Just to be extra clear about this freezer bag cooking has nothing in common with the well known ‘omelet in a bag’ technique where you crack an egg into a plastic bag, add some veggies and cheese (or whatever) and then put the bag in boiling water. (If you haven’t tried the omelet in a bag you haven’t missed anything – it doesn’t work all that well and a boiled omelet has a very different taste and texture.)
Freezer bag cooking is the exact opposite; hot water is added to the bag much like one adds hot water to a prepackaged freeze-dried meal.
Last December I came upon the Trail Cooking website. I finally got down to business and tried it out. Freezer bag cooking is easy, inexpensive and an especially great way for Scouts (or anyone for that matter) to prepare food on backpacking trips.
The ingenious technique ‘boils down’ to this ; measure ingredients into a 1 quart freezer bag and add hot water, wait a few minutes and viola! – a great-tasting meal.
Most of the recipes consist of ingredients you can find on the grocery store shelf Add a home food dehydrator and the possibilities really expand.
In preparation for a backpacking trip I prepared a freezer bag cooking demo for our Scouts and they were impressed by how easy and how cool it was to cook something better than a brick of ramen noodles. (Jeeze, they really love ramen noodles too – yuck.)
Blogger and author Sarah Svien offers a book, home made cozies (an insulating fabric envelope for freezer bags) and other supplies at the Trail Cooking Website that features a blog and quite a few recipes.
Freezer Bag Cooking on Amazon
Two of my favorite freezer bag recipes (the brownies are truly amazing).
Cranberry Chicken Rice (lower sodium):
In a quart freezer bag put:
1 cup instant rice
1 Tsp. Chicken bullion (low sodium)
1/4 Tsp. salt, if desired
1/2 Tsp. granulated garlic
1 Tsp. Parsley
1 Tsp. Dried Onion
2 Tbl. Dried veggie flakes or freeze dried mixed vegetables
2 Tbl.+2 Tsp. Craisins
Also take a 3-5 oz. can of chicken with you.
Add the chicken and it’s liquid into the freezer bag, and 1 1/4 cups boiling water. Stir well and put into a cozy for 10 minutes. Serves 1.
Brownies
In a quart freezer bag put:
1 package graham crackers, reduced to crumbs.
1/4 cup broken pecans (toast them first for best results)
2 Tbsp powdered sugar.
In another bag put:
3 oz (about 3/4 cup) chocolate chips and
3 Tbsp powdered milk.
In camp: Add 1/4 cup water to the chocolate. Bring a pot of water to a boil and dip the bag to melt the chocolate (the higher-quality the chocolate, the better it melts and the better it tastes). When melted, add the graham cracker crumbs and knead to mix thoroughly. How you eat it is up to you. You can let it cool and break into chunks. Serves 4-8.