Getting hold of food during lockdown #3

This week  my post is about the Marks and Spencers food box. I have been unable to try it because there are several sweet things in it which would be wasted, so Valery-Ann, aka Mrs A of Valery Ann Designs and the Butterfly Challenge has sent me her thoughts on it.

The box was well packaged and delivered several days earlier than expected - not a problem as it is all non-perishable items. The contents were 

toilet rolls 4pkt

Pasta sauce large jar

Italian tomato sauce small jar

Tomato soup

Vegetable soup

English tea bags 50 pkt

Jar of gold Coffee

2 pkts of shortbread biscuits.

1 pkt salted peanuts

Can chunky chicken

can chunky beef

small tin of corned beef

tin of red salmon

pkt spaghetti

pkt long grain rice

1pkt big chocolate buttons

Percy pig sweets   

2 large bars of chocolate

tin of baked beans

Mrs A was very pleased to find both tea and coffee included, something the other boxes seem to lack. The only thing she isn't likely to use was the Percy pig sweets which she gave to a neighbour with young children. 

There is a vegetarian box with vegetarian products replacing the meat and fish ones, and there are also fruit, vegetable and meat boxes. Mrs A also tried the fruit box which arrived separately (sorry, no photo) and contained

1 large pineapple
1 large mango
2 little paper carrier bags containing bunches of black grapes.
6 large plums
5 pears
6 red apples
6 clementines
A hand of bananas (8)

The food box costs £35 and the fruit box £20. Both look to be good value and good quality contents.

I'd love to hear whether you have tried any of the boxes I have written about. Mrs A has tried the Morrisons Box which I reviewed here and was pleased to find that when she clicked through to the meat-eaters box to place her order, there was a link to a selection of recipes based on the contents of the box. She's tried several of the recipes and been pleased with them, especially the Hunters Chicken. Morrisons has extended their range of boxes and even has a special Ramadan box.

I hope that by now most of you have either got yourselves a supermarket delivery slot, somebody in the family who can shop for you if you can't get out or are able to shop for yourselves, but if you are still struggling my food box reviews may be helpful. They've certainly helped us through the last few weeks!

Now I have managed to get onto the Ocado delivery list again but am only allowed one delivery a fortnight, so I think we'll try the Marks and Spencer fruit and veg boxes to top up on fresh food in the intervening weeks. We've found a local butcher who is making deliveries and can get bread and milk from the corner shop, so after an initial shaky start I think we have everything covered.

Many thanks to Valery-Ann for her help with this post.