Putting Dinner on the Table With McCains – a Review

My oldest daughter (E) goes to tutoring three days a week.  Her lessons fall just before supper and I have to admit I have been finding it hectic trying to put a decent meal on the table.  It gets difficult because E doesn’t like her food to get mixed up which means all the easy options like crock pots or casseroles are out. 

So what’s a busy mom to do?  Well, McCain Foods (Canada) is introducing McCain® Harvest Splendour™ Medleys, a new side dish combining 100 per cent real potatoes and other wholesome vegetables together, made in only 12 minutes.  No peeling, cutting, chopping or boiling required. You gotta love that so of course, I agreed to try it out.  I had no problems at all finding all four flavours in the freezer section of my local grocery store (Safeway). 

Dinner night #1, we tried the Potato and Broccoli Medley.
“Specially seasoned potatoes, crisp broccoli, red peppers and red onions with seasonings such as roasted garlic, parmesan cheese and sea salt.” 

I was glad to note that the seasoning was in a separate pouch and so I could adjust the amount of seasoning to my family’s taste.  I was also pleased to see that McCain® Harvest Splendour™ Medleys are trans fat-free, low in fat and have no artificial colours or flavours.


That night I chose to bake the potatoes in the oven and loved that I could just pop it in, stir it once or twice and leave it to bake for 25 minutes.  I actually used the full seasoning pouch and found it to be the perfect amount.  The potatoes cooked wonderfully, were so soft in the middle and the vegetables were not at all watery.  I won’t go so far as to say my picky eater loved it.  She didn’t, even with picking out the potatoes separately for her but then I didn’t expect her to. She’s anti-potatoes at the moment. The other two enjoyed it just fine and my husband practically devoured the rest of the pan.


Dinner night #2, we tried the Potato and Carrot Medley. 
“Specially selected potatoes, carrots, red peppers and red onions with seasons such as roasted garlic, black pepper, parsley, nutmeg and sea salt.”


This night I opted to cook the potatoes on the stove stop.  I did add a little extra oil than the recipe called for but my non-stick pan doesn’t really work that great so I wasn’t taking any chances.  The entire meal was cooked in about 10 minutes and turned out just as great as when I made in the oven.  The only catch was I dumped the entire seasoning packet on this one and it ended up being a little too spicy.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  Pepper is one of the ingredients. Duh.  So the kids didn’t care for it that much but hubs and I still enjoyed it.  

On a busy night, I like being able to just throw something in the oven and not have to fuss with it at all.  That time was then spent on cooking the meat, setting the table and all those little things you need to get done.  I will definitely buy the Medleys again and want to try their Three Potato Medley and the Yukon Gold Potato and Mushroom Medley.  Both sound delicious. 

To receive a $1.00 off coupon to try the new McCain® Harvest Splendour™ Medleys visit:www.facebook.com/mccaincanada. Limited quantity of coupons available. While supplies last. For more information on the productvisit: www.harvestsplendour.ca.

How do you get dinner on the table on those busy nights?
Zeemaid


*disclosure I received coupons from McCain so I could try the Medleys out.  The opinions herein as always are my own and reflect my true experience with the product*