For the Foodie: Degustabox September 2016* Unboxing & Easy Ratatouille

Time for another Degustabox unboxing! In case you haven't seen my previous posts, Degustabox is a monthly food subscription service featuring new brands and products just coming to our market. Each box is $19.99 (but you can get your first one for 50% off) and comes packed full with at least 10 different products. Let's see what I found in my September box!

Again, everything was packaged very securely in lots of bubble wrap, which I removed for the sake of taking photos. The September box came with 11 products - I divided them for the photos into three groups: salty snacks, sweet snacks and cooking ingredients/ condiments:

1 bag of popCORNers, $3.29 each:  air-popped vegan, non-GMO and gluten-free chips that we will enjoy with our homemade guac
2 packets of BustaNUT! peanuts in the Maple Bacon & Bourbon flavors, $1.49 ea: I like snacking on nuts although flavored varieties always contain more sodium and sugar

2 little boxes of Michel et Augustin Shortbread Cookies in the Pure Butter & Sea Salt and Pure Butter & Chocolate Chips flavors, $1.99 ea: shortbread cookies are some of my favorites for a quick sweet treat so I'm excited to give this brand a go!
1 bag of Entenmann's Little Bites mini chocolate chip muffins, $4.69 ea: I'm a little skeptical about pre-packaged muffins but at least these don't contain high fructose corn syrup or trans fat
1 large bag of Zollipops, sugar free & vegan hard fruit candies/ drops, $4.99: Apparently these candies are supposed to keep your teeth clean after meals?! Not sure how that's even possible but I'll give them a go!
1 bar of Toosum oatmeal bar, $1.79 ea (I got the Cranberry & Acai flavor): I don't eat granola bars very often but it's sometimes handy to keep one in your purse for emergency hunger pangs.

1 packet of Hak's One Pot Cooking Sauce in Rustic Ratatouille, $3.99 each: This is basically a ready-made tomato-based sauce to use with veggies or your choice of protein. We don't use premade sauces but this has very straightforward, natural ingredients, and I'll give it a go for a quick dinner!
1 bottle of Sparkling Bitters, $1.99 each: I quite like trying new drinks, and this sounds like it could be a good choice for cocktails (or mocktails) as well.
3 small jars of English Provender condiments in Caramelized Red Onion Chutney, Sweet Tomato & Chili Chutney and Luxury Lemon Curd, $2.45 ea: I love love love trying new condiments and having them on hand to pair with cheese or cold cuts, so I'm quite excited about these!
1 box of Sam Mills Gluten Free Corn Quinoa Fusilli Pasta, $2.39 ea: I've tried gluten-free pasta in the past and didn't like it, but maybe this will be different. We're not gluten-free in this house so it's not a huge selling point for me.
1 bottle of Nando's Peri-Peri Hot Sauce, $3.49 ea: My husband would have loved to try this as a big hot sauce fan but unfortunately it contains garlic :( I'm not into very spicy food at the moment so I may pass this bottle on to a friend.
Value of the September box: $40.93

So far, this was the largest and best value box we have received. Compared to last month, I like the product selection a lot more, and I'm excited to have lots of new snacks to try out. If you'd like to try this subscription for yourself, you can use my affiliate link here for 50% off your first box.


As for the recipe using products from the September box, to be honest I wasn't massively inspired - but being this pregnant has made me a lot less excited to spend time in the kitchen cooking elaborate meals. Which is why I decided to take the simple route and just try the recipe featured on the little description sheet that came in my Degustabox; I made a veggie & chicken version of the Hak's Rustic Ratatouille and served it first over some brown rice and then the Sam Mills Gluten Free pasta.

On the packaging, the cooking suggestion is to combine one packet with one pound of protein or veggies; I think I've had slightly more than that and I do wish there was more sauce in my dish. I diced half a medium onion and one chicken breast, browned them a little in olive oil, and then added 1 chopped zucchini, half of a red bell pepper, and half of a can of drained chickpeas. I poured in the contents of my Hak's sachet and simmered for about 20 minutes. I did enjoy the taste of this dish but the sauce was a bit too liquidy, perhaps because of the moisture from my vegetables. I like how this premade sauce doesn't contain any nasty ingredients or fillers, although to be completely honest, I don't see it as massively easier than just adding some tomato paste into my saucepan along with flavorful herbs de provence, salt and pepper and maybe some garlic. But overall it was tasty and saved me some time in the hot kitchen, so I'm not complaining :)

Just a heads up, I won't be reviewing any more Degustaboxes for a while now - not because I'm not happy with the subscription but for the simple reason of having a lot less time to do so as baby bean is going to be here next month already. If you enjoy food posts from me, please let me know and I'll do my best to feature more snacks and meals on the blog in the future; for now you can always check out my Instagram for food p0rn pics. Have you tried any new snacks this month? I'd love to know what you've been cooking up lately!

Disclaimer: Product marked with an asterix (*) is a press sample I received from the brand's PR for review consideration. The post contains an affiliate link, which means I'll earn a commission if you decide to sign up to Degustabox after clicking. All opinions are 100% honest and unbiased, no matter if the product featured was purchased with my own money or provided free of charge. Thank you for reading and supporting my blog!