Once you've grasped the basics and have your staple ingredients at hand, delving into the realm of meals in jars becomes even more exciting. This is where you start to discover beloved recipes that you wish to transform into "instant mixes" for moments of convenience or emergencies. Many of your cherished recipes can be adapted into shelf-stable mixes, awaiting their time to nourish.
When choosing a recipe for this endeavor, lean towards those that are straightforward, requiring minimal effort in combining ingredients. Seek out recipes with readily available dry ingredients. Alternatively, for recipes with ingredients needing individual attention, ensure they can be easily managed separately. For instance, when making a yeast roll mix, storing the yeast separately in a baggie to be added on top of the other jar ingredients.
Emphasize recipes primarily featuring either dry ingredients or wet ingredients available in dry forms. Dry alternatives such as powdered milk, butter, and vanilla simplify the final preparation, requiring fewer additional ingredients besides water.
Quick breads or dessert recipes are often straightforward to convert. Simply incorporate all dry ingredients, substituting wet ingredients with their dry counterparts where possible. Occasionally, an ingredient may not be available in a dry form, so you can add a note to the label for the final preparation. Once you have all the substituted dry ingredients, calculate the water needed for rehydration. By summing these quantities, you'll determine the total water content required for preparation.
Now, let's explore taking this concept further by utilizing our OWN dehydrated ingredients! During summer, recipes like zucchini muffins, zucchini brownies, or carrot cake are favorites due to the abundance of fresh veggies. Extra produce is shredded and dehydrate for winter use, so wouldn't it be delightful to still enjoy treats made from homegrown veggies during the winter when fresh produce is scarce?
A few weeks back, I began converting my tried-and-true recipes into jar mixes. As with any recipe experiment, it's essential to start with one and take meticulous notes for future reference. There may be tweaks or adjustments necessary to achieve the desired moisture content. My initial endeavor was zucchini muffins. I incorporated as many dry ingredients from my pantry as possible, reserving the remaining ingredients as "add-ins" for when I prepared them. Make note of any changes according to your preferences, and craft your own personalized recipe in a jar!
My next experiment is a family favorite, Johnny cake made from corn that we grow and
grind. This will be a good mix to have on hand to quickly make to go along with a big pot of chili or Pea soup.
As you embark on your journey of transforming recipes into jar mixes, remember that the possibilities are endless, and the rewards are plentiful. With a little creativity and ingenuity, you can turn your favorite dishes into convenient, shelf-stable delights that are ready to enjoy at a moment's notice.
As you explore the world of jar mixes, you'll find that it's not just about preparing meals; it's about embracing a lifestyle of simplicity, sustainability, and self-sufficiency. By utilizing dehydrated ingredients and homemade mixes, you're not only reducing waste and reliance on store-bought products but also reconnecting with the joy of cooking from scratch.
So, whether you're whipping up a batch of zucchini muffins in the middle of winter or stocking your pantry with jars of instant soup mixes, know that you're embarking on a culinary adventure that's as rewarding as it is delicious. And remember, the journey is just as important as the destination, so take your time, savor the process, and enjoy every moment of creating your own personalized recipes in a jar.
If you are not sure where to start and need that help to experiment and get experience with recipes and meals in jars, you can start with my meal in jars and master mix recipe collection. Need ingredients to start? This is where I get mine! If you do a monthly delivery order, I will give you my recipe collection for FREE! Click here to sign up!
Here is a great equivalent pdf from Thrive that will give you measurements to rehydrate all of their ingredients. https://www.thrivelife.com/media/wysiwyg/old_materials/thrive/THRIVE-Equivalents.pdf
Happy mixing, happy cooking, and happy eating!
