I've spoken a little bit about Deliciously Ella here and there, I'd be quite surprised if you hadn't heard of her by now. She's really built up quite an empire, which is great for me. She released her first cookbook at the same time that I discovered my intolerances. Great timing you could say, bit daunting you could also hear from my Mum. Of course I bought her book, probably wasn't the best idea for my first week to try and attempt any of it. You see, making a switch like that so suddenly sent my whole body haywire, it was very confused and I felt quite odd for up to a month. Not only was I cutting all of my intolerances suddenly, I was injecting my body with foods I had never even heard of let alone eaten before. So best intentions were cut short and I went to a very basic version of my meals.
Now since then I have been a little cautious about eating too many Ella dishes due to the level of ingredients, amount of time needed to prepare it all and well, I don't have the money. So when I saw she was bringing out her own line of some of the recipes I was excited. It meant instead of trying to hunt down Dates, I could instead buy her Energy Balls off the shelf. Perhaps a little more up my street!
So here is my review on the products I have tried from her, I don't have good pictures I am afraid.*
Availability of Product:
To begin with this wasn't great, I remember searching my local Waitrose's every time I came back from work. Or doing a bulk order from Ocado of more than 10 at a time when they were on offer.
Fast forward a year or so and the Energy Balls are available pretty much anywhere. They are even on offer quite a bit, for example Tesco and Sainsbury's have them for £1 right now! The Granola and the Oat Bars are still a little harder to find, I found the Granola in Waitrose and the Oat Bars in Tesco. Although all of the range is available in Wholefoods if you are lucky enough to live near one!
Ocado stock the majority, just not the bars she has just released. Which is a shame as they are brilliant for an on the go snack and Ocado are normally good with this sort of thing. It certainly makes my life easier being able to order everything in one bulk shop!
A bonus place to find the Energy Balls is in Starbucks, a wonderful compliment to any coffee or tea for sure! What with Starbucks going a little more towards the Intolerance helping side, I'm happy this product is where they started!
8/10
Quality of Taste:
Now the Cacao & Almond Energy Balls are something I could quite easily live off of. They remind me of a ball of brownie squished up, they taste heavenly and are so good for you as they are only made of 6 natural ingredients. The only way I can think of describing them is as a Chocolate Nakd Bar with a softer smooth texture, except for a few small pieces of Almond to break it up. I remember having my first one, it was so deliciously Chocolatey and gooey without all the fuss from making them. Divine.
So after that success, I decided I had better try another one of them. After all, I loved that one so much I'm sure the others would be delicious as well, much like Nakd bars. That's when I tried the Ginger & Cashew one. Oh dear. Not for me whatsoever. It tasted vile, after one bite I was done and I threw it away. It was so nutty but with a really strange nut flavour, as I love Nuts usually. I'm sure this is just personal taste though, as I prefer things to be a lot sweeter. Although this has put me off trying any of the other flavours.
It has been over a year though and since then she has released a Blueberry & Almond Bar, so I might just have to give that one a try!
Moving onto the new Oat Bars. When I saw they were being released I thought that this would be a good replacement to a Nutri-grain bar or Granola bar that I used to have a lot. Also, I have so many Nakd bars when I am at work, it's nice to have something new and break it up a bit! Learning from my mistake I bought the Cacao & Almond Bar pack of 3 from Tesco. Again they were on offer, so that was a nice addition! They are delicious as well, melty and chewy at the same time. They remind me of flapjack with a twist of chewy granola. A great bar to take with you whenever you need a quick snack.
I am yet to find the other two flavours, though I will actually try them when I do. I want to ensure my tastebuds don't get too comfortable, or resort back to being fussy plus Ella had a sweet tooth before she made the change so I'm sure I can do it too!
Next is the Granola. I am not an avid fan of Coconut, so before you judge me just know that. I was back in Southampton for a week, without cereal apart from the cardboard that I found in Morrisons. So I popped to the local Waitrose and found the Deliciously Ella Original Granola (again on offer - I wonder if she knows how many offers they put on her food!). I decided that with it being the most interesting product there that I should try it. Plus it sort of reminded me of the Bran Flakes with Raisins I used to have, where I used to pick out the Flakes and just eat the Raisins.
I tried it with some creamy Cashew milk and yes, I picked out the bits of Coconut this time. I just don't like the taste or texture of Coconut unless it has been drastically changed to resemble Bacon like in Offbeet. Anyway, the Granola is a little tough at first yet when softened by the milk it is pretty yummy with the Raisins being the star of the show again! I quite happily munched away at this, I'm sure it would be great with some Yoghurt and fruit as well. However, I am a simple breakfast kind of girl and in a bowl with some milk does the trick perfectly!
8/10
Beware the packaging on the Energy Balls:
Now as it isn't cooked, I won't comment on that. However one thing I will comment on is the packaging on the Energy Balls. Unfortunately, when I ordered about 20 from Ocado (due to the offer) about 10 of them were open. The packages are only paper, which I take my hat off to Ella for because of the environmental point, however to discover almost half of the ones I ordered were going to have to be thrown away was disheartening. I haven't done a bulk order like that since because of this problem. I did get some money back and compensation from Ocado but as I said to them at the time, that doesn't help me as the reason I bought them was for the product themselves at their discounted rate. Not for me to just have my money back and have to buy them at double the price somewhere else.
Just a word of caution to you all on that point.
I look forward to seeing more from Ella and I hope she is able to bring out perhaps some ready meals in the form of frozen prepared vegetables. As I said in my blog on Buddha Bowls, the ones I've had from The Mae Deli were out of this world with flavour. Yet I have no idea what is in them and if I did I probably wouldn't have the patience/money to make them!
Saying that, I am going to try my best in the next few weeks to try out some of the simpler recipes from her books and app. If not for the fact they are delicious, but also for something new to my week of food. I am doing better at more variety during my week, I just need some more help and I'm sure her recipes are a great place to reference!
Thanks Ella, I'm glad you found this lifestyle to help you as it helps so many others now as well!
Happy #Veganuary Day 23!
*Some pictures borrowed from Deliciously Ella website