Thrive.

For those of you that don't know me personally -- I want to introduce you to something that I do on the side as part of my portfolio of things to occupy my time. In the fall of 2011, I came across a woman at a home and garden show in Nashville selling freeze dried food. It wasn't a very familiar concept to me. I remember once eating an 'astronaut' ice cream sandwich at the NASA space center on a field trip + I have a kiddo that use to eat those Gerber yogurt drops by the bag. But really, that was my only exposure. She had a few things for me to sample -- I think a few veggie/fruit pieces and a couple of the yogurt chunks. Not only was I impressed, but the beau and kiddo seemed to really like it as well. I got her information and had every intention of following up after the weekend. Well, time always gets away from me and of course, the info got misplaced. Several months later, I was in Bell Buckle at the annual craft fair and I noticed the same display in one of the booths. I jumped on the opportunity to try some more food and made sure they had my information to contact me this time :)

The rest is history from there. A month later, I started buying stuff on the regular and even signed up as a Thrive Life Consultant. Even though there's a business opportunity attached to it and lots of money to be made from growing it -- I'm more focused on the products themselves and sharing them with everyone around me. My initial drive was to supplement my kiddo's diet. From the very beginning she's always been a great eater, but when she graduated to feeding herself with her fingers, she started to decline on what she would and wouldn't eat. For her I think it's a texture thing. She doesn't want to get her hands dirty or sticky. So a lot of foods started falling off the 'eating' list until we got down to just a select few. And unfortunately, they don't make up a balanced diet. With the freeze dried foods, she's willing to eat a variety of fruits and veggies because they aren't squishy and messy. Plus they don't make the same kind of mess -- so I can feed her healthy stuff in the car, the stroller, at school, you name it.


The freeze dried fruits and vegetables that Thrive Life provides are mostly (ask to find out which are not) gluten free, non GMO, and have no preservatives or additives. Example, the peas are just peas. Plain and simple. If you look at a can of peas that you buy at the grocery store, you find all kinds of stuff in them, not to mention extra sodium to preserve them. Freeze dried fruits and vegetables are also better than dehydrated items as well. Dehydrating somethings requires heat and as most of us know, applying heat to things tends to kill a lot of the nutrients that are in it. The process of freeze drying something is cold -- so the nutrients are still there and you don't have any shrinkage of the item -- so banana slices look plump, not discolored and chewy.



So what would you use freeze dried foods for? Well, I personally do a lot of snacking with it -- not just for myself, but the kiddo too. I feel much better about myself sitting down and eating some sweet corn or peas while watching TV then a big bowl of butter popcorn. Also, the fruits are great for throwing into trail mixes, parfaits, cereal, desserts, smoothies and any other recipe that uses fresh fruit. Anything that has liquid in it will rehydrate the fruits, so no need to reconstitute sometimes before you use them. As for the veggies, I like to use them in soups, stews, casseroles -- anything that I'd used canned or fresh stuff for. 



Thrive Life also has other food categories as well: Proteins (meats, eggs and beans), Basics (cooking necessities), Desserts (oh yeah) and Dairy (yogurt, milk, cheese, etc). This opens up a whole new line of thinking when it comes to freeze dried foods -- I'm sure you guys have heard about the show "Doomsday Preppers"? Well, this line is great for storing and prepping -- most of the items have a 5-25 year shelf life before you even open them! So they're great for emergencies. If you'd like some more information, just shoot me an email thenashjuice@gmail.com and I can send you pricing, sales information and help you earn free/half off stuff!

Have you ever had freeze dried foods before?

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