Cooking healthy for my family has always been important to me. Healthy convenience food, at a price point affordable to a middle, working class family, has been challenging.
A few years ago, I was introduced to the concept of meals in a jar. I love to cook and consider myself a knowledgeable home chef. However, the time to devote one or two hours making dinner is not available. I am a busy mom of 7 children and my time is constrained. The meals in a jar are the dinner solution I needed!
With the meals in a jar, I can choose my ingredients, making healthy meals in advance for my family and making them in minutes instead of hours. I am not worried about produce spoiling in my refrigerator, or food getting lost in my freezer and freezer burned. I sat on this idea for two years. I'm slow to change and needed to wrap my head around freeze dried food. However, the though of having meals shelf stable was very appealing to me. I mean, dump and go HEALTHY dinners in under 30 minutes! That's a dream come true for crazy, busy people!
Is it the same as dehydrated? No. Will it taste like WWII survival crackers? No. Yuck. What preservatives are used? Zero. Is it allergen free? Yes.
A few years ago learned about the company Thrive Life and their freeze dried food. Briefly, I will explain Thrive Life's freeze drying process: Thrive's food is picked at peak ripeness, because food ripened on the plant tastes better. All of the food is flash frozen within 48 hours. The more perishable the food, the sooner it is frozen. Bananas, for example, once they are perfectly ripe on the plant, start to go down hill quickly and so they are frozen within 4 hours of being picked. Once the food is flash frozen, it is transported to the Thrive Life freeze drying facility in American Fork, UT. The food is naturally prepared. This means that there is no MSG, no preservatives, not genetically modified, and most foods have only one ingredient. Sealed in the can, the food lasts up to 25 years. Once opened, you have months, even up to a year to use it. You can see their food standards here. This site explains freeze drying in simple terms if you want to know more.
You can order all of these ingredients on my website here. The delivery service is the best way to go! You get free shipping on all preferred items (freeze dried) if your order is over $100. A great way to try multiple foods is by purchasing Thrive's Simple Plate meals. You get to try the food, all in one complete meal, and see how easy it is to cook with.
I love Thrivealizing recipes! These are my first batch of recipes. Some of these are from friends and some are my own. If you don't use Thrive's bouillons, then beware of sodium content. Thrive's bouillon is low sodium and no MSG or gluten.
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Recipe by Sarah Griesmyer
I crave the flavor of this soup. Sometimes, we add only about 5-6 cups of water and make this a taco dip. After it is cooked we top it with cheese, avocado and red onion and dig in!
Layer ingredients in jar in the order listed, except masa. Pour masa into bag and tie to jar.
Jar Ingredients:
2 tbsp. Thrive Chicken Bouillon
1 tbsp. Thrive Signature tomato sauce
½ tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chili powder
1 ½ tsp cumin
1 tsp cilantro, FD
½ c. chopped onion, FD
2 tbsp. green chilis, FD
¼ c. red bell pepper, FD
¼ c. green bell pepper, FD
½ c. tomato dices, FD
½ c. corn, FD
1 c. instant black beans
2/3 c. chopped chicken, FD
¼ cup. Masa
Day of Cooking Ingredients:
2 tbsp. Olive oil or better
1/2 of a lime, juiced or 1 tsp. hot sauce.
To cook:
Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil or butter in large sauce pot. Add contents of jar and stir, toasting 10 sec. Add 2 jars of water (8c.) and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low-med, cover and cook 30 minutes. Taste and salt if needed. Mix masa with 1/2 c. cold water. Add to soup and cook an additional 5 minutes, stir in lime juice. Serve with tortilla strips, fresh onion, avocado and shredded cheddar cheese.
Beef Stroganoff
Recipe from Shelli Rasmussen
This is my children’s favorite!!
Put in a quart jar in this order:
1 cup FD Beef Dices or Ground Beef
2 cups Egg Noodles (I use gluten free noodles for my family)
1/3 cup Espagnole (Savory Beef Gravy)
1/4 cup FD Chopped Onions
1/4 cup Sour Cream Powder
1 tsp Chef's Choice Seasoning Blend
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 1/4 TBSP Salad Seasoning Blend
Bring 5 cups of water to a boil. Pour contents of jar in the water. Let return to full boil. Reduce to medium heat and simmer for 12-15 minutes or until noodles are done. You may need to add in a little more water as it is cooking- it will depend on what kind of noodles you used and how many you crammed in to your 2 cups! Cover and let sit for 8-10 minutes before serving.
