Meals In A Jar - Create Your Own!

hey everyone welcome back to Vicky's country home and today I'm going to attempt to answer some of the questions that I've received about meal in a jar a lot of people want to know where I got the recipes did I get them from books how do I come up with this and there is no one answer so what I'm gonna do today is kind of explain to you how I come up with meals in a jar and then how I make them it's not rocket science it's not one size fits all you can make I won't say anything cuz maybe some things you wouldn't be able to although you could probably do part of them but you could make a lot of your own recipes by using dried dehydrated or three stride products and how you make those that's up to you if you dehydrate your own vegetables and meats and store those properly then you can probably use those to make a meal in a jar you treat it differently that's all and that all has to be taken into consideration so with that said let's get started and I'm gonna show you how I make a meal in a jar the first thing I do is I go looking for inspiration and that can be anywhere I've been asked do I use books I have a lot of books some of these are meal in a jar some are food storage this is from my dehydrator but I have a ton of cookbooks - anything can give you inspiration if you see a recipe and you think wow I'd like to have that quick and easy to go when I come home from work when I go camping whatever you just have to go through a thought process and that's what I do so the first thing you have to decide is what do I want it for that could be any number of things that could be for a quick and easy dinner after work it could be camping it could be backpacking it could be for someone sick or new baby or something and they need quick easy meals it could be for an elderly person that just can't cook the way they used to because of whatever physical ailment they might have and in my case I make a lot of these for Shana because she works hard she does house cleaning dog sitting yard work stacking firewood pretty much you name it she takes care of one lady who has had surgeries and she's had to go and stay there for weeks at a time help take care of her take care of her dog kennel that she runs and take care of her other clients at the same time so when she comes home she takes care of her client and all of her responsibilities and she doesn't want to eat till late because once she eats she's done so if it's left to her she's not going to cook something that is going to be good for her and that isn't bad for her so that's how I really got started doing this because I bought most these ingredients to be able to provide her meals that she could just boil water throw it in and have an easy dinner that was something she liked to so decide what this is going to be used for then you have to decide how many people it's going to be for and in our case usually I'm gonna make a pint although occasionally I might make it in a quart jar that's totally dependent on how many servings you want but in for most cases a pipe is two servings and a quart is four servings so you kind of have to decide that you can even make snack size you can make a half pint single serving you really can scale this up or down as much as you want and that is wonderful especially if you're doing this for an elderly person the other option you have is I make them in jars because they are going to be used at home or at one of Shana's clients the other option is mylar bags this is a one gallon I believe it's the one gal I don't remember ziplock if you're making this for hiking backpacking camping or for those of you that are considering bugging out whatever these are a really good option first of all they don't break you can use the zip top and then you can actually put a flat iron or an iron and seal this these will keep quite a while you can write or print labels and put all your instructions right here on the bag when it's time to cook it and serve it you can peel the zip top peel this top off open up the zip top pour your hot very very hot water in it zip it back up and let it sit it's got gussets on the bottom which allow it to sit pretty flat so that's another option because you're actually cooking in the back you can eat from the bag if you really wanted to I wouldn't but you know depends on your circumstances so mylar bags are an option then you have to say okay what do I want to eat and that's where your inspiration comes from so one of my clients from bookkeeping has a very specific diet she really can't eat a lot of things it has to be mostly vegetables she can have chicken or fish and very very very low or no sodium and she was interested in my meals in a jar after seeing the video because she runs a business and when she gets home she's tired and she also goes camping so double reasons so for her she wanted to say well what should I get and I thought you know what what better way than to make her a meal in a jar let her try it and see if she likes it so I made some of my homemade chicken vegetable soup but I put freeze-dried and in a jar and it has chili powder it's got garlic powder it has my homemade chicken bouillon that is no sodium carrots peas celery zucchini green beans tomatoes spinach and chicken all she has to do is put this in a pan in boiling water five to ten minutes it's a really good soup oh it's got cumin no I don't think I put cumin for her because I didn't know if she could eat it or how much so it's totally customizable yeah oh it has potatoes whatever kind of vegetables I could think of they go in my soups and they go in this that was one recipe that I came up with quickly and that was the purpose for it I'm going to make one that I found in this book the meals in a jar by Stephanie Peterson and she's also known as chef Tess and these were written for honey Vale free strike foods but if you're adapting