For the time being I have been cutting out potatoes and bread from my diet. This is because I'm bulimic and feel very wary of these foods so like I say just for the time being they're off my menu and I'm sticking with things I am comfortable eating.

Ainsley Harriot food stuffs are something I'm rather fond of. I've tried quite a few things from his range including the gorgeous cup a soups to cous cous and enjoyed them all so when I spotted this risotto at 39p a pack in my local B & M store I actually picked up rather a few of them. They only had the wild mushroom risotto option to buy but I am aware since trying this that there are a few varieties about of it.

The Packaging:

Well I bought a packet of it and that packet is mainly black on the outside and then silver foil on the inside. On the front of the pack there is a photograph of the made up risotto on there and a pic of the smiling man himself and we are told that it is indeed Ainsley Harriott Wild Mushroom Risotto 'Rich, flavourome risotto - perfect with steak or roast parsnips' and that it is suitable for Vegetarians and weighs 120g (dried weight). On the back of the pack other information listed includes ingredients and allergy advice being given as well as cooking instructions and a nutritional chart and contact details for the manufacturer are listed. Nice, easy to tear open packet this is and the instructions given are thankfully easy to follow!

The Risotto itself:

Open the pack up and you are greeted with a dry mix or little pieces of risotto rice and plenty of them, some dried mushrooms and some green herbs and some brown powder. All you do with a packet of this is add the mix to 400ml of cold water, add butter if desired and heat it through for about 12 minutes and you can if preferred do this in the microwave. I did mine on my hob and didn't add butter for fat adding reasons.

This gave me a huge portion of mushroom fragranced risotto. Brown in colour and moist.... this tasted quite simply terrific. The rice was soft, the mushroom flavouring was really there along with a subtle hint of garlic and parsley and it was very filling. Because of the calorie and fat content of this I divided the risotto with my friend as a side dish as one pack makes up 345g of risotto which gives a whopping 566 calories, 15.9g of total fat and a huge 9.3g of saturated fat. Yes its tasty, yes its easy to make up and looks appertising but no way I'm sticking all that on my poor hips!

I couldn't be bothered to go to the effort to make a dish up from scratch like this and this for me is simply gorgeous but it is a treat. Although I paid 39p a packet for mine I have since seen this in Asda at £1.29 a packet and if I couldn't get it cheap in B & M again I would pay that for it...its that good!