No Name Premium Meats: Review and Give Away

I really try to make sure we all sit down and eat together each night. I know that W is only 3 and B is 8 months, but I feel like I'm building our family dinner foundation now. There are all sorts of studies about communication, brains, healthy eating habits, yada, yada, yada that encourage doing this.

But, that's not what makes me want to make family dinners a priority. We both grew up with family dinners and I think it's a very important part of family life. It allows us all to take some time together before bedtime. Our week nights are crazy hectic. I get home at 5:00. Matt doesn't get home until close to 6:30 and B goes to bed at 7:00, so dinner has to be ready when he gets home.

Meal planning and having some reliable standbys make dinner possible each week. I don't like to rely on pre-made, packaged meals. But, that being said, I'm not opposed to using packaged items during busy weeks. They're great for the base of a meal with fresh sides.

Last week was one of those weeks... We were gone over the weekend. I didn't have time to pull my meal plan together. And I had a few No Name Premium Meats in the freezer for this kind of week. So, No Name became our meal plan.

On Monday I made the Original No Name Steaks:

Photo courtesy of my sweet skills with my iPhone. I wish I had a better picture.

I don't cook red meat often. Once a month tops, so I'm not very confident when I do cook red meat. I seasoned this with salt and pepper and followed the exact directions to cook it on the stove top in a pan. And, I have to say, it was awesome. Really, really good. They were tender and there wasn't a trace of fat on them. W and I split one and I think we both would have had more.

True story: Matt and I went out for my birthday dinner two nights before I made this and Matt thought this steak was better than the $42 steak he had when we were out. True story.

I made a quick chopped salad to go with this and it was a very nice dinner. This was probably more labor intensive than I would usually do on a weeknight, though. On a stressful, hectic night I would opt to bake these in the oven.

On Tuesday night I made the No Name Superb & Simple Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breasts:

The color of this meal is freaking me out. It looked much prettier on the plate. Trust me.

I'm a fan of just about anything parmesan, let's just get that straight. As far as flavor and tenderness, these chicken breasts were great. I also followed the directions specifically and they baked perfectly.

These are not something that I would normally use, because we don't usually eat chicken with breading. But, this was good chicken and went really well with fresh handmade Mushroom Pasta from Pasta Puttana and peas.

This was the easiest meal by far.

On Wednesday I made No Name Original Salmon Fillets:

Don't judge based on this sad picture. Seriously, I need photo lessons.

I thought the salmon itself had good flavor and I liked the pop-up timer indicator (see them in the photo?). Of the three meals, I enjoyed the salmon the least. I found it to be over seasoned and needed more time to bake than the directions indicated. Matt really liked it, he is easy to please and loves salmon.

I served the salmon with sauteed cabbage, which was not my original plan, but I had an entire head of cabbage (which I purchased to stuff my bra to bring down the awful engorgement from laying off the nursing). I hate to see a whole cabbage go to waste, so I used it and it was pretty good.

My favorite product by far were the steaks. I would absolutely cook them again. I like to know what is going into our food and I felt these steaks really allowed me to control the flavor and seasoning level. It's only fair to mention that eating these products on a regular basis doesn't fit in my goal for 80% of our meals to be organic, but leaves room for them. All the meals were easy and pretty healthy and I would eat them again.

Did all this meat talk make you hungry? Well, here is your chance to try out some No Name Premium Meats yourself. I'm giving away a package that will give you coupons for free steaks and chicken, as well as an additional $5 off coupon. That's a $45 value!

Here's how to enter:

1. Comment on this post about which No Name Premium Meats product you'd like the most. Be sure to include an email address if it doesn't connect back to your blog. (You must comment to be entered!)

2. Follow Hannemaniacs. (Look on the right side bar to follow.) Click on the "Join this Site" button.

3. Like the Hannemaniacs Facebook page.

4. Follow Hannemaniacs on Twitter.

5. Mention this giveaway to your network on Facebook and/or Twitter (one entry for each) by pasting this in your status: Enter to win free No Name meats at www.hannemaniacs.com. 

Please let me know which of the above actions you have done to be counted.

So, that's SIX possible entries per person. Contest ends at 9 am Friday, February 24th. Enter now!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! The winner was chosen by using RANDOM.ORG: Nicki from What Others Dream, Dreamers Do! I'll contact you for addresses and the meat will be sent to you!

Thanks for everyone for participating!

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned No Name Premium Meats complimentary for review, as well as a prize package to give away. All opinions are my own.