Tag: #FoodPreservation

Posted in Jar Mixes (Meal Starters)

Homemade Soup Starter Mix

Posted on by simplegoodfood

One of the best things about having a pantry stocked with dehydrated vegetables is realizing that those little jars aren’t just ingredients waiting for a recipe.

They can become the recipe starter.

A handful of dehydrated vegetables, a little barley or rice, some herbs and seasonings, and a jar of shelf-stable ingredients can turn into the beginning of a homemade pot of soup whenever you need it.

That’s the idea behind this Homemade Soup Starter Mix.

It isn’t meant to be a complete instant soup. Instead, it’s a flexible little pantry helper that gives you a head start.

Add broth. Add protein. Let everything simmer and rehydrate.

Dinner gets a whole lot easier.

Why Make a Homemade Soup Starter?

There are plenty of packaged soup mixes at the grocery store. So why make your own?

Because homemade lets you decide exactly what goes into it.

You can:

  • Use vegetables you already dehydrated.
  • Adjust the quantities for a small household.
  • Leave out ingredients your family doesn’t like.
  • Control the seasoning.
  • Use the grains or starches you already keep.
  • Make individual or two-serving portions.
  • Use up small quantities of dehydrated vegetables.
  • Build several different soups from the same basic starter.

And perhaps most importantly, you know what’s in the jar.

This isn’t about creating another complicated food-prep project.

It’s about making the pantry you already have more useful.

The Basic Soup Starter Formula

Think of your jar as four basic components:

Vegetables + Grain/Starch + Seasoning + Optional Dried Flavor Ingredients

That’s it.

The protein and broth can be added later.

For this version, we’re using dehydrated vegetables, pearl barley, onion, garlic, and simple herbs.

The result is a versatile starter that works particularly well with turkey or chicken.

Homemade Soup Starter Mix

Makes

4 small starter portions

Each portion makes approximately 2 servings of soup, depending on the amount of broth and protein added.

Ingredients

For the complete dry mix:

  • ½ cup dehydrated diced carrots
  • ½ cup dehydrated diced celery
  • ½ cup dehydrated diced onion
  • ½ cup dehydrated diced potatoes
  • 1 cup pearl barley
  • 2 teaspoons dried parsley
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon salt

To Package

You’ll also need:

  • Four pint-size mason jars or other airtight containers
  • Labels

A pint jar gives you plenty of room to combine the ingredients without having to cram everything inside.

Making the Mix

1. Make sure the vegetables are thoroughly dry.

This is the most important step.

Dehydrated vegetables intended for storage should be completely dry and properly cooled before being packed.

They should not feel soft or damp.

If you’re unsure whether a batch is sufficiently dry, give it more drying time rather than taking chances with storage.

2. Combine the dry ingredients.

In a large bowl, combine the dehydrated carrots, celery, onion, and potatoes.

Add the barley, parsley, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and salt.

Stir thoroughly so the seasonings are distributed throughout the mixture.

3. Divide into four portions.

Measure approximately 1½ cups of the dry mixture into each jar.

Don’t worry if the portions aren’t perfectly identical. The mix is flexible.

4. Label the jars.

At minimum, write:

Homemade Soup Starter Mix

Use 1 jar for approximately 2 servings

Date prepared

If you’re keeping several mixes in your pantry, it’s also helpful to note the main ingredients.

How to Use the Soup Starter

When you’re ready to make soup, empty one jar into a saucepan.

Add:

  • 4 cups chicken or turkey broth
  • 1 to 1½ cups cooked turkey or chicken, chopped or shredded

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently until the barley and vegetables are tender.

Because dehydrated vegetables vary in size and dryness, cooking time can vary.

Start checking around 35 minutes, but allow additional time if the barley or vegetables aren’t tender yet.

Add additional broth or water as needed.

Taste and adjust the seasoning before serving.

A Note About the Potatoes

Dehydrated potatoes can take a little longer to rehydrate than some other vegetables.

Cutting them into small, uniform pieces before dehydrating helps them cook more evenly.

If your dehydrated potato pieces are larger, give them extra cooking time.

What Goes Into the Soup Later?

This is intentionally a starter, not a finished meal.

That’s what makes it useful.

You can add:

Protein

  • Cooked turkey
  • Cooked chicken
  • Canned chicken
  • Cooked pork
  • Beans
  • Lentils

Extra Vegetables

  • Frozen peas
  • Frozen green beans
  • Corn
  • Spinach
  • Fresh cabbage
  • Fresh zucchini

Finishing Ingredients

  • Lemon juice
  • Fresh parsley
  • Greek yogurt
  • Parmesan
  • Shredded cheese
  • A splash of vinegar

The same jar can become several different soups depending on what you add.

Kitchen Confidence: Don’t Make the Mix Too Complicated

It’s tempting when making homemade mixes to keep adding ingredients.

A little of this.

A little of that.

Another spice.

Another dried vegetable.

Before you know it, you’ve created a jar that only works for one specific recipe.

That’s not what we’re trying to do here.

The most useful pantry mixes are flexible.

Think of this as a blank canvas rather than a finished recipe.

The jar gives you the vegetables, grain, and basic seasoning.

You decide what dinner becomes.

Stretch Every Grocery Dollar

This kind of mix can also help you make better use of food you’ve already preserved.

Dehydrated vegetables take up very little storage space, which makes them especially useful when refrigerator and freezer space are limited.

Instead of keeping a large bag of fresh vegetables in the refrigerator and hoping you’ll use them before they spoil, you can preserve some of them for later.

And once they’re dehydrated, they become incredibly convenient.

A tablespoon or two of dried onion can be exactly what a small recipe needs.

A handful of dried carrots can become part of a soup.

Those little quantities add up.

