My preschooler is going through a big DIY dinner phase at the moment. The only way she’s going to eat it, is if she made it.

That unfortunately means some limited variation of flatbread pizza every single night and honestly, I feel like at three years old, she's a bit too young to be stuck in a rut.

But Grace (three going on thirteen) isn’t the only one.

Now that my husband and I are both back at work full-time, and we’ve added a one-year-old into the mix, you can tell the day of the week by what’s on our dinner plates each night.

Pre-parenthood we would eat out most evenings or make more elaborate, experimental dinners (shoutout to that time I made fondue, and the less successful but equally memorable homemade sushi).

Now evenings are a race against the clock between the daycare pick-up and the time when we start blaming ourselves or each other for not going to bed earlier.

I came across this, and now I'm instantly keen for anything Vietnamese I can make from home.

So naturally I jumped at the chance to road test the new Roll’d products now at Coles, with the promise of being equipped to make quick, healthy, family-friendly Vietnamese recipes you (and the kids) can whip up in less than 20 minutes.

They're now easily some of the best mid-week dinners to have in our weekly rotation. I've been using Roll'd items to whip up WFH lunches, and they've really been the most exciting lunchbox addition for daycare according to Grace basically... ever. She actually gets excited about eating them.

Handy too: I found that each Roll'd product has a QR code on it that you scan with your phone and it takes you straight to tasty recipe ideas and tips on learning how to roll (Rice Paper Rolls that is).

Grace watched their video on how to roll maybe 45 times while I unpacked the daycare bags. She then proceeded to announce "this the best afternoon ever…."

It’s a low bar when she gets extra screen time.

Being an organised, full-time working mum of two I picked the optimal time to do the first road test. Not.

With our hectic schedule, it fell on Thursday night, after a huge week. The same day as the one-year-old’s immunisations, Grace's swimming lessons and my husband's gym night.

But while our day was a bit of an *ordeal*, making dinner really wasn't. Let me explain.

Shopping list

Starting with the shopping. Roll’d have a really busy-person-friendly bank of recipes that pull from a list of common ingredients, a lot of which we already had at home. Here’s what I got from Coles/our pantry so you can copy and paste it into your Notes app:

Now head to the International food aisle at Coles and grab:

Avoid the Kinder Surprise/parent guilt section on the way out and you are DONE.

Mise en place

Mise en place is a French culinary phrase that means "putting in place" or "everything in its place".

One of the few things I remember from doing Hospitality in high school.

And while I didn’t pick up excellent culinary skills during that time, I did learn the love of having everything ready and putting things in little bowls before cooking.

This is key to creating the Roll’d Soldiers, or Rice Paper Rolls. You want everything ready to roll before you start... well, rolling.

But actually, there are very few things to prep.

Cut the cucumber.

Cook the chicken (or just shred if you're saving time with the BBQ chook option).

Chop the lettuce.

Cook the noodles (only took 2 mins).

And that’s it.

I also discovered that all foods are more delicious to my three-year-old if chopped and put in bowls. She was actually begging me to eat the lettuce. No lie. Here’s photo evidence to prove it.

Making

Fun for everyone. After watching the video another 12 more times, Grace now felt like quite the expert.

I was an amateur at first but I think it’s like pancakes, the first has to look average so you can see the progress you're making. After that I was flying.

Seriously DO watch the videos, they are so handy. I just scanned the QR code on the packet. You can pause the videos to make time for little hands to keep up.

Eating

The verdict is a slightly sticky but very satisfied thumbs up.

As for Grace, she couldn’t wait to eat her creation and chomped down on bean sprouts, coriander, noodles (all foods that we normally have vigorous discussions about her trying) without a second thought.

The prep I did for the girls’ dinner left us with more than enough for grown-ups dinner once the girls were in bed and a WFH lunch the next day. With 30 rice papers in a pack, we weren’t at risk of running out.

My 5 favourite family dishes with our new Roll'd products are below. But I’d be failing you if I didn’t give a special shout out to the Roll’d range of sauces.

While the kids enjoyed trying them for the first time with their Soldiers, I am The Condiment Queen.

So for me, the dipping sauce is as important as what you're dipping itself.

The Roll’d at-home range includes traditional dipping sauces: Nuoc Mam, Spicy Hoisin & Chilli Mayo. The Nuoc Mam I discovered makes an excellent salad dressing too.

Here are all the recipes we tried (and loved):

Omelette Rice Paper Rolls

This was a safe starting point for us, as the girls love omelettes – and are obsessed with these too. (Serves 4, and takes 20 minutes).

Here's what we do:

Tip: Dipping this one in the Roll’d Vietnamese Sticky Hoisin sauce will chaneg your life like it did mine.