Thrive Life Freeze Dried Foods
Are you a prepper looking to increase your supply of freeze dried foods? Or a busy on the go mom looking for a simple yet nutritious way to feed your family? If you answered yes to either of these, then Thrive Life freeze dried food is for you!
What is freeze dried food? Freeze drying is a food preservation method, just like canning, freezing, and dehydrating. I personally love freeze dried foods because they are easy to store and prepare and have a shelf life of 25 years when unopened and stored properly. No preservatives are required.
In this post, I will tell you about my order and everything in it, as well as a review. One of the biggest things I am always saying about prepping is the need to practice with our preps. All of the food and gear I buy does me no good if I have no clue how to use it. This is also why recipes using the Thrive Life freeze dried foods will be coming soon to my blog. I’m really excited to share those with you!
Celery
Celery is one of those vegetables that I enjoy, but it always ends up being wasted in my house. We buy a head of it, use it for a specific meal, maybe a snack once or twice, and the rest is forgotten. What is leftover dies a slow mushy death in my fridge. There always seems to be one thing that this happens in every household. What is yours?
With freeze dried celery, I can take out what I need to use, and the rest will not spoil. This is such an amazing way to cut down on wasted food, in my opinion. Wasted food is wasted money. Between saving a trip to the grocery store and eliminating waste, I’m seeing a lot of saved money right here!
Sweet Corn
I opened this up to make as a side dish with spaghetti this week. Nathan tried it and decided it was an excellent snack. He literally ate it like popcorn. I just giggled and let him go. Normally I’ll stop and stare at him with the “judging” look. We do it to each other when eating in some questionable way. Like me making and eating frosting last week at 4am just because it sounded good. This time I tried to behave because I didn’t want to dissuade him from trying the freeze dried food.
The one thing I noticed about this is it needs a bit more water than what the directions called for. Once I added the corn into the water, it was sucked up immediately, and the corn didn’t really “fluff up” like I expected it to. Still tasted great, especially compared to canned corn from the store. But I felt like I hadn’t done it quite right too. My favorite part about this is there’s not copious amounts of salt in it like canned vegetables.
Peas
The peas arrived in a snack package, and I was really curious about them. I hate peas normally, but Nathan loves them. Needless to say, this was the first thing I had him eat. Both of us liked them. He wasn’t too sure about them at first, simply because eating them dry as a snack gives a different texture. I have to admit, they even smelled good to me. Nathan asked for seconds as I was opening everything.
Tigger even liked the smell of these. I don’t feed Tigger our food, but he always wants to smell it. He sits next to me at the table when eating dinner until I let him smell what I’m eating. Once he smells it, he’s content and walks away. Judging by his reaction, it is pretty obvious if he likes or dislikes something. We let him smell the peas, and he was very interested.
Island Style Pork
This came in a to-go package, meaning I just had to add hot water to it and let it sit to reconstitute and it was ready to eat. Nathan and I shared this as a late night snack before he went to work. This was the one he was most interested in.
We both really enjoyed it. I was expecting a weird tangy flavor. Like how every teriyaki sauce out there is different and some are just terrible? That was my expectation of this. But it was delicious. Nathan inhaled it and promptly announced that he wanted more. Guess I know I’ll be making sure this is included in my next order.
Vanilla Yogurt Bites
I was prepared for the texture on these, because I eat similar things from another company that makes cheesecake bites. These snack items are so perfect for me because they aren’t messy, they can be eaten on the go, and there’s no waste.
The first thing I noticed was the smell. I am the weirdo that smells pretty much everything before I taste it. I loved them, and I was very curious about what Nathan would think. Fully expecting him to be disgusted by it, I hand him one and he likes it! Thankfully I managed not to faint at this point, because Nathan won’t touch yogurt normally.
Notes
I’ve eaten freeze dried foods before, some I like more than others. Nathan always fights me on trying it, so I don’t push too hard. I just buy it and smile at him. It was extremely surprising to watch him eat these items and actually like them. He started planning meals for me level of liked it.
The biggest thing I’m seeing with using freeze dried food is eliminating food waste. That is a huge money saver! I can also cater more to Nathan’s food preferences. A classic example is that we rarely eat spinach or peas in our household. I love spinach, Nathan hates it. Nathan loves peas, I hate them. This means I either go out of my way to make two side dishes in a meal, and there is waste, or we just skip them and pick things we will both eat. With the freeze dried packages, I can easily make both in single serving portions, so we can both enjoy our favorite foods. Minus waste and extra work.