Waste Not, Want Not

This is also a good project for using the smaller quantities left over from different dehydrating batches.

You don’t need to dedicate an entire batch of vegetables to soup mix.

Have a little dehydrated carrot left?

Add it.

A small jar of dried onion?

Use it.

Some dehydrated celery that isn’t enough for another storage jar?

Into the soup mix it goes.

This is one of the places where dehydrating really shines for a small household.

Small quantities don’t have to become waste.

They can become ingredients.

Cooking for One or Two

The recipe makes four starter portions, but you can easily scale it down.

For a household of one, make smaller jars containing enough mix for one serving.

You can also prepare the four portions and simply use half of a jar when you need one bowl of soup.

The important thing is to keep the dry ingredients in a clean, dry, airtight container.

Meal Prep Note

These starter jars are a great way to make future meal prep easier.

You can prepare several jars at once and keep them ready in the pantry.

Then on a busy evening, you aren’t measuring five different dried vegetables and three different seasonings.

The measuring is already done.

You simply grab a jar and start cooking.

That is exactly what a good pantry convenience food should do.

Storage

For best storage, make sure every dehydrated ingredient is completely dry before assembling the mix.

Store the finished mix in a clean, dry, airtight container in a cool, dark pantry.

Label each jar with the date and ingredients.

Because this mix contains multiple homemade dehydrated ingredients, I recommend treating the storage life according to the ingredient with the shortest reliable storage life rather than assuming the entire mix will last indefinitely.

If you notice moisture, condensation, off odors, mold, or any other sign of spoilage, discard the mix.

When in doubt, throw it out.

Important Preservation Note

This homemade soup mix is a dry pantry mix, not a pressure-canned or shelf-stable canned meal.

Do not put the assembled soup mix into a canning jar and process it as though it were a tested canning recipe.

For food-preservation guidance, follow tested recommendations from reliable preservation authorities and use your dehydrated ingredients according to established dehydration and storage practices.

Three Ways to Use One Starter

The real beauty of this mix is what happens after the jar is opened.

Turkey & Barley Comfort Soup

Add turkey, chicken or turkey broth, and finish with parsley and a squeeze of lemon.

That’s the version we’ll be making tomorrow.

Chicken & Vegetable Soup

Use chicken instead of turkey and add a handful of frozen peas near the end.

The same starter suddenly has a completely different personality.

Vegetable & Bean Soup

Skip the meat and add a can of drained white beans or another bean you enjoy.

Add a little tomato if you want a richer, tomato-based soup.

One starter.

Three very different dinners.

And that’s before we start changing the seasonings.

The Bigger Pantry Idea

A pantry full of ingredients is useful.

A pantry full of ready-to-combine ingredients is even more useful.

That’s the difference between simply storing food and actually building a working pantry.

The goal isn’t to have shelves that look impressive.

The goal is to be able to open the pantry on a Wednesday night, look around, and think:

“I can make dinner from this.”

A few jars of homemade soup starter can help make that possible.

Tomorrow, we’ll put one of these jars to work with Turkey & Barley Comfort Soup—a good example of how a little advance preparation can turn dehydrated pantry ingredients into a genuinely comforting meal.

Posted in Recipe Roundup

Pantry to Table: What We Learned This Week

Posted on by simplegoodfood

This week we started something new here at Good Food Good Meat.

It’s called Pantry to Table, and the idea is pretty simple:

A pantry should help you cook the food you want to eat.

Not fill your shelves just for the sake of filling them.

Not buy ingredients because somebody else’s pantry checklist says you need them.

And not stock up on food that eventually gets pushed to the back of the cupboard and forgotten.

For one or two people, a practical pantry can look very different from the pantry designed for a large family.

This week, we started figuring out what that can look like.

Sunday: Start With a Meal

We began the week with Chicken Meal Starter: From Pantry to Supper.

The idea was simple: canned chicken, vegetables, rice, broth, and seasonings can become dinner without requiring a freezer full of meat or a refrigerator full of fresh ingredients.

And more importantly, that one basic combination could become several different meals.

Chicken and rice.

Soup.

A creamy skillet.

A casserole.

A bowl.

That’s an important pantry lesson:

Think about what an ingredient can become—not just what it is.

Monday: Build the Pantry Around Your Life

Monday’s article, Building a Practical Pantry for One or Two, took that idea a step further.

We talked about choosing pantry staples based on the foods you actually eat.

We also looked at homemade convenience mixes and the excellent resources available from Cooperative Extension programs.

If you missed it, the article includes links to resources from:

  • University of Maine Cooperative Extension
  • University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension
  • Oregon State University Extension
  • UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
  • University of Minnesota Extension

Those are worth bookmarking if you’re interested in building your own pantry mixes, dehydrating foods, or simply learning more about practical food storage.

Tuesday: Put Protein on the Shelf

Tuesday was all about Pantry Proteins.

Canned chicken.

Tuna.

Salmon.

Mackerel.

Beans.

Peanut butter.

Shelf-stable protein products.

The point wasn’t that everyone needs all of these.

Quite the opposite.

The useful pantry is the one stocked with proteins you will actually turn into meals.

A can of tuna that becomes lunch is more useful than six cans of something you bought because it was supposed to be a “pantry essential.”

Wednesday: Make Dinner From the Shelf

Wednesday put that idea into practice with Pantry Tuna & Tomato Pasta for Two.

Pasta.

Tuna.

Canned tomatoes.

Broth.

A few seasonings.

Nothing fancy.

But that’s exactly what I like about pantry cooking.

You don’t need unusual ingredients to make a satisfying meal.

Sometimes you just need a few ordinary ingredients that know how to work together.

Thursday: Make Your Own Convenience Food

Thursday brought us to one of my favorite ideas of the week:

Homemade Chicken & Vegetable Soup Mix.