them you might have to adjust a little bit but for the most part you can make the work so I'm going to make double cheeseburger skillet because I know Shana will love this and some le'Bryan so there's the recipe and I gonna follow it pretty close in this case so you'll see this is how I get my inspiration I come from books but I also just get ideas or I take it from my own recipes so I am going to make this and you can watch me and let me move the camera so you can get a good view alright so we're gonna put together the double cheeseburger skillet and this is a pretty simple one it doesn't take that many ingredients so let's get started on that we're gonna put in a half a cup of instant milk and so and it doesn't have to be exact and you want to use a funnel especially when you have powdery ingredients like this which you almost always will so we're going to put that in the bottom of the jar we're just gonna kind of shake to settle it because the trick to meals in a jar sometimes you think there's no way we're gonna put everything in this one jar you will so next we're going to add a half a cup a freeze-dried ground beef and these are like precooked little beef ground beef pellets they don't look like much but they actually do taste pretty good so we're going to add a half a cup of those and we're just going to put that right on top and again we're just gonna shake because we want it to settle so that's done now we'll move the ground beef out of the way and if I don't move things out of the way as I use them I get mixed up and that's not a good thing but any time I cook so I try and kind of move them off now we're going to put in two cups of elbow macaroni you can buy it I buy mine in bulk wherever I can to me it really doesn't taste any different so I'm gonna put two cups on and if you look it's looking like oh my gosh that jar is full well it looks like it but it's not yet so yeah we're gonna shake it and settle as much as we can and you can see we've gotten a little more room on top not a lot that's okay now I'm going to put in I'm using instant clear gel the recipe calls for ultra gel which is non-gmo I don't have it I'd have to order it I don't have it so I'm using the instant clear gel you might even get away with the regular cooking type clear gel I'm not sure but I I think it would be fine you could even use cornstarch because this is a modified corn starch so now I'm going to add three tablespoons of this instant clear gel and this is a thickener that's what it's gonna do so as you're cooking this this is gonna give it that thick kind of gooey type texture that you want alright so that went right on top and again they're gonna shake it down in there and it goes down it doesn't stay at the top it's probably prettier if you put it all at the bottom but you may not get everything in there the same way so that's what I do and then we're gonna add 1/4 cup of freeze-dried chopped onions and again all of this that I'm using is thrive because I am a consultant and I bought it and signed up mostly so that I could buy this stuff for Shana's meals you know I am NOT going to try and sell it if you want to purchase it I will have it available mod link to my website and it seems expensive but when you realize how much everything expands not everything but a lot of things will expand in size and they definitely gain a lot of weight so it's really not as expensive as it seems but it is a large outlay upfront unless you do it over time so again if you want to experiment with dehydrated or whatever feel free make your own recipe that's how I got started I've never started again using ideas from other people but you can definitely do this you don't have to go all out that's personal choice I'm gonna differ from the recipe here a little bit because to me when you have something like this that's kind of like macaroni and cheese but it's got the beef in it and everything else when I make my macaroni cheese I add garlic and I add cayenne so I'm just gonna add 1/8 of a teaspoon of cayenne I don't want a lot it just gives it that little bit of kick and extra flavor I'm gonna add think about 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper and maybe maybe 1/2 teaspoon if I can get the jar open that one's too bit that's a half a teaspoon of garlic powder I just want to add more layers of flavor because that's what I like but feel free to do it however you choose and again the pepper cayenne and garlic where my editions and I'm gonna put in probably one packet of no sodium sodium free beef bouillon and this is the brand I'm using I'm gonna make my own mix it just like I did for the chicken but I haven't had time and I do that as the need arises so I'll do that at another point but for now I'm using a packet and again just make sure you shake it all down settle things in there we really want to make it settle down and then we're going to use its 1/2 a cup of the freeze-dried cheddar cheese and I'm gonna put as much in here as I can so we're gonna pack it down and I think I'm gonna add a little more because that's what we like and that's pretty full again I could probably get a little bit more but first I'm gonna add the final ingredient that was called for by chef Tess and that is a quarter teaspoon of turmeric so first of all it's gonna give it that beautiful color so anak adds flavor and it's good for you how could you not want to do that let me and again shake it shake it shake it you want that to settle oh man I just a touch to the top now I'm not gonna seal this yet I'll do all the ceiling at one time and I am going to use my vacuum sealer and I have both sizes for the regular mouth I'm gonna use this one it fits if I were using a wide mouth I have one that will fit that also and you're just gonna use your regular lids and rings and Nick can you make sure everything's clear and all that if you're not going to vacuum seal