Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Freeze Dried vs Dehydrated with Thrive Life

I was excited to sit down with Heidi and talk about Thrive Life, which was once Shelf Reliance. I love their new name and the way they have branded their products. Each letter in thrive has a different color that goes with a color coded category. As a person who loves to organize and loves smart marketing schemes I love this part. Thrive has over a 100 different products to purchase.
 
 
Thrive life is a great source for emergency preparedness products. One of the main things I spoke to Heidi about is there freeze dried foods. Not only meant for emergencies, but for every day use.
How is freeze drying different than dehydrating?
Dehydrating is done at a very high temperature and takes a long time. Not only does the product shrink in size, but loses nutrients.
Freeze drying happens within hours of being picked and happens quickly. Freeze drying not only locks in the nutritional value but the flavor, size and color. Because they stay the same size, it makes it nice when adding freeze dried food to a recipe. Freeze drying removes more water than dehydrating giving the food a longer shelf life. Most Thrive  products last 25 years unopened, and average 1 year after being opened. They even have a place for you to write when you opened it. That way you don't question if it's still good and you know how long you family goes through it.

One product I was intrigued by was their spices. I was always told that spices don't have a long shelf life. I love and use cilantro and basil a lot. The idea of it lasting 25 years unopened and 1 year opened is very appealing. A must have for my food storage.
On top of all the basics Thrive has sauces and express meals. The shelf life of the express meals and mother sauces are 10 years. I love the idea of quick meals and soups. I always like to have quick meals for days I'm not in the mood to cook, or haven't gone shopping.
They have so much to offer for people building their food storage. I asked Heidi where she recommends starting.
1- Top 10 meals.
Make a list of the 10 things you cook the most and start there. Buy the ingredients for those meals first. Either splurge and buy all 10 meals worth of food or start with just what is needed for 1 meal.
2- The Q.
Thrive has a great way to get what you need little by little. Just like your Netflix Queue you make a list of what you want and need. You can customize your Q in several ways. Then you set a monthly budget, and receive items from your Q right at your door.  Rachel from pricematchwithrachel.com recommends taking the money you save from price matching and using it towards building your food storage supply.
3- Host a party.
If you host a show you get all kinds of deals and products.
Heidi (Thrive Life Consultant) & Jennifer (Queen of Chaos)
 
 
 
Needless to say Thrive Life has countless products and yummy foods for you. They also offer free cooking shows and a testing room at their warehouse. This was the yummy part. I got to try so many different foods. I can see how versatile many of the foods are. The fruits were one of my favorites. Heidi gave me some pineapple to take home and share with my family. They are too yummy to share with the kids, they are hidden in my secret stash.  I also love the yogurt bites. I am ordering some for the next car ride to snack on for sure!
I highly suggest getting in touch with Heidi to learn more about what Thrive has to offer you. Not only are Thrive's products cheaper if you go through a consultant, but she can help you get the most out of your products. She sometimes has giveaways and free classes of her own so make sure to  follow her websiteblog, pinterest, facebook or twitter.
I just scratched the surface of what intrigued me personally the most about Thrive. I am sure as I use and love their products more I can share more in the future. Make sure to get in touch with Heidi for a more in depth conversation of what she and thrive has to offer.
If nothing else let your mouth water as you go through their yummy catalog.
Heidi has donated a  pantry can of freeze-dried sliced strawberries to give away. Use the rafflecopter below for your chance to win. When the giveaway ends the winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email, or I will have to pick a new winner. I hate having to pick a new winner, so make sure you respond to my email.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

86 comments:

  1. Very cool, I've always been intrigued by their products!

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  2. Their stuff is so yummy!

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  3. Their stuff is very yummy.

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  4. I haven't tried this brand - but I've tried freeze dried food and it's wonderful!!

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  5. Thanks for this giveaway! Looks yummy!

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  6. thanks for the opportunity, i love all freeze dried fruits!

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  7. Mmm, their products look delish! I would love to try their Freeze Dried Chopped Chicken - how interesting!

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  8. Sounds delicious thanks for the chance to win

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  9. Would love to try this

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  10. My family would love to try these.

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  11. Strawberries are my favorite fruit. I wonder if the freeze dried kind will make the cut! :)

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  12. I love freeze dried corn. Thanks for the great giveaway!

