Large Family Meal Prep without a Freezer ~ Plus a Canning Tutorial for Sloppy Joes 

Great video! I'm 76 and NOT pregnant but live with my daughter and her family. I have grands that want a lunch and days when my daughter is just overwhelmed with her responsibilities at work and LOVE to fix something QUICK for everyone. This helps me so much as I think of canning as fast food 2.0! No last minute trips to town with an empty wallet. Just makes good food quick!

Jessica, you ROCK!!!! Someone just needed to say it!!! Just an amazing lady!!! Happy home church day!!!! 😁😁🌻🌻🏅🏅

Jessica, I have been preparing and preserving for 25 years! It's so good to see young families learning these things and it's wonderful that you are available to teach them! God Bless you and your family, and may you have a wonderful birthing experience.

Thank you for ending my week with an update. I can't wait for you to have your baby. Will be wonderful to 'meet' him/her. You look amazing even if you don't always feel it.

You (and Becky from acre homestead) have changed my way of thinking about food. Your “every little bit counts challenge” and talking about being a good steward of what you are blessed with has changed our food waste. In 3 months I have almost filled 1/2 a freezer with leftover soups, broth and food that would have normally sat in our fridge and gone bad (we are a smaller family of 4). I now have food to take for lunch instead of eating out at work. I’m nervous about canning but it is next on my list to learn and this upcoming spring we are going to try raised beds and planters for a small garden. Thank for your inspiration and best wishes for a safe delivery of your new baby! 😊💞

Thank you again for you calm organizational methodology. You seem to be as prepared as possible for the new baby and to ensure that all of the family is well nourished and also prepared for baby’s arrival. Holding you in my prayers for safe delivery and healthy mom and newborn. Cannot wait to see that sweet babe’s face. Take care, Jessica. Rest and know your children can handle meal prep for a while. Blessings.

I made a 14lb batch of sloppy joes for deer hunting season and 2 holiday parties and I used 5 24oz bottles of ketchup! So glad I have to extra supplies on hand!

As a European (not in Ukraine but close-by) your videos are giving me a lot of food for thought now that we are expecting powercuts and the price of electricity is going through the roof. Thankfully I’ve always been a huge fan of food prep videos so I already have some knowledge on how to make this work 😊💪🏻

Lovely video. I live with two small dogs and am almost totally vegan so my needs are completely different than your family’s needs but I enjoy watching how you plan, prepare and maintain food for your large family. I hope you have a peaceful week. If baby comes I pray for an easy delivery.

It seems like another baby boom. Almost everyone I know is expecting or have delivered recently. Such little blessings. I will have to gift some of these convenience meals. Prayers for the Ernst family and all who were involved in the Madison county crash. May God keep them.

I've got 3 freezers and STILL no room for freezer meals. I totally understand and appreciate your ideas outside of the freezer! You blow my mind with your organization and the effort you put in to get things done! You're a fantastic Mama and wife and teacher. PLUS you take the time to talk to us and teach us? You put me to shame! Good job Mama Bear! I would love to see your recipes or what you'd do to all of your canned food. I have canned so many beans, tomato products and chicken. I have just a few things I know to do with them and my hubby is tired of refried beans, beans and cornbread and beans and rice! 😂

I love spending my Sunday mornings with you Jessica, You are such an inspiration. I am pregnant and due two days after Christmas, so it looks like we are close in our baby development!! So I have a *QUESTION* have you considered putting together a full cookbook for sale? With just the simple ingredients and steps to do the basics like your white chili base, or pie fillings? Maybe even with a freeze dryer recipe section?? My brain is so scattered it seems like if I don’t have something in front of me to follow the directions that I either mess it up, or feel too overwhelmed to get it done!! Sad, I know… I need to just follow along with you in your videos! Thank you for all the time you put into these weekly videos, you are truly amazing!

You have the real meaning of fast food!! The best food ever is homemade.

I've canned beef stew, chicken, pulled pork (without bbq sauce) for convience meals. I also have broths, potatoes, stock, Apple pie filling, tomato sauce, salsa verde. I'll pray you have an easy birth. Prayers for your family.

