I love this time of year when we can eat from the previous summer’s bounty. I call it my “Meals in Jars” season. It’s not that I actually can an entire meal in a jar, but I do love being able to go out to the shelves, pull off a few jars, mix them together and call it supper.
In the last several weeks, we have enjoyed the following meals from the jars on my shelves.
Chicken/Turkey Soup
Maybe you remember the post I wrote about canning soup. It’s not actually soup, but a jar of mixed vegetables. I combine a jar of the vegies with a jar of home-canned chicken or turkey broth, and we have soup. Of course the jars of broth always have meat in them, too.
When the older, hunter boys lived at home, I would also can a supply of venison. Mixing a jar of that with a jar of the vegies gave a nice stew.
Chili
Canning dried beans is easy and keeps them handy for a quick meal. One evening I combined a jar of beans, a jar of tomatoes, another of tomato sauce with some browned, ground venison and we had chili. When I was a kid, all those ingredients came in tin cans from the grocery store. How rewarding to be able to say that it all came from our farm.
Hash
I quit buying corned beef in the can when I learned it came from some foreign country. But I still make hash with either ground or canned venison and my own canned potatoes. Simply fry it all together with a little diced onion and serve with green beans on the side (also out of a home-canned jar) for a well-balanced meal.
Gravy and potatoes
I love to take a jar of that chicken or turkey broth and make a nice milk gravy and serve it over potatoes. I might use fresh potatoes from the store (because I can never grow enough for our family) or my canned potatoes. It depends on how much of a hurry I am in. Or, I might not use potatoes at all but egg noodles or rice. The canned venison was good made this way, too.
Sides
I have quite a few other things put up in jars that I use on the side. We love to have hot applesauce with supper. There is also beets, green beans, butternut squash, pickles, relish, and salsa.
If you haven’t ventured into the realm of putting food by canning, I encourage you to give it a go. Since I purchased my new canner this past summer, putting up meals in jars has gotten a great deal easier.
What do you do to put meals up for the winter? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
Blessings,
This post is linked to the Homestead Barn Hop, Teach Me Tuesday, Titus 2sday, Hearth and Soul Blog Hop, the HomeAcre Hop, Thrifty Thursday, Katherine’s Favorite Things, and Tempt My Tummy. Also, Backyard Farming Connection’s Canning and Preserving Page.
This post made my tummy growl =)
I can a lot, too, but recently came upon the idea of canning my own baked beans an am looking forward to trying this soon. It will be fun to have my canner going during these cold months for a change! This time of year seems perfect for experimenting with canning other things and being creative. During the summer and fall, I’m canning so fast and trying to keep up that I feel like a robot =)
I saved berry juice in the freezer for jam making in the winter, Holly, just because I was too busy in the summer. I think we could come up with more ideas like that if we thought about it.
You are an inspiration! This year I will learn to can. Our extension service has classes, but I always seem to miss the dates. Your bounty sounds delicious!
I’m off to follow you on twitter and tweet this, too!
Have a lovey day!
Neighbors About Town Blog
Thanks, Kris. I’m glad you are inspired.
Sounds wonderful! Unfortunately, where we are now, we’re lucky to grow a few tomatoes & some lettuce in pots during the summer. Hopefully someday we’ll have a huge garden, and then I certainly look forward to canning all sorts of things and eating off our land year-round! (Visiting from Titus2sdays linkup)
Thanks for visiting Elizabeth. Every little thing does help. Have you tried sprouts?
Thank you thank you thank you. I followed several of your links to items you have canned. I will be branching out this year after reading this post. I love the idea of mixing the veggies together as I often end up with not quite enough of anything to do a full canner…and sometimes my freezer is just too full to handle all those bits.
I found you by way of the backyard farming connection hop.
Natalie,
You are sooo welcome. I hope you found some other great ideas here, in the canning department.
This post is a great resource! Thank you for sharing it with the Hearth and Soul hop. It’s inspiring how much food you are able to preserve to enjoy in the winter months.
Great idea, thank you for sharing it at Thrifty Thursday! I could see doing the soups via a freezer method too, blanching the vegetables first possibly.
Meals in a Jar make more sense for me because I cook for just the two of us. I tend to be wasteful if I open four jars and use only a quarter of each for a meal…this way I only open one jar containing 4 parts that I need! Thanks so much for this post…I don’t know that I would have thought of this myself
Holly
Sure thing, Holly. I love it when I can help people. I’m sure you’re full of good ideas I’d never come up with, too.
I have never canned anything But I do freeze quite a bit. We had green beans and zucchini from our garden last night. Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things hop xo P.S. I posted the new giveaway yesterday
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