or you want to keep this on you on your shop for awhile or bug out or food storage whatever then you absolutely want to use oxygen absorbers and these are 300 cc's they're little I would use one 300 CC on a quart jar or a pint to that matter I I don't buy anything smaller than at 300 cc may make them I don't so that would be for anything longer at all these will be eaten very short-term so I don't really care vacuum sealing will work and so that's what I'm going to do and you would also use the oxygen absorbers in your mylar bags if this we're gonna be going backpacking or anything else squeeze out as much air as possible and then put the oxygen absorber in and seal it that will keep us fresh for much longer now let me get set up for the next one and I'll show you how I completely make these things up out of my head alright so this one again I don't have a recipe I'm just winging it and that's the fun I love doing that I really eyed whether I'm cooking or making something like a meal in a jar if you can make it up as you go and then try it see what it comes out like so this is gonna be roast beef with vegetables gravy and rice and it's all gonna be in one jar and I'm making a pint I hope I can get it all to fit I think I can this is the thrive savory beef gravy mix I've never tried it I haven't opened the can yet we're gonna do that right now so that we can see what it tastes like because you always how can you make a recipe if you don't know what your ingredients taste like and I'm gonna dig up the oxygen absorber that they had in there because it's no good anymore they are one-time-use once they remove the oxygen from a container they're no longer any good so I'm just kind of stirring those just to break it up a little but I'm also gonna take a taste just to see what I'm working with because again I've never used it before it tastes really good it's a little on the salty air site so if sodium is an issue cut back or whatever you want to do you can always add beef bullion if sodium is an issue but it has a really good taste so I'm gonna start out with about I think of an ease about one and a half tablespoons because it says two teaspoons is a serving so that's how much I'm gonna put in there let's shake it so it's settled all right so now I want to put my rice in there and again I haven't opened it and this is instant white rice I believe it's been parboiled and then freeze-dried so it cooks fast but there's other options out there I'm sure at the grocery store I don't buy them but you can definitely try those so this is instant white rice and let's see if serving is a half a cup so I'm gonna I think I'm gonna try to put half a cup in there give or take again there's no I'm making it up so we'll put our half cup of rice in there take out the used up oxygen absorber close it and put it out of the way this is where you get really creative okay so what do we want to have in here well I think I'm gonna use about a tablespoon of this is a dehydrated carrot it's little chips so they actually rehydrate refresh pretty quickly so we'll put a little bit of that in there we definitely want to put some onion so we're also going to use the freeze-dried chopped onion I put about a tablespoon but you can see we're still in good shape in the dark oh sorry I'm getting used to where this camera is I'm really still still learning that's okay I can do this I thought maybe I'd put a little bit of freeze-dried mushroom pieces not a lot and these are pretty good sized pieces there's maybe some small ones in there and I'm just gonna take a small handful maybe this will make about a tablespoon but I'm gonna just kind of crumble it don't necessarily need big hunks in there just little bits of flavor that you'll kind of say oh that was good all right we're gonna use some freeze-dried green peas and I love these again this is something that I used to buy the frozen and half the time I'd go back and they were freezer burn they were no good and I'd never even used them I don't know why they don't keep for me but they don't so when I discovered these it's like yay now I have them on my shelf so when I need green peas I got them so I love that and I think I'm gonna put about 1/4 cup of those and let's see we're gonna put our beef in next and this is the freeze-dried beef slices and they are good size little chunks of meat and you think oh my gosh they cost so much for this little can well in reality they aren't that bad because this a half a cup is a serving size in addition it's less than half a cup this will make two cups and I'm probably going to use 1/2 cup so I've made several meals from this one little camp so when you see the price freak out don't it really goes quite a long way so then again we're getting up to the top of the jar so we're gonna shake it I'm gonna get it settled as best we can and now I'm going to add freeze-dried potato dices these are pretty small pieces they're not huge and we have our rice so we don't need a ton but I like it in there so I'm gonna put whatever I'm gonna fill the jar with it because this just makes it a nice hearty meal so again just it's not quite half a cup that's what fit in my jar so look at that isn't it pretty you see the different colors and layers and again if you're going to store this long-term leave just enough room for that oxygen absorber it doesn't take much it's very well here's the use of one you can see they're very small then they don't take up a lot of room but they're also important because oxygen heat and light are enemies of yours stored foods so you want to make sure that you protect this food the best you can I keep it in a dark place in fact my pantry is so light because I have a solar tube in their ceiling because being off-grid that's an interior room it's a great way to have light for free but when I did it I wasn't thinking of my home canned goods and dehydrated and such