Iceland Salmon Parcels

These Iceland's own Salmon Parcels were picked up from the shop on the recommendation of my husband, who loves them. I'd not had them before, and wasn't sure what to expect. The box contains two salmon parcels: "Salmon fillet pieces in a dill sauce wrapped in a puff pastry." They're made in Denmark.

Here's what one looks like out of the box. There's about half as much dried dill on the frozen parcels as there is on the ones in the picture on the box. Other than that, they look like I expected. They cook for 20 to 25 minutes in a pre-heated oven.

Fresh out of the oven, and nicely browned around the edges. This one actually looks better than the picture on the box, to be fair. Still could use a more of the dried dill seasoning in my opinion.

Sliced open for a cross-section view. The dill sauce is actually quite thick, so it doesn't ooze out quite like the sauce on the box. I thought they might skimp on the sauce because it's hidden inside the pastry, but they haven't. Which is good, because the sauce is delicious. I checked with my husband, and he confirms that his pastry also had a generous amount of sauce.

However, the salmon fillet themselves were not exactly what I would call fillets, they were more like salmon MDF. They weren't as tender as a real salmon fillet would have been, they were denser. There was quite a bit of salmon packed into the little hunk of salmon MDF and it was filling, but a true fillet would have been better. Considering the price on these though, it was a good value on a pricier fish.

SCORE:

Appearance: 8/10, they actually look much better cooked than the photo on the box. Sometimes I think Iceland needs to hire a new photographer, they have a knack for making things look bland.

Taste: 7/10 from me, I thought these were good in spite of the salmon 'fillet'. DH marks them 8/10.

Value: 9/10

Nutrition: 6/10, but keep in mind that these go well with a side of veg in a healthy dinner. On their own, however, I have to give 6/10 marks for nutrition because the sauce is quite fatty, containing (among other things) milk, full fat soft cheese, cheddar cheese, maize starch, and margarine. Did I mention that the sauce is quite good? There's a reason for that. Each parcel is only 306 kcal, however, which surprised me after looking at the ingredient list.

Iceland's Extra Thin Meat Feast Pizza

Today we have the Extra Thin Meat Feast Pizza, one of Iceland's own-brand pizzas, and one of their latest additions to the line. It's described as "an extra thin & crispy pizza base topped with tomato sauce, Gouda cheese, salami, mushrooms, formed ham and pepperoni." I initially thought this was another one of their Italian stone-baked pizzas, but a quick read of the back of the box tells me that this pizza was assembled in Austria.

Here's what it looked like straight out of the package. I'm pleased to note that the amount of topping on the frozen pizza matches what one would expect from the picture on the box. Same amount of meat, and roughly the same amount of cheese and mushrooms. Time to put this bad boy in the oven for 12 to 14 minutes.

Ta-da! The lighting in my house is a bit crap at the moment (being that it is nighttime) but you get the idea. So, how did it taste? I'll be honest, I reviewed this pizza first because I wanted to eat it first—I've had this one before, and it's one of their best. The crust is crispy and has a nice flavour to it, the sauce and the Gouda go very well together, the mushrooms are the best 'frozen pizza topping' mushrooms that I've encountered, and the whole thing is actually seasoned quite nicely.

SCORE:

Appearance: 7/10

Taste: 9/10
Value: 10/10. This is one of the best tasting things you can put in your mouth for £1.50, especially in the arena of convenience foods.

Nutrition: 5/10—it could be deep dish, after all. It's got tomato sauce (that's a veg), mushrooms (another veg), and some dried herbs and rosemary that I think might count towards veg as well. There are 818 kcal in a whole pizza. I don't think I'm qualified to score things on a nutritional basis, but to be fair, I'm not qualified to score things on any basis. I'm a blogger.

TUNE IN TOMORROW FOR... SALMON PARCELS AND MORE!