I was really excited when I was asked to product test Tilda Kids rice range with its new Tilli the elephant character and write a review for my blog. I like to cook from scratch, but finding the time with three small kids is near impossible. I am also stuck in a rut with their dinners. They know what they like, so I stick to that rather than spending hours preparing something that big man refuses to eat just because of the look of it and middle man chucks on the floor. To be honest if you are what you eat, big man would be a cream cheese and cucumber bagel and middle man a giant blueberry.

The other great thing is they gave me some recipe ideas. I know that if you get kids into preparing their food they are more likely to try it and have a more varied diet, but other than pizzas and cakes I must admit I havent been the best at letting them have a go. Again if it looks fun to them they are more likely to try it - I'm guilty of just serving it up as it is. So, all inspired I ordered the food to try out the "Beans means boats" and "Funny face frittatas."


Making the boats with Joshua was fun. I didn't use BBQ chicken or BBQ beans as that would have been one step too far for his little bland taste buds - one step at a time. For my more flavoursome taste buds I am pretty sure it would have tasted better. However, Josh mixed everything up - filled the taco boats (these taco trays are great - so much easier than the shells to eat!) and he even attempted to make the cucumber sails. But better than the fun he had making them was that he ate not one but two of them! For a skinny child who regularly turns down anything he is unfamiliar with, this was a breakthrough!



Next up was funny face frittata's. The recipe says it makes 24 but unless I have an unusually large muffin tray, it doesn't. We made 11. Big man helped weigh out the ingredients, chopped (anyone who has a pampered chef food chopper tucked away in a cupboard, get it out and get your kids chopping  - it is great!) greased the tins and dolloped the mixture in.


And here is my feeble attempt of making the finished result into a face.



So what can I tell you about Tilda Kids rice? Firstly they come in four flavours: Cheese and Tomato, Sunshine Vegetable, Sweet Vegetable and Wholegrain and Mild and Sweet Curry.The packet size (125g) is perfect for two preschoolers to have as an  accompaniment  to a meal. This is what I would buy them for. They contain 1 of their 5 a day, some as puree (great for fussy eaters) and some as small pieces of vegetable. It can be cooked in the microwave in 40 seconds, again a great bonus for busy mums. If you fancy the recipes, give them a go. They taste nice, my kids liked them, but they are a bit like the Mockolate episode in Friends (except the rice tastes nice and there is definately no cat hair in there!) What I mean is you probably wouldn't even know that the frittatas had rice in, and it tastes nice enough that you don't need to use it as an ingredient just use it straight from the pouch. Having said that it was lovely to get my big man cooking and even better to getting him excited about eating. No word of a lie, just after finishing his frittatas he has said:

"Mummy can we get some more new foods. That's delicious. They are really nice."


Visit tilda.com/kids to meet Tilli and friends and learn more

We were given the tilda kids pouches for the purpose of this review - but the opinions are all mine.