I’m here to do the grunt work for you! This post is your one-stop overview for each of the September Thrive Life food storage specials. These are listed in no particular order, but I will ALWAYS give you my honest opinion.
If I haven’t tried it – you’ll know.
If I don’t like it – you’ll know.
If it makes my top faves list – you’ll know.
**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.
I wish I had some words for you here, but this just isn’t something that’s in my regular rotation so I haven’t tried it.
Click here if you want to order chopped spinach (and if you try it, message me with your thoughts)!
I am not a fan of anything other than freshly cooked chicken. 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 am not used to using anything other than canned black beans, so these seem a little mushy to me. The consistency turned out somewhere in the middle of canned black beans and refried beans.
These are a stretch for me, because they cost so much more than normal cans of black beans from the grocery store. Since cans of beans typically have a shelf life of over a year from when you purchase them, it just makes sense to save the money and be vigilant about always making sure we have several cans in our pantry at any given time.
Having said that, if you know you aren’t going to be diligent about rotating a bunch of cans from the grocery store consistently, these are a great option.
If you’d like to give these Instant Black Beans a try, click here.
These are great, as long as you don’t follow the directions on the can 😆 … let me explain.
The directions on the can just have you add water. If this is how you prepare them, they will taste like cardboard.
So if you are going to make these, I recommend following the instructions on the can from Deseret Farms:
Combine in a saucepan:
Add 3 cups of potato flakes.
Stir by hand until potatoes are dissolved. Do not overmix or whip.
After trying them side-by-side, both prepared with the Church’s instructions, I do like Thrive’s better.
If you want to try Thrive Life’s mashed potatoes, click here.
My family doesn’t like cooked bell peppers in meals, so I can’t speak for these.
I have tried them straight from the can and they’re fine for a snack – nothing to write home about, but nothing to complain about either.
Click here to add red bell peppers to your Thrive delivery cart.
These are super flavorful. I don’t love them, but I don’t hate them. It really will depend on how ripe you like your bananas – I prefer a banana with some green still, so these are a teeny bit too ripe for me. My daughter, on the other hand, can’t get enough of these! So it really just depends on your preference.
One more thing to note, these are not chip crunchy. You’ll still get a bit of crisp, but it’s more of an airy crunch. The classic banana chips that you’re probably thinking of are dehydrated – these are freeze dried!
Crunchy and sweet. What’s not to love?
The only problem is, there’s no hiding the fact that you’ve been snacking on them. After a handful of these, your tongue, teeth, and lips will be a beautiful shade of deep blueish-purpleish-blackish. But don’t worry- that’s all natural color right there. Wanna know how I know?
There’s one ingredient in this can: blueberries.
No additives.
No preservatives.
Just blueberries.
25 year shelf life.
I personally get the blueberries in the pantry can size, because I like them super fresh and crisp. This is one of those fruits that does get soft and chewy after being open for a few weeks, so if you’re not going to go through an entire number 10 can within a few weeks, I recommend ordering these in the pantry can size. It just depends on how quickly you’ll go through them.
To add freeze dried blueberries to your food storage, click here.
Meat that can sit on a shelf for 25 years? Sounds made up, right? Nope! It’s real!
Use it just like you would in any recipe you’d normally put ground beef in. Cool, huh?
Its appearance does resemble dog food, I’m not gonna lie. But once you have it cooked up and browned and in a meal, your kids won’t know what it looked like coming out of the can, I promise.
As far as taste: I can tell a difference from fresh meat. I am hyper-sensitive to reheated or precooked meat, so that makes sense that I can taste the difference when I use this. It has the same vibe as hamburger that you’ve cooked and either frozen or refrigerated, and then reheated. Which makes sense; afterall, this hamburger is COOKED! (Which means, yes! You can eat it right out of the can for some protein if that’s your style – nothin’ raw about it!)
Pro Tip: I have found that browning the hamburger after reconstituting it, makes a HUGE difference in the taste and makes it taste a lot fresher to me, so I would highly recommend throwing it in a pan and browning it before throwing it into a meal.
I haven’t tried the Pepper Jack yet. But, I am a HUGE fan of the cheddar cheese and am assuming the consistency and flavor of this is on par.
Life without cheese would be so sad for me (and most people I talk to), so this would be a great add for some variety. If you’ve tried it, send me a DM on Instagram or shoot me an email to let me know your thoughts.
Click here to add pepper jack cheese to your September Thrive Life delivery.
**Instant Milk has an OVERSTOCK banner on it, which means it may be 1-2 years into its 25 year shelf life.
This used to be the only milk I recommended storing, but now there’s a really close runner-up. I promise honesty, so here it is: the LDS Home Storage Center has upgraded their milk and it is really good! It’s cheaper than Thrive’s milk, so I’ll link it here for ya.
The two biggest differences between the Church’s milk and Thrive’s milk, are (1) The Church’s is in mylar bags while Thrive’s comes in cans, and (2) The Church’s has a 20 year shelf life and Thrive’s has a 25 year shelf life.
If you want to stick with Thrive’s, 50% off is a screamin’ deal. My kids can only tell the difference between this and fresh store-bought milk if they see me mixing it up. I cannot recommend this milk enough.
If you want to hear more of my thoughts on this instant milk powder, just go read this post.
Click here if you want to add Thrive Life milk to your food storage.
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
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