If any of you have been frustrated as I was by not being able to configure iTunes to ignore inserted Audio CDs I have found the solutions. What we do is configure the CD and DVD handling preferences to not load iTunes. Here is how:
Access the 'CDs & DVDs' System Preferences Page
Apple->System Preferences, CDs & DVDs
Original Screenshot:
Now select Ignore for the option when inserting an Audio CD. We can also see that we can accomplish similar changes for DVDs and Picture CDs. Hope this helps others as it helped me.