Using Insulated Food Jars

If you have a thermos, you have a very thrifty money-saver at your fingertips! Instead of spending money by eating at restaurants during trips, take your meals with you! Since we discovered this, we have invested in four thermos jars and almost always take hot meals with us on trips. We make frequent day trips (birding), and this has saved us a great deal of money because we are seldom tempted to eat out if we have a meal already waiting for us in our thermos jar.

A good quality, well-insulated thermos can keep food hot for hours. For use with food, you will need a thermos with a wider mouth than those which are used just for coffee. These are often sold in the sporting goods section of department stores as "insulated food jars" and they commonly come in two sizes, a small size which is perfect for an individual meal and a larger size which can hold a very ample meal for two or more people. Some popular and commonly available brands cost between $15 and $30 or so, but they will quickly pay for themselves if used even a small number of times. The cap doubles as a serving bowl, and one popular brand of small food jar comes with a nifty folding spoon which fits in the lid. A cheap plastic thermos is fine for holding food for a few hours, but for an extended trip the metal ones are best and they are also easiest to clean and less prone to leak. Pre-heating your thermos by adding hot water for several minutes before you add your food will extend its holding time considerably, as will adding your food while it is very hot.

Often, when people think of a thermos, they think of soup. Yes, soup works perfectly in a thermos and I often take soup with us on outings, as well as chili or stew. But they are not just for soup! Consider using your thermos to carry a hot sandwich filling such as shredded barbecue meat or sloppy joes... bring along a pack of buns and you have your meal. Try using a thermos for hotdogs... either boiled hotdogs kept hot in their cooking water or cooked hotdogs suspended in hot chili. We have also used our thermos jars for spaghetti, ravioli, chicken and dumplings, Swedish meatballs, thin-sliced roast beef in au jus, skilled pasta meals such as Hamburger Helper, gumbo with rice, baked beans, small meat patties in gravy, little smokies in barbecue sauce and more. If the food has any sort of spoonable consistency to it, I will put it in a thermos jar.

Once a week, my child and I attend a homeschool co-op group. We always bring our lunch, and we often bring it in our own individual thermos. But again, not just soup. I have taken some unusual things, such as beef ravioli in homemade alfredo sauce. Last week I brought blackened tilapia fish in cheesy grits. Even these meals which can often be tricky to keep at a proper consistency tend to do well in a good thermos. I will often use a thermos at home for keeping those 'tricky' foods like alfredo sauce or cheese dip at a just-right temperature until it is time to serve them, and I have also brought such foods to family gatherings in a thermos. Once, we were asked to bring a dish to a family breakfast and I came with the sausage milk gravy, ready to serve. Everyone was surprised when I set a thermos on the counter beside the biscuits!

When we go tent camping, I will often cook meals in a Dutch oven. Leftovers go into a thermos while they're still very hot, and we can eat them later. Two of our large thermos jars will keep food steaming hot from supper time until lunch (or even later) the next day. This is great when your only other way to make a meal is to kindle a fire or charcoal! Cook once, eat twice, even when away from home.

Now that we have been using our insulated food jars in this way for several years, I can't imagine going back to just a baggie with a cold lunchmeat sandwich. And I also can't imagine what it would be like to spend money on fast food every trip!

Source: My own experimentation in an attempt to eat well and save money!

By Shawna from TN, USA