Thank you for explaining the methods that work for you and your family. Currently, I don't even own a freezer so this gives many ideas. I am an older adult whose (homeschooled) children are already grown but I can see how these methods would work for me, too! May you find a few chances to rest today and blessings to you and your husband as you strive to get things done before the baby arrives.💕

Gosh, it must be any day now for baby three rivers! Sending love and care you and your families way!

Blessings Jessica. You are just glowing. My daughter and I are hoping for a little girl . Those 2 big sisters need her. LOL. I can tell you will have lots of help . They will be great moms also. My granddaughters we've discussing numbers of children and names on Thanksgiving. I am so blessed.

I don’t have freezer space either. I love having canned meat on the shelf. I’ve canned up roast, potatoes, carrots and onions together. My husband loves that. I’ve also canned just carrots, onions and celery together because that’s the base for many soups. I turn my canned chicken into easy casseroles or chicken salad. My pork butt/shoulder into easy bbq sandwiches. I just warm up and add the bbq sauce.

Good morning Jessica. Thank you for the time and effort you put into your videos. I have gleened so much from you, and you're a LOT younger than me. Have a blessed Lord's Day.

I've gotten away from freezer meals. I will put certain items in the freezer to have ready but I have found I can get dinner done far more quickly using my home canned foods than a freezer meal. I meal plan and do a great job staying on my menu planning so on the rare occasion we get home later than planned, a freezer meal doesn't help because its frozen! I work outside of the home at least a few days out of the week so I find it just as easy to thaw my meat and meal plan from that then it is to pull a freezer meal out. I plan the types of dinners we have around the kind of day we have in terms of after school activities. Opening jars and heating up is always a saving grace. Plus my freezer space is hard to come by since we have whole hogs and steers every year plus the garden produce. I have a small section to tuck away "left overs" or meals

I was soooo intimidated to open and use my pressure canner. It sat for months. I finally busted it open in August and tried it using jars of water as suggested in the manual. I've come to really like the process and am building up my pantry shelves little by little. It's just 2 of us but taking home made, home canned soup to work for lunch is such a pleasure. Continuing to pray for your last days of pregnancy and a safe, healthy delivery. TFS.

I'm single and eat whole food, plant-based, so I can't eat many of the recipes you use, but I do learn a lot and get inspired by your videos. Best wishes for you, baby and family! 🙂

Big sigh!!!!! You are way ahead of the game!!!!! I pray all goes well with your delivery! It seems like you have everything under control and have taken care of your household!!!! I can just imagine the excitement that is going on in your family with the expectation of the new arrival!!!!!

It’s just my husband and I and we are almost 60. We have several freezer/refrigerators in the basement. We feed our dog the barf diet, so one small freezer is hers. Another freezer is for raw frozen meat and poultry and the other freezer is for frozen vegetables. We eat a lot of food in comparison to your family which struck me interesting. What works for me is that I’ll batch cook, meat and poultry and pork. Containerize it and label it and freeze it. Basically, we just eat meat and vegetables here and only 25 grams of carbs at each meal. So we don’t store a lot of dry goods now that our ND suggested this type of meal plan. I have a ton of food allergies, so I understand that there must be food available at all times because we can’t just grab some packaged convenience food because of the allergies. So for example, if we want a treat, I must make that myself and count the carbs in the serving and freeze it in individual portions. He always looks for a snack. Haha Gluten, dairy, nut/seed, coconut, and egg free over here as well as others but it’s just too long to write out everything. Thank you for sharing your life. It’s helpful to me and interesting. God speed.

Praying for you an easy safe delivery! Looking forward to meeting this precious new little one! You look beautiful! Happy Sunday

I'm sending hugs your way as your baby's arrival gets closer. Many prayers will be said for you all!

Hi Jessica hope all is going well, your special day is approaching my our Lord be with all of you 🙏

Thank you for this. I made your refried beans when you posted your video on them and they’re wonderful! Praying for a beautiful delivery and healthy baby.

