Heather's Zuppa Toscana Meal in a Jar

I love to go out to eat.  There I said it. I really do.  I especially love the Olive Garden. 

I was talking about my love of the Olive Garden with my friend Amy and she told me that her husband refuses to eat there.  His reason?  “I can eat pasta at home for a quarter of the price” 

I got to thinking and he is right, but I still love to eat there.  Over the years I’ve found and converted several Olive Garden Recipes to be made at home.  One of my favorites is the Zuppa Toscana soup.  Even better, this recipe works great for a meal-in-a-jar, so I can have amazing soup with my only effort being boiling water and stirring occasionally. 

Recipe Notes:

• Heads up, because this soup uses spinach instead of kale (no freeze dried kale, its sad I know) the soup turns a little green.   It is still delicious; just a little green. 
• I usually leave out the crushed red pepper flakes.  My kids a unlikely to eat anything that has them in so I leave them out.  The adults season individual servings at the table. 
• My friend Mandi recently made this and suggested replacing 1 cup of water with 1 cup of heavy whipping cream.  I think that sound heavenly.   
• If you choose to add the precooked bacon in this meal in a jar remember that it shortens the shelf life to ~1 year.  If you’d like it to last longer then leave the bacon out and add it when cooking.  Yes you could use bacon TVP, but it's not my favorite so I haven't tried it.  
•  I buy the Hormel brand precooked bacon at Sam’s club.
  

Heather's Zuppa Toscana Meal in a Jar

Yield: 4-6 servings.  

Estimated Shelf Life:  With bacon:  1 year.   Without Bacon 5 years. 

1 cup THRIVE dehydrate Potato Chunks or Thrive Freeze Dried Potato Dices

1/2 cup THRIVE Freeze Dried Sausage

½ cup THRIVE Freeze Dried Onion

1 cup THRIVE Freeze Dried Spinach

2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (optional **these are super spicy.  If you don't like the soup super spicy then leave it out.  Did I mention SUPER SPICY?)

¾ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ cup crumbled bacon pieces

¼ cup THRIVE Veloute sauce mix

Jar Directions:  Layer ingredients in a wide mouthed, quart-sized jar, shaking the dry powder ingredients into the bulkier items. Top with an oxygen packet (300 cc) for longer-term storage, or seal with a food saver.  Cover with a new canning lid and hand-tighten the metal ring. 

To make:  Add ingredients to 8 cups of water. Simmer 20 minutes until the potatoes are soft.

A note on Food Safety:

The Meal-in-a-Jar method is a form of Dry Pack Canning.   The food inside the jars is preserved because the food is free of moisture and oxygen, the lack of which inhibits bacterial growth.  Jars should be stored in a dark environment to prevent any nutritional degradation due to light.  

When packing your jars remember to always 

• Sanitize all equipment before use. Be sure to dry all equipment thoroughly before using.
• Wash hands and or wear food handler’s gloves.
• Keep work area clean and dry. 
• Use either method 1 or method 2 to remove the oxygen from your jar.

Printables:

Recipe Card

Regular Mouth Mason Jar Labels

Wide Mouth Mason Jar Labels

Interested in Learning More about Making Meals in a Jar?  Join my meal in a jar Facebook group.

If you love making Meals in a Jar with Thrive food check out my Meal in a Jar calculator on Etsy. 

Meal in a Jar--Lasagna Soup

My family loves lasagna.  I do not love to make it.   Do you see the problem?

When I first got interested in Meals in a Jar, I made a list of meals I would love to have sitting in my pantry ready to go at a moment’s notice.  Lasagna was at the top of the list.    

After some experimenting I settled on this soup.  There are currently 12 quart sized mason jars filled with this soup in my pantry.  We like it that much. 

This soup has all the flavors of lasagna, pasta, tomato sauce, and sausage.  I don’t put the cheese in the jar but I use it as a garnish (if you can call ½ a cup of cheese a garnish).

If you are new to making Meal in a Jars please read this how to post about   How to Make a Meal in a Jar--Two Methods. 