because light is not their friend so I have wire shelves and I put a shower curtain across the front and you know what it works wonderful I have to move it out of the way but that's no big deal and it was inexpensive so here is my made-up beef gravy vegetables and rice so simple naps to rehydrate this I would probably put this in boiling water or again if you're doing it in the mylar pouch I would put it I would probably start with an equal amount of water as you have ingredients that some things may use a little more so you kind of have to play with it when you're making these things up for the cheeseburger skillet that I made that one's going to take let's see 6 cups of hot water for 4 cups of ingredients because that macaroni is going to swell up it's gonna take a lot this instant rice I would my guess and I'm gonna look down the pan right now instant rice to rehydrate it you're going to okay where does it say 3/4 cup of rice - 3/4 cup of water so it's it's equal so I wouldn't worry I'd pretty much for this one I would pretty much add equal amount of hot water and briefly cook it you can always add a little more if you need it you don't want it soupy though and that rice only takes 3 to 5 minutes I mean that's great it's very quick yeah this is a complete meal but again you can add whatever you want to it so what do I have left to cover I think that's it when you want to make your own meals in a jar consider what you want it for who you want it for how it's going to be used and take your inspiration from everywhere one of the best things of cooking for your family is taking what your family loves best and making it for them and if you are making meals in a jar do the same thing absolutely get some of these books and I'll try and put links for them below because they are a very good source of information on what to use how to use it how to store it how to properly use the oxygen absorbers and store it long-term that information is all out there don't reinvent the wheel but take their recipes take their guidance and use that to make what you love and what your family loves try it I mean if what are you gonna do you're probably gonna like it may need tweaks but what I also do and I will be doing this as soon as the videos done I write my recipe down that I just put in here so when I want to do this again and I'm pretty sure I will I have it all on a recipe card and I can easily recreate it I can also go back and say well you know I wish I had done this it's all here if I want more seasoning if I want less of something as soon as you make that the first time go back and revisit your note card see what worked and what didn't make your changes and that way next time you do it it's already all the guesswork is done so I hope you enjoyed this I hope you found it helpful the more we share knowledge the better for everybody and I've seen a lot of these meals and adorable videos I really hadn't seen how someone puts one together that they create one they may be out there but I haven't seen them yet so I hope this helps if you have any questions be sure and comment and I will try and put links to some of this below so you can go check it out all right tonight I'm going to prepare the cheeseburger skillet meal in a jar that I showed you how to put together this is so hard I did not use an oxygen absorber or seal this because I decided I was gonna make this tonight so look at that isn't it pretty so you pour it in a skillet yeah there's a little bit stuck to the body okay that was step one step two add six cups of hot water this was just boiling so it's really hot that's four cups okay six cups of hot water bring it to a boil [Applause] give it a good stir now as soon as this comes to a boil I'm going to cover and I'm gonna reduce the heat and it will probably cook 10 to 12 minutes so let me do that and I'll bring you back for the taste all right so I cooked this it was between 12 and 15 minutes and I think it went closer to the 15 I have also let it sit for about Oh 3 or 4 minutes because as the recipe says it needs time for it thicken as it cools slightly so it's still not totally absorbing all the liquid so I might even reduce the water I don't know by quarter cup half cup but it looks creamy it the macaroni is done so now I'm gonna taste this and I'm gonna see if it's what I think it will be and if I need to do something different so you can see that's that little bitty pellet of ground beef has blowin up and there's a cheesy sauce so let me taste it it's good I think next time I would add more cheese and that's my personal choice so maybe I would reduce a little bit of the macaroni to make room for the cheese also I didn't add any salt of any kind I just added the no sodium bullion so it needs some so I think I'm gonna add just a little bit of garlic salt maybe a teaspoon because I also didn't add any garlic and y'all know me and garlic we're best buddies so stir it up and then I will take another taste first spoon that's much better okay so this is gonna go in my notes on my note card with my recipe then I'm going to reduce the macaroni just a touch add a little more cheese and I am definitely gonna put some garlic salt in it but you know what it's really pretty good and we're having this for dinner tonight so thanks for watching viki's country home and thanks for coming along with me on this experiment so we will talk again soon and go check out my twenty five hundred subscriber giveaway for either a pressure canner or a water bath canner comment enter I'd love to hear the feedback thanks for watching

Channel: Vickie's Country Home

Views: 114,403

Rating: 4.8562579 out of 5

Keywords: Meal In A Jar, Meal in a pouch, freeze dried food, Dehydrated food, Pantry meal, Meals for seniors, Preparedness, Prepping, Thrive Life

Id: _Ao6_v1Zjgg

Length: 40min 40sec (2440 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 03 2018