Instead of buying a commercial soup mix, you can combine your own dehydrated chicken, vegetables, potatoes, and seasonings in a small jar.

Add broth.

Simmer.

Dinner.

And because we’re talking about one or two people, the recipe makes just two servings.

That’s an important part of the Pantry to Table philosophy.

Convenience doesn’t have to mean buying a giant package.

You can make your own convenience foods in quantities that fit your household.

Friday: Find Your Pantry Workhorses

By Friday, we narrowed the idea down to five pantry categories that can do a lot of work:

Broth

Canned tomatoes

Rice

Pasta

A protein you actually like

Those aren’t meant to be the five things everyone must have.

They’re examples of ingredients that can appear in many different meals.

And that’s what makes a pantry staple useful.

What I Hope You Take Away From This Week

If there’s one thing I’d like you to take away from this first week, it’s this:

Stop thinking about the pantry as a storage space.

Think of it as a meal-building system.

A can of tomatoes isn’t dinner.

A bag of rice isn’t dinner.

A can of chicken isn’t dinner.

But put the right things together, and suddenly you have dinner.

That’s the difference between simply having food in the house and having a pantry that works for you.

A Little Pantry Homework

Before you go shopping this week, take five minutes and look at what you already have.

Pick five ingredients.

For each one, ask:

What could I make with this?

Then ask:

What else would I need?

And finally:

Would I actually eat those meals?

You may discover that your pantry is more useful than you thought.

You may also discover that you’ve been storing things you don’t really use.

Both are useful information.

Don’t Forget the Refrigerator and Freezer

A pantry doesn’t exist by itself.

It’s part of the whole kitchen.

For some people, fresh vegetables will make up a large part of their meals.

For others, refrigerator space is limited.

Some households can keep several bags of frozen vegetables available.

Others simply don’t have the freezer room.

That’s why Pantry to Table isn’t going to be about one perfect way to stock a kitchen.

It’s going to be about finding practical solutions for different kinds of kitchens.

Because cooking for one or two often means making different choices than cooking for a family.

And That’s Where We’re Going Next

We’ve spent this first week looking at the basic building blocks:

Protein.
Vegetables.
Grains.
Pasta.
Broth.
Tomatoes.
Homemade mixes.

Now we can start putting those pieces together in more ways.

We’ll look at ways to make pantry cooking more flexible, how to use preserved and dehydrated foods, how to avoid buying more than you can use, and how to turn simple shelf-stable ingredients into meals that don’t feel like an afterthought.

Because that’s the whole point.

The pantry isn’t the destination.

Dinner is.

This Week’s Pantry to Table Posts

Chicken Meal Starter
Good meals don't always begin with a trip to the grocery store. Sometimes they begin with a few things waiting in the pantry.
Check out this recipe
Building a Practical Pantry for One or Two: Stock What You Use, Make What You Need
Check out this recipe
Pantry Proteins: The Shelf-Stable Proteins Worth Keeping on Hand
Check out this recipe
Pantry Tuna & Tomato Pasta
There are nights when dinner needs to come from the pantry.
Check out this recipe
Homemade Chicken & Vegetable soup
There is something wonderfully practical about having a jar on the pantry shelf that can become dinner.
Check out this recipe
5 Pantry Staples That Make Dinner Easier
Check out this recipe

Come back next week as Pantry to Table continues.

Posted in Jar Mixes (Meal Starters)

Homemade Chicken & Vegetable Soup Mix

Posted on by simplegoodfood

There is something wonderfully practical about having a jar on the pantry shelf that can become dinner.

This Homemade Chicken & Vegetable Soup Mix is built from dehydrated and shelf-stable ingredients, portioned specifically for a small household.

Instead of opening several cans of vegetables every time you want soup, you measure the dry ingredients into a jar ahead of time. When you’re ready for soup, add water or broth, simmer until the vegetables are tender, and add chicken.

It’s the kind of pantry convenience that makes sense to me: make it once, store it, and have a small meal ready when you need it.

Why You’ll Love This Soup Mix

  • Makes a small batch suitable for one or two people
  • Uses dehydrated and pantry ingredients
  • Doesn’t require refrigerator or freezer space for the mix
  • Lets you use your own dehydrated vegetables
  • Can be prepared several jars at a time
  • Makes a practical lunch or light dinner
  • Easy to customize
  • A good way to use small amounts of dehydrated vegetables

Recipe Information

Yield: 1 soup mix
Mix Container: 1 half-pint (8-ounce) Mason jar
Finished Servings: 2
Serving Size: About 1½ cups prepared soup
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25–35 minutes
Total Time: About 40 minutes
Meal Category: Soups, Stews & Chili
Main Protein: Chicken
Estimated Calories: About 250–300 per serving, depending on the chicken and broth used

simplegoodfood's avatarsimplegoodfood

Homemade Chicken & Vegetable soup

There is something wonderfully practical about having a jar on the pantry shelf that can become dinner.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings: 2
Course: Dinner, Lunch, Soup
Cuisine: American
Calories: 300
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Dry Mix
  • ¼ cup dehydrated chicken finely chopped or shredded
  • 2 tablespoons dehydrated carrots
  • 2 tablespoons dehydrated peas
  • 2 tablespoons dehydrated corn
  • 2 tablespoons dehydrated onion
  • 2 tablespoons dehydrated celery if available
  • ¼ cup dehydrated potato diced small
  • 1 tablespoon dry parsley
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
  • 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder
To Prepare the Soup
  • 3 cups water or chicken broth
  • 1 soup mix
  • 1 tablespoon additional dehydrated chicken optional

