Little Dish...NO Thank you!

[katjuska]

What prompted me to write this post is my daughter who almost vomited after trying Little Dish risotto! This company?s logo is:

Prepared by hand our tasty little dishes are made just as you would cook them at home.

My daughter loves risotto and so do I. I?ve tried Little dish just so that I know what my alternatives are when it happens that we don?t have home cooked meal ? though our freezer is always full. I couldn?t believe my daughters reactions. She made face like I am feeding her sour milk and even started bringing food up her stomach in order to vomit it out - so bad it was.

I tried it and it is in fact bad! They are right when they say nothing added but natural food but unfortunately ingredients that they use are of very poor quality. For many people who never had home grown food that can never become an issue simply because they can?t taste a difference. My husband is one of those. To make a point I cooked a simple risotto with just water, chicken, wholegrain rice and peas. Nothing else added and my daughter ate full cup no complains.
So what?s wrong with little dish? Well, it goes like this. Do you know Waitrose supermarkets? They are a perfect example of bad and good quality food. I dare you to try an experiment. Cook home made chicken stock. Do that by boiling 4 main ingredients. Chicken, onion, carrot and tomato. Only in one pot you put Waitrose essential veggies and into the other pot put organic or perfectly ripe range veggies and free range or organic chicken. Boil gently on minimum heat for 1 and a half hour. Add salt as well in both pots. End result might surprise you!

The lower the quality of ingredients, the lower is quality of food! Little dishes are tasteless and quit frankly disgusting. Your children deserve better!

Are little dishes made by Waitrose then? I've never heard of them...

You can buy them in Sainbos. Tried it a couple of times - barrrrddd. Just proved to me spending a few minutes preparing payes off.

Aren't they quite expensive too? I've seen them, but never bought them as I remember thinking they were a rip off quite expensive!

My DCs like the spaghetti bolognese one!

The LD fish pie one looks like someone's trod in it. My DCs like the tesco mickey mouse ones.

My DD liks the chicken korma one. Same as ready meals for adults really, ok once in a while.

You're missing the point which is that most people can't begin to afford your experiment - organic chickens cost a lot of money. Have no idea re Little Dish but I think you're being a tad naive.

Actually, I find Waitrose essentials ok, tbh the "essentials" branding is a bit odd because it's been slapped all over what was just Waitrose own brand food/drink - it's never been (AFAIK but correct me if wrong) their equivilant (sic?) of tesco's value or sainsbos basic.

I would agree, yes, that free range or organic meat is better - taste and animal welfare-wise. But Little Dish don't claim to be organic. My DD tried a couple when we were on holiday and they were ok - alright, not as good as homemade, but not that terrible.

And call me a pedant, but don't you make rissotto with arborio rice? I do anyhoos, wholegrain gives a completely different result

My son won't eat Little Dish. He prefers Marks & Spencer. :o

Yes -- with wholegrain rice it's just "rice and peas". Risotto needs to be arborio or that-other-one-I-can-never-remember-the-name-of.

Hardly any mass marketed product is prepared by hand - its gone through machine after machine in a big factory. The pictures on packaging convince people that a lovely plump lady has handmade these products in a cottage industry - doesnt happen.

I totally agree, our children need the odd quality tasty instant meal and paying an additional amount for the odd occassion isnt that hard. Same as Annabel Karmel those too are well below par against my own cooking. I dont think the salt content is managed that well either so perhaps a taste the difference meal portioned out would be a better alternative.

I used to keep meals back from the night before for my little ones or freeze meals. Both my boys love tasty food and we have never had frozen nuggets and chips or other orange foods.

Buying quality ingredients pay off, what you put in you get out. Eggs for instance - feed good food you get excellent eggs, crap god knows what you get substandard feeds just produce that in eggs. You can get this from factories either you have to source ingedients from farm gate but then mass food producers cant do this they have to buy eggs from tankers full of broken eggs or so called free range. You can buy farm gate eggs cheap as chips so I see no excuse from relying on supermarkets sub standard. You can feed your children excellent ingredients on little money it just takes effort, searching and using ingedients wisely - post war children were fed extremely well on rations.

polly and MrsJ I agree.

There is no such thing as a brown rice risotto.

Risotto is made from Arborio, Carnaroli, or Bomba rice (I'm sure there are other varieties).

You can no more have a brown rice risotto than you can a vegetarian chilli con carne.

I have never come across wholegrain arborio rice.

Oh get a grip.

Its a ready meal, they always taste minging.

Its not going to be made with top notch ingredients.

The founder of Little Dish was interviewed on Sky Business News this morning. She’s American and saying how business during lockdown was going well.
She kept emphasising how her brand was same as freshly cooked meals in our own kitchen.
My younger kids do not like MIXED foods. They prefer veg separate, fruits separate, cheese separate, potatoes separate, meats separate, etc.
Just not impressed. The stuff is mixed and poor quality and I would challenge the freshness angle.
For my 4 kids, it takes me 10 minutes to cook a 4 ingredient lunch with high quality FRESH ingredients at a max price of £4 and they clear their plates.
One time I tried them on Little Dish, they spat it out and asked for fruit or a jam sandwich instead.
Nature provides her own Little Dishes for our wee ones, in their own packaging: Bananas, Oranges, Berry fruits, etc.

Bit of a zombie thread! Haha, bet the OPs daghter is at high school now and scoffing down Macdonalds and jaffa cakes.

@Serin

Bit of a zombie thread! Haha, bet the OPs daghter is at high school now and scoffing down Macdonalds and jaffa cakes.

and secret kfc school Lunches