Lasagna Soup
3/4 cup Thrive Freeze Dried Sausage
¼ cup Thrive Freeze Dried Onion
3 Tablespoons Thrive dehydrated mixed bell peppers
1-2 tsp garlic powder
1 Tablespoon chicken bouillon
¼ cup Thrive tomato sauce
¼ cup Thrive tomato powder
1 tsp Thrive Chef’s Choice seasoning
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
2 cups Thrive farfalle (bowtie) noodles.

Add contents of jar to 8 cup of rapidly boiling water. Stir well. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil. Simmer 10 -12 minutes until noodles are soft. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese.

A note on Food Safety:

The Meal-in-a-Jar method is a form of Dry Pack Canning.   The food inside the jars is preserved because the food is free of moisture and oxygen, the lack of which inhibits bacterial growth.  Jars should be stored in a dark environment to prevent any nutritional degradation due to light.  

When packing your jars remember to always 

• Sanitize all equipment before use. Be sure to dry all equipment thoroughly before using.
• Wash hands and or wear food handler’s gloves.
• Keep work area clean and dry. 
• Use either method 1 or method 2 to remove the oxygen from your jar.

Printables: 

Recipe Card 
Regular Mouth Mason Jar Label
Wide Mouth Mason Jar

Interested in Learning More about Making Meals in a Jar?  Join my meal in a jar facebook group.

Meal in a Jar--Chicken Noodle Soup

If you are new to making Meal in a Jars please read this how to post about How to Make a Meal in a Jar--Two Methods. 

Chicken Noodle soup is my kids all-time favorite meal.  They always eat it well without complaining (insert happy dance here).    

I’ve been making Chicken Noodle soup for them using freeze dried Thrive Foods for about 5 years and just recently realized I could speed up the process by making a bunch of Chicken Noodle Soup meals in a Jar.   So I made 12.  

Best idea ever.  Now I have a bunch of meals ready to go that I know my kids will love that only take 10 minutes to make.  Love it.

  

Chicken Noodle Soup in a Jar
For printable recipe and mason jar labels see below.

1 cup Freeze Dried Chopped Chicken

2 Tablespoons Chicken Bouillon

1 tsp Chef’s Choice Blend

1 tsp Salad Blend

½ cup  Celery

¼ cup Carrots

1/4 cup Freeze Dried Onions

2 cups Egg Noodles

8 cups water (to be added during cooking)

Jar Directions:  Layer ingredients in a wide mouthed, quart-sized jar, shaking the dry powder ingredients into the bulkier items. Top with an oxygen packet (300 cc) for longer-term storage, or seal with a food saver.  Cover with a new canning lid and hand-tighten the metal ring. 

Cooking Directions:  Add contents of jar to 8 cup of rapidly boiling water.  Stir well.    Simmer 10 -12 minutes until noodles are soft.  

A note on Food Safety:

The Meal-in-a-Jar method is a form of Dry Pack Canning.   The food inside the jars is preserved because the food is free of moisture and oxygen, the lack of which inhibits bacterial growth.  Jars should be stored in a dark environment to prevent any nutritional degradation due to light.  

When packing your jars remember to always

• Sanitize all equipment before use. Be sure to dry all equipment thoroughly before using.
• Wash hands and or wear food handler’s gloves.
• Keep work area clean and dry. 
• Use either method 1 or method 2 to remove the oxygen from your jar.

Read more:

Printables: 

Recipe Card
Regular Mouth Mason Jar Label
Wide Mouth Mason Jar

Interested in Learning More about Making Meals in a Jar?  Join my meal in a jar facebook group.

Almost Instant and Totally Healthy Cup of Soup

You might remember a while back I posted about making soup in a mug with my freeze dired food.  When my family makes it we just wing it, throwing a little of this and a little of that in. It always turns out great but when we find something we love it is pretty hard to duplicate it.  . 

  

Kay from Kay’s Kaleidoscope is here today to talk about using your freeze dried food storage to create Almost Instant Healthy Cup of Soup.  