From what I've seen of your children they are more than capable of running that kitchen..blessing to the new lil one 🙏

I love meals in a jar! Just took my leftover turkey and made bone broth out of it. Used the meat and added potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, green beans and corn. Added the broth and now I have pot pie starter! Canning that and a batch of broth as I type this. If you haven't tried this type of canning I encourage you to try. It's super convenient. 🙏♥️

Happy to see you this morning! You look lovely today. I’m surprised at your energy level this close to giving birth. You’re an inspiration. Thanks for the tips and tricks Re: alternatives to freezer casseroles. I’m sure there’s lots of us who prefer not making the dairy heavy casserole dishes, especially if one was not raised on casserole type meals. My mom always served a protein, starch, veg and salad. Period! Haha Take good care. Bless you.

Thank you for this video! I thought I was the only one who wasn’t into freezer meals. I have zero freezer space and find canning sooooo much more convenient. My husband calls meals in jars, “heat & eat” ….our version of fast food. Praying for you and baby ThreeRivers everyday 🙏🏻

Good morning friend! I love starting my week with you! So excited for Baby Three Rivers! Wish I lived close, I would love to bring you a meal! God bless you and you sweet family! Love and prayers.❤

I’m having a down moment right now and watching your channel is always so relaxing and inspiring without feeling unrealistic or fake. Thank you for all the hard work you do for us in addition to everything you do in your life! I appreciate you. 🖤🖤🖤

I adore you and your family and I thank you for sharing yourselves with us.

Jessica, idk if you know but you can make really tasty cream of mushroom soup with oat milk or nut milk & beef broth or onion broth and they freeze really well. God bless.

My husband, son and I had covid all at the same time. It was so convenient to pull soup and beef stew meals off the shelve.

Happy Sunday Jessica! I love starting my Sunday with Three Rivers Homestead.. I'm excited I just got a water-bath cookbook for jams and salsa and my water-bath pot. I'm a newbie so I'm going to start with things I'm comfortable with. I also can't wait to start The no spend, cooking what's on hand. It helped us alot for my first time trying it.. From OKC,Ok 🥰

We are counting down the days now. I am sure your family is getting very excited for this new little one. Your older kiddos are a real blessing in helping out with meal prep. Take care and God bless. 🥰

Good morning! You are truly amazing and inspiring! At our home it’s just my husband and I with the occasional other family visitors added in. I wanted to just emphasize that your approach is so useful for all family sizes to consider. As we are all figuring out how to cope with increasing food prices, shortages, etc., buying in bulk whenever possible and really avoiding waste becomes more necessary for everyone. I deal with food intolerances (dairy and gluten); and my husband has Type 2 diabetes, so many of the freezer meals don’t work well for us. I have one small chest freezer and one fridge/freezer so the storage is also an issue. Then, there are other issues such as electric power failures. Those happen short term, but frequently in our area. A few years ago our entire state went through horrible storms and flooding and many were without electricity for more than 2 weeks. A lot of freezer food was lost. Additionally, stores and gas stations were also impacted. So, my point is that families of all sizes and circumstances can greatly benefit from the invaluable information you are providing. Thank you and may God richly bless you and your beautiful, growing family ❤

Thanks for the informative video. You do a wonderful job with homecare and raising your family! Wishing you well for upcoming baby #8.

There are only two of us, but having canned meals ready is great for us, too -- for camping, or for days when we're super busy (or feeling lazy). No thawing -- just pull something off the shelf. Right now I have canned steak slices, beef stew, chili, and two kinds of soup canned.

Love canning! There's never enough freezer space. I have one large stand up freezer and a smallish chest freezer. My husband just got 2 deer that we are processing ourselves and I truly need another freezer. One of my sil's was over and said maybe "santa" would bring me another freezer. lol THAT would be a blessing for sure! I've never canned venison but I'm definitely going to this time. Thank you for another wonderful vlog!! I'm so excited to meet this sweet blessing that will be here soon! I'm still voting for team pink 💕😊

You're amazing. What an amazing example, always accessible and judgment free.

That sloppy Joe mixture looks so good. My pressure canner is on its way I can’t wait to start canning all the things 😊

I live alone & dehydrate a lot of vegetables for soups, rice etc. It frees my freezer up.

