Meals in a Jar: Quick and Easy, Just-Add-Water, Homemade Recipes

I have been canning for more than 30 years. So, I have water bath canners, pressure canners, and a food dehydrator and a vacuum sealer already. I am already familiar with the correct USDA methods for canning meats, which is required for many of the main dishes. So I was thrilled with this book which takes things a step further and combines canned meats with other ingredients which you get ready ahead of time and combine in a meal kit. Essentially, you are making ready-to-eat meals at home that are shelf stable. It's a good way to stock a pantry, prepare for emergencies, or have home-made convenience food on hand. However, you don't have to be an expert to use this book. The basics are right there, and the author does remind people to check the USDA guidelines as well. That statement made me trust the recipes all the more. If you are a beginner and want to use this book, please be aware that you should learn to pressure can, and gather up the proper equipment. This book is not for the type of person who wants to toss a few ingredients in a jar and call it a meal. This book is for those who want to truly create meals ready to eat, from scratch, at home, and are willing to put in the work it takes to do that. These will be convenience foods later, but you do have to prepare them first. The thing is, you are often making 16 meals at once with these recipes. It's going to take some work in the kitchen--but on the day-to-day basis when you come home late from work and don't have time or energy to mess--you have it all done and food prep will just take minutes. So put in the time at the beginning, have short work of it later. If you already are the kind of person who stores food for emergencies, like I do, then you may already have a lot of the ingredients needed for some recipes on hand. For example, I have things such as dehydrated asparagus and carrots and onions in my pantry already. I also have a food dehydrator and can make my own. But people not used to using these things may be put off by the recipes in this book. Those who store dried foods, however, will find this book a treasure trove of ways to use and rotate their food storage. This is not just book a for "preppers," though. It's designed for people who like to do a lot of food preparation at once so they don't have to do it later. That you can also stock your pantry is a huge side benefit. There are dozens of recipes that appeal to me and that I plan to try. I will update my review later when I try some of them. I am in the process of getting together some ingredients I need first. My only disappointment with this marvelous new book is that there are no gluten-free alternatives. However, that's a minor complaint because I am capable of converting recipes and plan to do so with some of them. For example, instead of wheat pasta, I will use rice pasta. Instead of regular flour, I will use gluten-free flour and xanthan gum. There are recipes for everything from omelets made from dried eggs and canned or dried sausage to beef jerky, and some potential favorites look like the turkey pot pie and the pulled pork. The book includes advice about ingredients, and suggestions on where to begin if you are overwhelmed. If your goal is stocking your pantry, it is suggested that you start with vacuum sealing some sides such as noodles, rice or polenta first, then when you have canned your meats, these are ready to add to your meal kit. Recipes for beverages and desserts are included, too. My family enjoys camping and I can see that having meal kits already prepared that we could just take with us would make the whole trip more fun for me, the cook. While I don't anticipate having to flee my home because of a flood or tornado, I do live in New Hampshire and ice storms have knocked out our power for up to two weeks at a time. The recipes in this book will fill my shelves with meals that can be heated up on my wood stove if I had to. I feel that the title of the book might make people think it's simply a matter of tossing dry ingredients in a quart jar to create a meal, but it truly is more than that. You must be able to store the jars properly, and be able to seal them so ingredients don't spoil. This is the basic premise of any kind of food preservation, which is what canning, dehydrating, and vacuum sealing is all about. I think that when some see the title "Meals in a Jar" they are remembering that fad awhile back for gifts in a jar where you just layer ingredients and stick on a bow with instructions. This is more involved, but as a seasoned canner, this book excites me, inspires me, and I can't wait to get started. THANK YOU Julie Languille for this concise, clever book. I am absolutely thrilled with it. (and if you've read my reviews, you will see I am not easily impressed)

