Food for a Year: Plastic and Mason Jar Dinners

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Plastic Alternative to Meals in a Mason Jar Dinners

Most of you survivalists out there are big into food storage (if you are not, it won’t be long till that bug bites you too).  There are many different methods to storing food:

• Canning
• Pressure canning
• Dehydrating
• Freezing
• Curing (for meat)
• Root Cellars
• Freeze Drying
• And more (if you prefer anything specific that you would like to add to the list, please do so in the comments).

I have discussed getting canned foods and dried beans and such from the market in my post about getting started.  Most of these things are already storable items, and the beans can have shelf life lengthened by adding oxygen eaters in a bucket with your beans.

Once most begin storing dried foods from the market, or they start dehydrating their own food, they store them in 5 gallon buckets.  Then they get a little smarter.  They decide that it is a good idea to go to 1 gallon buckets because they don’t want oxygen getting to 5 gallons of food when they use a little.  I suggest going a little bit further than this.  We can think about the dilemma here and find a solution.  All of the ingredients required for many meals for a family of 4 or 5 people can fit in a 1 quart (32 oz.) mason jar.

The idea is to figure out the recipes that can be produced by nothing but dried ingredients and water and place the dried ingredients in the mason jar.  Almost anything can be made this way.  The big advantage here?…  You only have to expose the food as you are about to cook it, so the other foods will have a longer shelf life.  You don’t even have to cook anything or pressurize anything!  You add your dehydrated or freeze-dried veggies, dried ingredients, and freeze-dried meat to the jar, throw in an oxygen absorber, and quickly place the lid on.

Jennifer over at http://rainydayfoodstorage.blogspot.com is great at making these recipes.  She shares a lot with everyone also.   Below is one example of the things that she creates:

Meals in a Mason Jar Dinners

ABC’s Sloppy Joe’s Jar Meal

• 1 cup Thrive FD Hamburger
• 1/2 cup Thrive FD Tomatoes
• 1/2 Cup Thrive FD Bell peppers
• 1/2 cup Abc pasta
• 1/4 cup Thrive Celery
• 1/4 Cup Thrive  Corn
• 1/4 cup Thrive Tomato power
• 4 Tablespoons Sloppy Joe Seasoning mix
• Layer Ingredients in a one quart caning jar add oxygen absorber and label.

Sloppy Joe Seasoning mix

• 1 cup Dried Minced Onion
• 3 Tablespoons Green Pepper Flakes
• 4 teaspoons dried minced Garlic
• 2 teaspoon Dry Mustard
• 2 teaspoons Celery Seeds
• 2 teaspoons chill powder

mix well together and store in a air tight container.

To cook the Jar meal

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil turn off heat let sit for 10 to 15 mins to rehydrate turn heat back on and let Simmer for 20 to 25 mins.

Well, I absolutely love this idea.  I have discussed the fact that mason jars shatter with my wife.  We know that all of the dried ingredients can be added to a 1 quart Mylar bags for safe food storage in the event of earthquakes or clumsy children.  So I like the beauty and tidiness of mason jars, but like the indestructibility of Mylar bags.

I think I found a good substitute for both.  I found bulk PET jars (the same plastic jars used for peanut butter) with lids.  So now we have the cleanliness of the mason jars, but the durability of plastic.  These jars are only to be used for dried food storage, not for canning, because they melt.  Mason jars are still the best for that.  I have found the plastic jars at www.containerandpackaging.com.

So, Jennifer, if you ever make your way over to see this post, thank you for the idea and information.

Your Turn: Are there any recipes that you could turn into a dried food storage recipe?