Method
 

  1. You will need one clean, completely dry 8-ounce (half-pint) Mason jar with a tight-fitting lid.
  2. Place all of the dry ingredients into the jar.
  3. Layering the ingredients can make the jar look attractive, but mixing everything together is perfectly fine.
  4. Seal the container tightly.
Label it:
  1. Chicken & Vegetable Soup Mix
  2. Makes 2 servings
  3. Add 3 cups water or broth
  4. Simmer 25–35 minutes
  5. Add fresh or canned chicken if desired
  6. Prepared: __________
  7. Store the finished mix in a cool, dry place according to the storage recommendations for your individual dehydrated ingredients.
  8. Important: Because the volume of dehydrated ingredients can vary depending on how finely they are cut and how thoroughly they are dried, don’t pack the ingredients tightly into the jar. If your particular batch does not comfortably fit an 8-ounce jar, use the next larger container rather than compressing the ingredients.
How to Make the Soup
    Start the vegetables
    1. Place the soup mix in a small saucepan.
    2. Add 3 cups of water or chicken broth.
    3. Stir well.
    4. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer.
    Let the vegetables rehydrate
    1. Cover loosely and simmer for about 20–25 minutes.
    2. Stir occasionally.
    3. The exact cooking time will depend on how finely your vegetables were cut and how thoroughly they were dehydrated.
    4. The potatoes and carrots should be tender before moving on.
    Add chicken if needed
    1. If you used dehydrated chicken in the mix, continue simmering until the chicken is fully rehydrated and heated through.
    2. If you’re using canned chicken instead, drain and add it during the last 5–10 minutes of cooking.
    3. This is also an excellent place to use leftover cooked chicken.
    Adjust the soup
    1. Taste the broth.
    2. Add more water or broth if the soup is thicker than you prefer.
    3. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
    4. Serve hot.

    Notes

    Kitchen Confidence

    This is a formula, not a recipe that has to be followed to the teaspoon.
    That’s one of the advantages of making your own soup mixes.
    You can change the vegetables based on what you’ve dehydrated.
    No peas?
    Use green beans.
    No celery?
    Leave it out.
    Have extra dehydrated onions?
    Use them.
    Have dehydrated potatoes but no carrots?
    That’s perfectly fine.
    The important thing is keeping the proportions reasonable and making sure all of your ingredients are properly dehydrated and completely dry before assembling the mix.

    Build Your Own Vegetable Combination

    Think of this mix as a starting point.

    You might make:

    Chicken + Carrot + Pea + Potato

    or

    Chicken + Corn + Green Bean + Potato

    or

    Chicken + Mixed Vegetable + Onion

    You could even make several different jars so that opening one doesn’t always mean eating exactly the same soup.

    That’s the beauty of doing your own preservation.

    You’re building a pantry around the foods you like.

    Stretch Every Grocery Dollar

    This mix is particularly useful for using vegetables that you’ve dehydrated yourself.

    A small amount of several different vegetables might not look like much individually.

    Together, they make soup.

    That’s a great way to get more value from produce purchased when it’s inexpensive or plentiful.

    And because you’re making a small jar at a time, you don’t need to commit a huge quantity of your dehydrated food to one recipe.

    Waste Not, Want Not

    Soup is one of the best ways to use small quantities.

    A tablespoon or two of dehydrated vegetables that isn’t enough for another meal can become part of a soup mix.

    The same goes for small amounts of dehydrated chicken.

    Instead of having several nearly empty jars taking up space, combine compatible ingredients into a meal.

    Just be sure that every ingredient going into the mix is completely dry and suitable for long-term storage.

    Cooking for One or Two

    This recipe intentionally makes only two servings.

    For one person, that’s dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.

    Or make half the mix if you prefer truly single-serving portions.

    You can also prepare several jars at once and keep them ready for busy days.

    That’s where homemade convenience mixes really start to earn their keep.

    Meal Prep Note

    If you’re already dehydrating vegetables, consider assembling several soup mixes while everything is out.

    Prepare the jars, label them, and store them together.

    Then you’ve created your own small-batch convenience food without having to purchase a commercial soup mix.

    For your own pantry, you could even keep a few different versions:

    • Chicken & Vegetable
    • Chicken & Potato
    • Chicken & Rice
    • Chicken & Noodle

    That gives you variety without requiring a large collection of ingredients.

    Storage & Food Safety

    The finished soup mix should be stored only after you are certain that every dehydrated ingredient is properly dried and cooled.

    Keep the mix in an airtight container in a cool, dry, dark location.

    For specific dehydration temperatures, preparation methods, and storage recommendations, follow tested food-preservation guidance for the individual ingredients.

    When working with dehydrated foods, it’s especially important not to improvise on food-safety steps simply because the ingredients are going into a soup mix.

    One Jar, Two Bowls of Soup

    This is exactly the kind of pantry convenience I want to explore during Pantry to Table.

    Not a giant emergency-food bucket.

    Not a shelf full of things nobody remembers buying.

    Just a small jar containing ingredients you’ve already prepared and know you’ll eat.

    Add broth.

    Add heat.

    Give it time to rehydrate.

    And you’ve got soup.

    That’s a pantry doing its job.

    Posted in Preservation

    September in Review: What We Put Back

    Posted on by simplegoodfood

    September has been a month of harvest, planning, preserving, and putting a little something back.

    We started with fresh produce and the simple question of what we could do with it. From there, we worked our way through using what was plentiful, freezing food in practical amounts for a small household, building a more useful pantry, and finally moving into home canning.

    It has been a busy month in the kitchen.

    But the real goal was never to see how many jars we could fill or how much food we could squeeze into a freezer.

    The goal was to make future meals easier.

    🌾 September’s Harvest Journey

    If you missed some of this month’s posts, these weekly roundups are the easiest way to catch up.

    Harvest Begins

    September started with the basics: recognizing what is available, making the most of seasonal produce, and thinking about preservation before food gets pushed to the back of the refrigerator.