Take it away Kay...

Having cooked with Thrive myself for over a year and working with others, it seems that the biggest fear is that cooking with Freeze Dried food is a little different so people tend to fall back into familiar habits that usually take longer, are not as nutritious, and in a lot of cases cost you more money.

So my friend Judi Stull, came over and we were "Thrivin' It Up" all afternoon.  We wanted to create some basic cup of soup recipes feature freeze dried ingredients. 

Almost Instant and Totally Healthy Cup of Soup--The Basic Recipe

printable recipe

Ingredients:

2 T Freeze Dried Meat

1 ½ T. Thrive Sauce Mix

1 t each basic veggies (freeze dried onions, FD celery, dehydrated carrots)

¼ t. Thrive Chef Choice Blend

1/8 t Thrive Peppercorn blend

1 T. Instant Rice, Instant Beans, Freeze Dried Potato Dices or Egg Noodles, choose one.

1 T each of 3-5 freeze dried veggies to total ½ of a cup

6 oz. boiling water.

Instructions:

Layer ingredients in an 8 oz. cup.  Add about 6 oz. boiling water and stir well.  Put lid on the cup and “steep” for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy. 

Thrive is so forgiving - if it is a little thick, add a little water - a little thin, add a little more sauce mix. Most ingredients will rehydrate in 10-15 minutes.  Bigger & thicker pieces, obviously, will take a little longer. 

Here are the recipe for two of our favorites

Almost Instant and Totally Healthy Cup of Soup : Chicken Rice Veggie Soup

printable recipe

Ingredients:

2 T freeze dried chicken slices, broken

1 ½ t. Thrive Veloute Sauce

1 t. Freeze dried onion

1 t Thrive freeze dried celery

1 t Thrive carrots

1 t Thrive mixed bell peppers

1 T Thrive freeze dried asparagus

1 T Thrive freeze dried mushrooms

1 T Thrive freeze dried spinach

1 T. Thrive Instant Rice

¼ t. Thrive Chef Choice Seasoning Blend

1/8 t Thrive peppercorn seasoning blend.

Instructions:

Put ingredient in an 8 oz. cup.  Add 6 oz boiling water and stir well. Coer and “steep” about 15 minutes.  Enjoy!

Almost Instant and Totally Healthy Cup of Soup:  Shepard Pie Soup

printable recipe 

Ingredients: 

2 T Thrive Freeze Dried Ground Beef

1 ½ T. Thrive Béchamel Sauce mix

1 t 1 t Thrive freeze dried onions

1 t Thrive freeze dried celery

1 t Thrive dehydrated carrots

2 t Thrive freeze dried potato dices

1 T. Thrive freeze dried peas

¼ t. Thrive Chef Choice Seasoning Blend

1/8 t Thrive peppercorn seasoning blend.

6 oz boiling water

Topping

1 T Thrive Potato beads plus a little more boiling water.

Instructions: 

Put all of the ingredient except the topping into an 8 oz cup.  Stir well. Put potato Beads on top and add boiling water a little at a time smoothing to make the mashed potato topping.  Cover and steep 10-15 minutes. Enjoy. 

Kay Curtiss Guest Contributor: 

Kay Curtiss worked in the LDS Book Industry for over 20 years. During that time she was a Regional Manager of 4 Independent LDS Bookstores in Washington, DC; Houston, TX; Atlanta, GA & Chicago, IL. She served on the LDS Booksellers Board of Directors for over 7 years. Most recently She managed the LDS Books & Things Catalog/Magazine used by Independent LDS Bookstores. She originally got involved with Thrive Life to see how it could help these independent bookstores. Last summer She retired from the LDS Book Industry and is enjoying "retirement" doing genealogy, spending more time with my family and starting to build my own Thrive business so I can enjoy a more Thrivin' Life.

 

You can check out all of Kay’s printable Recipes including the soups from this post here - or click on the Soup names above for a link to the individual recipes.  You can also shop from Kay’s Thrive Life store.