Have you been watching this season of Recipe to Riches on CBC? I’m a total food show junkie, and think it’s super cool that Recipe To Riches ties in the food competition shows we see so often with the new product side of things, as each week that winner’s recipe comes to President’s Choice stores where we can buy them! Here is a more eloquent description of the show from President’s Choice:
RECIPE TO RICHES aims to discover the best of the best, inviting amateur Canadian home-cooks to create and share their original favourite personal recipes with the country. Each of the five one hour episodes features a different food category with home-cooks competing for a weekly $25,000 prize and the opportunity to move on to compete in the series finale for a $250,000 grand prize. The finalists’ recipes will be available across the country as President’s Choice® products in select Loblaw banner stores. Canadians have come to expect innovative products from President’s Choice®, one of the best known Canadian brands. Loblaw’s sponsorship of Recipe to Riches gives Canadians a chance to turn their favourite recipes into a household name.
Tonight is the last episode before voting opens to determine the $250,000 grand prize winner so today I’m going to talk about all of the winning products up to now to help you decide who to vote for if you haven’t been watching (or testing the products)!
I’ve had the chance to try out most of the products and am going to share what I thought about them and hopefully that’ll help you all to figure out who to vote for!
The first weekly winner was Jesse Meredith from Coquitlam, British Columbia with his Mini Raspberry Cheesecake Chocolate Cups
What can I say? I loved these! I may have eaten 1/2 of the box the day I got them 😮 … and ten finished them off the next day. Oops. But they were so tasty! Three of my favourite things (cheese, raspberries and chocolate) in a fun little package. What you get is what you see in the picture above – a chocolate cup filled with raspberry filling and topped with cheesecake. I’m not a big fan of fruit flavoured cheesecake with a chocolate cookie crumb base, but these are made with an actual little chocolate cup which makes all the difference. Love. Love. Love.
Did I mention I loved them?
Week two Mississauga resident Winslow Taylor won with his Jammin’ Jamaican Lobster Bisque.
I’m not a seafood girl, so I’m not going to be the best judge on this one, but I really liked that it had butternut squash base and it was super affordable. I wasn’t crazy over it, but since I don’t really eat seafood that comes as no surprise.
The week three winner was Alcide Desveaux of Ontario with Grandpa’s Acadian Meat Pie which is made with moist and tender shredded pork and seasoned chicken with a touch of onion, all in a tender crust.
I can’t even tell you want I thought of this product because every single time I’ve gone to the store it’s been sold out! I guess that means that everyone else is really loving it! So, if you’ve had a chance to try the pie please leave a comment to let us know how you liked it since I can’t get my hands on it!
Last week’s winner in episode four was Elisa Hendricks with her Italian Lollipops
So I’m a bit of a cheese-a-holic, and by a “bit” I mean I dream about cheese and crackers trays so I was really excited about these lollipops. I did like them, but I’m not sure I would buy them again, the seasoning was a bit much for my belly (with can’t handle much of anything) and I found them a bit greasy for me personally (probably from the mortadella) but overall they were tasty, they just weren’t my favourite.
Tonight the week 5 winner will be chosen in the Savoury Snacks category, and as soon as the fifth weekly winner is chosen voting for the grand prize winner opens. You only have from March 26th- midnight March 30th (Sunday) to vote, so be sure to take a few minutes to vote over the weekend! I’m waiting to see what the fifth product winner is, but right now those beloved cheesecake cups are getting my vote!
Edited to add:
The winner of the savoury snacks competition has been crowned! And this Nova Scotian is pretty excited that Halifax resident Cyra Belbin won with her Mexi Mac ‘n’ Cheese Bites!
I’ll be checking them out this weekend so keep an eye on my social media accounts to see what I think!
Have you tested any of the new products? Which was your favourite?
Disclosure: I was provided with the winning product each week in exchange for my honest review of the products and to help encourage people to vote. All opinions are 100% my own.