There are so many ways (and reasons) to preserve food (scroll to the bottom of this post to see a blogger round-up of tons of great food preservation posts). While most people think about canning or dehydrating when they think about food preservation, we wanted to touch on something a little different today. We are firm believers in having a fully-stocked “home store” not just for every day convenience, but also in case of a long term emergency situation. We blog about this a lot over at Food Storage Made Easy.
You can dehydrate or purchase freeze-dried/dehydrated single ingredients and store them on the shelf with the intention of making meals out of them. But how often do you actually put together a meal and try it out? Are you going to wait until there is an emergency before you realize you don’t have all the right flavorings to complete a meal? We can beat those battles by putting together Meals in a Jar! These jar meals are great for:
- Zero prep dinners on a busy night
- Quick and easy meal for someone in need
- Church or group activity to make a lot at a time and each take some home
- Make lots of jars to keep in your long term food storage as meals
Here is one of our favorite recipes converted to a meal in a jar. I’ll include some cute labels and conversions for doing big batches below.
THRIVE CHICKEN CHILI RECIPE
Ingredients
3/4 c. Freeze-Dried Chopped Chicken
1/2 c. Instant Black Beans
1/2 c. Instant Brown Rice
1/2 c. Freeze-Dried Sweet Corn
1/4 c. Freeze-Dried Chopped Onion
1/4 c. Freeze-Dried Green Chilies
1/4 c. Freeze-Dried Diced Tomatoes
2 T. Thrive Tomato Powder
2 T. Chicken Bouillon
1 tsp. Ground Cumin
1 tsp. Chili Powder
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
Instructions:
Add all ingredients to a quart-sized mason jar in order listed above. Add one oxygen absorber or seal the jar with a FoodSaver Jar Attachment. When ready to cook, bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add ingredients and let simmer for 15-20 minutes. Delicious served with tortilla chips or cornbread.
To download labels for your jars CLICK HERE.
To make 15 jars of this recipe using Thrive ingredients (with some product left over on a few of the items) you would need to purchase the following products:
1 #10 Can Freeze-Dried Chopped Chicken
1 #10 Can Instant Black Beans
1 #10 Can Instant Brown Rice
1 #10 Can Freeze-Dried Sweet Corn
1 Pantry Can Freeze-Dried Chopped Onion
1 Pantry Can Freeze-Dried Green Chili Peppers
1 Pantry Can Freeze-Dried Diced Tomatoes (use a little less than 1/4 c. or else buy a #10 can)
1 Pantry Can Thrive Tomato Powder
1 Pantry Can Chicken Bouillon
1 large jar Ground Cumin
1 large jar Chili Powder
1 large jar Garlic Powder
Join us as we share different reasons and methods of how we preserve food to create a long-term storage plan for our families. Click on each link to be taken to a new blog with helpful information and tips.
Mom with a PREP – How to Dehydrate Ginger and Make Ginger Powder
Preparedness Mama – Make Jam Without Pectin
Mama Kautz – Dehydrating
Busy B Homemaker – Freezer Jam
Ed That Matters – Anyone Can Do It: Fool Proof Food Storage
The Apartment Prepper – Easy Marinated Mushrooms
The Homesteading Hippy – How to Use Your Pressure Canner
Montana Homesteader – Making and Preserving Cherry Pit Syrup
Are We Crazy or What – How to Dehydrate Cherries
Your Thrive Life – How I Preserve Food: Meals in a Jar
Melissa K Norris – Re-Usable Canning Tattler Lids-Do They Really Work?
Real Food Living – Preserve and Store Grains with Dry Ice
Cooke’s Frontier – Smoking
Homestead Dreamer – Water Bath Canning
Evergrowing Farm – How to Preserve Red Chile
Survival Sherpa – Modern Mountain Man MRE’s
The Backyard Pioneer – Fermentation
Trayer Wilderness – How We Preserve Food
Living Life in Rural Iowa – Vegetable Soup
The Organic Prepper – How to Make Jam without using added Pectin
Homesteading Mom – How I Preserve Broccoli and Goat Cheese Soup
A Matter of Preparedness – How I Preserve Using Mylar Bags
- Jodi Weiss Schroeder
http://yourthrivelife.com
Hi there! I’m Jodi. I teach busy moms how to save time and money in the kitchen while making healthy and delicious meals using freeze-dried foods.
Sariah says
We made this meal-in-a-jar and my family loved it! And I loved how easy it was to make. Thank you so much for sharing. I will be making this again and again.
Rachel E Lininger says
Where would even begin to purchase supplies to make chicken chili?
dj says
I’m taking the dive! I like the sound of this idea and it looks good. I didn’t want to invest in a lot of freeze dried foods and wonder how to use them. With lots of reading I think I can do this.
Jodi and Julie says
Awesome! Let us know how it works for you!
Tasha says
What’s the shelf life for the quart jars? Will the oxygen absorber or using vacuum seal last longer?
Jodi and Julie says
The shelf life would be the “open” shelf life of the ingredient with the shortest shelf life. Adding an oxygen absorber or vacuum sealing will definitely extend that at least another year or two.
Marianne says
Could you explain the vacumn sealing of a mason jar. Also, what is the serving size of the recipes? Thanks so much!!
Jodi and Julie says
The jars typically serve 3-4 adults. I bought a jar attachment for my vacuum sealer so I attach it to the top and it sucks the air out and seals the lid thus extending the shelf life of the food. Hope that helps!
Dawn says
Hi! They have attachments to seal mason jars for the vacuum bag FoodSavers.
I’ve also seen a few a ladies on youtube use a brake bleeder to do it (I have not tried this.)
Good luck!
CANDACE says
How do you freeze dry meat, and handling of it when using the jar recipes?
Leonard L Lamers says
perfect 🙂 a buying list, now you need to make other recipes to use with the same buying list 🙂 then ill be hooked and use your product 🙂 ps thk you
Bets says
I’m trying to store for long term – just in case….. This recipe will work great & now I know what I need to buy to make a great recipe. Will be checking for more meals-in-a-jar.
sxs.vuclip.com says
I was reading through some of your blog posts on this website and I
think this internet site is real informative! Continue posting.
Melissa says
I am a THRIVER for life…where can I find a whole bunch of these meals in a jar?
Kathryn L Briggeman says
How long would this recipe last if placed in mylar bags with dessicants?