This month, we’ve been focusing on replacing TV dinners as a way to cut down on single-use plastics. The 3 strategies to help achieve that goal are: homemade freezer meals, ‘meals in a jar’, and 15 minute meals. I’ve mentioned several resources to help support these strategies throughout various posts. So, I wanted to do a quick resource recommendations review to list everything in one spot.
I will only recommend products that I personally use and love and hope can be of benefit to others in their sustainable journeys. (*) indicates an affiliate link where Sustainable Pursuits llc may receive a small compensation for product recommendations.
Recommended cookbooks to help with the 3 strategies
This month’s challenge has been very food related. So a lot of the book recommendations are cookbooks that I find helpful either for making homemade freezer meals or ‘meals in a jar’. Unfortunately, I don’t have many recommendations for the 15 minute meals. I looked through several cookbooks for this and it was great that they all had so many recipes featuring fresh produce. However, I realized for the 15 minute meals to be effective as TV dinner replacements they would need to be made from ingredients that are already on hand in the pantry or fridge.
Let’s start the book recommendations by taking a look at the cookbook Good and Cheap* by Leanne Brown. I’ve actually been pulling from this cookbook for all 3 of the strategies. It has bulk recipes that work well for the homemade freezer meals. I’ve been able to convert several into ‘meals in a jar’ using freeze-dried ingredients. While many of the recipes use fresh produce, there’s also several that utilize foods from the pantry. Making great options for the “emergency” 15 minute meals.
Cookbooks – Recommendations for the homemade freezer meal strategy
The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook* by Coco Morante and The Fresh and Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook* by Megan Gilmore. If you have an instant pot you will definitely get a lot of use out of it for the freezer meals. With the freezer meal strategy, you are making a months worth of meals in one day (or 2 afternoons). To achieve this, you will be using all of your cooking apparatuses including the instant pot if you have one. That’s why I recommend having cookbooks for your cooking vessels, trust me it does help things go more smoothly for the cooking sessions.
For the crockpot, you can also use the freezer meal strategy in 2 different ways. You can assemble ingredients into plastic-free containers and freeze them to cook in the crockpot later. For this, I recommend Freezer Meal Recipes: One-Pot Make Ahead Dump Meals* by Louise Davidson. She has very easy to assemble meals that don’t require extra bags. Or, you can use the crockpot on your cooking day and freeze the foods to reheat later. I really like Stephanie O’Dea’s recipes ayearofslowcooking.com for slow cooker recipes. She has cookbooks as well as her blog available on her website.
Frozen Assets: Cook for a Day, Eat for a Month* by Deborah Taylor-Hough. This was the cookbook that got me doing freezer meals a few years ago. This would be the book to start with for this strategy because she covers best practices and tips for works well and what doesn’t for freezing.
Cookbooks – Recommendations for the ‘meals in a jar’ strategy
Turns out, ‘meals in a jar’ can mean a few different things. However, for replacing TV dinners I’m referring to the meals in a jar that are made with dried, shelf-stable, ingredients that you add water to later. I prefer to use freeze-dried ingredients from Thrive Life foods because they have a great selection and really good quality foods. The Thrive Life website recipe section has a lot of recipes that will work for ‘meals in a jar’.
I also recommend, Meals In A Jar Made Easy by Jodi Weiss Schroeder. This will give you LOTS of recipes for ‘meals in a jar’! She specifically uses Thrive Life freeze-dried foods so if you are using a different freeze-dried food company, you may have to make a few alterations.
A Year Without the Grocery Store* by Karen Morris. This is actually the book that got me started with food storage and a good thing too. I started food prepping at the beginning of 2019 so when 2020 hit, I was actually prepared and wasn’t that effected by supply chain problems. I recommend this book not just for the ‘meals in a jar’ recipes but for the practical food prepping advice.
A quick note about Bookshop.org
You may have noticed that I try to use bookshop.org for my book recommendations. I really like about Bookshop.org is that they support local, independent bookstores. When you order books online through them, you can “choose your favorite bookstore to receive the full profit from your Bookshop.org purchases.”
You can actually find all (well, almost all) of my book recommendations on my bookshop.org book list*! I’m making a different list for each month’s plastic free challenge, so this month’s list is for the 3 strategies to replace TV dinners. I’ll be adding more books as a come across them so be sure to check back regularly.
I’ll also probably get an Amazon booklist going as well. Several of my book recommendations are either on backorder or not carried by bookshop.org and I want to make sure they are accessible to my readers.
Product recommendations that can help with the 3 strategies
- Freeze dried food*
- Crockpot lunch warmer
- Instant Pot
- Platinum grade silicone pouches – to replace plastic bags
- Mason Jars with lids
- Mason jar sealer – depending on how long you want to store your ‘meals in a jar’
- A shopping list
If you would like to know more about how these recommendations can help with the ‘replacing TV dinner challenge’, please check out my article on freeze dried food, homemade freezer meals, meals in a jar, 15 minute meals, and how to reheat leftovers without a microwave.
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