Mother’s Day Tea Party with the ASDA Free From Range

This Mother’s Day Tea Party with the Asda Free From Range is a collaborative post, sponsored by ASDA.

My family have been very fortunate in that none of us have any dietary requirements other than the younger two being quite [read: horribly] picky eaters at the moment and so they’ve been free to eat pretty much whatever they’ve wanted to throughout their lives. I have quite a few friends though, whose children aren’t as lucky, and who are intolerant to gluten, dairy and other products that can make shopping for and feeding the family quite tricky.

I’ve never ventured into the Free From aisle of our local ASDA in Eastleigh other than to buy their lactose free milk as I like it more and it feels kinder to my tummy, and secretly I’ve always thought that free from food must be less delicious without the gluten and so on that makes everything taste as it does to those people without allergies and intolerances. I never dreamed of expecting the boys to suddenly switch to Free From food without a reason.

Anyhow, after our Valentine’s Meal, ASDA invited us to try their Free From Range and so we decided to make it into a tea party with all of our favourites and compare them to the free from versions that ASDA stock.

Here’s what we chose below.

We decided on ASDA Free From… pepperoni pizza, white bread, spread, mayonnaise, cheese, chicken nuggets, angel slices, strawberry yoghurt and chocolate mousse, quiche, chocolate biscuits, and sausage rolls. These all matched products that we normally buy.

Both Gav and I were genuinely interested to see whether the boys would firstly tell the difference, and secondly whether they would willingly eat any of the free from items and so we decided to make it a challenge and have a blindfolded taste test. This started off well but Jensen’s mask was full face and so in the end we removed the packaging as most of the products looked exactly the same.

If you watched our stories you’ll see that poor Hero being only 4 was completely confused and thought that there was a right answer that we were after and it got a bit tearful for him thinking he was wrong – so in the end, they told us whether they were tasty and if they could spot their normal food choice.

As it was a Mother’s Day tea party, we had a beauty [mommy, of course] and beast [daddy] theme and Beast revealed which were the free from items. The results were as follows.

ASDA FREE FROM TASTE TEST

Cheese Sandwiches: These were made from white bread, spread, cheese and a little mayonnaise. We could tell the difference as the cheese was much stronger than our usual variety, but Lyoto [not a sandwich lover] ate all of his and said it was amazing. The bread was softer and crumblier which the boys all also loved.

Sausage Rolls: They loved the sausage rolls – inhaled them – and commented through crumbs that the free from ones were just softer.

Angel Slices: No difference at all in taste according to the boys, except the Free From ones were bigger [therefore better] and fluffier according to Jensen. This one was hilarious trying to capture as every time I put the two slices down to compare, they ended up eating them before I was ready to tell them what to do.

Strawberry Yoghurt: Hero preferred the Free From one – and he’s the chief yoghurt eater in our house and we were even more impressed that he ate it, as it has strawberry pieces in it unlike his normal one!

Chocolate Mousse: I still preferred the normal one we have as dark chocolate isn’t something I particularly like anyway, but Hero again ate it all up, as he told us repeatedly, proudly and loudly. Gav said it was very good and had a nice bitter chocolate taste to it. Gav isn’t a fan of chocolate and so we’re onto a winner there!

Pepperoni Pizza: The only real difference was the texture of the base – none of us would have had a clue that it was a gluten free pizza and we all would have been happy having that for tea at the weekend!

Chocolate Biscuits: Lyoto is the one who eats the chocolate biscuits in our home and ruins every cup of tea I drink with them. My last mouthfuls are just disgusting and basically a watery chocolate biscuit grave. He said it was an awesome biscuit after dunking but it was a little less crunchy than his normal ones without dunking. There’s no way he’d turn these biscuits down. Haha.

Chicken Nuggets: This one was a shocker. I didn’t like the texture at all, but then I’m not a nugget fan anyway. However – the boys LOVED them! I was SO sure they’d not be impressed with a non Birds-Eye product but we ended up buying more this week as they genuinely liked them so much and I felt quite smug that I can tell the mothers on the playground that my children only eat gluten free chicken nuggets. Haha.

Quiche: So this was slightly sneaky as only Gav and I like quiche but I had to know if I could tell the difference. Honestly? The texture was slightly different again, but if I’d been served this when I was out for lunch somewhere, I would have had no idea it was a Free From product.

Finally, we tried a chocolate Easter bunny! Apparently this was a must because, you know, Easter is on the horizon somewhere. Unsurprisingly, no one turned it down…and there are so many different brands of milk chocolate that again, the boys would never have known…and there wasn’t a trace of bunny left at the end, poor little soul.

TASTE THE DIFFERENCE?

All of us were really surprised with the Free From range. It actually made me panic less about having the boys’ friends over for dinner who have dietary requirements that I’ve never dealt with before – and I like being able to recommend products that I’ve tried now that I know are genuinely delicious. It’s made me want to learn more about what’s actually in our foods that I maybe could cut out to make us all healthier. I know I eat more vegetables than anyone I’ve ever met [and those of you who follow us on Instagram Stories at breakfast time know how I like to start my day with a huge bowl of vegetables!] Healthiness aside, there were some apple pies and some cute little brioche bread rolls that I saw that I wanted to try that were out of stock so we’re putting them in the basket for next time – because you never know who’s coming for tea!