Have you ever gotten those jars with cocoa mixes or cookie mixes in them from someone at the holidays or for a gift?  I have, lots of times.  And more often than not, the jar sits on the counter for a while; mostly because it look really cool all sectioned off like sand art and I don’t want to destroyed the pretty presentation, and then up it goes in my cabinet  – who doesn’t admire artsy-crafty people right?

But this year was different.  I got a jar of a different color.  It was a soup mix.  Food – not treats??!  What’s up with that?  I wasn’t quite sure about this.  I mean I’ve always considered the cocoa or cookie mixes as an “in case of emergency break open” sort of thing.  Who wants soup in an emergency? 

So, I began analyzing what the heck was actually in this jar of soup, looking at it like a specimen in a Petri dish under a microscope.

Chicken and rice soup.  Okay. Wild rice, minced onion, vegetable flakes, chicken bouillon granules, thyme leaves, minced garlic, dried marjoram, lemon pepper, brown rice, bay leaf. 

Hummmmm.  I began to see a pattern here.

Everything was dry!  Bear with me I’m little slow with these things!    

The directions said all I had to do was add water.

Hmmmm.  Just add water?  Eureka!  It dawned on me. This, sweet ladies, is survivor food!  All in one beautiful presentation!! 

What a gift huh?  Well the idea is.

So I began hunting other ‘jar’ recipes and found there hundreds of them out there.

By taking these ingredients and putting them together then putting them in food saver bags you could have ready made meals – and sister these are meals too.

As I looked at the many recipes out there I note that some of these call for a meat and pasta sauce.  BUT! If you dehydrate a can of white chicken or tuna and your pasta sauce before hand and add to these to the ingredients … voila!  There’s your meal with meat and sauce!

Funny, I’d beat that whoever thought of these jar-gift probably had no idea they were actually creating a gift that was far greater than fresh cookies and hot cocoa to enjoy!!  They were making meals that could be stored and used in time of an emergency too.

You can make anything from drinks, snacks, breakfast to dinner and desserts with these recipes. Doesn’t get any better than that does it? 

Picture this.  It’s just you and your little sterno grill all alone.  You’re hungry.  While everyone else is eating peanut butter and bread you are eating a yummy meal of spaghetti and meat sauce, or even a great tuna casserole.   Now that is surviving!

These meals can be used is the most dire of times or even when practicing your survival hikes.  Take a few packages of these “gifts” along with you and eat like you were sitting at your table at home.

Now pull up a chair and let’s eat!

- Survivor Jane

Thank you in advance for sharing Survivor Jane with your friends!

If you have any questions, or would like to see a specific article addressing survival preparedness for women on SurvivorJane.com click here

Or contact Survivor Jane at editorial@survivorjane.com

Follow me on Twitter @SurvivorJane and use the hashtag #PrepperTalk where you will find the Largest Prepper Community on Twitter!