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Do you ever dream of having delicious, home-cooked meals ready to go, even when a winter storm keeps you indoors or a busy schedule leaves you little time for meal preparation? Imagine turning your food storage into a pantry full of quick and easy options for your family. Meals in a jar are a creative way to use dehydrated and freeze-dried ingredients to create healthy, long-lasting meals that save you time in the kitchen. Follow these simple instructions to create your own ready-to-cook meals.
Winter is a time that I usually spend organizing and cleaning stuff since I can’t spend a whole lot of time outdoors without turning into a human popsicle! So one of my winter projects is usually to go through my root cellar and my food storage, rotate stuff, check quantities, check the seals on all of my canning jars to make sure they’re good, and make a list of the things that I need to restock.
I’ve talked about getting started with food storage and also how super simple it is to stock up on three months of food storage fast, but the thing….most of that still needs to be prepped, especially if you cook from scratch. That’s why I’m excited about meals in a jar recipes for long term storage AND for saving me from swinging by a fast food restaurant because I’m crunched for time and everyone has got their “hangry” on. Especially, and I mean, especially, with the stupid prices of just about everything these days, right?
In this post
How to Assemble Meals in a Jar
Time needed: 2 hours
Assemble your meals in a jar by layering dehydrated or freeze-dried ingredients, shaking the jar to help them settle, and topping it with an oxygen absorber to create a long-lasting, shelf-stable meal.
(Time needed is an estimate. How long it will take you to assemble will vary based on your recipe and the number of jars you’re making.)
- Gather supplies
You’ll need 300 cc oxygen absorbers, wide-mouth quart* jars, lids, rings, a wide-mouth funnel, and a way to sterilize your jars (do this far enough in advance to make sure they are good and dry.) You also need labels with the cooking instructions and a place to mark the date that the meal was packaged. If you prefer to use mylar bags or a vacuum sealer to seal the jars, then gather that equipment also.
A quart jar will only hold 4 cups of food so all of the dry ingredients for your recipe will have to meet that limit. Use mylar bags or vacuum sealed bags for larger quantities.
- Choose a recipe
There are many meals in a jar recipes available online or in cookbooks. You can also modify existing recipes to fit your preferences and available ingredients. I’ve included a recipe for Saucy Baked Ziti with Sausage and Mushrooms in this article.
- Prepare your ingredients
Ensure you have enough of each ingredient for the number of jars you plan to make. Gather them in one location laid out assembly line style. It’s up to you whether you move through the ingredients and fill a jar at a time, or add one ingredient to all the jars and repeat with the next ingredient. Choose the method that works best for you.
- Assemble the meals
Using a wide-mouth funnel, measure an ingredient into a jar and shake it down to help it settle. (If you’ve not worked with canning jars, I’ll just mention that it’s tempting to bang the jar on the counter, but it’s bad for the jar and can weaken the bottom of it. So, bang it on the palm of your other hand or on a towel-covered counter.)
Once those ingredients have settled, throw in more ingredients, and shake it down again. Throw in still MORE ingredients…. Shake your head and mumble about how, “That’s never gonna fit.” Shake down the ingredients and be pleasantly surprised that they all really DO fit after all!
- Prepare to seal the jars
Place your lids in a warm place, like on a cookie sheet on the wood stove or in a warm oven. This softens the gasket a bit so it’s easier to screw the ring down and get a good seal.
Make sure the rim of the jar is completely clear of any food particles and wipe it with a clean cloth, if necessary. Debris on the rim will interfere with creating an air-tight seal.
- Seal the jars
Place the oxygen absorber in the top of each jar, being careful that the corners would not interfere with the lid coming in contact with the rim of the jar. (Another reason for wide-mouth jars!) Position the lid and tighten down the ring. When you hear the satisfying ‘plink’ as a vacuum formed inside the jars. It’s really that easy! Store in a cool, dark, dry location.
Tips for Assembling Meals-in-a-Jar
- Test first: Before making a large batch of a meal, prepare one first, and adjust ingredients, if needed.
- Start small: Consider working with 20 jars at a time to get comfortable with the process.
- Warm your lids: Warming the lids with dry heat softens the gasket, making it easier to create a secure seal. I had the best success rate of jars sealing when I warmed the lids with a dry heat so that the gasket was softer.
- Alternate sealing method: A vacuum sealer may also be used to seal the jar. This method requires an attachment, which are typically sold separately from the vacuum sealers. (Vacuum sealers are also good for sealing non-food items.) Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers another option, making them “meals-in-mylar,” which is just fun to say!
- Use wide-mouth jars: Wide-mouth jars work the best as they are easier to fill and allow for better ingredient mixing. Standard will work, too, but I REALLY have to work to get the ingredients shaken down enough to seal. I also have to finagle the corners of the oxygen absorber down and ‘hold my tongue just right’ to get the lid and the ring on without the oxygen absorber trying to creep out.
