What do you do when your grandsons can’t come to Thanksgiving dinner? You just send dinner to them!

Health-conscious grandmother, Yvonne H., insists on a well-balanced diet of complex carbohydrates and lean protein for good health. But, she had struggled to find freeze-dried food with enough protein or high-quality meat to suit her needs. She solved this problem when she ordered a Harvest Right freeze dryer and quickly got to work creating her own high-quality, well-balanced, ready-to-eat stash of emergency meals. However, after a couple weeks, she realized her new appliance had potential far beyond building up her own emergency food supply. For example, Yvonne’s twin grandsons, Ben and Jesse, are currently serving as missionaries in Uruguay and Panama, and this is the first year the family won’t be together for the holidays. So, with that in mind, Yvonne started thinking about how to make them feel close even though they were far away from home.

Because of her success with freeze-drying full meals, Yvonne was confident that she could make a Thanksgiving dinner for her grandsons. “I was surprised by how the freeze dryer performs with meats. They reconstitute exceptionally well – even entire freeze dried meals have the full delicious taste and texture of fresh-prepared meals,” she said. In fact, one of her favorite meals is freeze-dried roast beef.

Yvonne couldn’t find a turkey roast that met her standards with the short time she had, so she substituted all-natural chicken breast and added her own savory herbs. Then she made her special yams and green beans. She made sure to include mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and her famous chocolate silk pie. Yvonne then freeze-dried this complete meal and sent it to her grandsons.

Each grandson received two portions – one for them and one for their (lucky) missionary companion. Each dinner was carefully packaged in shrink-wrap to preserve flavor and included step-by-step instructions on how to prepare all of the food so that it could be warm, like a real Thanksgiving dinner. With all the water removed from the food, the packages were so light that they were inexpensive to ship overseas. And, Yvonne was happy knowing that the whole family will share her Thanksgiving meal this year, even if they’re not all at the same table.