Thank you so much for this tutorial, I appreciate your explanation of the headspace, I have gone with the prescribed headspace and had failed seals. God bless you and be your helper as you welcome this new little one, so happy for your family!

I am thankful for you and your videos. I love starting my Sunday with your sharing. Thank you for all you do. So excited for new baby coming 🙏🏻🤗

You are one of the most encouraging sweet person. Love your family and will certainly keep your family in my prayers.

Thank you for another great video Jessica. I love canning and prefer to have canned food over frozen due to my penchant of forgetting to get something out to thaw. ☺️. I totally understand being intimidated by pressure canning-I was for quite some time. I practiced with water bath canning and once I’d pickled everything I could think to pickle and made a few gallons of jam (still giving jars of that away ☺️), I braved up and broke out the pressure canner and my life has never been the same. I started with an electric pressure canner, and if you can afford one, I would recommend starting that way since the machine takes all the thinking and danger out of the process. About three runs in that and I graduated to an all American traditional canner, and I’ve actually had better seal rates with pressure canning than water bath, and it’s really not dangerous to do provided you follow directions.

Hi Jessica, thank you for another great video! I am sure I am not alone in praying for you to have a safe and happy delivery when that time arrives. I have been canning most of my meals also, but some convenience items for me have been cooked parboiled rice, as it freezes great and can be added to chicken soups, frozen cooked ground beef for tacos, burritos, etc., and I have done cooked meat loaves. I love all the tips you give and look forward to meeting #8! Have a blessed week!

I absolutely love your videos. I recently found your channel and admire you and hour husband so much. Not only do the two of you have such strong work values but the faith your bring to your children is so wonderful to see it is so very sad that people grow farther and farther away from our Heavenly Father. Good luck on the birth of the new baby to come. God bless your family

Thanks for sharing all that info. It's great to show how we all can prepare for busy seasons in life. I love watching the process you use.

I definitely love canned meals more. I enjoy seeing them on the shelf, dislike how bulky the dishes are in the freezer and I really don't enjoy the flavour of cooked meals from frozen. Like you, I like prepping parts of the dish so that there's minimal work when it comes to making the meal. The flavour is just far superior.

I so look forward to watching your informative and relaxing videos every Sunday morning ❤ I mistakenly thought yesterday was Sunday so I was worried when your video didn’t appear! I was relieved when I realized I just mixed up my days. Have a blessed day 🙏 I am so looking forward to seeing your new little addition to your lovely family.

Jessica, you are amazing! I don't know how you do all that you do, let alone do it while pregnant, and so close to giving birth! When I was pregnant I wasn't good for anything the last month! Thank you so much for all that you do!

Bless you Jessica! You've had a difficult time lately with the loss of Chester. I'm so sorry. But now I'm looking forward to the baby coming xxx

I am so excited for your new baby to come into this outside world. I can only imagine how conveneient all of your very hard work will soon be paying off.

I agree Do what you gotta do and it’s wonderful to have all the children that are willing to help

Jessica, you are an amazing woman, mom and wife. God bless you for the tips you share with all of us. Praying for the new baby and your family.

i was the first person in my family to own a fridge freezer and dishwasher when i was 17 so i taught myself how to preserve food it didnt invovle buying branded freezer food or making freezer meals im at least 5th gen veghead its not how ive ever eaten but my freezer is always full of british organic fruits n veg i make meals freshly from

It’s so amazing to me how RU-vid connects so many people through interests etc. we don’t have much in common at all, Jessica. I live in a city, I’m single with no kids. I don’t have a farm or land or anything just a small backyard with a tiny garden. And even with all the differences, I find so much comfort and joy through what you choose to share of your life. Sometimes the internet can be wonderful :)

Love how you plan things that work best for whatever stage you and your family are in. Your tips and encouragement are so helpful. Blessings to you and your family and new baby! 🙏

What a great idea to cook large quantities of hamburger in a roasting pan in the over! I will definitely be using this tip.

Blessed holiday season to your family, seems like you're getting the most wonderful Christmas present!

