Microwavable rice is a Godsend when you have hungry kids or you're in a rush. The texture is often not as good as "real" boiled rice but for convenience, you just can't beat it. Tastewise, it's always packed with flavour too because it often comes with herbs and spices or other ingredients like mushrooms or citrus juices added. Tilda do a large range of different types and flavours of microwavable rice which we reviewed a while back (click through to read that review) and gave it 5/5. I therefore jumped at the chance when they offered to send us some of their new kids' pouches of microwavable rice to review. The Madhouse Mini-testers love rice and frequently eat pouches of normal microwavable rice so I was sure it would be a hit.
The pouches are smaller than the regular pouches, containing 125g so they're half the size, and they have very cute elephant designs on the packaging. Each pouch also counts as one of your 5 a day which is great news.
This is the contents of one pouch so it is a generous serving for one or a small serving for two (or three). You can keep any leftover in the pouch and reheat it in the microwave the next day, if necessary. I gave the Madhouse Mini-Testers the choice and the first one that they wanted to try was Cheese & Tomato rice in the pink pouch. Tastewise, it reminded me slightly of pizza with a tangy cheese flavour so I was surprised when the kids weren't overly keen.
We next tried the purple sachet - Mild & Sweet Curry Rice - which is steamed Basmati with green beans, sweet potatoes and apricots. Although not usually keen on curry, they did like the sweetness of the apricots and ate most of it.
The green pouch - Sweet Vegetable & Wholegrain Rice - contains steamed basmati with sweetcorn, sweet potato and carrots and was the Madhouse Mini-testers' favourite, probably because they love sweetcorn so much.
And finally the yellow pouch - Sunshine Vegetable Rice - is steamed basmati with butternut squash, sweetcorn & carrots. This got a fairly warm reception too.
Overall though, the Madhouse Mini-testers said that they prefer "grown up" rice pouches. I think this is because of the texture - the kids' rice is a bit too soft and squidgy, more like the rice you find in toddler meals. While this would be ideal for toddlers just branching out into "real" food, the Madhouse Mini-Testers found that it wasn't really to their taste. I do love the fact that it counts as one of their five-a-day with all the veggies included though, so I may try these again with a stew or other saucy meat dish that would soak into the rice.
Pricewise, it works out more expensive than the normal-sized pouches, but they do have added vegetables thrown in so they help meet your kids' 5-a-day target.
star rating : 4/5
RRP : £1.15 for 125g
for more information : http://www.tilda.com/kids
Disclosure : We received some Tilda Kids pouches in order to write an honest review.
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These sound great for my boy (18 months) sound tasty and healthy, will def give them a go
ReplyDelete@Smudger_26
These look great, will have to give them a try!
ReplyDeleteI bought one of the curry ones for me on impulse on day when I was hungry. Never mind the kids, I loved it.
ReplyDelete@mumoffunkids
Not sure I understand the concept of "kids" rice... Rice is rice in my opinion, no need for "kids" rice, it seems it's only for marketing purpose!
ReplyDelete