Friday, January 23, 2015

Giveaway Time!!

It took me a little longer than a week to get this organized, but here it is!

Win  a Nomad Pack courtesy of Paleo Meals to go. Its easy to enter and easy to win!

Follow the directions below to enter. Contest officially starts now and ends on Feb 27th (my birthday!! yay!!) Good luck all and a huge thanks to Plaeo Meals to Go for the generous offer!


Win me, I'm delicious....and I go well with life!

Win a FREE Nomad Pack below!

Monday, January 12, 2015

Product Review - Paleo Meals To Go


 Paleo Meals to Go (Click to head over and order!)




I literally stumbled across Paleo Meals To Go at a local festival this summer. I was walking by a car and noticed it said Paleo on it, so naturally I ran over to check it out. No one was around but I was able to snag a business card off the car and get in touch with the great people that run the company.

This review is very late getting here and I apologize to all the Whole360 readers as well as the people that make Paleo Meals To Go tick. My life has been a crazy roller coaster lately (for the last 6 months really) which is really no excuse, but it's all I can offer. Enough about that, on to the review!

Paleo Meals To Go was kind enough to send me some products to try so I could write this review for you all, they were also nice enough to offer up a prize pack for one lucky winner once this review goes live! That's right, you can read about the products, drool over the pictures AND then try it yourself....FOR FREE! It really doesn't get much better if you like great tasting healthy food, and you like it for free!

What is Paleo Meals to Go?

Think Mountain House Meals that are sold in the camping/outdoors area of Wal-Mart... Except throw out the parts "tastes like crap", "is bad for you", "comes wrapped in plastic" and the big one "has a ton of gluten, wheat and soy in it" Then you sort of have what Paleo Meals to Go are. The company is a Denver based small business and from what I gather they are super people to deal with and want to provide you with some delicious healthy products. Here is a few quick blurbs off of their webpage with a little more info of what they are all about:

"Paleo Meals To Go is a private company based in Denver, CO. The idea of healthy Paleo Meals To Go was developed by a CrossFit™ athlete who was introduced to the Paleo Diet by his ultra-running friend. As outdoor enthusiasts and Paleo Diet followers they both often struggled to maintain their diets while on outdoor adventures. After brainstorming the idea, the solutions it could provide, and the great need for it, Paleo Meals To Go came to fruition. An Operations Manager was brought on to further develop the business. We look forward to enhancing your work/life/exercise/outdoor/athletic adventures by providing you with an option to better maintain a Paleo Diet when you are on-the-go!" 

"Fast and convenient so preparing meals doesn't get in the way of your adventure.
Wholesome and delicious recipes that not only provide the fuel you need, but hit the spot!
Formulated to adhere to general Paleo Diet guidelines so you can enjoy your meal knowing you are still on track."



First Impressions: I spoke with Dawn who is the Operations Manager at Paleo Meals To Go and she said the food was on the way. I know they are a local Denver, CO company but I literally had them the next day! I'm all about gratification, especially the instant type so we were off and running! They came well packaged and protected in the shipping box which seems like a no brainer but a lot of times is not the case. Once I tore in to the shipping package....glory, yes glory peeked its head out at me. I'm not sure what the packaging is made out of, but I do know that it does its purpose and its not made out of some nasty plastics that are going to make my food taste like cave man doody!

I was sent one of each of their items - 2 breakfasts and 2 lunch/dinner entrees. I will review them in the order I devoured them....

Aloha Breakfast

Aloha Breakfast - Score 9/10

First up was the Aloha Breakfast, directions are right on the bags they come in and its super simple. Ripe the top off, pull out the oxygen absorber, pour in some hot water, wait a few minutes and enjoy. That my friends is my kind of cooking for sure! 

The Aloha breakfast is a great blend of sweet and savory containing coconut, golden flax seed meal, almond flour, walnuts, pecans, bananas, pineapple, mango, powdered coconut water, vanilla beans, and freeze-dried coconut oil. It is like a super delicious oatmeal consistency. Well lets be honest its better than oatmeal because I am NOT a fan of oatmeal whatsoever. The texture was awesome with the pecans and walnuts in it to give it a little crunch to go along with the softer ingredients. This was my favorite breakfast out of the bunch (not that the other was bad by any means!

Coconut Berry Breakfast

Coconut Berry Breakfast - Score 7/10

This fella has some tart to it, and that's fine by me! A nice blend of coconut, flax seed, coconut oil, strawberries, blueberries and nuts, it all blends together in a tasty breakfast fuel festival! If you are out hiking or camping this is a great kick starter, all said and done this breakfast packs a whopping 920 calories and 14g of protein to fuel your day!

 
Beef Mountain Stew



Beef Mountain Stew - 9/10

I by nature am not a soup/stew person whatsoever, but I LOVED this meal. The veggies, meats and spices blended together perfectly out of the bag on this one and I pounded it with reckless abandon. This was by far my favorite meal/breakfast out of the four that I got to test. These meals come with salt packets so you can season them to taste, but this one was literally perfect for me right out of the bag. I want to make sure I have some of these in my backpack, house, car etc so if I am ever stuck without food I can tear in to one of these!


 
Savory Chicken and Vegetables

Savory Chicken & Vegetables - 6/10

 The bar was set pretty high with the other 3 meals by the time I got to this one. I was praying for a mouth-gasm, expecting it really..... but it didn't happen with this one. Let me explain. It was still a good meal, but after the Beef Mountain Stew and all of its delicious components this one fell just a bit short in the spices department. Actually it wasn't even the spice department it was just not salty enough for me. The good news is the meals come with a salt packet so I could doctor it up a bit! After tossing some salt in the mix it was  pretty tasty meal all told, I am definitely not mad at it!

Final Thoughts

If you are dedicated to a Paleo Lifestyle, or you want to just have healthy easy meals on hand, you HAVE to give these a try. Please don't mistake these for a low calorie diet food...that they are not. (Although the Beef Stew and Chicken and Veggies are both 350 cals or below) The good thing is they don't have that garbage diet food taste either! The breakfasts are pretty high calorie, but if you are looking for a healthy, convenient energy source - The Aloha and Coconut and Berry breakfasts are outstanding! All in all on a 1 - 10 scale I would definitely give these products a Solid 8 score collectively. I was pretty harsh on the Chicken and vegetables because all I had to compare it to was the Beef Mountain Stew which was outstanding! But hey what do I know anyways, I'm just a dude trying to find my Cave Man roots!

Whats this FREE food you speak of?

Stay tuned to www.whole360.blogspot.com and in the next few days we will be launching a contest where you can win a Paleo Meals to Go Nomad Bundle!

And if you can't wait to get your grubby Cave man/lady paws on these..... 

Check them out over at www.paleomealstogo.com and tell them Whole360 sent you!

 
*note - Paleo Meals to Go was kind enough to send me photos of their product as well after I took FOREVER to write this review. My phone was literally coming apart and I had to trade it in. Needless to say I hadn't updated my Cloud storage and I lost all of my product photos. Thanks guys for working with me I appreciate it!