Tesco Free From Lasagne sheets

I may not be able to go to a restaurant and order a lasagne any more, but it's just given me an excuse to improve my culinary skills! And for the first time earlier this year I attempted making my very own using Tesco's lasagne sheets.

I got a recipe from a student cookbook, and it was a very basic recipe, making a simple cheese sauce and a bolognese with mince. The instructions on the packet said to blanch the sheets first in some boiling water for a few minutes, and then I layered them with the sauce, mince and cheese... and voilà! I put it in the oven and after an hour it came out like this (sorry you can't see the inside, it fell apart when I dished it up!)...

It tasted really good. I was so pleased with the results, and happy that it was so easy to make. But enough about my cooking ability, what about the lasagne sheets? As I've never made a lasagne from scratch myself, I'll be honest and confess that I don't really know if cooking with them is the same as cooking with regular sheets. I had to break them up to fit into the dish I used, but that was easy enough after the blanching.

I am also happy to report that after cooking it tasted the same as a regular lasagne!


Taste: Really good pasta sheets. Thickness, texture, and they were really soft and tasty in the lasagne. The second time I cooked the sheets they needed a little less time in the oven, so they didn't go too crispy round the edges.

Price: £1.50 for a packet of about 12 sheets. (I used about 4 sheets for a 2-person lasagne).

Availability: From Tesco.

Clearly labelled gluten-free? Labels on the front of the packaging, "Wheat free" "Gluten free" and "Milk free"

Nutritional value: As nutritional as you'd expect from pasta! Not as many calories as I'd expect from pasta sheets.

Comparison to the real thing: If I blind-tasted these I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference! Nice and easy to cook with, and I really enjoyed them with the recipe I used.

Overall rating: 8/10
So similar to regular lasagne sheets in terms of taste and texture, and would go well with any lasagne recipe. The sheets are a little small but really easy to cook with, and I've been using them fairly frequently ever since I tried them... so there's a little seal of approval right there!

Tesco Free From 2 double chocolate muffins

One product I tried a few months ago are Tesco Free From double chocolate muffins.  I like to make my own gluten-free treats occasionally but have only ever made fairy cakes and brownies.  My baking expertise does not stretch to making muffins!

I like eating sweet muffins, and my favourite muffin of all time is the blueberry muffin (Waitrose used to make them with blueberry jam in the middle, and they were AMAZING), but I haven't been able to find a gluten free version so far.  So I recently bought a pack of my second favourite flavour muffins... chocolate.

These muffins are smaller than individually-bought muffins (but there are two in a pack).  They look the same...

When I opened the packet the smell was INCREDIBLE.  I couldn't wait to tuck into one.

When I cut into it, it immediately crumbled. It was still crumbly when I ate it, possibly more than a normal muffin.  A small problem I had was there wasn't enough of a "muffin top".  The best part of a muffin is the top! 

A problem with some gluten free cakes is that they can be dry.  I must admit, these cakes were a little dry, and would have probably benefited from milk in the ingredients.


Taste: Like chocolate cake!  The chocolate chips were also really good, and I enjoyed the sweetness of the chocolate.  It was just a little over dry and crumbly.

Price: £1.00 for a packet of 2 muffins.  Very reasonable when you consider the prices of individual muffins, even though these are slightly smaller than a regular sized muffin!

Availability:  From Tesco stores that have a free from section (the ones I know of are Express, Extra and Metro versions of the store).

Clearly labelled gluten-free?: Yes, in the Free From range and with the labels "wheat free", "gluten free" and "milk free" on the front of the packaging.

Nutritional value: As you'd expect, they're not very good for you!  From just one muffin in the pack, they contain a masive 300 calories, 23.4g of sugar (26% of your daily amount!) and 14.6g of fat.  Needless to say, these should only be an occasional treat.

Comaprison to the regular version: Very similar!  Apart from being slightly smaller and drier, they tasted sweet and chocolatey, and I definitely felt full after eating it. 

Overall rating: 7/10

If you fancy treating yourself to something sweet then one of these muffins would make a good snack or dessert.  Obviously, with the high sugar and fat content, I wouldn't suggest having them everyday.  There also may even be some cakes that would be more enjoyable.  However, if you're really missing chocolate muffins these would be a good suggestion!