Fancy something sweet?

With christmas approaching, it's always nice to have the odd sweet treat. Well actually, who needs an occassion to eat sweets, if I fancy it, i'll have it! It just seems that at this time of year, maybe because it's colder, I quite often fancy something sweet. Lucklily, there are plenty of sweet treats in plenty of shops to satisfy my cravings. the lastest 'finds' are easilty obtainable and are not too expensive.

I popped into Lidl. Which Europeans will know is a German store, that sells a mix of branded products and it's own brand, a bit like a small supermarket. Both Lidl and Aldi are known to be reasonable on their prices, and as the advert says 2 don't change your lifestyle, change your supermarket", or something like that. I've certainly known friends go there and buy what they can, and anything they don't have, go to the bigger supermarkets, probably saving a fortune. Anyway, enough of that, I neither advocate using them or not, it's personal choice. here are the sweeties I bought from Lidl:

Coconut Ice was a real surprise find. I've not had this sweet for years. And it's labelled Vegan, so makes identifying it's suitability much easier. Coconut Ice is super sweet. I mean, very, very sweet. really, one piece is all I can manage at any one time. It's actually too sweet for me,but I'm sure many people would enjoy it.

Then onto Aldi, which is another German small supermarket, similar to Lidl. Here I found  Riter Sports in minatures. I like novelty things, so the mini squares appealed to me. Of the two flavours that I could see were vegan suitable, I liked the Marzipan ones the best. the other ones being Very Dark Chocolate. the Marzipan squares were light and only slightly tasting of marzipan, whereas the Very Dark Chocolate squars were a bit too bitter/dark for my taste buds. Maybe with a strong coffee when I'm in the mood for a caffeine fix, but not today!

Finally, as it's getting nearer to Christmas,  it's almost compulsory to have a mince pie. I have never made mince pies, nor do i want to, as I'm not a big fan of them, but once a year, feel, it's necessary to have one or two, or it won't be christamstime! Sainsbury's Value range do a cheap and cheerful mine pie, which satisfies my need to partake in a mince pie at this this of year, without making me feel too stuffed and yuk1 about them! They're small, less filling, pastry/crust is a bit doughy but fine, and probablt one of the best for the money. That is of course unless you LOVE mince pies, and really know what it takes to make a person really want one! Then of course they may not measure up!

While checking these products on manufacturers websites, I came accross Elizabeth Shaw's Mint Crisp, which used to be vegan, but now contains traces of milk, what a drag! so I've deleted them from this page, and passed the actual chocolates onto a non vegan friend. I do wish manufacturers would stick to their ingedients, or better still label their products as 'suitable for vegans'!