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Recipe To Riches: Thank God The Baby Food Didn’t Win.

Recipe To Riches: Thank God The Baby Food Didn’t Win.
Carly Jacobs

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Sponsored by Woolworths.

As a freelance writer and blogger I sometimes have to do some weird stuff. For example I once worked for a Groupon-style company and one of my assignments was to review an Italian buffet style restaurant where I had to sample every single one of their 22 flavours of pizza. Vom. I also once had to review a spa treatment and I broke out in a giant rash from the products. That was a major fail.

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Recently I’ve been working with Woolworths on their Recipe to Riches series and it’s without a doubt my most favourite assignment to date. I was allocated two episodes of the series to review but the catch is that I don’t know what product is going to win, so I have to watch the show on a Tuesday night, get up early the next day, hot foot it down to Woolies, buy the winning product and have it reviewed on the blog by that afternoon. It’s actually quite a thrilling little task, watching the show, hoping that my favourite product wins and working to a super tight deadline. It makes me feel like an investigative reporter or a spy.

Every Tuesday Mr Smaggle makes me dinner so I can watch the show. If you haven’t watched it, you simply must. The premise is that a bunch of people compete to have their recipe selected for mass production and then once the show airs, the winning product is actually available in Woolworths for sale the very next day for a whole week. Then all the weekly winners who had their product developed go into a final competition to see who will get a partnership with Woolies.

This week was little treat week.

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The judges narrowed it down to three final items. Elizabeth’s Sugar Free Slice, Rose’s Gluten Free Biscuits and Rebecca’s Chicken and Quinoa Baby Food.

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I’ll admit I totally panicked when the baby food went through to the second round. I was making tentative plans in my head to go to a random preschool and borrow a toddler so I could review the baby food. Thankfully Caroline (who’s just rad) got all spooked about the reheating of chicken in baby food and the consequent harm it could cause to children so Rebecca’s Kiddie Q got bumped for Rosie’s Bakery biscuits. Mr Smaggle was muchly pleased because they’re gluten free and meringue. He loves to not feel sick and he loves pavlova so we were both happy with the final result.

I always get so excited going into Woolies the next day to buy the winning product. I get all fan girly about it.  I’m all ‘It’s Nobby’s design! He totally talked about how using the name Rosie creates a personal connection to the product and he’s RIGHT! I’M SO PERSONALLY CONNECTED RIGHT NOW!

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The biscuits themselves are excellent but that’s just a bonus on top of my delight that it’s a work requirement for me to eat biscuits for breakfast today. Winning at life. Also for those who are a touch health conscious the biscuits are just 58 calories each… but just a warning that it really adds up if you eat the whole box. Seriously these biscuits are AMAZING. Tre gourmet. You have to be quick though because they’re only on the shelves for a week.

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Do you watch the show? Have you tried any of the products?

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Ermahgerd! Berhscehrts fer brekferst!

Recipe to Riches airs Channel 10 Tuesday nights 7.30pm and you can head to the Woolies website to find a store near you to buy all the Recipe to Riches goodies.

This post was coordinated by The Remarkables Group.

24 Comments

  1. Mandy Mason 10 years ago

    We’ve got Rosie’s biscuits in the pantry ready to try. Other than that all we’ve tried is the Chocorn, freakin’ delicious! Love the different flavours.

    • Nikki | Styling You 10 years ago

      I missed the Chocorn as I was away! Bummer.

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      I missed Chocorn too! I loved the hot sauce and chilli though!

  2. Nikki | Styling You 10 years ago

    Twice in one day you’ve made me smile, Ms Smags. Our family is addicted to this show but I was most excited today to be able to buy something that I can eat (being GF and all) – not just watch the rest of the family scoff the stuff down. We’ve got Greek pizza stocked up in the freezer for them too. And Sweet Billies was a hit here.

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      I missed Sweet Billies but we bought 2 bottles of Steve’s hot sauce and we’re nearly finished both of them! Mr Smaggle is heart broken!

  3. Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella 10 years ago

    You’re hilarious! Funniest post ever 🙂

  4. Jo @ BabbleOn City blog 10 years ago

    I’ve only bought the Sweet Billie’s so far. They were wayyyyy too sweet IMO (and my husbands … and he’s a major sweet tooth).
    I watched the show last night, and like you, I was very pleased the baby food didn’t win it.
    I’m into all things raw and refined sugar free at the mo … so I was cheering on the “sugar free” slice at first. That is until they announced that it had so much natural sugar in it that one piece equalled 50% of our daily sugar allowance. Ummm … fail much?!
    Haven’t bought Rosie’s bix today … but they do look delish … jx

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      Yeah I thought that too when they were tasting it and saying how delicious it was… I was like sugar free? Really?

  5. haha love it Smags! I hope I’m home in time to find these at my local woolies

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      They’re so good, you have to be quick though!

  6. Nicole 10 years ago

    I think they have a version of it over here and Stacey Kiebler is the host. I would try the products, but I actually have no idea which grocery store chain they go into (there’s a tonne of them here and they’re not all state to state).

    I definitely would give it a try if I was still in Australia. Just seeing the Woolies aisle makes me a bit teary eyed.

    • Nicole 10 years ago

      Scratch that, just looked now and the US version is a rip-off of the Canadian Recipe to Riches and is called “supermarket Superstars” same concept, different show.

      • Author
        Smaggle 10 years ago

        Oh cool! I gues it would be hard to do a US version because how many supermarkets are in every single state?

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      Oh love! I always miss Woolies when I’m OS. I’m like ‘Why does everything have so much sugar? And why are blueberries only $1???’

      • Nicole 10 years ago

        And when I’m carb craving “where’s the good bread?!” A lot of the bread here makes me think of the bread my Great-Grandmother would keep in her fridge when I was little. It was called whole meal, came in a brown and yellow package, but it was the closest thing to white bread I’ve ever seen. Like white bread with freckles.
        I *think* I remember you saying you went into Whole Foods in NY. We shop at Whole Foods here in CO, it’s so much better than the regular grocery stores.

  7. daddownunder 10 years ago

    There are worse jobs aren’t there Smaggle? Love the post

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      It’s a tough gig, but someone has to do it!

  8. Emma Bovary 10 years ago

    Recipe to Riches is hands down my favourite show on telly right now 🙂 I didn’t love these (yes, have already bought them and eaten one, though sadly not for work =() as much as I loved the Sweet Billies from a while back, but I definitely think they are a better treat than the pizza from last week. I totally agree re: the personal connection, I liked Rose so much and was so heart broken when she talked about how much she would love to marry. She adores that dog though, doesn’t she?

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      I actually really, really liked them. Rose and her dog were so cute. And I love how they don’t drag out the show, they just get it done you know?

  9. Sissi 10 years ago

    These biscuits are absolutely amazing. I’m stocking up while I can!

  10. Gem 10 years ago

    they looks suspiciously like not-so-pretty (I was going to say ugly, but I don’t want to sound harsh) fillingless macarons… what’s in them? I’m going to guess egg white, almond, sugar??

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      Yep! That’s ingredient list. They’re chewy and yummy! Poor Mr Smags doesn’t get very many varieties of biscuits but he loves these.

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