Sausage Zuppa Toscana
Recipe courtesy of Melissa Coombs, adaptation by Alison Larue
I've loved this soup since the first time I tasted it at Olive Garden. I've made many different copycat recipes and this one is as good as the original. I love the little spice kick that it has. Even my children tolerate the spice because it's so yummy!
Put in quart jar in this order:
½ cup Sour Cream Powder
1 TBSP Chicken Bouillon
1/4 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
½ tsp Freeze Dried Garlic (or use some garlic powder instead)
1 cup chopped kale, FD
¼ cup Freeze Dried Onions
1 cup Freeze Dried Sausage Crumbles
1 ½ cups Potato Chunks (dehydrated), plus a little more to fill the jar.
Day of cooking:
4 Strips of bacon
2 cloves of garlic, minced
To prepare in a crock pot, add soup to 6-8 cups of water and cook on low for 4 hours. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and bread sticks.
To cook in a pot, cook bacon until crispy. Remove bacon, saute fresh garlic in bacon grease and then dump all ingredients of jar into a pot. Add 7-8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, turn down to medium heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes or until potatoes and beans are tender. Serve and garnish with crumbled bacon.
Tortellini Soup
Recipe by Sarah Griesmyer
The original recipe did not call for carrots or celery, but after eating it with celery and carrots, I liked the balance in flavor it brought. So here you go, just a little bit of veggie, and a lot of color.
Ingredients
Layer in Jar in order listed:
1 tsp. garlic powder or 1 tbsp. dried garlic slices
1 tsp. Chef's Choice Seasoning or salt
1 tsp each of basil, thyme and oregano
¼ tsp crushed red pepper, or to taste (optional)
1 tsp. Thrive Beef Bouillon
½ c. Signature Tomato Sauce
½ c. chopped onion, FD
¼ c. celery, FD, packed
¼ c. diced carrot, dehydrated
1 c. ground beef, FD, crushed slightly
½ c. tomato dices, FD
8 oz mini Ravioli (dried from Trader Joe’s is perfect)
or tortellini (All of the tortellini will not fit in the jar. You will have to tie the pasta bag to the jar)
½ c. Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions:
Layer ingredient in order listed in quart size jar. Put parmesan in sealed bag and tie to outside of jar.
To cook:
Empty contents of jar into 8 cups of boiling water. Less water for thicker soup, more for thinner soup. Return to a simmer and cook, covered for 10 minutes or until ravioli float, stirring occasionally. Taste and salt if needed. Garnish with freeze dried Parmesan cheese before serving.
Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
Ingredients:
1/2 c. THRIVE Béchamel (Creamy White Sauce)
2 tbsp. THRIVE Sour Cream Powder
1 1/2 tsp. THRIVE Chopped Onions - Freeze Dried
1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 1/2 tsp. THRIVE Italian Seasoning Blend
1/2 tsp. THRIVE Chef's Choice
1 1/2 tsp. THRIVE Chicken Bouillon
1 c. THRIVE Seasoned Chicken Slices – Freeze Dried
1 c. THRIVE Broccoli - Freeze Dried
1 c. Egg Noodle Pasta (I use gluten free noodles)
1/2 c. THRIVE Shredded Parmesan Cheese - Freeze Dried
Directions:
Pre-measure all ingredients in a jar
Layer all of the ingredients in the order listed, into a wide mouth Quart-sized mason jar, except for the Parmesan cheese.
Put the Parmesan cheese in a separate bag alongside the jar. Or, you can just use fresh Parmesan cheese instead of the Freeze Dried cheese.
To cook:
Dump contents of the jar into a saucepan with 4 cups room temperature water. Let it sit in the cold water for 10 minutes, before turning on the stove. Bring to a boil on the stove, then turn stove down to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add additional water if needed. Taste and salt if needed.
Add the Parmesan cheese to the mixture and cook on low heat for 5 more minutes, stirring frequently until noodles are soft and cheese is incorporated.
