Food storage meal in a jar
 

I found these on pinterest. But I am absolutely in love!

It fits into emergency prep. (How great would these be to dump and prep if the whole family is sick, or to have in a mylar bag for a BOB?) But it fits even more with a new baby meal, leave the teens and kids with dinner, while mom and dad have date night, or crud, its 6pm, what's for dinner sorts of emergencies.

While it does sound like it cuts down on what might otherwise be longer term storage (5-7 yrs vs 30 yrs) I think on a small scale it would be worth it for the convenience, and I am guessing it might be cheaper than some of the freeze dried convenience meals.

Here is the link: http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.co...20jar%20method

Wow! Thanks for posting that!

Neat, thanks!

We like these recipes! I keep 12 jars "ready to go" in our cupboard for days we are on the run, the cook is sick, we are just uninspired with the menu plans, etc. Yesterday I told DS (13) dinner his job, I wasn't in the mood. He grabbed the Chicken Veggie Casserole jar out of the cupboard. We hadn't tried that one, yet. It was very good (we used a quart of home canned meat in it).

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/sho...d.php?t=211821

I really think you'll like the above thread that is in the Vault. Talking about meals in a jar.

Thanks for posting her blog. I am very interested in not just the jars but many of the arcticles she has written.

i am going to bookmark that site! we don't have any of the dried meats, but one day we will!

Great blog! Thanks for posting the link! :)

The meals in a jar mixes are a great way to use the thinner mayo jars and jars with slight blemishes that you would not use to pressure can vs using up your good canning jars!

Thanks for the link! It looks like a lot of good info there.

Thank you so much! I have been googling for stuff like that for a few weeks now. I don't know why I didn't find her on one of my searches. I'm making up jars for my daughter in college. This is just what I needed.

has anyone tried the freeze dried products? Which brands do you like? Do you feel it is worth the money?
is there a way to freeze dry meat at home?
Thanks!

Funny! I found that same site yesterday and sent it to someone here for camping food. We all must be on the same wave length this week.I am going to try to try these with home dried food and tvp. I love the idea of jars of food on the shelf for emergency or camp uses.

could you do these in a food saver type bag? if you suck all the air out, would it last as long?

i was just thinking that that would be a nice addition to the bug out bags and made more to our tastes than the mre things, but you would have to worry about the weight and fragility of the jar.

I wonder if dehydrated foods would work the same as the freeze dried foods she used:confused:

I use my own dehydrated foods in her recipes and they work just fine. I make my own dried hamburger rocks and I do my own beans along with any veg I have available. That brings the cost of the meals down substantially.

I can most of my meat (verses using dry), so I just adjusted the directions to say, "grab a jar of XYZ" and then I cut back a bit on the liquid requirements since the jars of meat have liquid.

Foodsaver bags, depends on the recipe. The noodles may pop a hole in the bag and they may break when being vacuumed. I would try it first with meals without sharper ingredients.

Cool thanks, I am going to try some of these. I have a dehydrater and didn't want to spend extra money buying cans of freeze dried stuff. I to would use my canned meat with the recipes.

I was lucky to be able to go to one of her demonstrations at Honeyville in Rancho Cucamonga CA a few months ago about using different grains. All of the recipes were very good. On the website check out her decorated breads, they are beautiful.

Do you think that using a vacuum sealer to seal the jars would mean it would be okay to skip the O2 absorbers? I am not really thinking 6-7 year storage, more like a year or 3...

I was also thinking about making it a jar of mix plus a jar of meat. Great minds think alike! <3

Vacuum seal should work. I use it for my dried foods, some have been packed that way for 2+ yrs and are fine.

Vacuum seal & O2 absorbers do the same thing. Rremove oxygen from the jar. I try to get at least 20 psi vacuum on my jars when storing dry goods.