Cedarlane Natural Foods Inc. Review & Giveaway

~~~THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED~~~

About Cedarlane Natural Foods!

Information from website. 

Today's busy lifestyles don't always afford us the time to prepare wholesome home cooked meals. Cedarlane Natural Foods offers an easy solution with a wide variety of great tasting, quick to prepare, all natural frozen foods. Choose from a variety of vegetarian frozen foods, Dr. Sears Zone™ frozen foods, and our new line of chicken entrées and burritos. Enjoy our delicious dinner entrées, organic foods, low fat entrees, appetizers, burritos, wraps and more!

My Cedarlane Natural Foods Experience!
I do the majority of my shopping at the healthfood stores since about 90% or more of our food is organic. Until trying out Cedarlane Natural Foods frozen food I have stayed clear from eating frozen meals since starting my healthy diet more than 3 months ago. However, when I was picking out which meals I wanted to try I investigated the nutrition labels and ingredient lists carefully I realized that Cedarlane Natural Foods was really healthy. How healthy? Let's compare!

I used to work full time until I had Ethan. Before then I was on a weight program we all know where you count points. For about 3 years I practically ate one diet frozen dinner at lunch every day at work because it was fast and I knew how many points were in a meal. Thinking back on this time in my life I just want to scream. I was plateaued at a weight (which I now know WHY!), but I continued on this dieting rollarcoaster. I thought what I was doing was healthy. I will share more about this in my posts later in my Healthy Living Event. My point here is to compare the ingredient lists of one of the Cedarlane Natural Foods meals I had to one of the other diet frozen food brands I used to consume on a regular basis. I am not going to name the company, but I will tell you it is the company that claims their frozen foods are "natural" and have no preservatives.

Here is the ingredient list to the Cedarlane Natural Foods Low Fat Garden Vegetable Lasagna

 Take a good look at that. All basic simple ingredients. There is nothing in it you can't pronounce or wonder about it's origin, right?

Alright, now look at the ingredient list of this Chicken Florentine Lasagna: 

 Just sounds yummy doesn't it?? This is loaded with preservatives! I'm scared to know what "Flavors" stands for because did you know that usually means more preservatives?! I could go on and on about how unhealthy other brands are, but I think this one example speaks loud and clear. 


But how does Cedarlane Natural Foods taste?

 I picked out 3 different meals to try out: the Low Fat Garden Vegetable Lasagna, the Gluten Free 3 Layer Enchilada Pie, and the Spinach and Mushroom Egg White Omelet. I was very surprised (and disappointed) that my Whole Foods store only carried the Omelets. I searched and searched each time I went back, but I did not see where they carried any other Cedarlane Natural Foods. I picked up one omelet at Whole Foods and then ventured over to our other healthfood store, Akins, to see if they had a larger selection. I was pleased that they did and picked up the other two meals. Just a couple of days ago I was at my local grocery store (a local chain) picking up a few things for my husband. I happened to go over to the frozen food case where they have a few organic foods. I was excited to see they had a huge selection of Cedarlane Natural Foods! They have much more than both of my health food stores combined, how odd is that? I am glad to know I can pick up more Cedarlane Natural Foods close to home.


Ethan ate all the meals with me and absolutely loved them. The first meal we tried out was the Low Fat Garden Vegetable Lasagna. I was very impressed with this meal especially considering the fact that it was low fat. Much better than any other diet low fat lasagna I ever ate. I also was pleased Ethan like it so much because he was getting veggies and didn't even know it.


Next we tried the Gluten Free 3 Layer Enchilada Pie. I tasted it first to see if it might be too spicy for Ethan. It was spicy, but I didn't think it was too much. Ethan loved it and ate half of the meal himself! Very flavorful meal.


Last we tried the Spinach and Mushroom Egg White Omelet. Very tasty! I like it that is is packed with protein and it is a quick option for when I need breakfast in a hurry. 


Something else I want to point out about Cedarlane Natural Foods compared to other frozen meals (diet or not) is that they are packed in paper bowls not plastic like the majority of other meals are. It is very important to never microwave any type of plastic in the microwave. I don't care if it's BPA free, do not microwave. I greatly appreciate Cedarlane Natural Foods taking the extra step to make sure the food is not packaged in plastic bowls.


Overall I was so impressed with the quality of the meals. Really, considering Cedarlane Natural Foods uses real ingredients you know it will be good. No fake stuff here and you won't feel guilty because you aren't consuming something unhealthy.  




BUY IT! You can purchase directly from Cedarlane To-Go or find a retail store near you.

WIN IT! Cedarlane Natural Foods is giving away 3 coupons each  to TWO Take Time to Smell the Rose readers! 

You have the chance to enter several entries by the doing the following. Each one counts as 1 entry unless otherwise specified. I am now making it a requirement to follow my blog publicly on Google Friend Connect to enter my giveaways.

• MANDATORY ENTRY(You also must be following my blog publicly on Google Friend Connect)-counts as 1: AND look around at Cedarlane Natural Foods to see what they offer. Tell me which 3 meals you would like to use your coupons on if you win.

• Subscribe to my blog via email with Feedburner (on right side bar).
  

• Blog about my giveaway before June 5th, linking back to this giveaway. Leave the URL where you blogged.

• Did you earn the extra 10 entries for blogging & adding my button? Read here for details. Leave a comment for each entry below as "Qualified for 10 extra entries #1", "Qualified for 10 extra entries #2", etc. 

• Grab my  Take Time to Smell the Rose button. Leave URL where it is posted.

• Grab my Take Time to Share Your Giveaway Sunday button. Leave URL where it is posted.

• Grab my Healthy Living Event button. Leave URL where it is posted. 

• Follow Smell_the_Rose  on Twitter AND tweet about this giveaway. After initial "tweet" you may gain an extra entry each day. Limit 1 tweet a day.  Leave URL where you tweeted in your comment.

• Make a comment on any non-giveaway Healthy Living Event post. (one comment per post- but unlimited posts). Click here to see the list of posts. There will be lots of non-giveaway posts throughout the month! One comment on a post can qualify for all giveaways.

Please copy and paste this for your tweets: 


Win Cedarlane Natural Foods #organic frozen food from @Smell_the_Rose. #HealthyLivingEvent  http://tiny.cc/Cedarlanes

**Leave your email on each comment. You must do this in order to win!**

Giveaway ends Monday, June 14, 2010 at 9:00 p.m.(CST) Winner will be drawn by the random number generator at Random.org and will be notified by email. Winner will also be announced on this blog. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

This giveaway is open to USA residents ONLY . Must be 18 years old or older to win.

Thank you to the Company or/and PR firm who provided me with the products mentioned in the review. The thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own and are not swayed by any monetary or product compensation. My personal health experiences may not be a typical result for others. The information I share on my blog may not be the views of the sponsors participating in my Healthy Living Event.

~~~THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED~~~