Thanks Jessica 🌹 you are a wonderful inspiration to a lot of people, prayers for a quick, easy delivery and healthy baby and family. You take care, don't wear yourself out trying to get everything done before time, a wore out Mom isn't a good thing come delivery time. Enjoy your time. Take care and God Bless 🌹❤️

WOW!!!! I am just not sure how you take care of your large family as you do and still have time for all the information/knowledge you share with us. Thank you! GOD Bless.

Thank you Jessica! I am 62 years old, and you have inspired and taught me so much!! Blessings on you and your sweet family ❣️

Enjoy Sunday even more when I relax and watch you videos. While I don’t have children at home anymore I like the seeing what you preserve. Your no waste approach along with convenience foods are something I practice. Currently working on the left over Turkey for pot pie filling to can. So easy after a work day to have something that takes minutes to prepare. Blessings to you and your family. May you have a peaceful, healthy birth.

Those are beautiful filled shelves behind you! You are such an inspiration . I love to hear of mom's who homeschool and especially these days. God bless!

Thank you for sharing all of this. Good luck and blessings on your delivery.

Thank you for sharing your time and talents! Great video as always! ❤

Happy Sunday, enjoyed it!

So glad you had a great Thanksgiving 🦃🧡

Very smart using your canned goods combined to get her to make a meal . I am saving up for a freeze dyers ! Hope you are getting plenty of rest for that new baby !

Jessica, PLEASE KEEP MAKING VIDEOS!! You are a blessing! Thanks for sharing your ideas & daily routines. I’ve gotten so many things that you’ve taught me that I’ll carry forever!

Prayers for a safe easy delivery!!! Can’t wait to see the new little one

I enjoy your videos so much! Praying for you, your family and new baby!

Thank you Jessica for another great video. Peace and Blessings to you and your family 💕

Always an inspiration! Thank you for sharing 🧡

So helpful and encouraging - I too don’t have more freezer space. Blessings to all of your beautiful loving family!!

Yes thank you! I have a small freezer and no space to purchase a bigger one. But I have a huge pantry in my house 🤷🏼‍♀️

I must congratulate you. I am so inspired by your organizing and planning and making every bit count. Thank you! May you have a safe and happy delivery.

Prayers for you and your family. God bless your delivery and keep you safe.

Love watching your videos! Great to be prepared! Blessings for the new baby❤

Thank you! God bless you🙏🥰❤️ I look forward to your videos every week.

Thank you Jessica! We live in Portugal and look forward to your Sunday video!❤

You are such ana amazing resource. Thank you so much for sharing your life and your advice!

You are doing great with everything going on! So happy you & your family will be able to really enjoy your new arrival! Praying for everything to go as planned! 💖🙏💖

I love seeing the stocked shelves in the background - what a comfort it must be to have all that food ready to go! I do a lot of preserving using my freezer - I store seasonal produce as well as tons of made from scratch foods…but I also want to learn how to do pressure canning. That’s my goal for 2023!! Thanks for all the inspiration and motivation!! 😊😘

I want to start canning but have been nervous, so thank you for the encouragement!!! Praying having your baby goes well!!! 🙏 ☺️

Thankful for you and you time taken! Blessings to you and your family…praying for you as you Time grows near! ❤️

Such a great video Jessica! You share so much information and options, being gluten and dairy free has made your channel a favorite. ❤

I always get so excited to see a sit down video from you! Thanks for sharing!

Continued prayers for you, always look forward to your Sunday videos.

I loved the canning of the meal. Also the recipe.

Thank you for this information, I love to can as well , next time I can chicken I think I will give your base a try, it’s a fabulous idea! Thank you!

I can just like you, love to have those easy meals on busy days. 💜

I'm new to canning and I love it. I hadn't thought about sloppy joes. Gonna try that real soon. Praying for safe delivery, healthy baby and speedy recovery for mom. Can't wait to meet him/her. I'm team girl ........ love your seeet family Jessica. Be blessed.

i live in a travel trailer so space is a issue. so i make up freezer meals mainly because thats where i have space mainly i just make the meat and sauce in quart size freezer bags because i'm disabled and standing at the stove hurts my back i'm sixty one i love my trailer because it's two steps to anything i need .