I love this book.! Several reasons I purchased this book. I've always had an interest in easy to prepare food. I have trouble "cooking small" after many years of cooking for a family. By halving the recipes and canning them in pints jars, I can pull out something, use the side kit and salad... meal complete. The food is good.!! So far only made the chicken and beef chipotle, but the flavor is lovely. Again, side kits make match-ups easy... meal complete. There are so many recipes, I can hardly wait to try them all. Company comes over, put however much I need off the shelf... again meal complete. And I would actually have time to visit. Win-win. Ideas are even suggested how to start stocking your pantry. Seems a bit simplistic, but you'd be surprised. The nebulous ideas that this is a possibility becomes more concrete and doable. Again you'd think that someone with half a brain should be able to figure this out... and you'd be right. However, some of us... and I include myself in that group... just need a little shove in the right direction. This book does just that. Very grateful. I am in the area where Hurricane Harvey hit this year. I didn't have much done yet as I'd just gotten this book. But between what I had done and the side kit ideas for what I had on hand, those 4 days without electric and a single camp burner, I ate well. I made flour tortillas with the ghee and some grilled cheese sandwiches. I don't think I will use regular shortening if I don't need to... heaven. So thanks again for the book. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to stock a pantry and lessen dependence on refrigeration and freezer.

We have been purchasing long term food storage items for a while and now need to learn how to cook with them. This book is great and offers a variety of meals to pack and try. So we made an afternoon out of it. Chose about 8 recipes to pack up and got all the jars, tools and dry goods together to get it done. What a blast (and a mess, but a good mess). And is was very satisfying to see so much food put up and ready to use with everything you need right there. I had some friends over for dinner and I prepared one of the recipes (beef Stroganoff) and it was great! What I really like about it is that it also gives you recipes for canning the wet ingredients if you want. The beef recipe used in the stroganoff was fabulous. We canned blueberries last year and I used them in the Cobbler recipe and there is never any left over. My friend tried the pancake mix and last night I cooked the beef-a-roni with freeze dried beef. It served 6 folks just fine. Just add salad and a drink to the menu and you have dinner! Of course, I can never let a recipe be straight out of the book, and this does allow you to make adjustments. What I do is test the recipe first on the family (or friends) and then make those adjustments in my packing. I gear a lot of things to low carb, so I use alternative flours and sugar substitutes. The recipes seem to handle those adjustments just fine. Knowing what is in my convenience foods is wonderful. And if you have a young or timid cook, once you have these packed up, all they have to do is follow the directions for preparation and it's done. Very simple. The best thing of it is that it got me to open up my #10 cans and start using them. Or I can use some of my own dehydrated foods in here. It gives me the opportunity to practice cooking with unfamiliar items, and that is handy for what I need to know. And on days when my fresh foods are not in my fridge, I can open up one of these and dinner will be ready in short order.

What a wonderful resource for my library. Receipts not expensive to make. A total asset. Well worth the month. Amazons delivery always prompt and the best. Thank you!

