Suggestions Requested

[joneshomestead]

My husband is a long-haul truck driver. I have been canning meals for him to take on the road. Since I am vegetarian, he is wanting me to find vegetarian recipes for him to take on the truck. He has no refrigeration on the truck, but does have a cooker that he uses to heat up the home canned meals.

Does anyone know of any vegetarian recipes that would do well for home canning?

Thanks in advance.
Paula

[PikkuMyy]

I'm sorry you haven't gotten any replies to this yet!

I don't know anything about canning although I can't wait to learn once our kitchen is finished.

[Mishkin]

Does he have room for a small esky? What about an insulated bag? You can get those from the supermarket now for carrying home frozen foods. With an esky though, you can put an ice block in and it will keep everything cold for hours.

Otherwise, you are just going to have to precook and freeze his meals. If frozen solid, they would take quite a while to defrost and if kept in an insulated bag all that time, they won't be unsafe.

[joneshomestead]

The problem is that he is gone for 4-6 weeks at a time. He is a trainer and has a student in the truck with him. They drive as a team, which means there is very few times that they are at a truckstop or somewhere to get ice. Hense, the reason I home can his meals. I have been making things like lentil & barley soup, vegetarian chili, and other meatless soups and stews. I am just trying to find some variety. Many of the recipes that I have call for boullion, which many times is too salty even if you can get the meatless versions.

When in the truck, my Beloved stores the cases of jars under the bunk. He has a cooker that plugs into the cigarette lighter outlet. He pours the contents of the jar into a foil bread pan & heats up the meal. Nice part is, they can do this while the truck is still going down the road.

[vegma]

Wow! I'm impressed! I wish I had some suggestions for you. My mom used to can, but it was the usual jar of green beans, jar of tomatoes, jar of apple butter - oooh I miss that one!:)

Can casserole type things be canned? Like lasagna? No-roll enchiladas? Or does there need to be a lot of liquid? I'm clueless. I wish I had paid more attention to things like this when my mom was alive!

[ZackPorter]

Don't know any good canning recipes but here are some canned foods that are handy--and will save you the work of canning, too...

Found in Chinese grocery stores for about $1.50 a can. Lots of varieties. Just open the can, heat, and eat. Don't be thrown by some of the ingredients that may not sound tasty, the words are just lost in translation from Chinese (like mushroom is "black fungus"). "Companion" is the tastiest brand, though others may be slightly cheaper.

Here are links to a few photos so you know what to look for:

http://store.foodfightgrocery.com/buddhasdelight.html
http://store.foodfightgrocery.com/perodu.html (Peking "Duck")
http://store.foodfightgrocery.com/cubrglti.html

Companion also makes tasty "jerky".

TastyBite (Indian food in heat & eat pouches that come in a flat box) have two really good flavors: Punjab Eggplant (with a barbeque flavor because the eggplant is grilled over an open flame) and Bombay Potatoes. This is available from Indian grocery stores for about a couple bucks and in bigger supermarkets in the international food aisle for about $3.50.

[VegParent]

Your hubby is truly blessed to have such a wonderful woman - I don't know if I'd go to all that trouble, myself and I have a great man. I'd probably give him a lot of bread and a large container of peanut butter and jelly! :D

But seriously, you have me stumped. I'm going to think on it. I do have a few meals that our family really likes, that would can well, but they are usually 2 part meals. For example, this stroganoff recipe from Post Punk Kitchen: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=113. I put that over noodles. I have a great soup recipe that has Kale, butternut squash, navy beans and rice in it, but we always have it with bread, at least. KWIM? If you want that recipe, I'll be happy to post it.

All the best,
Amber

[shellie]

Veg curry, vaccuum packed rice, pasta sauce, lentil dal, turlu (bean soup/stew) other thick soups such as leek and potato. Maybe you could vaccuum pack, although I'm not sure how long they would last, or how much the gadget is for this.
I certainly take my hat off to you. :)