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This is the REAL Beauty of Freeze Dried Foods

If you’re not on-board with freeze-dried foods (no matter who you purchase from) you really need to do so. While there are many great reasons to include them in your food storage, perhaps the BEST reason to include them is that they allow you flexibility when planning and making meals.

For instance, my wife wanted to make vegetable fried rice for dinner the other day but didn’t want to buy a whole head of broccoli and cauliflower to do it. If you have cans of freeze dried foods around then it’s no problem and merely just a matter of re-hydrating them for a few minutes and using like normal.

In this case we used freeze-dried broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and eggs to make this meal:

fried-rice-1

We also needed brown rice (which we keep in 6-gallon buckets with Gamma Seal Lids) as well as carrots. Unfortunately, you can’t freeze dry carrots because they turn black, yuck! So, I just peeled and cut up some. I’ve yet to purchase dehydrated carrots, though, I do have some in storage.

As for cooking the vegetable fried rice, while the rice was cooking I re-hydrated the freeze-dried foods, sauteed the carrots in butter, and later added the remaining freeze-dried vegetables. After sauteing all the veggies for several minutes I then added the freeze-dried eggs (after first re-hydrating them):

fried-rice-2

After a few minutes I mixed all the veggies and eggs together, added the cooked rice, plenty of soy sauce, some Nature’s Seasoning, and ended up with this:

fried-rice-3

Yup. Looks like vegetable fried rice to me. 🙂 And the best part is we had no wasted vegetables, no trip to the store, and no hassles.

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Damian Brindle

Discover the 5 Minute Survival Blueprint course and get yourself prepared fast, easy, and inexpensively! It’s my gift from one prepper to another. 🙂

Comments

9 responses to “This is the REAL Beauty of Freeze Dried Foods”

  1. JD Terry

    Question on the brown rice in the gamma sealed buckets. once you open that do you have to re-seal in a myler bag? I am just staring out and want to get some food put away but it seems if i just need some here or there it is a lot of trouble to open the bag, get what you need and re-seal it each time. Can you offer any suggestions or processes?

    Reply
    1. Damian Brindle

      JD, Brown rice can go bad no matter what you do because of the oils. That said, I’ve used brown rice that is years old (both in a bucket with lid and just in a ziploc bag) and haven’t had a problem yet. Granted, my experience is mine alone. Most people will suggest you store white rice for long term because it will last for decades if stored properly.

      Remember too that a 5 or 6 gallon bucket of rice is A LOT for most people unless you normally use rice a few times a week, for instance. The gamma seal lids just make getting into the buckets easier assuming you’ll get into them regularly. If you store rice for long term then you can and should seal it in mylar bags but if you keep it in buckets to use regularly then don’t bother.

      Reply
  2. Susan

    Tad, we re-seal the food and repackage it. This way the food can last for many more years.

    Reply
    1. Damian Brindle

      Susan, that sounds like an awful lot of work! If you’re using your freeze dried foods relatively regularly you shouldn’t need to do this but I do understand the desire to keep foods as fresh as possible. For pantry sized cans I can re-sealing the leftover foods in mason jars, something I might try soon enough. It sure would be nice if somebody made something similar to gamma seal lids for #10 and pantry cans!

      Reply
  3. Tad Lyon

    How long after you open a #10 can may you use the contents before they go bad? I understand that the opened cans are no longer part of your long term storage, but must you use the contents in days or weeks or can they be re-sealed somehow?

    Reply
    1. Damian Brindle

      Most freeze dried foods should be used within a year. I have noticed a difference in some foods that seem to be “not as crisp” as the day I opened them (such as strawberries) and other foods that are still perfect (such as banana chips). Most foods, it seems, are just fine several months after being opened… and that’s here in the Pacific Northwest where it’s rather humid! A few foods ONLY last a few weeks (up to maybe a month) such as turkey and ham; I think it’s because of the fat content but not quite sure.

      Reply
  4. Rhonda

    Love Thrive and freeze dried food – will tell you though that Thrive has freeze dried carrots and we use them ALL the time! They are great in casseroles, soups, fried rice, etc 🙂 You should try them out 🙂

    Reply
    1. Damian Brindle

      I have tried the carrots but they shouldn’t be freeze-dried, only dehydrated. Thanks!

      Reply
  5. Susan

    Now that sounds like the VERY best reason for freeze dried and dehydrated food!!!!

    Reply

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