Wednesday 15 December 2010

Ella's Kitchen review

Wandering about on BMB the other day i happened across a post from  Paul (representing Ella's Kitchen) looking for Mummy blogger volunteers to review some of their products. Remembering how impressed i was with their range when Chickin was weaning i jumped at the chance!
 I was very impressed at how speedily my emails were replied to, and soon we had a box of goodies arrive at our door. As soon as the box was opened Chickin squealed in delight - she had spotted the smoothie fruits! Wrestling her off before she could scoff the lot, i arranged both her and the food tastefully in the corner....
(sorry about the quality of the pics, i tried fixing them but then they wouldnt upload *sob*)

The box contained four smoothie fruits - one each of the green, purple, red and yellow, two snack packs - the red chewy one and the green chompy one, and four toddler meal pouches - tomato pasta, salmon risotto, cottage pie and Caribbean chicken. What a generous bounty!


First go - The green 'Chompy one' snack pack.
This bright green pyramid shaped package contains 5 smaller pyramids each filled with a mixture of raisins, chopped apricots and dates, and dried apple and banana. There is also a little sprinkle of rice flour, i think that is to stop it all sticking together. All the ingredients are certified organic and have absolutely nothing added to them.


Id say they went down pretty well...
It didnt take them long to get chomping! Though Chickin (centre) needed help to open hers.


Dreamer (10) liked the 'cool' packaging. He said he would like to see it in his lunchbox or it could replace his after school banana. His only complaint was that the apricot pieces were 'a bit hard'. It soon all disappeared though!
Princess (5) said that it was 'yummy, well except from the wrapper', and she hoped we would 'actually buy some for real for after school'. Spying big bro and his charming mouth-filling antics, her pack soon went bottoms up...
Chicken (2) ate hers happily too, once i opened the packet for her. She declared it to be 'dislishum' (meaning delicious, her current word for food which passes muster) and tipped the lot in too! Im still finding little raisins in the bed - she obviously forgot her mouth isnt quite as large as her brothers and sisters is!


All in all id say it was a resounding success, all three of the testers liked the food and finished their pack (Manic was out at his school play, he'll be joining the fun for the next item we try out). Dreamer and Princess both asked for them to be included in lunches or to be used at snack time.


As a Mum im impressed by Ella's Kitchens organic certification. I love the back story of Ella's father looking out healthy yet tasty alternatives to the high sugar, processed and generally-mucked-about-with snack items aimed at children. Id be happy to use them myself and also to recommend them to other parents too.


I was all set to launch into a complaint about 'pricing for organic vs non-organic' and how 'many of the families i know feel priced out of feeding their children organic foods', but i stopped, and went to check the prices of the snack packs at the three large super-shops which stock them. I was pleasantly surprised! Ocado and Waitrose quote £1.99 per pack (of 5 snacks) which i would say is the upper limit for what you get, but Asda quote them at only £1.50 - a price i find fairer and far more appealing!


Whether you are planning to buy an Ella's kitchen product or not, id suggest taking a wander along to their website http://www.ellaskitchen.co.uk/ which is full of information and has a game, a competition, advice on weaning, free recipes, info on how to recycle their pouches and a fair bit more.



Now..... the all important score.....Im going to give my very first review product..... 10 out of 10! This product is, in my opinion, a fantastic choice representing good value for money, attractive packaging and taste-tester thumbs up!
Go Ella's Kitchen! 

Next review to come - The smoothie fruits.



3 comments:

  1. I've heard many good things about Ella's kitchen. However, I wondered whether you've thought about baby-led weaning for astroboy? We've done it with Phoebe and really enjoyed it - basically we've given her finger foods from 6 months, and whatever (within reason i.e. low salt, no honey etc) she can pick up and put in her mouth she can eat. It's pretty relaxed and stress-free and not too messy.

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  2. Pelvis, Interrupted22 December 2010 at 01:17

    Funnily enough Sarah, we've been talking about just that recently especially as Astro is starting to notice us eating. He's still far too young to even consider weaning but i do like to plan ahead!
    Thankyou x :D

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  3. I did this review too and I agree they are fab.
    Nice to see someone with nearly as many kids as me ;)
    Qwerty Mum xx

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