Cool Book – “Dinner is in the Jar”
As you guys know there is no show this week but I am spending a lot of time researching new topics and getting new material together for next week and beyond. Call it a working vacation.
Well I just noticed one of the folks that ordered via my Amazon links ordered a copy of a book called, “Dinner Is In The Jar: Quick and Easy Dinner Mixes in Mason Jars or Mylar Bags”.
The book looks pretty cool, I can’t say for sure because I haven’t actually read it yet but the reviews are mixed. Some reviewers are very happy, others feel there are not enough recipes in the book for the price. No one seems to be complaining about the actual information just its quantity.
The negative reviews state there are only 30 recipies in the book, at 15 bucks that is 50 cents a recipe so I leave it to you to make your own call on this book.
I got it mainly because I think it will inspire new material for the show. Also if you have listened to some of my shows about cooking you know I consider any recipe a base to be worked with, expanded upon, etc.
I have also purchased many cooking books that have 100 recipes but only 4-5 that I end up making, so if this book provides 30 solid prepper recipe bases I will be pretty happy with it. Anyway just due to the cool concept behind it I thought I would pass it on. If any of you have read this book or own a copy please comment below and let me know your thoughts on it.
Interesting looking book, but I think your math is off. 30 recipes at $15 is $.50 a recipe, or 2 for a dollar. I might have to give this one a look.
Looks interesting, hopefully they will put it out on the kindle.
I got this book and was rather disappointed.
What I didn’t like was that most of the recipes required a number of non-dehydrated ingredients which kind of defeats the point of having a “diner in a jar”.
I can see one or maybe at most two non-dehydrated ingredients but IMO this book is really “how to mix together pre-dried ingredients in a jar or sometimes two”.
Too Funny! I bought this book from Amazon as a Christmas present for my wife. Not sure if I had followed the TSP/Amazon link on that particular purchase though. For that matter, I didn’t know affiliates got such reports on purchase made via their link. Jack, do you wear a black suit and sunglasses while you read those reports? 🙂
My wife had been wanting a book on this subject ever since seeing one at a local prepping meeting. While we have not had the chance to try any of the recipes yet, the book is very interesting!
@Cpf240,
All we can see is what sold, we can’t see who bought it. That is actually one reason I don’t like third party affiliate programs for income sources. Amazon pays us a few bucks each month though and it is pretty passive.
@PistolWhipped,
Fixed the math, was on the way out the door to take Max to the vet and go in a rush, thanks for the catch.
@Cool Blue,
Like I said I can’t really say because I haven’t read it yet. Something tells me though that I may be able to solve that issue involving fresh ingredients. That said fresh is fine with me if it comes off the homestead.
@Peringle
Doubtful as it seems to be an older book.
I’ve had this book for a couple of months. I do like it as a thought provoker as to how you would do this with your own family favorite recipes. There are quite a few recipes in the book that look good to me, and a few clinkers (just personal taste). This is an interesting concept in conjunction with another book I just purchased — It’s in the Bag (I’m going to post something about this one on the forum). If you take the Dinner In a Jar ingredients including the add ons where possible and “bag” them, along with a vegetable or fruit or whatever to complete the meal — you have a Ready To Go meal. This could come in handy in a Bug In or Out situation, just add water. No fuss, no muss. Just grab a bag and prepare. The It’s In The Bag book literally bags each meal complete, puts the directions and a expiration on the outside of the bag. The directions can be pulled off the bag and used to restock, thereby helping with rotation.
Free is good…that’s in MY budget!
http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/mix-recipes/soups/soup-mixes.htm
I own it, Make-A-Mix, and I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage. All three are excellent. My plan is to try more of the mixes as the winter drags on.
The key to any of these recipes is to make them and test for spice level and taste before putting up a ton of them. I find a lot of recipes in general are bland, so they are used as guides.
Other recommendations:
The Essential Mormon Cookbook is really nice because it’s broken down by season.
Miss Vickie’s Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes is VERY highly recommended. I own three others that I don’t use…
Jack,
The book is okay for giving ideas but I thought the title is a little misleading. For example, I haven’t read it in a while but if I’m not mistaken the lasagne recipe included premixed spices, dehydrated veggies,and a separate baggie of noodles in the jar and then fresh ground beef, shredded cheese and a can of diced tomatoes.
To me the advantage of just having pre-mixesd spices and veggies wasn’t worth the effort if you still had to mix in fresh stuff.
As you said though, if you can improve on the ideas though I’d love to read what you’ve done.
I think if we were to vacuum seal these in mylar bags with O2 absorbers they might get a better shelf-life than the couple months that the book claims with the jars.
In fact, I wouldn’t mind knowing your recipe for the dehydrated salsa that you mentioned once. I make my own fresh salsa that I love so I tried a dehydrated version of it and I don’t like it at all. I think my problem though was that I rehydrated the peppers in the juice from the canned tomatoes instead of rehydrating with water first.
There were a few recipes In the book I liked though.
I was actually toying with the idea of making similar meals in a jar by dehydrating locally grown products and selling them at the local farmer’s markets.
My book recommendation though is “The Dehydrator Bible” which I found very informative.
I have all 3 of these books and use them all to create our 91 day menu based food storage plan to repeat 4 times to create a years supply. Far and away i love jan’s 100 Day pantry most of all! her recipes include everything you need with no additional water which might.
It’s In the Bag by Mishelle & Trent Snow ISBN 9781599553856
Dinner is in the Jar by Kathy Clark ISBN 9781450550925
Jan Jackson’s 100 day pantry http://www.100daypantry.com/
I received this book for Christmas! It seems to be pretty good but for mostly-to-all dehydrated meal “mixes”, I prefer my backpacking books. These are made for people who will be hiking for weeks with no restocking. Everything is pretty much “add water and wait”. They also get more creative which is useful when you start to run low on certain items but have more of others.
@Cool Blue
Your problem is the canned tomatoes (yuck). I just use sweet peppers, jalapenos, onion, garlic, tomatoes all of which are dehydrated in what ever ratio I fancy at the time.
The key extras are fresh cilantro and salt. You can’t use dehydrated cilantro for this and expect a good result. Since I grow it in huge masses in the yard it isn’t a big deal until like now when it is too cold. So this can be an item you are dependent on the stores for. Cheap and easy to get at all times though and I don’t think we will ever see GMO salsa.
I just rehydrate them and if it is to wet pour off some water or more likely add a few more veggies. I have also used dehydrated tomitillos and it worked quite well too.
I always get my garlic and onion from Harmony House (http://bit.ly/deL5CC) I just don’t find them worth dehydrating myself. Mostly I get my tomatoes there too, my tomatoes have been blight plagued for the last few years, I get a yield but not enough to bother with dehydrating them.
Jack might not be doing any podcasts this week, but you can catch him live on the Baldy and The Blonde radio show with Tom Kowitz and Michele Gaudin, Wednesday, December 29, 5:00 to 6:00 pm Central time, WGSO 990AM, New Orleans (streams live at http://www.wgso.com). Podcast of the show will be posted at http://www.baldyandtheblonde.com.
This will be Jack’s third guest appearance. Here’s a link to his previous interviews:
http://www.baldyandtheblonde.com/jack-spirko.html
Hey Jack, re: cookbooks, I wanted to let listeners know that the best place to find cookbooks is in antique stores belive it or not. You can find fantastic Junior League or local church fundraiser cookbooks for pennies.
Keep the shows coming!
Hoosier Frugal