Meals In A Jar: Chicken Pot Pie Soup

February 28, 2024January 3, 2025 Sarah

Waking up to an unpredicted snowstorm, it wouldn’t be a day we could leave the house in the morning.

So, I started puttering and thought it was a great day to make more meals in a jar for our long-term food storage. These recipes are a great way to use freeze-dried and dehydrated ingredients so you get used to using them. All you need to do is add the dry water and bring it to a boil. After a few minutes of simmering, dinner is ready. Pair it with just baked crusty bread for a tasty dinner.

This recipe can be easily made over a camping or backpacking stove in a 2 Liter pot if you have a power outage!

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

In a quart mason jar:

1 cup freeze-dried diced chicken
1 cup dried potato slices or cubes
½ cup freeze-dried onions, crumbled
1/3 cup freeze-dried green peas
1/3 cup dehydrated carrot, diced
1 packet chicken gravy mix, lower sodium if desired
1 Tbsp butter powder
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1½ tsp dry milk
½ tsp ground black pepper

Directions:

Place a canning funnel in a wide-mouth quart mason jar. Add the ingredients as called, lightly tamping the jar to settle the ingredients. For long-term storage, place an oxygen absorber in the jar, and if you want, use a vacuum sealer to pull the air. For use within a month or so, seal the lid tightly.

To Prepare:

Add 6 cups water and the dry ingredients to a large saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring well.

Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the ingredients are tender.

Serves 4.

Notes:

Freeze-drying onions and green peas is very easy; see the links on how to do it at home with a Harvest Right freeze-dryer.

~Sarah

Meals In A Jar: Cheesy Shredded Potato Sausage Casserole

February 18, 2024November 10, 2024 Sarah

Having meals in a jar in your long-term meal storage simplifies dealing with power outages. Where we live, power outages are far too common in wind storms (and being we are on an island on the edge of the Salish Sea, wind storms are weekly in the cold months). This hearty potato and sausage “casserole” works great for breakfast and dinner. It’s hearty, creamy, and full of comfort food.

This meal in a jar uses freeze-dried and dehydrated ingredients and is a great way to use long-term storage ingredients. You only need to boil water to prepare it in a thermos or insulated mug for a portable meal.

Cheesy Shredded Potato Sausage Casserole

Ingredients:

1 cup dried hashbrowns
¼ cup freeze-dried sausage
¼ cup freeze-dried bell pepper (how to freeze-dry)
2 Tbsp freeze-dried onion, crumbled (how to freeze-dry)
6 Tbsp cheese sauce powder

Directions:

To store long-term, pack the ingredients into a quart mason jar. Seal using a vacuum sealer. Mark “Add 2 cups water”.

To prepare:

Add 2 cups water to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Add in the dry ingredients, stirring well. Cover tightly, turn off the heat, and let it sit for 15 minutes.

Stir well, then serve.

Serves 2.

~Sarah

Freeze Drying · Prepping · Recipes

Meals In A Jar: Instant Egg Sausage Scramble

February 9, 2024November 10, 2024 Sarah

Having meals in a jar ready to use means you have stocked long-term meal storage planning. If you take the time to plan out easy-to-make meals, you will have comfort food prepared to make when needed.

The instant egg sausage scramble recipe pulls together quickly and packs into a pint-size mason jar. This recipe will require cooking, but you won’t need refrigeration. That is always a bonus. No worry if the power goes out.

This is a great recipe to use freeze-dried and dehydrated ingredients in, and I have included links to posts showing how to dehydrate and freeze-dry some of the ingredients. (I’ve also included links for items that are harder to freeze-dry, but you can buy commercially.) Being able to freeze-dry your ingredients is a massive thing to me. We can have all the fun ingredients we want and can put together meals as we see fit.

This recipe can be packed into a pint glass mason jar for long-term storage, or you can also pack it into a “MRE” style mylar bag for storage. The mylar bag makes it very portable.

Instant Egg Sausage Scramble

Ingredients:

½ cup freeze-dried sausage crumbles
¼ cup freeze-dried onions, crumbled (how to freeze-dry)
¼ cup dried mushrooms, finely crumbled
1 tsp freeze-dried, dried garlic or granulated dried garlic
Pinch sea salt
½ cup freeze-dried cheese (used Swiss)
½ cup freeze-dried uncooked egg (how to freeze-dry)
1 Tbsp olive oil or butter

Directions:

In a wide-mouth pint-size mason jar, add the sausage, onion, mushroom, garlic, and salt. Tap gently to settle it.

Place the cheese in a snack-size zip-top bag and seal it, pushing out all air. Repeat the egg powder in a second bag.

Fit into the jar, pushing down to fit it all. Seal tightly.

Store in a cool, dry, and dark area in your pantry.

Note:

It may also be packed in a mylar bag.

To Prepare:

Remove the two bags and set aside.

Add ¾ cup of warm water to the dry ingredients in the jar. Stir well.

Add 1/3 cup cool water to the cheese bag. Seal and set aside.

Add ¾ cup cool water to the egg bag. Seal and shake till the egg powder dissolves. Set aside.

Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes to rehydrate.

Heat a frypan over medium-low heat, and add the oil or butter. Drain off any water remaining in the sausage mix, add to the pan, and saute until it smells good. Shake the egg bag again and slowly pour in.

Drain off any remaining water in the cheese bag, and sprinkle the cheese on top.

Use a spatula to scramble gently until the egg is cooked as you like.

Note:

You can soak the sausage mix in cool water; just let it sit for 20-30 minutes.