    Harvest Time: Putting a Little Back for Tomorrow
    Read the Article!
    Garden Harvest Beef & Vegetable Soup
    There is something wonderfully practical about a pot of vegetable soup.
    Check out this recipe
    Fresh Corn & Zucchini Skillet
    Fresh summer corn and tender zucchini come together in this simple one-skillet side dish.
    Check out this recipe
    Harvest Chicken Rice Bowl
    There is something wonderfully satisfying about a bowl built from simple ingredients.
    Check out this recipe
    Pressure-Canning Ground Beef
    Check out this recipe
    Autumn Harvest Rice Bowl
    Roasted squash or sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, rice, and tender beef or chicken come together in this cozy fall-inspired Build-A-Bowl.
    Check out this recipe
    Smart Shopper Spotlight: What’s Worth Buying in September?
    Check out this recipe
    Harvest Vegetable Fried Rice
    Give leftover vegetables and cooked rice a delicious second life with this easy one-skillet fried rice.
    Check out this recipe
    End-of-Market Vegetable Soup
    A flexible, no-waste vegetable soup designed for all those little bits of produce left after market day.
    Check out this recipe

    It was the beginning of our September theme:

    Today’s harvest can become tomorrow’s dinner.

    Make the Most of September’s Harvest

    Once we had an idea of what was available, we moved on to making good use of it.

    Some foods were ready to eat right away. Others were worth buying when prices were good and putting a little aside for later.

    When the Farm Stand is Full
    Read the Article!
    Smart Shopper Spotlight: What to Buy When It’s in Season
    Read the Article!
    Harvest Chicken & Vegetable Skillet
    Tender pieces of chicken are cooked with sweet corn, zucchini, bell pepper, onion, and tomatoes for a simple skillet dinner that tastes like the best of late summer and early fall.
    Check out this recipe
    Put a Little Back: Sweet Corn — Today’s Corn, Tomorrow’s Meals
    Read the Article!
    How Much Should You Actually Preserve?
    Read the Article!
    Harvest Corn & Chicken Rice Bowls
    There is something satisfying about putting food away when it's at its best and then actually using it later.
    Check out this recipe
    Farm Stand Vegetable Fritatta
    When the farm stand is full, make a frittata!
    Check out this recipe

    The important thing wasn’t simply buying more.

    It was buying with a plan.

    Freezing for a Small Household

    For a household of one or two, preservation has to be practical.

    There’s not much point in freezing a giant package if you’re only going to use a cup or two at a time. This week was about portioning food for the meals we actually cook, reducing waste, and making the freezer a useful part of the kitchen rather than a place where food disappears until nobody remembers what it is.

    Why Freezing Might Be the Best Preservation Method for a Small Household
    Read the Article!
    The September Freezer: What to Put Back When Produce Is Plentiful
    Read the Article!
    Chicken & Vegetable Pot Pie Skillet
    There are nights when you want chicken pot pie, but you don't necessarily want to make an entire pie.
    Check out this recipe
    Put a Little Back: Green Beans for Future Dinners
    Read the Article!
    Freezer Inventory: Know What You Put Back
    Read the Article!
    Harvest Chicken & Green Bean Rice Bowls
    A portion of frozen green beans, some cooked chicken, rice, and a handful of pantry staples come together in a warm, satisfying bowl.
    Check out this recipe
    Freezer Clean-Out Vegetable Soup
    This Freezer Clean-Out Vegetable Soup is exactly the kind of meal I want waiting at the end of a week like this.
    Check out this recipe

    A little corn.

    A few portions of cooked chicken.

    Some vegetables.

    A meal or two tucked away for a busy day.

    Those small additions add up.

    The Pantry Gets Bigger

    The next step was looking beyond the freezer.

    Dehydrating, pantry building, meal starters, and thoughtful storage all give us another way to take advantage of today’s harvest.

    Building a Pantry One Jar at a Time
    Start small and build a useful pantry without filling every available shelf.
    Read the Article!
    Dehydrating for Real Life: Turning the Harvest into Useful Ingredients
    Look at dehydrating as a way to create practical, recipe-ready ingredients rather than simply preserving food for storage.
    Read the Article!
    Rustic Harvest Chicken & Rice
    Put those dehydrated vegetables to work in a simple, satisfying meal.
    Check out this recipe
    Put a Little Back: Dehydrated Vegetables
    Read the Article!
    How to Make Your Dehydrated Food Work Like Ingredients
    Read the Article!
    Harvest Vegetable & Lentil Soup
    Turn that little pantry starter into a warm, practical meal.
    Check out this recipe
    Pork & Cabbage Rustic Bowl
    Use simple ingredients to create another small-batch meal without needing a refrigerator full of leftovers.
    Check out this recipe

    The idea is simple:

    Don’t just preserve ingredients. Preserve possibilities.

    A jar of dried vegetables isn’t just a jar of dried vegetables. It’s something that can become part of a soup, skillet, rice bowl, or another meal down the road.

    That’s where preservation starts to become meal planning.

    Putting Things Back

    And now we come to the final chapter.

    This week we’ve moved into home canning — beginning with tomatoes and water-bath canning, then moving into pressure canning and the Chicken Meal Starter.

    Weekend Suppers: Simple Skillet Meals for Fall
    Read the Article!
    Why Tomatoes Need Special Attention When Canning
    Read the Article!
    Canning Tomatoes: Your First Water-Bath Project
    Read the Article!
    What Can I Do With Those Canned Tomatoes?
    Read the Article!
    Water Bath or Pressure Canner? Knowing Which One to Use
    Read the Article!
    Chicken Meal Starter: Putting a Future Supper in the Pantry
    Read the Article!

