Lurpak VS Dunpak VS Butterpak

I recently started using Lurpak after researching into the healthiest spread/butter options. I found buying butter each week was expensive but I wanted to have butter rather than Margarine. We were using Flora Light margarine as I found that it was the healthiest option and had no Trans Fat. Me and Lewis both decided to switch to Lurpak because it was more like butter and cheaper to buy than blocks of butter. 

When Lurpak isn't on offer it is actually quite expensive and when making white sauce you're using quite a lot of an expensive product. So I wanted to find an alternative and saw Tesco offer their own version, Butterpak. We've been using Butterpak for about 2-3 months now and honestly didn't notice a difference besides price. Lurpak cost £3.75 for 500g, on offer usually £3. Tesco own version, Butterpak, cost £2.20 for 500g; they even offer a Light version. 

Lurpak Light ingredients consist of:

Blended Spread 57% (32% milk fat & 25% rapeseed oil). Water and Salt

Butterpak Light consist of: 

57% (32% milk fat and 25% vegetable oil). Water, Vegetable Oil, Salt (0.9%).

The ingredients are practically the same except for the type of oil used, Rapeseed oil contains the least amount of Saturated fat (the bad one). 

Comparing them nutritionally:

Nutrient	Butterpak Light per 100g		Lurpak Light per 100g
Energy kJ	2,124kJ		2121kJ/
Protein	0.3g		0.3g
Carbohydrate	0.3g		0.4g
of which sugars	0.1g		0.4g
Fat	57.0g		57g
of which saturates	22.0g		22g
Salt	0.9g		0.90g

This reveals Lurpak has 0.3g more sugar than Butterpak but otherwise they are exactly the same. If you can taste the difference between rapeseed oil and vegetable oil I'd be very impressed. 

Now just this week I discovered Lidls do their own version, Danpak. I thought I might as well give it go considering it cost £1.89 for 500g.

The colour difference is very slight, the Dunpak is slightly whiter but the texture was a big difference. I found the Danpak hard to spread, I had to work it to make it softer and when I applied it to my toast; it didn't melt.. I've even had margarines that melt on my toast but this didn't melt at all. Which concerned me how much of this was actually butter. Taste wise, I couldn't tell too much on toast but when I had it in a sandwich it had that margarine taste, it even smelt like marg.

I checked the ingredients and was surprised how many there were, I knew instantly I'd not buy it again. I'll compare it against the Butterpak:

Nutrient	Butterpak Light per 100g		Danpak Light per 100g
Energy kJ	2,124kJ		2102kJ
Protein	0.3g		0.6g
Carbohydrate	0.3g		0.9g
of which sugars	0.1g		0.9g
Fat	57.0g		56.0g
of which saturates	22.0g		24.0g
Fibre	0.6g		<0.5g
Salt	0.9g		0.9g

Danpak Light is 32% unsalted butter (milk) Water, Rapeseed Oil, Palm Oil, 1% Reconstituted Buttermilk, Sodium Alginate, Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Potassium Sorbate and Vitamin A & D. 

Now whether or not Lurpak and Butterpak just don't list the additives or Danpak has more than it needs; it's clear to see Danpak is not a good alternative. For starters it contains Palm Oil which I try best to avoid. It has more Carbs and more Sugar than Lurpak and Butterpak COMBINED. Although it is the only spread that actually contains butter, which might explain why it was harder to spread. I thought the taste was slightly off, I could tell the difference and sadly for having Palm Oil alone is enough to put me off. 

In conclusion I'd rather have the Tesco Butterpak as a cheaper alternative saving myself £1.50 compared to Lurpak without noticeable taste difference. I'd rather pay an extra 31p than buy Danpak again.

Left over Roast Chicken - Recipe

When I buy a Roast chicken, on the odd occasion as it's cheaper to use a breast, between two (even on a medium) there's always left over chicken. I like to put the chicken into a curry or curry pies. It's very simple and cheap to do and makes your Roast chicken worth a bit more. I buy Puff Pastry from Lidls, pre-rolled, it cost 85p for 375g. I can make two big pasties and one pie with this pastry with a slight bit left over. Tesco offer a block for £1.10 for 500g but I was finding I used too much of it by struggling to guess the amount from the block to do pasties.The Lidls pre-rolled is only 0.7p more expensive anyway.

