BeechNut Let's Grow! Tummy Trays: take 2

Alright apparently it's the soft hearted mom in me that sucked up my hard lined 'one chance only' code that once ruled my world, but I caved in and I decided to give the BeechNut Let's Grow! toddler meal option one more chance. I'm such a sucker.

Confession: OK FINE drag it out of me. I had nothing in the fridge the other night and I was way too tired to cook anything. So during my travels to go grab take-out [note to trainer: yes it was a healthy choice...or as healthy as I could find] I stopped in at Shopper's Drug Mart and grabbed the Mac & Cheese Tummy Tray.

And because the mission of my 1 year old daughter is to constantly contradict me and prove me wrong, it really should not have surprised me in the least that she absolutely loved the 30-second mac & cheese zapped meal in the microwave oven.

Now grant it, it really hard to screw up mac & cheese but I'll give props where props are due. The fact that my daughter devoured the entire tray with a certain sense of gusto I was impressed. And because I have a policy that I have to try everything that I give my kids, I did the mommy duty and took a bite. And I must say that it was fairly tasty...it actually had some good flavouring going on and the noodles were cooked perfectly that it makes for an easy chewing and swallowing process for toddlers.

Now let's not kid ourselves here, ______ (insert name of five star restaurant here) won't be serving it on their menu anytime soon, but in those desperate "there is nothing, I don't want to make nuthin' moments' we all face as we stare blankly into the fridge wishing we had access to a private chef, this is one food option that totally works in a pinch.

So hats off to you BeechNut on your Mac & Cheese Tummy Tray. I have four stacked away in the pantry for emergency 'mommy is having a cooking meltdown' purposes.

So to review:

The BeechNut Let's Grow! Tomato Tummy Tray - total why bother situation due to the suckage of the product

The BeechNut Let's Grow! Mac & Cheese Tummy Tray - two thumbs up from the picky- foodie-in-the-making-1-year-old and one 'has an apparent soft spot for BeechNut' mommy.

Now off to the kitchen to make lunch...and maybe if I click my heels three times before I open the fridge, the meal fairy will have left something totally fabulous that I just have to reheat....yeah I know, wishful thinking.

Beech Nut Tummy Trays...a review

Since my daughter Isabella started on table food I haven't bought or been tempted to buy anything prepackaged but I admit I got sucked into the Beech Nut No Junk Promise! marketing shtick and last week I picked up a Tomato Risotto Let's Grow! Tummy Trays to try out on my daughter Isabella. I was curious what can I say? And the cover made the meal look so yummy. [another reason never to go food shopping while hungry]

I mean they make it sound so exciting...

"Stylish trays make is easy to serve your little ones - even the picky eaters! These meals have lots of vegetables in them and have less than 50% of the sodium most other toddler meals. Let’s Grow! Tummy Trays come in 6 delicious flavours."

Note: Yeah sometimes this mommy is super lazy and if a 30sec zap in the microwave will sustain a little 14 month old girl for one meal from time to time...I'm all up for it....

Yeah about that.

I'm no expert Foodie/food critic/food snob by any stretch of the imagination [celery and peanut butter has been my go-to meal staple for years] BUT...

Perhaps the fine folks at Beech Nut should have consulted a chef with some culinary experience or even a short order cook at some random local dive diner down the street from their headquarters to see if what they were marketing as 'risotto' was actually in fact risotto. [just saying]

1. No Italian I know would ever put that much sauce in a risotto...it was like drinking a can of thick tomato juice...seriously there was way too much for the pasta to sauce ratio...it was like a soup tomato disaster.

2. Risotto uses Arborio rice. Not sure what fake rice shaped pasta they are trying to pass off as Arborio rice but because it is so evidently not Arborio rice, then your end product is therefore in fact not risotto...

3. And given comment # 1 & # 2...one can only imagine how it tasted...yeah that bad. After two bites Isabella spit it all out and threw the stylish tray on the floor. So I was left with a dirty red floor and a still hungry Isabella.

So today I ended making my own homemade, would make my Mamma proud, vegetable risotto...and both my kids loved it and devoured it. So well deserved **high five** to me.

Now I'm the first one to admit that there are days where I am all for convenience because sometimes thinking about what to cook for a can-be-fussy-all-I-want-is-Cheerios-and-fish crackers 14 month old is the last thing you want to do but this toddler food line is one I'll be passing on.

But totally serves me right. My mom always told me to stick to making it from scratch. I hate it when she's right. That and I could never stomach the Nonna styled guilt trip she would lay on me if she ever found out I was feeding her precious Isabella, risotto from a green tray that you pluck in the microwave. Let the hand waving and loud Italian talking begin.

So I had my 'life with kids' lesson for the week...sometimes easy isn't always good when it comes to the convenience of kiddie food.

***now to be fair to the people at Beech Nut, I haven't purchased the other Tummy Trays in this toddler food line but I'm a one shot deal kind of girl but send me some free samples and I'd be happy to try the rest.***