# Saving Holiday Meals



## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

This holiday season we decided to do something different with leftovers. Instead
of just canning and dehydrating leftovers and putting them away in whatever 
location is appropriate, we are going to box up individual "Holiday" meals. Just
pull one off the shelf and everything needed for the meal is in the box.

This seems like a good idea and I dont really see any problems with it at the
moment but we will find any snags or issues involved as we work through the
process in the coming weeks.

Any thoughts on this idea?


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

I like the idea, as it allows you to see (and count) full meals instead of the individual components. I like store my hamburger helper boxes with jars of dehydrated ground beef for the same reason.

The only possible problem I might see is having items of differing shelf lives in your box. If there's a chance you might go past an expected shelf life of one item, it would be easy to miss it while it's boxed up with other items with longer shelf lives. But I would think that's a minor consideration.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

goshengirl said:


> I like the idea, as it allows you to see (and count) full meals instead of the individual components. I like store my hamburger helper boxes with jars of dehydrated ground beef for the same reason.
> 
> The only possible problem I might see is having items of differing shelf lives in your box. If there's a chance you might go past an expected shelf life of one item, it would be easy to miss it while it's boxed up with other items with longer shelf lives. But I would think that's a minor consideration.


Yea, that shelf life issue is well worth paying attention to, it hadn't even crossed my mind, thank for bringing it up.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Well, we have the leftovers almost finished canning. Looks like a meal box will have, 
but not limited to the below items.

Turkey and Gravy -quarts 
Cornbread and Acorn Dressing - quarts
Mashed Potatoes - quarts
Pinto Beans - quarts
Candied Sweet Potatoes - quarts 
Green Bean Casserole - quarts 
Broccoli Casserole - pints 
Green Beans - pints 
Mexican Corn - pints 
Cranberry Sauce - pints
Pecan Pie - pints

We have foods on the shelves that will finish out the above meals and they will be 
pulled and added to the boxes, just depends on what the DD's want included.

I decided not to dehydrate any of it, just make it so that a box could be pulled off the
shelf, warmed and eaten. It looks like we are going to get 4 full meal boxes put into
the stores.


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