I simply add a small amount of plain flour to the chicken with some Curry Powder, turn on the heat to the hob and slowly add milk. The milk will thicken with the flour and form a paste. The more milk you add will determine the thickness of the paste/sauce. You don't want it too thick as it will taste floury but you want it thick enough it sticks together. You also have to remember it will cook in the oven so it will thicken more; always make it slightly more milky than you'd like it. Curry powder I buy from Tesco, their own brand spice, £1 for 80g.

You can make big pasties or more smaller ones, sometimes I even make Fajitas styled pasties adding in Mixed Peppers, Tomato Puree and Kidney Beans with a Fajitas mix of spices. It depends how you'd like them to taste. The Fajitas mix obviously gets bulked out more so you can make even more pies/pasties and freeze them for later dates. 

Once you've made your pasties you can glaze them (or not). I was told by a Jamaican lady that you can glaze the top with curry powder and egg to give it a darker golden look. She told that the Jamaican pasties you buy from Street food vendors are usually given a spice glaze. You can glaze with both egg and milk but milk will make it darker and harder to tell when it's cooked whereas egg will add a shine. 

I usually serve with mash, gravy and vegetables but on this occasion we were out of potatoes and I forgot to turn the carrots on.. so instead it was a full carb meal of chips and beans! 

Bathroom Cleaner - Product Swap Test

So I just ran out of my regular bathroom cleaner, Flash. While shopping in Lidls I saw that they had their own bathroom cleaner in the W5 range. I thought there could be no harm in giving it a go to test the difference. 

So let's start off with the price, Flash comes in at £1 if you buy it from Poundland if you do buy Flash; don't purchase it from Supermarkets as it is always more expensive. Tesco sell it for £1.50 with an extra 50ml but it's not worth the extra 50p. The W5 ranged bathroom cleaner comes in at 85p so 15p cheaper. You might think that 15p isn't really much but it is when the sizes of the bottles are completely different. The Flash has 450ml of product inside whereas the W5 cleaner has 750ml. So you're getting 300ml MORE for 15p less.

Is there any difference?

Firstly I checked the ingredients, they both have exactly the same ingredients, down to the same amounts except W5 has one more; Methylisothiazolinone. It has one extra added preservative. 

Secondly it comes down to the actual product test. I thought soap scum is the best test so here with have a soap scum shower.

I sprayed Flash on the right and W5 on the left.

No difference right?

Just using W5, no water.

There is absolutely no difference in this product. In fact I found the W5 actually lathered up and the Flash doesn't. I also found the W5 has a finer spray, more like a mist than a foam but found it actually needs less product to clean. I only have one negative point about the product and it's that the smell is different. I found the smell of the W5 more chemical than fresh, it stung my noise slightly whereas Flash has a nice scent. This is one product I shall definetely be swapping, I can't find a reason why not.

Chilli Con Carne - Recipe

Chilli Con Carne is another easy dish that can be added too or kept simple. It's a cost effective meal if you're trying to budget.

So firstly lets break down the ingredients into price:

1. Onions - Tesco: 1KG cost 75p for the Tesco 'Brown Onions'; they do cheaper onions for 59p with the 'Redmere Brown Farm Onions'. I only use half an onion per meal and a bag roughly contains 12 onions; therefore costing 3p per half onion per meal.
2. OXO cube - Lidl: 18 cubes cost £1.19 rather than Tesco costing £1.25 for just 12. So per meal this roughly cost 6p per cube. 
3. Tin of Chopped Tomatos - Tesco: 400g for 31p, Lidl do sell tins of tomatos for 29p if you wanted the cheapest option. 
4. Tin of Kidney Beans - Tesco: 400g for 30p, same price as Lidl. I also only use half a tin and put the other half into another meal. So 15p per meal.
5. Beef Mince 20% fat - Lidl: 500g for £1.59, only in recent months has this price increased, it use to be £1.29. Tesco do a cheap mince for £1.69 but the meat is a lot thicker and I find it doesn't go as far.
6. Basamati Rice - Tesco: 5K bag cost £6.50. Hard to work out the cost per meal as the bag last so long, I've had this bag of rice for 3 months and it's only half empty. Although I've actually only got a 2K bag but can't recall the price; still imagine how long a 5K bag would last! I roughly use 1/3 cup per person per meal. So 2/3 is 137g; 5000/137g = 36; that's 36 meals for two people from one bag of rice. Making it cost 18p per meal.