The other thing that I find amazing here is the convenience aspect. Nathan typically has one day a week where he works one job super early, compared to normal. He comes home to nap in between that and heading off to his second job. I love to feed him a home cooked meal on these days, because his routine is thrown off so much. That helps ensure the rest of the day isn’t thrown off as much.
Normally I have to plan this, at least in the early afternoon to let something unthaw from the freezer. I forget, to be perfectly honest. Timing isn’t my strongest personality trait. But with the freeze dried food, I don’t have to worry about that!
I decided to make tortilla soup tonight. I needed to use up a couple fresh items before they died the moldy mush death in the produce bag. Being able to incorporate fresh produce and items from the pantry was perfect.
Using fresh tomatoes and cheese with chicken stock from the pantry. I added in freeze dried chicken, celery, and onions. Add in some spices and boom! Complete meal. Normally I use the slow cooker for this, and it takes hours. With freeze dried foods, it cut the time down to 20 minutes. Thinking about busy families on the go, this would be a game changer.
Looking at the catalog, there is a huge variety of items, and some were surprising! As I was browsing it the other night, I saw meals that I could make so easily, and it is exciting. I can’t wait to share those recipes with you as I go.
My order also came with chicken salad, seasoning blend, chicken fajitas, sweet and sour beef meal, strawberries, and pineapple. I’ll be trying these as well very shortly.
If you are interested in giving Thrive Life a try, click here to go to my website. You’re welcome to comment or email me with any questions as well. I’m always here to help! Keep an eye out for upcoming recipes where I incorporate freeze dried foods! I’m very excited to share those with you.
Disclaimer
I am a Thrive Life consultant. Which means that every time you click the link to visit my Thrive Life website and make a purchase, I earn a commission. This helps me continue supporting my blog and bringing you this amazing content.
45 Comments
Kayleigh
Those pineapples and strawberries are so yummy! We use this food for prepping and also all the time for cooking and snacking. I like how I can put the fruit or veggies into my kids’ school lunches without worrying about it getting slimy. Oh and we call the yogurt bites “crack for kids” in our house!
The Prepping Wife
Fruit in school lunches is such a great idea, Kayleigh! I might have to start sending these as a snack with Nathan to work too.
Donna
I opened a #10 can of cauliflower tonight. It was about 8 years old and was perfect. My problem is that it was really mushy when reconstituted. I was going to make mock mashed potatoes anyway so no big deal. Has anyone else tried it?
The Prepping Wife
I wondered about the cauliflower! It is on my list of things to try. Cauliflower and raspberries are in my next order. Give it another try, but using less water this time. I had the opposite issue with the corn, where I felt like it needed more water than called for. It may take a bit of trial and error to get the perfect consistency you want.
Kayleigh
Donna, you probably just added too much water. Cauliflower mash sounds great! Another fun way to use Thrive cauliflower is to crumble it and use it as breading on chicken, as an alternative to Panko crumbs. When adding cauliflower into dishes, I find the best way to do it is to throw it in dry to your pan or pot, and just add a bit extra hot water to it, instead of soaking it first and then adding it to a dish. Enjoy your food! Definitely check out Erica’s link! I use Thrive foods daily and I love them!
The Prepping Wife
I never thought to use cauliflower in place of Panko! I need to try this now! I make a delicious parmesan-dijon chicken, and the cauliflower would be a perfect alternative.
Jemma @ Fantastic Books
These are such a good idea! We have the same problem in our house that we don’t use a huge amount of fresh stuff in the right time frame and stuff gets wasted, I also like the idea of the freeze-dried peas as snacks strangely enough as I don’t really like a lot of veg because of the softer texture but I imagine them tasting a bit nicer. Brilliant post and thanks for sharing.
The Prepping Wife
There is always some product that gets buried in the bottom of the fridge to die because we didn’t use it quickly enough. Celery and cilantro are the worst for us. The peas are such a tasty snack! I was really surprised that I enjoyed them so much. The corn dry has a great texture as well, making it easy to eat dry and a good snack. Let me know if you ever have questions about this food. I am always here to help! Also, if you do order, please let me know your thoughts on what you pick. I love hearing feedback from others.
