Week 3 of our supermarket challenge didn't quite work as planned. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was because we changed the day - Wednesdays can be funny days, you never can tell with a Wednesday, the weekend is still a long way away and we aren't thinking about weekend food or relaxing.
Mid-week is also the day before the special offers change in a lot of stores.
Our list was a bit different this week too because it contained a lot of the Veganuary specials, we wanted to see if they had been kept on.
I wasn't sure if they had stocked them in Ireland at all because I stick to buying fruit, veg, carbs with some treats along the way as a rule. Even though, our shops weren’t a success in terms of getting the products, they were interesting shops as both @yesdaveitsvegan and I @louisamoss had very different experiences.
Full disclosure, I love Lidl. I love Lidl because it's close-by. I love Lidl because they have good specials on fruit and veg that changeover every week, they have coconut stick ice-creams that are delicious and healthy, they have competitively- priced, quality dates and nuts. They have Fairtrade coffee and chocolate. I love Lidl because when I harass their customer service team they reply pronto and are generally helpful even if I'm being stroppy - yeah, it happens sometimes, I know it's hard to believe!
*edited to add, another reason I love Lidl is because it was the first supermarket in Ireland to sell competitively priced tinned kidney beans way back in the early 2000s. I used to drive to their Mullingar store to stock up once a month. Then Tesco started selling them too. But thanks for that Lidl!*
So here is the list that we had this week.
Almond
Milk - I managed to buy this and noticed that they had a new barista milk range
that I will go back for to try. I don't usually buy Almond Milk cos environment,
but I used this in the cauliflower soup I made yesterday, and it was
great. It cost €1.66 in Dublin.
I wasn't
sure what a Round Lettuce was. I Googled it and it seemed to be an
Iceberg lettuce, so that's what I bought. I should have rung my mum or
checked with Karen because it's what we call here 'Butterhead Lettuce'. Totally
lost in translation. Iceberg lettuce was 89cents.
Vegan
sausage rolls from the fridge section. They weren't available in either of the
stores but what I noticed when I went to look for them was that the vegan
section had been arranged nicely and there were loads of vegan burgers and
sausages and vegan meats. I was really impressed. There were quite a lot
of prepared salads too and the guacamole was marked vegan. Another win I
thought. Apparently, the UK store was not as well laid out in this
regard. Look at Ireland, Team UK!
I looked
for a vegan ploughman's sandwich and couldn't find any sandwiches that were
suitable for vegans. There was one egg sandwich that might have been okay
for vegetarians. But poor selection really unless you like eating dead
chickens. It felt weird for me even looking through the sandwich
boxes. No sandwiches available for Karen either in Essex.
*do other
vegans get sad walking round supermarkets and seeing dead animal body parts in
fridges being sold for as food? *
Next on
the list was vegan coleslaw, I have bought this before to try it, but I make my
own coleslaw usually so it's not a regular on my shopping list. This
wasn't available in either store, despite the rest of the excellent salad range
in Lidl Dublin.
Tawny
Tomatoes - I got them in Dublin, Karen couldn't get them in Essex. They
cost €2.19 for 250g.
Neither
of us managed to get the vegan berry ice-cream, sadly.
Cherries
- the only item we both managed to buy and what a difference in price. Sorry,
there's no pic. I've already eaten them! Delicious but they would
have tasted nicer if they were 99p instead of €2.79.
However,
the cherries were on offer in the UK, and they weren't in Ireland. So,
you know, maybe they wouldn't normally be that much more expensive here.
Lidl
Ireland had different offers and they were good offers, so I bought the lot and
wish I'd bought more.
1kg
rooster potatoes, celeriac, 250g baby plum tomatoes, 6 golden delicious apples,
bag of pears, organic beetroot all for 49cents each. I used 4 packets of
the tomatoes for the soup I have made today, and they have cooked beautifully,
soup is deep red and gorgeous tasting. Please bring these back on special
Lidl!
Lidl also
had fresh herbs on offer - 59 cents instead of 99, so I stocked up on
them. I also had some Lidl vouchers to use from their app so got some
blueberries for €1.
Both
Karen and I both bought the new Lidl vegan friendly beauty products.
These deserve a whole post of their own. Thanks, Lidl Ireland, for
confirming that all their own brand products are cruelty free. We love
this! I like that the products are marked 'Vegan Friendly' as opposed to
'Vegan'. I think it demonstrates an understanding of the vegan
philosophy. Well done Lidl.
@yesdaveitsvegan and @louisamoss will be back with a different shopping list to Lidl next week so we can do a proper price compare.
If you spot any good offers, please let me know!
Here's the link to our IGTV chat about the shop
Here's the link to our instagram pages - give us a follow!
Join us for out IGTV Live next Thursday! Look out for the time on our IGs. See ya then!
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