Planning a party can be a very stressful time, I should know I've had plenty of them for both myself and Spud. Even children's parties can be a real stressful event so to make things as easy as possible we have to try and help ourselves. Once the venue has been sorted and invitations have been sent, its time to arrange the rest. Seeing as this was for Unique Young Mum's Halloween feature party & only the family will be attending including six children I decided to have the party at my Dad's house. The date was planned for Sunday the 27th as that was the only date everyone was free on and the invites were sent.
The decorations didn't stress me out, nor did the venue, the invites or the dress code. It was the food that gets me worried the most, it takes a long time purchase, then to prepare and then to cook, bake or make. That was until of course The Co-Operative come to my rescue! The Co-Operative do a great range of frozen and chilled party food that takes minimum time to cook and prepare and the range is reasonably priced too. Read on to view what I purchased for our Halloween party.
I was quite surprised if I am honest to find this box sat amongst the party food, you always perceive takeaway style food at takeaway prices. For just £2 inside this 12 piece frozen Oriental selection box you get four prawn toast pieces, four vegetable parcels and four sweet and sour chicken wontons (Spud's favourite!). These minuate favourites had various cooking times and are great for calorie watching adults! At just 45 calories each per prawn toast, 40 calories for the vegetable parcels and 45 calories for the sweet and sour wontons.
Spring rolls, you cant go wrong with them apparently but for me they are personally something I don't like. However I know the majority of my family like them so I picked up one packet of 10 priced at just £1. Each crisp filo pastry spring roll is packed full of vegetables, soy sauce, garlic and spices. They are suitable for vegetarians and are just 35 calories per roll.
I decided to buy two boxes of these 10 pack torpedo king prawns for £1 a box as prawns always tend to go down well within my family and Spud loves them. The farmed Thai king prawns are covered in a crispy breadcrumb. The prawn is reasonably sourced and are just 25 calories each. This is another party product that went extremely quick and made me resent not buying another box!
Indian is my favourite takeaway and one that I could eat every day. My whole family are keen Indian foodie fans so I decided to get two boxes of these 12 piece Indian selection boxes at £2 each. In each box you get four onion bhajis, four vegetable pakoras and four vegetable samosas. The samosas were my personal favourite and for once I think I done right in getting two boxes as there were some left during the end of the party for people to pick at.
The picture above contains a variety of the pieces already mentioned.
These sausage rolls are another impressive buy with the packet of approx 50 cocktail sausage rolls for just £1. The pastry filled rolls are filled with seasoned pork sausage meat and went down well with the whole family.
The children preferred these to the Oriental and Indian selections so I am glad there was plenty in the pack to go around. They are 75 calories for four sausage rolls (on a approx weight of 56g).
The last item we got from the Co-Operative party food range was these packets of 10 mini Belgian chocolate eclairs priced at £1 a box. They are made of choux pastry with a cream filling and a Belgian milk chocolate ganache topping. These actually lasted longer than I think thanks to the adults and kiddies being filled up from all the savoury treats, they did however all get eaten once the peckish feeling started to come back! They are suitable for vegetarians and are are 45 calories per eclair.
Sadly that was the only party food I could see in my local store but it is a small store and you could see where there was space for some items so they had run out. Apart from the products I have mentioned in this post above, The Co-Operative also sell a number of other frozen party food items which include
* Chicken Samosas
* Duck Mini Spring Rolls
* Sticky Chicken Skewers
* Tempura Torpedo Prawns
* Breaded Poppin Prawns
* Breaded Chicken Goujons
* Mini Melt in the Middle Brownie Puddings
* Duck Mini Spring Rolls
* Sticky Chicken Skewers
* Tempura Torpedo Prawns
* Breaded Poppin Prawns
* Breaded Chicken Goujons
* Mini Melt in the Middle Brownie Puddings
These gourjons are not part of the Co-Operative party food range but sadly my nearest store only stocked a small amount of the party range The Co-Operative sell so I decided to use the remainder of the voucher on these southern fried and and breaded British chicken gourjons.
They took just 12 minutes to cook and again they are products that went extremely quickly. In fact, at the time of writing this post, I wish I had a plate of the southern fried ones sat next to me, they were my favourite savoury items from The Co-Operative! They cost £3.50 for both packets.
I purchased three packets of these frozen cheese & tomato baguettes priced at just £1 each. They contain two baguettes in each box which are topped with tomato sauce, Cheddar, Edam and Gouda cheese and they take just 15 minutes to cook. They are suitable for vegetarians and are 270 calories per baguette.
For the party I decided to cut them in halves so we had 12 mini baguettes between the 18 of us (six children included) they went extremely quickly and I soon realised that I should of brought more when I went to go and get one to try and they was gone! For £1 you wouldn't expect the best, but surprisingly every one agreed they was tasty and full of flavour.
No party food selection would be complete without some crisp/potato products and luckily for me, The Co-Operative sell a variety of 100g bags which cost just £1.20 for two! I picked up a packet of streaky bacon flavoured snacks, salt and vinegar sticks, onion rings and cheese puffs.
They are suitable for vegetarians with the calorie intake varying from each packet.
I picked up two packets of my favourite cheese in the world, Cathedral City to make the cheese sandwiches and cheese & pineapple sticks!
And lastly, no Halloween party would be complete without a pumpkin or two! After all, it is classed as food!
I picked up two giant pumpkins which were on offer at for two for £5! We carved one for the party and saved the other one for October 31st, official Halloween night!
The Co-Operative also sell a small range of Halloween costumes, accessories, decorations and other Halloween related items.
There is no need to get stressed over parties any more, for The Co-Operative can save us the hassle of shopping around for various chilled and frozen products as they stock it all. The prices are extremely well priced and taste delicious for the price too!
To find out more about The-Co-Operative and to find out where your nearest store is, check out the official website here.
** I received a £20 voucher for the purpose of this post to spend on party food items at my nearest Co-Operative store. I paid for the outstanding balance myself. **