Luna
This very interesting! Wish we had something similar in my country. Would reduce a lot of fresh food waste.
Kevin
My wife and I love Thrive, but due to the disparity between the Canadian and US dollars we haven’t been able to order it in some time. It is a fantastic product though!
The Prepping Wife
I’m so glad you and your wife enjoy Thrive, Kevin! Just wish you could order again.
Scott J DeNicola
We tend to waste quite a bit of food in much the same way you described in your post. I hadn’t really given thought to freeze-dried food as an option but Thrive sounds like a great alternative especially with the shelf life! Once opened I assume all bets are off though. A great idea that I’ll look into for sure. And you’re right canned foods are way too salty!
The Prepping Wife
They’ll last 25 years, unopened. Once opened, it is 5 years. So still a very long time, especially compared to canned food that has a 2 year shelf life before the cans can start to degrade.
Subhashish Roy
Thrive Life seems to be such a great brand which has so much to offer in terms of a complete basket of dried foods. Wish we too had these options in our country.
Live Learn Better
This is the first time I’m hearing about Thrive. I have just bookmarked their website to try some of their fruits out.
The Prepping Wife
Let me know if you have any questions or need recommendations, Toyin!
CASEY MCCOURT
Wow, those are wicked interesting. I’ve heard of freeze-dried food, but never seen it like this! Does it actually taste good? It’s definitely a crazy idea that you can do this to preserve things for so long, but it’s also awesome that you can!
I do love the concept that you can use some of it and the rest won’t go bad. My home constantly has food waste, which we are really trying to minimize, that could have been prevented if only it lasted longer. I think I might.
What vegetables would you recommend for a first-timer? I honestly would have no idea where to start!
The Prepping Wife
Hi Casey! It actually does taste good. Like, really good. Especially in comparison to canned fruits and vegetables we buy at the store. These products can be a huge game changer for food waste! That is honestly the part that excites me the most about using them. For veggies, the corn has been my favorite so far. Peas are good too. I really like the peas dry as a snack, and I don’t normally eat peas. The chopped onions are a little funky. They taste good, but when freeze dried, they shrink a ton. So if you are wanting onions, I would say pick the sliced and then cut them up to be more chunky. Celery is great in soups, and doesn’t need extra water to hydrate them again. Just throw it in the soup, and that’ll add a deeper level of flavor too.
My best recommendation would be pick 3 foods that are wasted the most in your house, and order the pantry size can (not the family size, until you’ve tried them) to order and give them a try. What are the most wasted foods in your house, where this could save you some money?
Luna S
I’ve never seen several of these items freeze dried before, it is pretty neat they are able to do that! I think something like this would be good to take camping to snack on, thanks for sharing this brand.
The Prepping Wife
These are perfect for camping, Luna! There are several pre-packed complete meals from Thrive Life, and you can even put them together yourself with very minimal effort.
Snehal
This is a new brand to me. I like to add some green peas in the daily sabzis (veggies). I’ll have to check it out! 😃
Joyce Osiango
What a perfect way to help campers or those who are on a long road trip. I don’t know the brand but their idea is super cool.
Melody Morrigan
I totally love this! I’m an organizer at heart and prepping for ANY emergency is an interest of mine. I’ll definitely bookmark this brand for when I’m able to stockpile food for Events!
The Prepping Wife
Melody, let me know if you have any questions! I love helping with this, and I’m excited to see you stocking up for emergencies when your budget allows. Another option is you could become a consultant and earn free food as well. They have a really great program for that. If that is something you’re interested in or have questions, please feel free to email me and I’ll be glad to chat with you about it.
Despite Pain
I also hate wasting food, but too often I find a couple of old carrots lurking in my fridge. I like the sound of Thrive freeze-dried food. With such a long shelf life, it must be great to have as a standby in the pantry.
Fredrick Adehe
Freeze dried is an excellent way of food preservation. It really would save households and individuals a lot of money. Would love to try some of the products you have mentioned in your post.
Amber
This looks SOOO yummy, those strawberries have me craving some country crisp cereal!
