Putting Some Prepped Foods To The Test - Pot Roast Dinner

 

Sometimes I just want a nice pot roast dinner and on a Sunday a couple weeks ago I got that hankering.  It just sounded so good and, as luck would I have it, I happened to have one sitting in my long term storage pantry.  Earlier this year I had canned some pot roasts with Au Jus and beef broth in pint jars with the idea that I could heat that up and add a little cornstarch slurry to make a gravy from the juices and broth in the jars.  This summer I had canned potatoes and carrots in pint jars with the idea that these would make a great side dish.  But!  Would it taste good?

 

I just emptied the jar into a pan to heat up and added a 
slurry of cornstarch and water to make gravy

This is all part of my experiment with my long term food storage options for quick meals I could make, even if for some reason we had a power outage.  Also, I wanted to have some meals ready to go for travel and camping.  A pot roast dinner was on my list of the meals I wanted put up in the long term pantry.  It is one of my very favorites.

 

After heating up the potatoes and carrots I simply mash them with a fork

It was super easy to put this meal together and it heated up quite quickly so perfect for a camp stove scenario.  I used two saucepans and while I waited for the meat to heat up I mixed up a cornstarch slurry to add to the pint jar of meat and broth.  As it heated up it formed a nice gravy with beef chunks.  I simply used a fork to mash up some of the vegetables I heated up in the second pan.  I placed them in a dish and then put the gravy and beef over top.  I could also have heated it all in one pan and made a nice stew.

 

A pantry pot roast dinner that was just as delicious as I had hoped for

Now for the taste test.  I can tell you, it was amazing.  Every bit as good as if I had made it that day in my slow cooker like I usually do when I prepare a pot roast.  I was actually surprised, especially by how well the potatoes held up to the canning process.  I am very happy to have these types of meal options in my long term food storage.