Stocking up on freeze dried fruit is an excellent place to start if you're interested in beginning or expanding your food storage supply. I’ve partnered with Honeyville to bring you a colorful and delicious recipe for a breakfast oatmeal jar, using their Freeze Dried Fruit combo, a delightful variety of fruits that are dried and preserved with their nutrients intact, and can store up to 15 years. They are the perfect way to use freeze dried fruit for our breakfast oatmeal jars!
Why We Use Freeze Dried Fruit
I grew up in a home where food storage and emergency preparedness were taken very seriously. There were nine children in my family and an entire bedroom in the basement was dedicated to food storage. That should tell you just how seriously my parents believed in always keeping adequate food on hand for emergencies. They taught me the importance of being prepared and organized as they would regularly purchase, inventory, and cycle out their food storage. I've been wanting to follow in their footsteps and create a food storage supply for my own little family, and in partnering with Honeyville, I finally feel like now is the time!
One of my biggest concerns in purchasing large amounts of food that is intended to sit for years and years is that when it does come time to rotate the inventory and actually consume the older food to make room for fresh supplies, would we actually want to eat it? I always pictured completely dried out packets of crumbly substance, years old and tasteless, and figured that at the end of its shelf life, it was just meant to be thrown away. I'm very excited about partnering with Honeyville to present some exciting ideas and recipes for how to not only use up your food storage when the time comes, but also how to create some very tasty and exciting meals!
Breakfast Oatmeal Jars
Honeyville carries a huge assortment of delicious staples like grains, baking mixes, flours, and organics. All of these are delivered in large quantities and sealed for storage so that you enjoy the money-saving benefits of buying in bulk while also adding to your food storage. You never know when disaster will strike, whether financially or physically, and the peace of mind of knowing that you are prepared with food on hand if getting to the store is impossible or difficult is definitely worth the cost of building a food storage supply, large or small. I decided to start building my food storage with the Freeze Dried Fruit Combo. This combo includes Honeyville's best-selling blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, apples, bananas, and peaches.
Does this look like food storage to you? These look like premium cooking supplies and snacking treats to me. Honeyville's freeze dried fruits are of utmost quality. These fruits are dried at their peak ripeness so that the nutrients and flavors are preserved at their best. There are no additives or preservatives, which is fairly remarkable considering how long these food items can be stored. These freeze-dried fruits will store for 10 to 15 years in their sealed cans under ideal storage conditions of a cool, dry place, which exception to the bananas, which will store for 5 to 10 years. Each fruit comes in a #10 can containing between 28 and 48 servings.
Another Honeyville product that we'll use in these breakfast oatmeal jars is oats, of course. A various selection of grains are milled exclusively from Honeyville's own facility in Utah, and these Quick Rolled Oats come in a large 2-lb. can. These are an excellent food source for emergency preparedness because they are rich in soluble fiber, protein, and vitamins, but they can also be prepared with just hot water. These store for 10-15 years sealed under ideal storage conditions (a cool, dry place).
Breakfast Oatmeal Jar
To assemble a breakfast oatmeal jar, begin by scooping ½ cup of oats into 1 pint (16 oz) mason jars. From here, get as creative as you like! I like to add an equally sized layer of freeze-dried fruit next, because when you pour in your hot liquid, you want hydrating the oats and the fruits to be a priority. Things like nuts and butters can go on the top, where it is less important that they soak in the warm liquid.
Get creative with flavors and textures that you already love, or enjoy creating something entirely new! These delightful make-ahead breakfast oatmeal jars are so colorful that they could almost make lovely housewarming gifts too!
Before sealing up the jars, feel free to add a little sweetness on top. You could add a spoonful of brown sugar, Splenda, or any other sweetener, or simply do without.
Seal up your jars and as long as there is nothing perishable inside, they can rest on your countertop all week! I LOVE the idea of making an armful of these at the beginning of the week and letting everyone in the family grab their favorites throughout the week.
When you're ready to eat, simply pour in one cup of very hot milk. I heat the milk by itself in the microwave for two minutes and it is plenty warm to cook the oats and hydrate the fruits. Let it sit for a few minutes (at least 1-2 minutes but up to 20 if you'd like the fruits fully hydrated) while you finish getting ready for the day, then pour it out into a bowl and dig in!
These Honeyville freeze dried fruits are fat-free, gluten-free, kosher, low-carb, non-GMO, and obviously vegetarian. Plus they taste absolutely delicious. I couldn't help myself from grabbing pieces to snack on throughout this entire photo shoot because they are so delightfully colorful, crunchy, and completely nutritious. I can't wait to load up little baggies full of these to eat as snacks while I'm out running errands this year.
If you're thinking of starting your food storage collection, starting with the freeze dried fruit combo would be my first recommendation! They store well and they can be used as toppings or added to all sorts of cereals or desserts, but they are also delicious straight out of the can.
I believe this breakfast oatmeal jar is a fabulous way to fill your family with nourishment as they start their day. They are nutritious, colorful, creative, and absolutely delicious. Honeyville's oats and freeze dried fruits are the perfect ingredients for these, plus they can be bought in bulk and easily stored as food storage. I'd encourage you to look into Honeyville's other food products as you start contributing to your own food storage!
For more breakfast ideas, check out our egg souffle recipe and we've got a lot of smoothie ideas!
Disclosure: I (Camille) received these items at no cost to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.
Julie L says
The churro mix looks amazing!
Mandy Hammons says
I'd like to try the almond flour and freeze dried peaches
polly says
I would like to try the Freeze Dried Strawberry Yogurt Bites
Andrea Troutman says
I would like to try the freeze dried fruit. My kids would probably prefer the blueberries and strawberries.
Tauna Beyer Fink says
I would like to try all the freeze dried fruits. My kids love those little packets from the grocery store, but this bulk option would be much more economical.
Cheryl Abdelnour says
I would like to try the Freeze Dried White Chicken.
Heather Mann says
I would love to try the freeze dried apples. All the fruits look good... hard to choose
LeAnn Harbert says
I want to try the almond flour.
Sarah L says
I'd like the Freeze Dried Fuji Apple Slices.
Thanks for the contest.
Lily Kwan says
I would like to try the All American Sun Oven!
gloria patterson says
love all of these ways to fix the oatmeal.............. I get bored with oatmeal but it fills me up. I am going to be making a lot of these up
Amy D says
I eat oatmeal almost every morning for breakfast. I've been wanting to do more meal prep because I seem to always be rushed and busy with the kids. I should make these to have on hand. They are also really good for portion control.