Lindsay Brown
I’m pretty sure I remember you mentioning a couple posts back that you were going to do a review on this product and I was super excited to see what you had to say. I have heard about freeze dried foods before but have never tried them. However I LOVE the idea of less food waste and the convenience of it without all the preservatives that other convenience foods bring. I may just have to look into this and try some out for myself! Thanks for posting such a thorough review!
Alexandra
Okay I never heard of this! I’ve heard of dehydrated foods but not this! The fruit looks super yummy but if you hadn’t made comments on the veggies I doubt I would even have considered trying them. What I’m wondering though, is if the foods still contain their nutritional value. You are right in that it really cuts down on waste (I hate that!) but I didn’t remember reading anything about it’s nutritional value. I wonder if it disappears when it’s freeze dried.
The Prepping Wife
Good question, Alexandra! The answer is yes, freeze drying maintains the nutritional value. Because the food is preserved through freeze drying so soon after being picked, it has more nutritional value than what we buy in the grocery store. Once a vegetable or fruit has been picked, it starts to lose the nutritional value as it gets older and degrades. Foods we buy in the store can be 2, even 3 weeks old before it reaches the store from the farm.
Kaye
Ah! Freeze dried corn!? I need to buy some of this stuff!!! It seems like it’s pretty “clean” food too. I want to add it to my prep collection which is slowly getting better thanks to your posts!
The Prepping Wife
I’m so excited that you are learning more about prepping from my blog! The corn is really tasty too. Let me know if you have any questions when you get ready to order. I’m always glad to help!
Kayleigh Zara
These are some really interesting products, the dried fruit sound interesting as I’ve never seen them done like this before. It’s great that the peas were approved though by the cat! That’s the best appreciation x
Kayleigh Zara 🌿
Kayleigh Zara
These are some really interesting products, the dried fruit sound interesting as I’ve never seen them done like this before. It’s great that the peas were approved though by the cat! That’s the best appreciation x
Kayleigh Zara 🌿
Thuy
My siblings and I loved freeze-dried ice cream as a treat. I believe it was called astronaut ice cream and I never never knew that actual food that was freeze-dried was available too. I want to try Thrive Life products, I like how you mentioned lower sodium and the Hawaiian pork intrigued me.
The Prepping Wife
I’ve eaten freeze dried ice cream sandwiches before. That is one thing where I find the texture to be funky. My buddy swears by them, my husband thinks I forced him to eat packing peanuts in a pretty package, and I’m somewhere in the middle. They taste good, but it takes a bit to get used to the idea of eating a dry ice cream.
Norma Nikutowski
Great alternative to cut down on wasted food. In my refrigerator are also celery and cucumbers that slowly but surely get mushy. Freeze dried celery seems like a great idea to use what is needed and store the rest.
Debra Roberts
What are your thoughts on freeze-dried vs. dehydrated foods for backpacking? I’m thinking of doing the AT in sections and will need lots of light-weight foods and wondering if this is a better option for that?
The Prepping Wife
Depends on what you’re looking for in terms of texture, honestly. Dehydrating changes the texture of food where freeze drying maintains more structural integrity. I like freeze dried because you can buy complete meals and just add hot water to the bag and wait for it to reconstitute, and then it is ready to eat. These are very portable and don’t take up much room. I keep several in my bug out bags just for that same reason, lightweight and easy to make.
Kara
I love freeze dried fruits but I’m not sure how I would like freeze dried meat.
The Prepping Wife
I’ve tried the shredded pork and the chicken, and it was much better than I expected. I expected a weird texture, to be totally honest. But it was a pleasant surprise when it was actually very normal. The pork was in an already made meal, and the chicken I put into tortilla soup. My husband ate both and really enjoyed them too.
Quin Cl
The packaging looks indeed different and cool. I’ve never seen a packaging with an opening like that. Freeze dried foods don’t sound so bad at all, I have even freeze dried mushrooms in my freezer.
Tracy @ Cleland Clan
The Thrive Life Freeze Dried Foods sound wonderful. We’ve used freeze dried foods when camping or backpacking, but haven’t tried them at home in our own kitchen. I try to eliminate “mushy” fruits and veggies by throwing them in the freezer, but I really like the idea of buying freeze dried foods instead.
Erriel JD
Freeze dried ice cream…think I need to try that! It sounds yummy and I LOVE ice cream!
Steph
I think this is a wonderful idea to help eliminate food waste.