DIY Gifts in a Jar

Food gifts are as much fun to make as they are to receive. The bulk section at Oryana is where you’ll find a huge selection of quality ingredients to assemble a variety of fun food products that the recipients can enjoy any time. All you need are some empty jars and the individual ingredients. Get creative! Go wild! Make it easy by organizing a big batch and gifting all your friends with the same jar.

We purchased decorative glass jars from Michael’s but take a look around your house first and see if you have anything that can be repurposed. Use regular food jars and simply remove the labels. You can never go wrong with Ball jars. See recipes and instructions below.

Lentil Coconut Curry Soup Dry Mix

2/3 cup orange lentils
2/3 cup green lentils
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1/4 cup dried chopped onions
1 tablespoon dried minced garlic
2 veggie bouillon cubes
1 bay leaf
Optional: 1 small dried chili pepper
1 glass pint jar

Layer the ingredients into the jar starting with the green lentils, followed by the spices, red lentils, and onions. Slip the bay leaf along the side of the jar so it’s visible. Add the bouillon cubes and chili pepper on top. Cover jar tightly.

Seasoned Salt

You can use any salt but fine grain salt is ideal. Start with 2 teaspoons salt and mix with a combo of 4 teaspoons of spices. Good spices to use include garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, black pepper, sage, thyme, marjoram, chili powder, etc.

Infused Vinegar

We purchased a bottle of white wine vinegar, cleaned off the label, and added several sprigs of fresh rosemary. That’s it!

Vanilla Sugar

Simply mix white or cane sugar with vanilla seeds. Purchase a vanilla pod or two from the bulk spice section, slit the pods open lengthwise without cutting all the way through, and scrape off the seeds. Mix the seeds with the sugar and place in a pretty jar.

Flavored Salt

(Different from seasoned salt, which is mostly herbs/spices.) Start with a ratio of 1 teaspoon flavorings per 1/4 cup salt. Kosher salt is perfect for this. For our seasoning we used fresh thyme and grated lemon rind. Other ideas include curry powder, lime zest and chipotle powder, a combo of sage, rosemary, and thyme, ground pink peppercorn, crushed spicy peppers, etc.

Lovely Bath Salts

For our bath salts we used a combination of epsom and pink salts. For the aromatics we used lavender and calendula for one, and sage and rose petals for the other. You can also infuse bath salt with your favorite essential oils, and/or add french clay powder.

Trail Mix

This one is the easiest of all. Choose a nice mix of 4 or 5 different bulk snack items from our bulk section. Be sure to find both sweet and salty items for the best flavor combination. Pour layers of nuts, dried fruit, candy, etc. into the jar until it’s full. Dump it back out into a bowl, toss to mix evenly, and pour it back into the bowl. Tie with a pretty ribbon.

Granola

Granola is so easy to make at home and the perfect shelf stable food to gift in a glass jar. Here is one recipe for granola. And here’s one more recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Dry Mix

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Wide mouth pint jar

1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
2. Pour flour mixture into jar. Gently tap the jar on the counter to make sure the flour mixture is level.
3. Add chocolate chips over the flour mixture.
4. Add brown sugar over the chocolate chips.
5. Add the granulated sugar over the brown sugar. Cover jar tightly. Wrap a pretty ribbon around the jar if desired.