- Work in a dry environment: Humidity can affect the success of sealing your jars. Consider assembling your meals in a dry location with low humidity. I live in an area where it can be very humid in the summertime. Planning to assemble these meals in the winter (with a woodstove going) is a better environment for working with my freeze-dried foods.
- Make tonight’s dinner, too! Measured a set of ingredients into your skillet too…might as well be fixing tonight’s dinner while you’re putting in my kitchen time!
- Add small ingredients last: Save spices, seasonings, herbs, and powders to the last. They’ll filter through the larger food pieces.
- aka Just-Add-Water: You may occasionally hear meals in a jar referred to as just-add-water meals or JAWS.
Recipe: Saucy Baked Ziti with Sausage and Mushrooms*
I modified one of Chef Tess’s recipes based on what I had in my pantry, In some cases, the freeze-dried and dehydrated foods I had on hand required me to experiment, so I cooked one or two of the recipes with what I already had and made adjustments accordingly. I made sure to jot this new version of the recipe down so I could duplicate it multiplied by 20!
Ingredients
To Assemble
Add all ingredients to a quart jar. If there is extra space, I pack more pasta in there, piece by piece.
To Cook
Place contents of jar in a covered skillet, along with 4-3/4 cups water. Simmer 15-20 minutes until pasta is tender and sauce is thickened. Serves 4.
*This recipe was created using food products from Thrive Life. Using other brands may require slight adjustments to measurements.
Recipe: Marinara Sauce
One dehydrated recipe to master is marinara sauce. It’s super simple and can be used in many recipes, but my recipe is an old school, cook from scratch type of recipe. Here it is:
Combine tomato powder with garlic, herbs, and salt. Taste test small amounts with a bit of water until you have a combination you love, then record your “recipe.” Store the mix in jars or mylar bags or use it in recipes that call for prepared marinara sauce.
See how simple that is? Buy commercially packaged tomato powder or make your own by processing dehydrated tomato slices in a blender until completely powdered. Learn more ways to use tomato powder here.
Benefits of Meals in a Jar
- Inventory your food storage in a new way: Meals in a jar encourage you to explore your food storage from a different perspective, helping you identify what you have and what you might need.
- Rotate your food storage: By using up older ingredients in meals in a jar, you can ensure your food storage stays fresh.
- Learn how much food your family needs: Making meals in a jar allows you to see how much food your family consumes of specific items. You gain a better idea of how much you actually need to store of specific food items that you know your family likes.
- Experiment with your food storage: Meals in a jar provide a safe way to experiment with different food combinations without (entirely) compromising the shelf life of your ingredients.
- Create healthy, delicious meals quickly: With meals in a jar, you can have nutritious and tasty meals ready in under 30 minutes, perfect for busy weeknights.
- Extend the shelf life of some pantry staples: Meals in a jar can help extend the shelf life of spices, pasta, and other store-packaged items, which would need to be repackaged for long-term storage anyway.
- Save time in the kitchen: By having pre-measured ingredients ready to go, meals in a jar can significantly reduce your cooking time. These one-skillet meals can be ready in less than 30 minutes, allowing you to spend less time in the kitchen and have more time for things you’d rather do.
- Share them with others: It’s better to give than receive. Having multiples allows you to share them with others in need.
- Beautiful jars all in a row: I might also have a ‘thing’ about seeing glass jars with yummy contents lined up neatly on my pantry shelves, but that’s another story.
FAQ
The shelf life of your meals in a jar depends on the ingredient with the shortest expiration date. For instance, if your recipe includes pasta (which typically lasts 7-8 years), that will be the overall shelf life of your jar, not the longest-lasting ingredient.
Shelf-stable ingredients include dehydrated and freeze-dried foods, dried spices and herbs, pasta, rice, and other grains. Always use freeze-dried meats. ThriveLife is my favorite food storage company.
No, jars aren’t your only option! Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers or vacuum-sealed bags are ideal for long-term storage, while Ziplocs work well for short trips. Jars offer visibility but are heavier, so choose based on storage duration and your priorities for weight and space. Bonus: You can ditch the 4-cup limit with mylar or vacuum bags!
Related Freeze-Dried Food Content
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Final Thoughts
Meals in a jar are a terrific way to not only rotate some of my food storage, but open it up and see exactly what’s inside! Taste it, study it, make sure my family likes it, and then have fun repackaging it into ready-made meals that will be quick and easy to fix in a pinch–busy weeks or unexpected weather events! It’s a delicious and practical solution for families who prioritize preparedness, healthy eating, and saving time in the kitchen. With a little planning and effort, you can stock your pantry with a variety of nutritious, shelf-stable meals that your whole family will love.