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  13. I never would have thought to use freeze dried strawberries. I'd like to try them.

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  14. I've never tried freeze dried anything, so this is really interesting.

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  15. My step daughter eats strawberries every morning for breakfast so she'd probably love these. (Angie PreciselyMine)

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  16. I freeze strawberry's and love them, I'm sure I would also love them this way.

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  17. I love freeze dried strawberries - hope I win!

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  18. Thanks for the giveaway!

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  19. Thanks for the giveaway.

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  20. I can think of all kinds of things I could make with these strawberries! Thanks!
    Digicats {at} Sbcglobal {dot} Net

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  21. looks great would love to try

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  22. Thanks for the giveaway.

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  23. These would be perfect to mix in oatmeal, yogurt, or even cold cereal.

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  24. hmmmmm, it would be interesting to see if my kids would eat them. never hurts to try.

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  25. Would love to win this.

    tosra55(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  26. These sound super yummy!

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  27. I love Thrive Life so this would be great!

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  28. I would love to try this!

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  29. Seems interesting, thanks for the chance

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  30. I so wanna try these!!!

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  31. I bet these are delicious! kekagel(at)yahoo.com

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  32. I'd like to try these. Thanks for the giveaway.

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  33. These would be awesome to win! I bet they'd be great for snack time at school.

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  34. love freeze dried strawberries!

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  35. Thanks for the giveaway, these look good.
    sunniewoodyplus2 atmsn.com

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  36. heather: thank you for the nice and easy entry have a great day hgtempaddy@hotmail.com

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  37. These products are amazing! Thanks for the giveaway!

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  38. Freeze-drying is a great way to preserve food!

    Nancy
    allibrary (at) aol (dot) com

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  39. I would really love these. We both love the convenience of freeze dried food when camping but also like to keep a small storage supply for emergencies. You never know when we will have a large snow storm here that has power out and roads blocked for weeks at a time.

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  40. These look awesome! Time to get creative with some recipes!

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  41. Looks great but never tried.

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  42. this stuff looks really yummy! would love to try it

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  43. Never heard of it but sounds awesome! myamurphy@mail.com

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  44. Thank you for sharing this product! I had never heard of it before.

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  45. I would love to try these!

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  46. thank you for the yummy giveaway!
    onecheaplady@yahoo.com

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  47. neat idea
    trixie420247 at yahoo dot com

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  48. my family would love these would love to try

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  49. Would like to to try these. Thanks for the giveaway.

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  50. Thanks for the giveaway!

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  51. Thanks for the great giveaway!
    hrddiana556@gmail.com

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  52. thanks for the opportunity to win!

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  53. Great giveaway! LOVE their products!

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  54. I've never heard of these but what a great idea!

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  55. I'd love to try the freeze dried strawberries!
    nicolesender(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  56. never tried this before, sounds interesting

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  57. would love to try their products

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  58. This sounds amazing. It would be nice to win.

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  59. I would love to try the strawberries! My favorite fruit!

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  60. This would be great for adding to cereal.

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  61. We would love to try these.

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  62. i would sooooo love to win this-the ideas are rolling through my brain, right now! i have priced these before and they are too rich for my blood, lol. thanks for the chance to win!

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  63. Haven't try these yet. :) Looks yummy!

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  64. This sounds amazing -- I love strawberries!

    glindathegood@bellsouth.net

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  65. thanks for this chance ...

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  66. These look wonderful, thanks for the chance to win :)
    nurse_mommy(at)live(dot)com

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  67. I love strawberries their the best cant wait to try them

    lmurley2000@yahoo.com

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  68. great product-thansk for the giveaway!

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  69. william saylor July 23, 2013 at 5:06 PM

    Theses sound yummy.

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  70. Cool idea for a giveaway
    Allison.bahr@yahoo.com

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  71. I LOVE freeze dried strawberries!

    creativesouthernhome at gmail

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  72. Yummy, yummy Thank you

    candieluster(at)gmail(dot)com

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  73. I would love to try these!! I keep hearing about them!

    abcsweeps at yahoo

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  74. Very interesting - I'd love to try them!

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  75. Sounds yummy!!

    Jenny S

    orangestar17(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  76. Wow--I didn't know the differences between dehydration and freeze dried. What a big difference! Thanks for sharing.

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  77. They sound excellente! lexbaylor17 (at) gmail (dot) com

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