How to make a Meal in a Jar

Yep. It's pretty much that straightforward. People are SO mystified by the idea, but there really is nothing to it! Here's a breakdown on a few of those details:

1. Order Thrive Life ingredients for your recipe. This is important, because the quality of your ingredients really matters!! When you get high quality ingredients that you know will taste good, this food isn't going to just look cool on your shelf...it's going to taste awesome. Because the vast majority of Thrive Life food is non-GMO, Certified Gluten Free, and has no MSG or artificial flavors or colors...you know you're getting the best possible ingredients available. Add to that the food is freeze-dried on state-of-the-art freeze dryers, the best in the world...and you can't go wrong! It's going to taste AWESOME.

2. Wide-mouth jars are important (but not required). Although some of the recipes CAN go into the small mouth jars, some ingredients (like big noodles or pieces of meat or big pieces of broccoli) are a royal pain in the neck to cram in that tiny opening, and then dump it back out of the opening when you're ready for use! If you already have the small mouth jars...go ahead and use them. But if you're out and about and come across the wide mouth jars, get them!

Another thing I like to do is get smaller jars - pint sized, and 1/2 pint sized...and cut the recipes down in half or in fourths to put in those little jars. Then they are the perfect recipe size for my husband to take to work, or a couple or single person to have an instant meal without tons of leftovers.

3. Measure ingredients into jars. It goes without saying, but make sure your jars and hands are clean and DRY! You don't want ANY moisture to get into your ingredients! I like using one of those canning jar funnels to measure everything in, so that the top of the jar stays clean. You can also get a disposable cup and cut off the bottom of it, to make a funnel. It works nicely.

When measuring the food in, I like to start with some of the biggest pieces of food like meat or diced potatoes. Next, measure in some of the powders (such as spices, sour cream powder, etc) to fill in the cracks, so you can shake it down around the meat – this allows you to fit more food in. Then you can add the medium sized foods like chopped onions. I like to finish with something on top that isn’t powdery or spicy – something that won’t jump out at you when you open the jar.

4. Seal your jar. I choose to use oxygen absorber packets as an extra layer of protection for my food so I know it will stay fresh longer. You can find them on Amazon for around $10 for 100 of them. I just pop one into the top of each finished jar, then put on a new lid with a ring tightly closed. It seals within a few hours of closing the jar. I know some that have those nifty jar vacuum sealers that they use instead of oxygen packets, and those would work fine and dandy too.

Is it REQUIRED to seal the jars? Not necessarily - it would just depend on how soon you plan to use it. Here's the deal: most of the ingredients you get from Thrive Life have a 25 YEAR shelf life when it's sealed in their cans. Once the cans are opened, most of it is good for up to one year, depending on your climate and how much humidity you are exposed to. I find that all of the veggies and dairy hold up great, along with most of the meat. (Pulled pork and ham have a short shelf life, so don't use those unless you plan to consume within weeks.) Fruit tends to go soft the fastest.

So...when you open those cans and measure the ingredients into jars, you are essentially dealing with the opened can shelf life of roughly one year. I plan on just consuming those jar meals in that one-year time frame. Theoretically, if you re-seal it into your jar, you should be able to get a longer shelf life. But there are variables that could affect that - for one, your pretty jar is clear glass that is letting in light. Light affects the shelf life. When you pack that meal, if you accidentally get any moisture in there, that's going to affect the shelf life as well. I like to seal those jars just to help them stay fresher, and then plan on using up the meals within a year. They work great!

What if I don't have a jar, and want to put it in a Ziploc bag instead? That's fine...as long as you use it within a week or two. Believe it or not, but those bags aren't very airtight. It's ok for short term use, but definitely not a good long term storage strategy. I only use Ziploc bags for storing a meal if I'm going camping or on a road trip and don't want to deal with the heavy, bulky jars...since I plan on consuming it within a week during our travels.

Why make my own meal in a jar, anyway? I love having the ability to customize the meals to suit my tastes! If I need to leave out an ingredient due to an allergy, I can easily do that. I know exactly what is going into the meals, and don't have to worry about weird artificial junk in my meals. Most of the recipes I have come from recipes originally made from scratch, but discovered I could shortcut by combining the ingredients into a jar for an instant meal. You can do this with your own recipes too! I also like this more than freeze meals (which I used to do), because those meals take a FULL day to assemble, trash the kitchen in the meantime, take up a ton of space in the freezer, and then require planning ahead to thaw them - who has time for that?!?

These jar meals are awesome for SO many occasions!!

Camping - no worrying about coolers, germs, or clean up, and it cooks FAST.
Road trips - avoid eating out every meal and cook in your hotel!
Leaving with kids to cook - if I'm out working or on date night, my kids can easily cook this up, and it sure as heck beats a mac n' cheese dinner.
Helping a friend who is sick or expecting a baby - seriously...what better gift can you give to an expectant mom, than some easy dinners? Once those first couple weeks of excitement are gone and mom still has to come up with dinner AND care for a baby...these are perfect! Fast and easy to cook, minimal kitchen clean up, no thawing or prepping...it's a dream come true.
Gifts for elderly - when you can't come up with a useful gift for your elderly relatives...why not give them something practical, that they can actually use? If your elderly relatives have health problems and cooking is hard for them, this is perfect.
Teacher gifts - I LOVE giving these to my kids' teachers as a little token of appreciation, and they love getting them! Sure beats another apple or mug to clutter up their desk. Just sayin.
College students - how many college students wouldn't LOVE to have some delicious variety? I'm sending my daughter to college with this, so I know she will be eating healthy instead of relying on Fruit Loops and Ramen for her diet.
OR just too tired to function? Some days, even ordering a pizza or going out to eat takes too much effort! I was exhausted beyond strength last week, and was SO glad to have this available because I didn't have to think or do anything - just dumped it in a pan, added water, and let it cook while I laid down. It was perfect.

...need I go on?? These jar meals are the perfect solution for everyone! So...pick a recipe (there are lots here on my blog!), order your ingredients (make sure you're on the discount shopping program for those 30% discounts!), gather up some jars, and start putting your meals together! It usually takes me less than an hour to put together a whole batch of 12-15 jars of one recipe, and then I'm set for a long time. You'll be so happy to have them ready to use!

Let me know how your experience is in putting these meals together and using them!