~Sarah

Freeze Drying · Prepping · Preserving · Recipes

Freeze-Drying Eggs

February 8, 2024November 10, 2024 Sarah

During the pandemic years, freeze-dried and dehydrated eggs were hard to source. People were stocking up, especially at the tail end, when Avian Flu forced many commercial growers to kill their hens. This led to very high prices. At one point, Augason Farms was over $100 a can on Amazon.

The price for Augason Farms dehydrated eggs has dropped to $58.20 on Amazon for a #10 can.

To give an idea of how many eggs are in the cans, Augason Farms is 72 eggs, so .81 cents an egg.

If you raise hens in season, you will have a lot of eggs to deal with. This is when you process the eggs for long-term food storage. Or, if not, find a local store that sells five dozen eggs at an affordable price and process those.

Now, let’s say you happen to have a freeze-dryer on hand. You can start using those eggs.

If you can source eggs for under .33 cents each, that is a good start. Size doesn’t matter, so pick up what is cheapest – medium and extra large are often less than large due to consumers wanting a standard size.

Eggs from our hens, washed and drying on the counter.

I cover the counter to keep the mess down (cracking eggs is always messy).

Freeze-drying Eggs:

I suggest starting with about ten dozen eggs if using a Large-size freeze-dryer. If eggs are homegrown, wash and let eggs dry. If commercial eggs, proceed.

Crack each egg individually and add to a 4-cup measuring cup. Once full, pour into a blender. Run till eggs are mixed, on low. This is an important step – you want to break the whites apart and blend them well.

Pour into molds, then cover molds and let freeze fully.

Once frozen, pop out (using the handle of a wooden spatula across the bottom helps them pop). Either place in gallon freezer bags for later processing or spread out on your freeze-dryer trays. I highly suggest lining the trays with the liners or cutting parchment paper to fit.

The trays are ready for the freeze-dryer. The freeze-dryer is auto-sensing, so turn it on to run the cycle.

Once it says the run is over, with a glove on, poke a few to make sure the interior is fully dry. If any show moisture, put it back on for another six or so hours.

It’s easy to powder the eggs; just add them to a jar, put a lid on, and shake. They drop down into powder quickly.

Pack the eggs into glass mason jars or mylar bags, add an oxygen absorber packet, and seal. For long-term storage, use a vacuum sealer as well.

To rehydrate: Start with 2 Tablespoons dry egg powder and add 2 Tablespoons cool water; stir to blend. Add up to another Tablespoon of water (for three total) to thin as needed. Use as you would fresh eggs for scrambling or in baked goods.

~Sarah

Homesteading · Prepping · Preserving · Recipes

Freeze-Drying Onions

February 7, 2024 Sarah

We grew a lot of onions on our homestead this past year. We specialize in “Whidbey Sweets,” as we call our Walla Walla Onions. They don’t grow as big here on the island as they do in their namesake of Walla Walla, WA, but it’s also a lot cooler here than in blazing-hot Eastern Washington. These are not great “storage onions”, so this past year I worked on processing them into long-term storage by freeze-drying many of them. I found we were not always eating all of them before they’d spoil, even when cured. And that is an awful waste to have happened!

And this leads to something that is often claimed. Something even I have been guilty of – that you shouldn’t preserve food that is cheaper just to buy pre-done. Well…….OK, I get it. Onions, even sweet onions, can be had for $1 a pound or less in summer. And dried onions are rather cheap commercially (it’s a couple of dollars for a jar of dehydrated ones).

But if you grew them yourself…well, the flavor is off the charts. And fresh onions often don’t cause uncontrollable crying while you cut them—especially the sweet types. I’d cry once, clean my face with cold water and be fine. And get back to cutting them up.

Hand-sized onions.

So this past summer I harvested our onions, cleaned them up and cut them into half moons.

I froze them flat on cookie sheets (lined with parchment paper to make removal easier). Then I bagged them up into gallon freezer bags until I had five bags worth.

You will notice a pronounced smell in your freezer for a few hours until they are bagged up. Especially if you are buying commercially grown onions, and they are “storage” ones that have sat well cured in the cold for 6 months to a year. Fresh dissipates a lot faster. Keep this in mind in case you have delicate items such as ice cream in it.

I transferred the frozen onions to the freeze-dryer trays and popped them in for the cycle, which is automatic. We didn’t have to add any extra time for this cycle. Onions dry quickly and evenly I felt.

The onions will be light and crispy, snapping easily when dried. Sweet onions like this can be eaten raw right out of the machine.

I cut them into big pieces, but they are easily broken by hand into smaller pieces for adding to meals.

Once fully dry, remove and bag up immediately, adding an oxygen absorber packet in each bag or mason jar. We also added a desiccant packet to each container. Seal fully.

Mark what is in the bag and what day you did it on.

I used a combination of glass mason jars and mylar bags to store them in for both at-home cooking and for future trail meals.

And yes, the taste and texture were well worth the time, even if possibly it would have been cheaper just to buy them ready to use.

I did a tray of purple onions a friend grew so she could have long-term onions as well. She used her “ugly” scraps from when she was pickling red onions. No waste that way!

I ran another batch when I did this, with more sweet onions I had, her purples, lean diced ham (2 trays), and a yellow split pea soup—keeping the flavor profiles similar.

There was no noticeable smell left behind in the freeze-dryer after the batches. That had been a concern of mine.

These last two runs were a worthy cycle of our freeze-dryer.

Want To See More On What We Have Freeze-dried?

Check out all our posts.

Harvest Right is running a Valentine’s Day Sale with up to $500 off on their freeze-dryers.

~Sarah