Friday, February 13, 2015

Harvestland Review AND A Giveaway!

* I received this product for free from the sponsor of the Moms Meet program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms Meet blogger, I agree to use this product and post my opinion on my blog. My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of this product. *


How could I pass up on a brand who says, "Eat Like Your Ancestors"? I mean, that alone like, totally won me over!!
Not just that, but you can find some mighty tasty recipes on their site, errr, I'm sorry, "Old Time Recipes" < another winning tagline in my book! Especially in this day and age when there are so many icky headlines each day about how somebody found this or that in their food, or somebody did an experiment on this and found that this is bad...  How about we play it safe and just stick with what our ancestors ate, eh?



Some information about, Harvestand:
  • No Antibiotics Ever
  • Fed All-Vegetarian Diet With No Animal By-Products
  • Raised Cage Free


With the HARVESTLAND® brand, the only thing you'll ever get is purely all-natural* chicken. We also know our chicken needs to taste good, too. So we pay attention to the little details, right down to the USDA Process Verified "Tenderness Guarantee" on our boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
HARVESTLAND® Turkey
Raised to the same high standards as our chicken, HARVESTLAND® turkey is fed an all-vegetarian diet with no antibiotics ever. And, of course, no hormones or steroids**.
HARVESTLAND® Pork
The latest addition to the HARVESTLAND® brand. Raised on family farms in the Midwest, fed an all-vegetarian diet with no animal by-products, our hogs never, ever receive antibiotics, hormones or steroids**.
HARVESTLAND® Organic Chicken
Our USDA-certified organic chicken represents our highest commitment to providing you the most-natural food. Raised without antibiotics on all-vegetarian diet of certified organic ingredients, our organic chickens live in a free-range environment on organic farms.







I had a bit of a time trying to track, Harvestland down but I ended up calling my local Redner's and finally demanding that they get this product in a little more often then when it's just on sale. (For the record, I live near absolutely nothing lol! Harvestland IS sold at Redners and Walmart... Redners just opened up not to long ago, about 15 miles from me and they always have a couple select Harvestland products in stock but they are still learning. Now, they have Harvestland chicken breast and chicken legs at all times because I finally drove them crazy!)


When I did find them, I was delighted and so excited that I gave up 1 of my coupons to the cashier that night because I went on and on and on about how wonderful this brand was and why I was grabbing 5 packs and using the coupons they provided! She was such a patient and kind cashier I just had to share. (I had a few other coupons, had to do a price check on Harvestland because the sale price wasn't marked on the packages and I had a cart full of groceries, it was the least I could do.)






Oh, before I get to crazy here about Harvestland chicken, turkey and pork products, I have to tell you about the packaging!!





If I could have jumped up and down, I would have! (I have medical issues with my bones, tissues, tendons, neuro chronic pain arthritis fibro RSD MS blah blah blah so, I actually can't jump up and down, lol!) But, there are times I am so excited about what may seem to be the tiniest things to some and since I can't jump up and down, I kind of scream and giggle and yell things like, "OH MY GOD! Didja see this??" and yes, my husband usually just rolls his eyes and ends up calling me a nerd. My kids all laugh and they get excited to and then it's just a big old family cheer about weather models, a new cooking trick or utensil or uhhh the way my chicken breast was packaged.


Ok, so, the chicken breasts come inside a package, right? But, this next part is unreal.... The chicken breasts are then packaged separately in their very own packs so that you don't have to repackage them or even waste or anything crazy like that! YES, you heard me correctly, THE INDIVIDUAL CHICKEN BREASTS ARE WRAPPED UP SEPARATELY INSIDE THE PACK!
Do you realize what this means? Well, let me tell you what it means! It means, you can open these when you get home from the store and freeze them separately and defrost separately. You can grill one up for a lovely grilled chicken salad for lunch while the kids are in school or you can use 1 and a half packs and not have to bag up the other half and use tomorrow. The possibilities are endless really and yes, so exciting! (You can also just take 1 out so you can make the best chicken salad ever. You know that kind that has all of the neat stuff inside that only you eat and you don't want to waste it so you just want to make a small amount?)


I planned a week's worth of meals ahead of time to use our new chicken. (Yes, I would have loved to try their kielbasa and turkey however, my closest Redners does not carry these products, YET. But, I found a Redners who does and they are just a little further away.)  I asked the kiddos what they would like to use our new chicken for and they helped plan our meals. (I found that the more I include them in meal planning and preparing, the better chances I have of them actually eating those meals.)


We are big fans of Frontier Soups so, we rummaged through our leftover bags (I'm between orders!) to find a suitable soup for our freezing cold, windy, snowy night's dinner. This winter has been a pain, I don't remember a colder, windier winter. I do remember snowier winters but we have had snow and ice storms almost every other day since we came home from Wow Summit, in November! So, we have been eating lots and lots of soup!