    This is where all the pieces we’ve been talking about come together.

    We’re not preserving food simply because we can.

    We’re preserving it because we have a plan for using it.

    What September Really Taught Us

    There are plenty of ways to preserve food.

    Freezing.

    Dehydrating.

    Water-bath canning.

    Pressure canning.

    But the method isn’t really the most important part.

    The important part is asking:

    Will this make my future meals easier?

    Will I actually use it?

    Is it stored in an amount that makes sense for my household?

    Can I find it when I need it?

    Does it save me money, reduce waste, or give me something useful when I don’t feel like starting dinner completely from scratch?

    Those are the questions that turn preservation into practical kitchen planning.

    From Today’s Harvest to Tomorrow’s Supper

    When we started September, the harvest was the focus.

    By the end of the month, we’re looking at something different.

    We’re looking at future meals.

    A bag of frozen corn can become part of a quick skillet supper.

    A container of cooked chicken can become soup, a rice bowl, or a wrap.

    A jar of dried vegetables can become part of a meal starter.

    A jar of home-canned tomatoes can become sauce, soup, or a skillet dinner.

    And a jar of Chicken Meal Starter is already halfway to a future supper.

    That’s the payoff.

    We didn’t put all this food back just to fill jars, freezer bags, and pantry shelves.

    We put it back so that one day, when it’s time to make supper, some of the work has already been done.

    Looking Ahead to October

    And that brings us right to next month.

    September has been about putting food back.

    October is going to be about using what we’ve put back.

    Our October theme is:

    Good Meals Begin Before You Start Cooking

    Because sometimes the easiest supper starts long before you turn on the stove.

    It starts with having the right ingredients.

    It starts with knowing what’s in the pantry.

    It starts with a few portions in the freezer.

    It starts with a jar on the shelf that can become dinner.

    September taught us how to put a little something back. October is going to show us what we can do with it.

    And I think that’s a pretty good place to end the harvest season.

    Posted in Preservation

    Chicken Meal Starter: Putting a Future Supper in the Pantry

    Posted on by simplegoodfood

    Yesterday we talked about the difference between water-bath and pressure canning.

    Today we’re going to put that knowledge to work.

    We’re pressure canning chicken.

    But this isn’t just about putting chicken into jars.

    The idea behind this particular project is something I really love about preserving food:

    What if one afternoon of cooking could give you several future meal starters?

    That’s exactly what I was after with this Chicken Meal Starter.

    What Is a Chicken Meal Starter?

    Think of it as a head start on supper.

    Instead of opening a jar and having a complete finished meal, you’re opening a jar containing the makings of one.

    Chicken.

    Vegetables.

    Broth.

    Seasoning.

    The contents can then become soup, a skillet meal, a casserole, a rice bowl, or something else entirely.

    The jar doesn’t dictate the final meal.

    It gives you somewhere to start.

    And for someone cooking for one or two, that can be incredibly useful.

    Why Make a Meal Starter?

    There are plenty of ways to preserve chicken.

    You can can plain chicken and use it in whatever recipe you want later.

    You can freeze cooked chicken.

    You can dehydrate chicken.

    But I like the idea of a meal starter because some of the thinking and preparation has already happened.

    The chicken is cooked and preserved.

    The vegetables are there.

    The broth is there.

    When I need supper later, I’m not starting from scratch.

    That’s the kind of pantry convenience I’m interested in.

    Not convenience food.

    Convenient real food.

    My Chicken Canning Day

    This wasn’t a theoretical canning exercise.

    I actually made this batch.

    And I learned something about my pressure canner in the process.

    I knew it was a good-sized canner, but I hadn’t realized just how many half-pint jars it could hold until I started loading it.

    Twelve half-pint jars.

    Not eight.

    Twelve.

    That gave me room to do a little experimenting with the batch.

    I ended up with:

    • 8 jars of Chicken Meal Starter
    • 2 jars of extra vegetables and broth
    • 2 jars of broth

    That’s twelve jars of future possibilities from one canning session.

    And honestly, discovering that my canner could hold twelve half-pints was a pretty nice surprise.

    What Went Into the Meal Starter?

    The basic idea was simple:

    • Chicken
    • Vegetables
    • Broth
    • Seasonings

    The ingredients were prepared according to the tested canning procedure being used for the batch.

    The important thing here is that the canning procedure comes first.

    This isn’t the place to start changing ingredients, adding extra vegetables, changing the jar size, or deciding that a cooking recipe can simply be converted into a canning recipe.

    When you’re preparing food for shelf-stable storage, the tested procedure is part of the recipe.

    A Very Important Canning Note

    This is where I want to slow down for a minute.

    Don’t use this post as a pressure-canning procedure by itself.

    Chicken is a low-acid food and must be pressure canned using a current, tested procedure.

    The National Center for Home Food Preservation’s tested directions for canning poultry are here:

    https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can/meat-poultry-game

    The USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning is another reliable reference:

    https://nchfp.uga.edu/resources/category/usda-guide

    Use the tested processing instructions for the specific chicken preparation you’re making, including the correct jar size, processing time, pressure, headspace, and altitude adjustment.

    Don’t substitute a cooking time for a canning time.

    Those are two very different things.

    Why Half-Pints?

    I chose half-pint jars because I’m cooking for one or two.

    A quart jar of chicken might be perfectly reasonable for a large family.

    For me?

    That’s a lot of chicken to use at once.

    Half-pints give me much smaller portions and make it easier to open only what I need.

    That’s one of the recurring themes in my kitchen:

    Preserve food in portions that make sense for the people you’re actually feeding.

    What Can You Do With a Jar?

    This is where the Chicken Meal Starter gets interesting.

    A jar can become the beginning of several different meals.