Optional ingredients:

1. Sweetcorn - Tesco: 907g is £1.00; Lidl offer cheaper for 99p and it's a Kilo so I shall be making this switch once I've used this bag! I use 1/2 cup which is about 82g so per meal costs 9p.
2. Worcestershire Sauce - B&M: 290ml for £1.49 which is £1.01 cheaper than Iceland and £1.11 cheaper than Tesco. Of course this is branded Lea & Perrins and you can buy shop brand Worcestershire sauce. 

You can obviously add more vegetables like spinach, lentils, peas and any other kind of beans you like. Beans are a cheap way of getting good nutrients and work well with mince dishes.

It may seem like I've left out the key ingredient, Chilli, but this is purely because my jar of Chilli Powder is from Sainsburys and it is more expensive than any other shop and for less grams. Tesco are the best to buy spices from as they 50g jars for 85p. I've never looked into buying bulk but perhaps that would be a cheaper option, from Indian supermarkets.

So price of the meal; excluding salt, pepper and worcheshire sauce and chilli powder (purely because of the difficulty in working out price) this meal costs me £1.55 for two people. Including sweetcorn, £1.61.

The method is easy, you brown off the mince, drain the fat and add your salt, pepper, onion and OXO. Fry the onion off and add Worcheshire if you want, then the whole tin of chopped tomatos, finally followed by half the tin of kidney beans. Add however much chilli powder you feel you'd like, everyone handles spice different!

If you're curious about Tesco Values.. well value for money then you'd be surprised. I assume most people think that the value products are watered down, not the case. The above picture of the chilli is the whole tin of chopped tomatos added, no extra water needed. 

Below is the tin of kidney beans, drained. Full of the way to the top!

I let the chilli simmer for about 30 minutes and then cook the rice. I added sweetcorn at the same time as adding the kidney beans just to add some vegetables and pack out the mince.

If you want to try using half a mince but think that the portion won't be big enough you can always buy tortilla chips and have a side dish. A bag of 200g will cost you 46p at Tesco, Asda and Lidl. I actually prefer the Everyday Value bag rather than the next step up Tesco offer; which cost 85p. We use half the bag per meal and I really enjoy these chips; massive recommendation for brand alternatives.  

Pasta and Sauce - Swap Taste Test

I normally purchase both pasta and pasta sauce from Tesco. The sauce I purchase is 75p and the bag of pasta I purchase is £2.89. In my previous post I discovered that pasta is cheaper in Lidl and they also sell cheaper sauces too. I'd like to make a point that my absolute favourite sauce is a brand, the Homepride pasta bakes. They do go on offer for £1 but standard price they're £1.59; so if I can get a good sauce for 65p I'm up for that but I won't be biased.

When it comes down to nutritional values you'd assume a cheaper sauce would be worse to make it taste better? It can actually be the complete opposite, the more expensive brand sauces can be worse.

Here are the comparisons:

The breakdown for the Lidl sauce is:

Energy: 515kJ / 124kcal

Fat: 8.0g

Saturates: 1.1g

Sugars: 5.8g

Salt: 0.92g

In summary the branded sauce is the worst for salt and fat. Tesco is worst for sugar and Saturated fats. The Lidl sauce beats nearly every single category compared to the branded sauce besides Sugar; but it's not as bad as the Tesco sauce. Keep in mind that the Lidl sauce and branded sauce contains bacon, meaning more fat content. If the Lidl sauce has bacon in it and STILL beats the two other sauces for fat that has to count for something, right?

Down to the taste test!

I usually only use half a jar of sauce per meal and keep the jar in the fridge for the following week, saves money and spreads the meals out. However we are going back to our parents for a week and therefore shall be using the whole jar. 

Comparing sizes, there is a difference. The Tesco pasta is thinner and longer whereas the Lidl pasta is shorter and wider. It did affect cooking time, with the Lidl pasta taking longer but taste test there was absolutely no noticeable difference. I don't think Lewis would have even noticed there were two pastas if I hadn't of undercooked the Lidl pasta. 