If you have NEVER looked into this kind of food storage and you are just getting started, I STRONGLY suggest that you do three things first BEFORE buying this book: 1) excaliburdehydrator.com - watch the videos on how to dehydrate (they are free) 2) dehydrate2store.com - watch her videos (same lovely gal). Free as well. It's her ministry. She goes into much more detail and is very, very, VERY knowledgeable. And no, I don't know her. 3) Go to Honeyvillegrains.com and go to their blog. Scroll down to the bottom. Look to the right and find "Videos (13)." Watch them as well. Once you have done this, you will not feel SO overwhelmed by the task or disappointed by the "missing" information. Other questions may arise, but I think with a little research on your own, you can find the answer. For example: I am wondering how long chocolate chips will last with the oxygen packs. I can probably find the answer if I dig elsewhere on the internet. I was very excited about the book when I first got it. I can tell you that I am happy that I didn't pay full price for it because I believe it is missing some important information. Now, she obviously has been doing this for a long time while I am just getting started. So, here is my take of the book... 1) Some of the recipes call for shortening and oil. Shortening and oil does go rancid over a period of time. At best it has a six month shelf life once the factory seal has been broken. Even with the seal unbroken oil and shortening won't last forever. This is something I was taught, I've had experience with, and confirmed with some extra research; they all say the same thing. They have a shelf life. Solutions: Keep smaller jars of oil on hand and find a way to rotate your stock. You can use a calendar or Mac's Bento database to alert you when it's time to change. (Just an idea) 2) The size of the recipes are impractical. I would need to cut these down by at least half. I mean twenty-seven cups of rolled oats? Who has that on hand? Solution: You can cut the recipe in half, which I plan to do. 3) The additional problem in #2 is that in this current economy finances are tight for the average family. Spending this kind of money to make a single recipe in enormous proportion is impractical . Solution: Cut it in half and propose to only make one to two recipes every pay period, which is what I will have to do. 4) Because the recipes are enormous, I don't think I could do more than two all by myself and stay sane. I could do two (cut in half) Solution: Maybe get a friend to help you, share the expenses and the jars if you plan on doing whole recipes. 5) Retort pouches, oxygen packs are all available online, you just have to google them. From what I've seen on the supplier and on YouTube you can use a pressure canner for this particular bag. You can get oxygen packs from Honeyvillegrain.com and all the other freeze dried meat. Another great site is Dehydrate2store.com. She is a pro at dehydrating and putting recipes together. She has a list of resources as well. I bought this book because I like to something visual to work from...that is just my thing. 6) If you go to Youtube, you can find a lot of "How-To's" on Retort canning and oxygen packs, dehydrating etc. You just have to do a little more research and they are all very helpful. 7) Double check the pressure canning and water bath canning against a reputable canning book. A few other reviews seem to think she may be giving inaccurate information. But in her defense, her recommendations may have worked for her. I know people who can tomatoes without water bath canning or pressure canning and they've been doing it for years without problems; I am too afraid to not do water bath canning or pressure canning because I am a novice. I think it would have been nice if she had put a shelf life estimate on each recipe along with some basic resource information on where to find things. However, in her defense, often times authors will do this and before you know it, the business is no longer in existence or has a new name because of new ownership and that is equally as frustrating and aggravating. I have had experience with this...not fun! Often times authors can remedy the resource page by just adding a simple line ex: "As of this writing." She has a blog and there is a Facebook fan page (I don't know if she owns the FB fan page). I have made inquires and have not received any replies so far ( received this book the week of March 4th and just wrote the other day). I was not put-off by the book entirely. It has some nice ideas and cool recipes but there are other blogs that you can use to help you along in this process if not replace the book altogether. Honeyville has a blog with great recipes, but you use their stuff so that is kind of a draw back. This book allows you to pull some of your own things together. There is also Chef Tess, and there are a number of Youtube Videos; search under "meals in a jar." Again, Dehydrate2store.com is good for learning how to dehydrate and the benefits of it and then putting meals together. I do have my own dehydrator, and pressure canner and have bought these over time. If you don't have any of these things, then YES, this will be quite an investment, but remember that this is a different way of storing food that will last a long time (minus the oil/shortening). If you don't want to work this hard, then the only thing I can suggest you do is just buy canned goods and store them up. Get you favorite recipes and build from there. However, what are you going to do about the meat, eggs, and cheese and other vegetables like broccoli and green onions etc? I think a lot of the bad reviews could be arising because this this is a new concept for people. And perhaps they have not done any previous research on this type of food storage and are consequently overwhelmed. I have been researching for a couple of years now, as well as dehydrating my garden produce, so I knew all about the oxygen packs, and dehydrating and freeze dried foods etc. I hope you find my review helpful.

Great recipe book. Plan to try some of the recipes soon for storage.

Love this book!

This is a great cookbook for doing meals in a jar. Thorough instructions, and variety of meals.

This book has got me thinking in putting stuff up for use later in the month suited to this country's ingredients. I am going to enjoy the playing. Thank you for a different take on things.

Very disappointed. The ingredients are bagged in plastic bags.

Great little book, simple and easy ideas. I love it.

Very good

Easy to follow the steps. Great recipes