the mix and match fresh juices.

In the lunch and snack fridge section you can try a mini Clementine drink (below), as they have that and an Orange, Pomegranate & Cranberry variety bottle. They are £1.50 each with a portion of sale going to Shelter, the homeless charity M&S heartily support every Christmas period.

So make sure you check out all the fab offers in store this weekend, and the drinks gifts online . It’s a great weekend to pop into your local Marks & Spencer’s though, as they have the £10 Dine In Offer on all weekend.

Also I noticed all their beauty gifts are 50% off, which is huge, so if you still have some gifts to buy, M&S is your place. 

Sweet Potato Steaks & Edamame Burgers: Go Veggie This Weekend with 20% Off M&S New Range

I love a good veggie burger, and often pick them over regular burgers when eating out cause they are just so delicious. I make them at home too, but they are always the regular same tasting recipe wherever I buy them. 

Marks & Spencer has just launched a new Veggie Range, with products us meat eaters will be coveting, including three different fresh veggie burger varieties.  Lentil & Beetroot, Edamame Bean, and Sweetcorn & Chickpea.

I had the Lentil & Beetroot for lunch and they are incredible. I would challenge you to make them for someone who is anti-Veggie, and see if they even notice it’s not meat. The texture is spot on for a high quality beef burger. The only clue might be the Beetroot pink tinge!  

They've also launched some tempting falafel products, the beetroot variety looks so cool it’s almost worth buying for the Instagram-Factor.

It’s a great time to try the new products as the whole range has 20% off. Because the items are vegetable based and not meat, it means the packs of burgers are really great value, at £2.20 and up.

Another must-Instagram newbie is the Sweet Potato & Red Pepper Sausage.

Along with the meal ingredients range, they also have relaunched their veggie meal products like lasange, stroganoff, pasta bakes etc. Those can be found in the Ready meal aisle alongside the Asian takeaway dishes, whilst the other Veggie products are alongside the fresh and veg at the entrance of your local store. 

My other super hipster, impress your mates cool Veggie product to buy is the Sweet Potato Steak. I can’t wait to try everything out over the weekend.  

Lastly, don’t forget there are Veggie Percy Pigs, and a whole range of Veggie Colin the Caterpillar sweets.

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. 

Video Tour of the M&S Christmas 2017 Food, Drinks & Gifts Launch Event

Over the next week I'm going to share various posts about this fantastic event M&S brought me over to London for. There's a lot to get through, so I'm going to break it down into starters & savoury snacks, main meal items, desserts and sweets, drinks, and finally gifts. 

 Until then here is a little video tour of the event, and a quick look at some of the products I'll be featuring in the coming week.