    🍚 Chicken & Rice Bowl

    Add cooked rice and whatever fresh or frozen vegetables you have available.

    A little seasoning or sauce can take it in an entirely different direction.

    🍲 Chicken Soup

    Add the contents of the jar to a saucepan with additional broth or vegetables as needed.

    Add noodles, rice, potatoes, or another soup ingredient.

    Suddenly, dinner is soup.

    🥔 Chicken & Potato Skillet

    Add the chicken mixture to a skillet with cooked or partially cooked potatoes.

    Brown everything together and you’ve got a completely different meal from the same pantry starter.

    🥣 Chicken Vegetable Bowl

    Serve the chicken and vegetables over rice, mashed potatoes, or another grain.

    Add a little gravy or sauce if you like.

    🥧 Chicken Pot Pie Filling

    The starter can provide the foundation for a small chicken pot-pie-style meal when combined with additional vegetables and a suitable topping.

    And this is exactly why I like the word starter.

    The jar isn’t trying to be everything.

    It’s giving you a head start.

    Those Extra Jars Have a Purpose, Too

    Remember those two jars of extra vegetables and broth?

    And the two jars of broth?

    They’re not mistakes.

    They’re pantry building blocks.

    The vegetable-and-broth jars can become the beginning of soup or a sauce.

    The broth can become cooking liquid for rice, potatoes, soup, or another meal.

    Sometimes the most useful thing you can preserve is an ingredient that makes the next meal easier.

    Stretch Every Grocery Dollar

    This is where the economics of preservation get interesting.

    When you buy ingredients and use them for several future meals, you’re not simply preserving food.

    You’re preserving future convenience.

    The chicken that went into these jars will eventually become several different meals.

    The vegetables can be stretched into soups, bowls, and skillet meals.

    The broth can replace purchased stock later.

    And the work happened once.

    That’s a pretty good return on a canning afternoon.

    Kitchen Confidence

    If pressure canning still sounds intimidating, I understand.

    There’s more equipment involved than with a boiling-water canner.

    There’s more to pay attention to.

    And when you’re dealing with meat, there’s no room for guessing.

    But there’s also something very satisfying about learning how to preserve a food that would otherwise need refrigerator or freezer space.

    Once you understand why pressure canning is required, the equipment and procedure start to make more sense.

    And once you have those first jars sitting on the shelf?

    Well…

    That’s when the fun begins.

    Cooking for One or Two

    This is really where the Chicken Meal Starter earns its place in my pantry.

    I’m not interested in opening a giant jar and figuring out how to use three days’ worth of chicken.

    I want to be able to open a small jar, add a couple of ingredients, and make supper.

    That’s the beauty of small-batch preservation.

    You don’t have to preserve like a family of six when you’re feeding two people.

    Preserve according to the way you actually eat.

    What’s Next?

    This is where I’m going to let the canning series breathe a little.

    We’ve talked about tomatoes.

    We’ve learned why acidity matters.

    We’ve used a boiling-water canner.

    We’ve talked about pressure canning.

    And now we’ve put chicken meal starters into the pantry.

    But those jars aren’t the end of the story.

    They’re the beginning.

    Over the next few weeks, I’ll be bringing some of those jars back out of the pantry and showing you what I actually do with them.

    Because there’s no point in putting food back if it just sits on a shelf forever.

    Today’s preserved food is tomorrow’s supper.

    And that’s the whole idea behind Putting Things Back.

    A Note About the Canning Procedure

    The Chicken Meal Starter described here is based on my own canning project, but this post is not intended to replace a tested pressure-canning recipe or procedure.

    For current tested guidance on canning poultry:

    National Center for Home Food Preservation — Meat, Poultry & Game

    https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can/meat-poultry-game

    USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning

    https://nchfp.uga.edu/resources/category/usda-guide

    Always follow the tested procedure for the food being canned, including processing time, pressure, jar size, headspace, and altitude adjustments.

    Posted in Preservation

    Water Bath or Pressure Canner? Knowing Which One to Use

    Posted on by simplegoodfood

    We’ve spent the first part of this week talking about tomatoes.

    We’ve talked about acidity, why tomatoes need added acid when they’re canned, and how to process them safely in a boiling-water canner.

    Today, we’re going to make a change.

    Because tomorrow, we’re moving from tomatoes to chicken.

    And that means we’re moving from water-bath canning to pressure canning.

    If you’re new to home canning, this is one of the most important distinctions to understand:

    The food determines the processing method.

    Not the size of your kitchen.

    Not which canner happens to be sitting in your cupboard.

    And definitely not what your grandmother’s recipe card says.

    Let’s look at why.

    Water-Bath Canning: For Acid Foods

    A boiling-water canner works by surrounding the jars with boiling water.

    At sea level, water boils at 212°F.

    That temperature is sufficient for safely processing properly acidified high-acid foods when you follow a tested recipe and the appropriate processing time.

    Foods commonly processed this way include:

    • Fruits
    • Pickles
    • Jams and jellies
    • Fruit spreads
    • Properly acidified tomatoes and tomato products

    That’s why we started this week with tomatoes.

    They can be safely processed using a boiling-water canner when the tested recipe’s acidification and processing instructions are followed.

    Pressure Canning: For Low-Acid Foods

    Now let’s talk about chicken.

    Meat and poultry are low-acid foods.

    And boiling water isn’t hot enough to safely process low-acid foods for shelf-stable storage.

    That’s where pressure canning comes in.

    A pressure canner allows the temperature inside the canner to rise above the boiling point of water.

    That higher temperature is necessary to destroy microorganisms of concern in low-acid foods when the food is processed according to a tested pressure-canning procedure.

    That’s why you don’t take a water-bath recipe and simply put it in a pressure canner.

    The pressure canner isn’t a magic safety button.

