Customer Reviews

Gifts in a Jar: One Dish Meals (Gifts in a Jar Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have most of the books in this series. My parents are aging and I have been looking for items that I can make for them which will have a long shelf life and would require them to do minimal food preparation, yet still have a 'home cooked meal'. The recipes fit the bill for the most part. In each book I found that there were a few recipes that are great and some I wouldn't try at all. This is what I usually find in any cookbook. I would comment that each book only has about 25 or so recipes in it. The rest of the pages consist of 6 copies each of pre-made instruction cards to enclose with each food package. I did feel disappointed in the number of recipes for the cost of the book

Bought this for my daughter. She works long hours, six days a week, so coming homr to fix a meal that's mostly prepared (and SHE knows what the ingredients are) is very time saving for her. They have allergies and has to choose her ingredients carefully.

It must be me. First time, I counted 22 recipes. Second time, I got 21. So I rounded it down. There is no index or table of contents, which hurts the book IMO. The price doesn't seem bad, but for so few recipes I think it should be two or three dollars less.
Also, there are NO SERVING SIZES. You don't know if you have five or fifty servings per recipe. Very bad, and on that alone, I would say only buy it used.
The recipes are not vegetarian but can be converted. Most can be converted to vegan as well. Recipes include chicken, seafood, ground beef.
The meals aren't bad, either. The jambalaya is good (though I leave out the seafood and just eat the rice, LOL),as are the other recipes I've tried.
There are two pancake recipes. The rest are chili, chili mac, soup, jambalaya, and a few casseroles. I think this may be a good book to have on your shelf if you are wanting to make gifts, create "just add water" meals (you can use oil for butter, dehydrated veggies for fresh, TVP for meat, and you have it). You can use this for OAMC but it won't be freezer cooking -- you are creating pantry meals.
I am using it to create vegetarian meal packages for the poor. I'll use plastic bags instead of jars to fit more meals into less space.
Good addition to your library if you like beans and pasta, chili variations, and ground beef one-dish meals.

I bought this books with hopes I would find a few good gift recipes. I found more than that...it's full of awesome recipes to make in a jar and enjoy later when I'm short on time.

Went overboard I think on some of these types of jar books. But wanted some ideas to kick start me into making some camping and backpack mixes up of my own. And I do think these pretty much accomplish it. I'd say that using a number of them together for those ideas works best for me. I don't intend to make recipes up and give them out in a jar myself at this time. Who knows though if something tickles our tastebuds we just might have to share it that way. Meantime some recipes use too much salt or ingredients that have too much salt. So think outside the jar in this case and work around those issues. If you don't like an ingredient come up with your own. If you prefer salad macaroni to elbow use that or shells etc. I never follow a recipe or rarely and so I'm thinking of these books including this one as an idea starter and what follows as an adventure in eating. I'll do a trial run at home before taking some thing on the road however. Just like you should make these 'gifts in a jar' before giving the imix to a friend or neighbor too. Lots of great places for dried quick cooking beans and meat even. Lots of vegi's freeze dried too. Sour creme, butter, cheese the real deal....oh so really once you get the hang of the right measurements and ingredients to combine you for what ever your purpose should be up and going. Also great for people on special diets that need to avoid salts and sugars and pre-prepared foods.
Oh one more thing there are sealable foil & plastic bags and ziplocks etc. if you need or want to avoid jars or plastic jars too.