I think it’s safe to say that we all love a good sale. And believe me, this is one of my favorite Thrive Life Sales.
Keep reading for a quick run-down of what is on sale and my opinion on each item. Once you know what you want to add to cart, do it quick! This one is over in no time. (But make sure your order is processing during the dates of the sale: Tuesday, August 20 – Monday, August 26th)
**This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
A million times over – YES.
I’m really happy any time I get to share my love for this corn. It’s seriously one of my favorite snacks. I think you’ll love it, too. I love it so much that it made the list of my top 12 favorite foods from Thrive Life.
I’m not a huge blackberry fan, but they do taste just like blackberries!
If you like blackberries, then you’ll most likely enjoy these.
I’m sorry to say, I’m not a fan.
I ate it dry, straight out of the can, and that was great.
Then I rehydrated it and threw it in some pasta salad. It was a little squishy…like a foamy squishy. Sponge-y. That’s a better word for it! So a little bit of a weird texture when rehydrated. Some of that sponge-i-ness did go away when I cooked it with some spaghetti sauce.
But the real problem is the grain of sand sensation that you get when you eat it.
It literally tastes like there is a grain of sand in almost every bite. I am not sure what causes that with zucchini and not other foods, but it’s real. That’s a deal-breaker for me.
I’d much rather just sub in some broccoli, green beans, or peas, than deal with the sand.
If you’re ready to add freeze dried zucchini to your cart, click this link (if you don’t mind eating sand every once in a while).
It’s fine. It’s squash.
Click here to add freeze dried butternut squash to your order.
I’ve tried these in soup and also in a breakfast concoction of eggs, sausage crumbles, and potato dices, and they were great! I just don’t use diced potatoes very often in my cooking, so I don’t have very much experience with these. But the 2 things I have tried them in have been fabulous.
These are ZINGY straight out of the can! But isn’t that what we would expect from cranberries??
Just like I wouldn’t recommend eating cranberries straight out of the bag, I wouldn’t recommend eating this right out of the can.
But they ARE a wonderful option to be able to store for a time when cranberries may not be available.
Kind of like applesauce – I like knowing that I could make a little something with these to mix up the flavor in a meal.
Add freeze dried cranberries to your cart by clicking this link.
These are interesting – in a good way!
They’re chopped SUPER teeny tiny.
They have a super fresh flavor – it’s hard to describe but it’s like the freshest cucumber I’ve ever had.
These are actually really good just straight out of the can – but I also love throwing them on a salad!
*Warning: if you eat too many of them, they can chew up your mouth, kind of like Captain Crunch cereal. 😅
Click here if you’re ready to add cucumber dices to your order.
Really awesome veggie straight out of the can or reconstituted and cooked!
If I am wanting some warm fresh broccoli with dinner, I just throw some of this in a pot with some water and bring it to a boil and cook it for a couple minutes, just like I would do with a frozen veggie. It is SO nice to always have fresh veggies available. And can you imagine how amazing it would be to have this if you didn’t have access to fresh produce?!?!
Get your broccoli with a 25-year shelf life for your food storage here.
YES!
Who else reaches for the mushrooms and they’re black and slimy? It feels like every time I buy fresh mushrooms, they go bad before I get the chance to use them. Because of this, I use Thrive Life’s freeze dried mushrooms in my cooking instead of fresh mushrooms. Every single time.
They are so awesome to have on hand to just toss in a sauce. You can rehydrate first or if you’re putting them in a meal with liquid in it (like soup), just toss them right in.
Super convenient for every day and an awesome option to give you some variety in your food storage meals.
I have tried these and they’re totally fine; it’s hard to mess up refried beans.
So the reason I don’t store these isn’t because they’re gross. It’s just because it’s not an economical way to store refried beans.
Without boring you too terribly much with all the ins and outs of short-term food storage, I will just say this: A can of refried beans from the store is about $1, maybe $2. Let’s be generous and say one pantry can of these refried beans is equivalent to 3 store-bought cans of refried beans from the store. That’s $3-$6 worth of beans (that are ready to dump out of the can – no prep needed), and you’ll pay $11.35 for it in this form from Thrive. That’s anywhere from double to quadruple the price.
So it all comes down to shelf life. These Instant Refried Beans do have a shelf life of 25 years, which is pretty awesome. But cans of refried beans that come from the grocery store usually have about a year-ish shelf life. So I’d rather store a year’s supply of cans from the grocery store than a year’s supply from Thrive.
The catch is, I have to rotate my store-bought cans. All the time.
With Thrive, I can set them and forget them (for 25 years).
I have a can rotator, and I am used to using this method with all the canned foods I use on a regular basis, so this is a no-brainer for me.