Frontier Soups are very versatile. You can add chicken or shrimp or whatever your soup lovin heart desires! We chose their South of the Border Tortilla Soup and added Harvestland chicken that I roasted in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. (I usually only use olive oil, salt and pepper.)




I can sum this meal and Harvestland chicken up in one sentence.Our 11 year old son said, "MOM! Now, this, is what chicken should always taste like!"


He's right.  I didn't really expect such a difference in taste. I was way wrong for thinking that. I seriously don't recall a time we had chicken this good and I can't imagine eating anything but Harvestland chicken. Our 8 year old even went crazy and said, "You should always get this chicken now! It tastes like real chicken!" That was night #1.


I had one chicken breast left from the first pack so, I decided to keep an extra one out of the second pack for chicken quesadillas for the next day. ( A snow day, like every other Monday this winter.) and who doesn't love quesadillas? Plus, we had leftover soup too! (Yes, I use paper plates on busy days, lol!)





I usually roast the chicken but sometimes I will use my George Foreman grill to make the chicken and I always use the Foreman grill for quesadillas! They are fast, easy to make and much healthier. These are also made to order since some like, "little chicken" some like, "extra chicken", some like, "no cheese" and some like, "extra cheese", so basically, I'm at the grill  until every single quesadilla is done and everybody is almost finished. This was another success story! Our 4 year old who is super picky, he even ate some of the chicken he keeps hearing everybody rave about!


I was starting to think that maybe the fact that Harvestland was the talk of the town at the moment, (ok, the talk of our house..), that maybe that was somehow feeding into the almost Hollywood esque type of comments, eyes popping out of our heads, it was starting to look like we were all in some commercial. So, I defrosted our normal brand of chicken and decided to make some chicken karaage.


I thought if I make 2 pans of chicken karaage, one of Harvestland and one of our normal brand, I could tell for sure if all of the cravings and late night leftover snacks was all just in our heads or was this real.....


I marinated the chicken in Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki, for about an hour. Then, I coated chicken pieces in a cornstarch, planko and spices mix and then I baked at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes.


I did make more of these and fried them in olive oil and just used cornstarch after receiving a better recipe and they turned out just as good, if not better!







Of course I knew which pan was different and even though I could tell the difference right away and yes, it is a very big difference, I still thought, maybe this is in my head. Well, sure enough, EVERYBODY could tell the difference. I quizzed each member of the family and unfortunately, the Harvestland pan disappeared and all we had left was our normal chicken. I got stuck eating some of that and after eating Harvestland, not even a vat of teriyaki sauce was going to save it.


Next up was chicken cordon bleu!


I cooked the chicken in a frying pan with olive oil, salt and pepper and then added chicken stock, garlic onions, cooked a bit more and then added swiss cheese and then ham.
This is always a hit for the grown ups at our house! The kids will eat it just fine as long as I make some without swiss cheese and ham.




(Yes, I know, paper plates again. It was a super busy week!)


I know this is super long, I promise you are almost at the very end. I just have one more picture to share with you and this was our chicken and waffles dinner.



I don't know if this is a Pennsylvania thing but, we eat chicken and gravy over waffles here. I did add veggies and made a thicker gravy with some hidden ingredients like, parsley, garlic, rosemary and a few other herbs I had leftover. I was making some bland waffles and I'm all about flavor!!
No leftovers after this dinner. None at all and sadly, this was our night to bid farewell to our Harvestland stash. (Until I get back to Redners of course!)





I did receive coupons that were good for $5 off of my purchase of Harvestland products and I used a few and gave a gift to my cashier and I am reluctantly saving 3 to give to one very lucky reader!!

I also received the cutest, old fashioned magnet timer and my new favorite set of measuring cups! They are copper and so pretty!! Both of these items fit Harvestland's whole brand and I appreciate these extra gifts very much!

These coupons expire on 5/31/2015 and can be used wherever Harvestland is sold. (I can find them at Walmart and Redners but I think if you check their site, they are available at more stores!)

The winner will receive all 3 coupons and you will probably have a wrinkled envelope, the wrinkles will be my dried up tears since I parted with these but, I really think something this awesome must be shared ;)

If you are not going to enter the giveaway, kindly check out Harvestland's social networks!

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Instagram

Google+


Now, for the giveaway!
Good luck!!
















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4 comments:

  1. I would make stir fry with the chicken!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love stir fry too!! It's always so easy to make and you can add pretty much anything. Stir fry is always one of my kid's favorites too!
      Thank you for commenting ;)

      Delete
  2. I just bought a bunch of potatoes on sale, so I would make some chicken strips to eat with them, as well as some dinner rolls and country gravy.

    ReplyDelete