EVOL Foods: The EVOLution of My Love for an All Natural Food Brand

Review and Giveaway!

      I recently had the opportunity to try a few products of all natural food made by EVOL.  Since my interest in all things ‘natural’ and ‘green’ has been increasing daily, EVOL immediately caught my eye while looking around on the internet.  With a mission that reads: “Inspire People to Care About Where Food Comes From, and How it is Produced by Making Real Food that Tastes Delicious.” and the motto “Love What You Eat”, how could I not be tempted to give their products a try?!

     Armed with my husband, our son and coupons, I made my way to our local Publix to check out the selection of EVOL products.  The goal was a good-tasting, nutritional dinner for three semi-picky eaters.  EVOL’s frozen foods product line include Pizzas, Flatbreads, Bowls and Premium Wraps and Burritos, Classic Burritos, Mini Burritos, and Big Burritos.  You can also find a nice variety of Burritos in the Deli section.  We settled on three of the Bowls, two Fire Grilled Steaks for the guys and a Teriyaki Chicken for myself.  Unfortunately, my Publix did not have any of the Wraps or Burritos, so I decided to get those on my next trip to Whole Foods.
     Dinner time rolls around, and I open the packages preparing to fix our dinner.  The first thing I noticed was that the boxes were made of 100% recycled paperboard, with a minimum of 35% post consumer recycled content. Very ‘green’ and awesome!  Then I noticed that there were 3 different ways I could prepare the Bowls: I could nuke them in the microwave, bake them in the oven or toast them in the toaster.  Being that it was already late in the afternoon, a school-night and we were all starving, I hesitantly opted for the quickest of the three options, 4 minutes in the microwave.  I say ‘hesitantly’ because I am not a huge fan a feeding my family microwaved meals, plus I have had some meals that do not taste very fresh, or good for that matter, when cooked in the microwave.  However, since the other two options called for approximately 50 minutes of cooking time, I went ahead and opted for the microwave.

     The second thing I noticed were that the bowls themselves were not made of plastic like all the other microwavable meals seem to be, instead these were 100% compostable and recycle-able, and made from a zero pollution, chemical-free pulping process.  Okay, this company obviously is very eco-friendly and environmentally concerned, which I highly admire!  Each bowl appeared to be fairly filled with vegetables, rice and meat, and smelled delicious once removed from the microwave.  Having my initial concern about the juices leaking through the bowls proven completely unfounded, it was time to find out how they tasted!
     Before we get to that, I want to tell you a little about the nutritional value of the foods we selected for our dinner.  All were made with natural ingredients, and were minimally processed with no artificial ingredients.  My Teriyaki Chicken was made with cage-free, white meat chicken raised without the use of hormones and antibiotics, and never fed with animal by-products.  The guys’ Fire Grilled Steaks were also made with sustainably and  humanely-raised cows which were never given antibiotics, growth hormones or fed food with animal by-products in it.   Both varieties were also Gluten-free, and provided a good amount of protein and fiber.
     My Teriyaki Chicken bowl was filled with broccoli, red peppers, bell peppers, snap peas and carrots, all mixed together with brown rice and covered in a light, tasty Teriyaki sauce.  The chicken chunks were pretty good-sized and delicious, although I wouldn’t have minded a little bit more!  The vegetables also tasted very fresh and full of flavor.  Although microwaved, the vegetables did not get all smushy and mushy like I have noticed in other products.  The serving size was the perfect amount as well, just enough to fill me up without my getting stuffed.  A very enjoyable dinner.

     The Fire Grilled Steak bowls came with a mixture of black beans, red and green peppers, cilantro-lime flavored rice and a bit a cheddar cheese all mixed together with a cilantro lime pesto sauce.  Again, there appeared to be plenty of vegetable and rice, as well as fair-sized pieces of fire-grilled steak.  Both my husband and son said the steak was juicy and flavorful, while the vegetables tasted fresh and not like they had been nuked.   Like me, they both said that they would have preferred a bit more meat, while my husband also would have liked a larger sized portion.  All in all, they enjoyed the taste of their first EVOL food.

    
     So next time my son and I want to try one of EVOL’s pizzas, and my husband wants to try a burrito.  If you would like to try EVOL’s products, you can find a list of stores HERE or you can online at the EVOL Webstore.  And when you are visiting the EVOL website, make sure to check out all of the different  Ways to Cook EVOL products as well as their Blog.  You can find out even more by liking EVOL on Facebook and following them on Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube.

     One lucky Bullock’s Buzz fan will win an EVOL surprise prize pack!  All you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter below.  I will contact the winner by email, and they will have 48 hours to respond, or I will have to choose another winner.  The giveaway will start tonight at 12:01am EST and end on Sept. 14 at 12:01am EST.

GOOD LUCK!!

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