The jar sauce itself, when I opened it, I couldn't believe the smell; it smelt EXACTLY the same as the Homepride sauce I use to buy. Even better, it actually taste the same as well! Maybe if I had them either side of each other I'd notice but I could not tell that this was a different sauce. I couldn't actually believe it taste so similar. There were actual bits of bacon in it too, I was surprised by how many pieces the sauce contained. They were cut into small squares and did taste/look like bacon.

Lewis said that he preferred the Tesco sauce but perhaps it was an unfair comparison because I hadn't got a cheese sauce and instead got the bacon sauce. I would 100% buy this sauce again, especially for the price. Next time I will buy a cheese one and see how Lewis feels about it then!

Spaghetti Bolognese - Recipe

An easy dish with few ingredients, you can even make it in bulk to save in the fridge or freezer for another day!

 So this picture has the cost of the items from bulk, meaning the OXO cube came from a pack of 18 and that cost £1.19. Let me give you a break down of where I bought the products:

1. Onions - Tesco: 1KG cost 75p for the Tesco 'Brown Onions'; they do cheaper onions for 59p with the 'Redmere Brown Farm Onions'. I honestly don't know why I haven't tried the Redmere ones yet. I only use half an onion per meal and a bag roughly contains 12 onions; therefore costing 3p per half onion per meal.
2. OXO cube - Lidl: 18 cubes cost £1.19 rather than Tesco costing £1.25 for just 12. So per meal this roughly cost 6p per cube. 
3. Tomato Puree - Tesco: 142g for 35p, comes in a tin but is exactly the same as the tube, only difference is you can get more out of a tin than a tube. The tube may be cheaper per 100g but you can't squeeze it all out!
4. Beef Mince 20% fat - Lidl: 500g for £1.59, only in recent months has this price increased, it use to be £1.29. Tesco do a cheap mince for £1.69 but the meat is a lot thicker and I find it doesn't go as far.
5. Penne Pasta - Tesco: 3K bag cost £2.89. Hard to work out the cost per meal as the bag last so long, however I've recently seen that Lidl Penne pasta is 29p per 500g making it a cheaper alternative. Will have to give it a try!
6. Worcestershire Sauce - B&M: 568ml cost me £2.99. I'm not sure if they sell this size any longer, I think I got lucky at the time. However B&M still sell 290ml for £1.49 which is £1.01 cheaper than Iceland and £1.11 cheaper than Tesco. Of course this is branded Lea & Perrins and you can buy shop brand Worcestershire sauce. 

I haven't included salt and pepper as that is so hard to work out the costing per meal it seems silly to try. With all the maths laid out this meal will roughly cost you £2.84 excluding Worcestershire sauce and Penne pasta. 

However I only use half the packet of mince for one meal to stretch the meat out further reducing the mince to 79p per meal. Obviously this reduces the portion size but me and Lewis manage with the size. You can scale down or up depending how many people you're feeding. The mince itself has 20% fat content; if this is something you dislike Lidl provides Lean Mince 5% at £1.99 for 250g beating Tesco's at £2.50. 

Because I reduce the amount of mince, I like to bulk it out with vegetables (or fruit seeing as Peppers are technically a fruit). These peppers from Tesco cost 93p for 3 mixed peppers. However Tesco do offer a bag of 6-7 peppers for £1.15 it's just we don't use them up before they go soggy. For this meal I used half of a red pepper and half of a yellow so, add on 31p for this meal.

 My mum cooks the mince until brown and adds a dash of red wine to her Spag bowl mix which gives a nice new flavour, so if you wanted to buy a cheap red wine Lidl sell a cheap one at £3.09. However I don't do that for our meals. You'd just add it in and "burn" the wine into the mince after draining the fat. Then you add your onions and peppers, soften them until adding the OXO cube, salt, pepper and dash of Worcestershire. 

Lastly you add the whole tin of tomato puree and add water until you get the sauce consistency you prefer. Leave this to simmer for 30 minutes, while that simmers you can start cooking your pasta. 

Me and Lewis also have garlic bread with our meal, we buy a Tesco Value Baguette for 39p (I think) and cook half with our meal. So 19p for the Garlic Bread. I can honestly say there is no difference between the Value stick and the standard Tesco stick; just price.

 Once it's cooked, plate up and add some cheese on top!