If you know you are not going to be good at always keeping a bunch of cans of refried beans from the grocery store in the pantry, and/or you’re going to be horrible at rotating them, then by all means, get the refried beans from Thrive!
I just wanted to be transparent about why I’m going to pass on the beans.
These pack a punch for sure, so get ready to pucker up!
These are really tasty, but I prefer eating them WITH something else, to tone down the tartness.
But they really are what you would expect from freeze dried raspberries! Full of flavor and delicious!
This tastes like microwaved chicken to me when I reconstitute it. It makes sense – it’s not Thrive’s fault. It’s just the nature of cooking meat and then reheating it later. I don’t fault Thrive – just my picky taste buds.
BUT, most people think this tastes totally fine. So unless you’re a chicken snob like me, this would be a good addition to your food storage.
I made this and it was great!
I just can’t stomach paying this much for rice when I can get it from the store for a fraction of the price. Normal brown rice in a bag stays good for 6 months and you can make it last longer by using mylar bags or buckets. So to me, this isn’t worth the price.
If you’d like to add Instant Brown Rice to your food storage, click here.
*Because of the oils in brown rice, the shelf life is much shorter than white rice. The shelf life of this Instant Brown Rice is 7 years unopened.
So. Dang. Convenient.
Say goodbye to washing and chopping fresh celery for your soups – now you can just scoop and pour!
This celery is PERFECT for throwing into any recipe that calls for celery.
Heads up: when reconstituted, it does not crunch back up like fresh celery. So if you’re looking for a crunch factor in something like a potato salad, this isn’t going to do it. But for anything cooked, this is perfect!
Click here if you’re ready to add freeze dried celery to your order.
YES. Yes to all the cheese.
This is 100% cheddar cheese. It’s a weird phenomenon eating dry, somewhat crunchy cheese from a can, but it’s crazy how the taste is 100% there, even before reconstituting it.
After reconstituting it, you have totally normal, functional cheese. It even melts like regular cheese!
Can you imagine life without cheese? Especially life where you are already limited on certain foods, so you’re having to improvise a little (or a lot)? Cheese just makes everything go down a little bit easier, amiright?
Don’t be sad. Add freeze dried cheddar cheese to your order.
This is pretty darn good! I will say, it has a bit of a reheated taste – I can definitely tell it’s not fresh meat, but the rest of my family can’t. It really depends on your sensitivity to meat.
As with all meats, I highly recommend browning this real quick in a pan (after reconstituting it, but before adding it to your recipe).
My favorite way to use this is to reconstitute it and throw it in a pot with some gravy that I make from a seasoning packet, and then I serve the gravy and meat over rice.
You can purchase diced beef to add to your food storage HERE.
Cooks up just like any other instant rice and tastes great! I don’t know about your family, but we go through A LOT of rice – I would hate to be without such a popular staple.
However, I apply the same logic to rice as I do to the refried beans. Rice has a really decent shelf life, just in the packaging it comes in from the store. Minute Rice in a box is a heck of a lot cheaper than this Thrive Instant White Rice. So…I store Minute Rice in a box, and I rotate through it as I use it.
Having said that, this rice is super delicious and super fast to cook!
This is actually really good! I’ve made this before, and it’s a great, delicious loaf of homemade bread. If I didn’t have the means and the ingredients to make my own bread, I would definitely consider storing this. However, I do make my own bread, and I keep a lot of all of those ingredients on hand, so this is not something I choose to store. It’s just a lot cheaper for me to make my own bread, rather than buy a bunch of cans of this bread mix.
The other drawback is that it has a 3-year shelf life. So you’re going to need to rotate it fairly often. This isn’t a huge deal, because who doesn’t like a warm, homemade loaf of bread every once in a while?
Basically, if you don’t mind paying $12/loaf, and rotating it every 3 years, then this is a great solution to having bread in your food storage!
Again, I haven’t tried this out.
I am working my way through their predone meals, so I can’t speak for all of these.
We have tried and loved the Breakfast Skillet and the Cheesy Chicken.
The Vegetable Pasta Primavera was just okay.
That’s what I can tell you so far!
These chef packs are a way to try cooking an entire meal from food storage. They hand-pick different things that would go well together, to make some meals out of it all.
PLEASE send me an email! Don’t delay getting started on your food storage just because something is confusing. I am here to help. If something is confusing to you, or even if you have questions about a previous order, PLEASE ASK!
melanie@planforawesome.com
Answers to some of your most asked questions about long-term food storage, including the difference between dehydrated and freeze dried food.
My absolute favorite food storage organizer While Thrive does offer a few different options for can rotators, this Variety Can System is hands-down my favorite.
While every family’s food storage needs are a little different, every family needs food storage. These 12 items are my top favorites – most of them I even use on a regular basis when I’m out of the grocery store version.