    The recipe still needs to be tested for that particular food, preparation, jar size, processing time, and pressure.

    So Which Canner Should You Buy?

    Here’s where things get interesting.

    If you’re just starting out and can only afford one canner, I would seriously consider buying a pressure canner.

    Why?

    Because a pressure canner gives you the ability to safely process low-acid foods such as meat, poultry, and many vegetables.

    And it can also be used for boiling-water processing of foods that are appropriate for that method.

    That means one piece of equipment can cover both types of processing.

    But There’s an Important Catch

    You don’t pressure-can an acid food simply because you’re using a pressure canner.

    When you’re using the pressure canner as a boiling-water canner, you are not building pressure.

    You’re using it as a large boiling-water canner.

    That’s something I’ve done myself.

    My pressure canner has a rack that keeps the jars up off the bottom of the pot, and because the canner is larger than some of my other pots, I can sometimes fit more jars in it.

    For a boiling-water recipe, I use the canner as a boiling-water bath rather than sealing it up and processing under pressure.

    The important thing is to follow the tested recipe’s instructions for water level, jar placement, processing time, and any other requirements.

    One Canner Doesn’t Mean One Method

    This is worth repeating.

    A pressure canner can be used for boiling-water processing.

    But that does not mean:

    “If I put a water-bath recipe under pressure, it’s automatically safe.”

    Those are two different processes.

    And I learned another lesson the hard way:

    Jelly Doesn’t Necessarily Like Pressure

    I once tried pressure-processing a jelly recipe.

    The result?

    It didn’t jell.

    I had changed the processing environment from what the recipe was designed for, and the jelly wasn’t happy about it.

    That’s a pretty good kitchen lesson:

    Equipment can sometimes be versatile. Recipes aren’t necessarily interchangeable.

    So if you’re making jelly, use a tested jelly recipe and the processing method specified for that recipe.

    If you’re canning chicken, use a tested pressure-canning recipe.

    If you’re canning tomatoes, use a tested tomato recipe.

    The canner doesn’t replace the recipe.

    What About Tomatoes in a Pressure Canner?

    Here’s another point that sometimes causes confusion.

    Some tested tomato procedures can be processed in a pressure canner.

    But that doesn’t mean you can skip the acidification step.

    NCHFP’s tomato guidance specifically provides acidification directions for tomatoes regardless of whether they are processed in a boiling-water canner or pressure canner.

    https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/tomato-acidification-directions

    So don’t think of pressure canning as a way around tomato acidification.

    The method and the acidity are two separate parts of the safety equation.

    The Easy Way to Remember It

    If you’re trying to decide which method to use, start with the food.

    Think Water Bath

    High-acid foods

    Think:

    🍓 Fruit
    🍎 Apples
    🍇 Jams and jellies
    🥒 Pickles
    🍅 Properly acidified tomatoes

    Think Pressure Canner

    Low-acid foods

    Think:

    🍗 Chicken
    🥩 Meat
    🌽 Many vegetables
    🥣 Some soups and combination foods

    There are exceptions and special cases, which is why we use tested recipes rather than relying on a simple list.

    But this is a good starting point.

    Don’t Guess With Combination Foods

    This is particularly important when you start getting creative.

    Suppose you want to make a jar containing:

    • Chicken
    • Rice
    • Vegetables
    • Broth
    • Seasonings

    Sounds like dinner, right?

    It does.

    But you can’t simply decide how long to pressure-can that jar based on how long it takes to cook those ingredients on the stove.

    Different ingredients heat differently.

    The density of the food matters.

    The jar size matters.

    The preparation matters.

    The processing time and pressure matter.

    That’s why tested recipes are so important for combination foods.

    And that’s exactly where we’re headed tomorrow.

    Tomorrow: Chicken Meal Starter

    Tomorrow I’ll show you the Chicken Meal Starter I put together for my own pantry.

    This isn’t just a theoretical recipe.

    I actually made these jars.

    My canner holds 12 half-pint jars, and I filled all twelve during the batch:

    • 8 jars with the Chicken Meal Starter
    • 2 jars with extra vegetables and broth
    • 2 jars with broth

    That’s a lot of future meals sitting on one shelf.

    And those jars are going to give us something even more valuable than a canning tutorial:

    a real example of how a preserved food can become the starting point for future meals.

    Stretch Every Grocery Dollar

    This is where pressure canning starts to make sense beyond simply learning another preservation technique.

    Chicken can be expensive.

    But when you can preserve a larger quantity safely, you can turn one cooking session into multiple future meal starters.

    That’s the same philosophy we’ve been talking about all month:

    Buy when you can. Preserve when it makes sense. Use it later.

    The goal isn’t to have the biggest pantry.

    The goal is to have a pantry that works for you.

    Kitchen Confidence

    If you’ve been intimidated by pressure canning, don’t let the equipment make the whole process seem mysterious.

    Understand the basic rule first:

    High-acid foods can generally be processed in a boiling-water canner. Low-acid foods require pressure canning.

    Then learn the tested recipe.

    Then learn your equipment.

    You don’t need to memorize every canning rule before you begin.

    You just need to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing — and follow the tested procedure.

    Tomorrow, we’ll put that knowledge to work.

    And we’ll put some chicken in the pantry. 🍗

    Reliable Canning Resources

    National Center for Home Food Preservation — Ensuring Safe Canned Foods

    https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/general-information/ensuring-safe-canned-foods

    NCHFP — Canning Tomatoes: Introduction

    https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/canning-tomatoes-introduction

    NCHFP — Tomato Acidification Directions

    https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/tomato-acidification-directions

    USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning

    https://nchfp.uga.edu/resources/category/usda-guide

    For pressure-canning meat and poultry, always use a current, tested procedure rather than adapting a cooking recipe for canning.