Latest favorite homemade freezer bag meal...and a question

[AAdamsPDX]

I've been testing out ideas for backpacking food, since we're getting ready for another multi-week trip this summer and last summer we got SO sick of our food!

The latest involves instant rice, freeze dried peas and freeze dried garlic from https://www.northbaytrading.com, lots of basil flakes, salt and pepper, and some parmesan and olive oil packets from http://www.minimus.biz. So yummy, if you like pesto. But from a nutritional perspective it falls a little flat.

The question is this: has anyone tried instant brown rice using the freezer bag cooking method? White rice rehydrates just fine but it's not as nutritious. I suspect the instant brown rice may be a bit crunchy unless you were to actually simmer it for a while.

Also, feel free to hijack this thread entirely with your own favorite meals! We use freezer bag cooking, but I've found most ideas can be modified a little to fit different camp cooking styles...

[Webfoot]

PBBs, Phthalates, Bisphenol A, Bisphenol S, PFOA, obesogens, and whatever they haven't discovered or told us about yet.

Cook in a plastic bag? Not a chance!

[sprengers4jc]

Our favorite meal is quinoa, couscous, or instant mashed potatoes in a quart-size freezer bag with a Lipton soup mix added for veggies. The couscous and quinoa are lighter-weight than the rice (sometimes, we like the Lipton Rice Sides instead since they have veggies but they are too heavy). Add the boiling water and some torn-up, precooked bacon and wait five minutes. . You can get the bacon at Safeway. Every other store puts it in the fridge, which defeats the purpose of it being precooked. The good folks at Safeway understand that precooked means it doesn't need to be refrigerated. Just know that once you open the package, it goes bad overnight. So it comes with 9-10 pieces of bacon and you guys will just have to eat it all

Also, we like this site a lot for various ideas, and this Facebook Group.

[AAdamsPDX]

Our favorite meal is quinoa, couscous, or instant mashed potatoes in a quart-size freezer bag with a Lipton soup mix added for veggies. The couscous and quinoa are lighter-weight than the rice (sometimes, we like the Lipton Rice Sides instead since they have veggies but they are too heavy). Add the boiling water and some torn-up, precooked bacon and wait five minutes. . You can get the bacon at Safeway. Every other store puts it in the fridge, which defeats the purpose of it being precooked. The good folks at Safeway understand that precooked means it doesn't need to be refrigerated. Just know that once you open the package, it goes bad overnight. So it comes with 9-10 pieces of bacon and you guys will just have to eat it all

Also, we like this site a lot for various ideas, and this Facebook Group.

Thanks! Some idea generators here for sure!

[AAdamsPDX]

PBBs, Phthalates, Bisphenol A, Bisphenol S, PFOA, obesogens, and whatever they haven't discovered or told us about yet.

Cook in a plastic bag? Not a chance!

I hear you! "Freezer bag cooking" is a method popularized on some backpacking forums and blogs that mostly means "just add hot water." You can use the same method and add the meal ingredients and hot water to a titanium bowl. The point is you do the ingredient measuring and mixing before you hit the trail. Basically it's like a homemade Mountain House meal.

[Webfoot]

I see. Thanks for clearing that up, and sorry for interjecting unsolicited doom and gloom.

[Koda]

Apologies in advance for contributing to any thread drift but since I usually just add hot water to my typical Mountainhouse meal are their any chemicals leeching into my food from the bag? Im not overly concerned more just curious.


I have a couple Mountainhouse favorites but get burned out on the packaged foods too and have done my own meal variations except none of them are UL or freeze dried. I’ve pre-cooked side dishes, wrapped in foil and placed in zip lock. Later throw the foil package on the campfire coals to reheat. I’ve had garlic green beans and stir friend sweet potatoes or yams with rosemary are my two favorites. This works great for weekenders but not so much for week long adventures unless your going to eat them the first night or two at most.



back to Mountainhouse when they get boring there is this little gizmo that adds some life back to the old usual flavors...

[Webfoot]

Apologies in advance for contributing to any thread drift but since I usually just add hot water to my typical Mountainhouse meal are their any chemicals leeching into my food from the bag? Im not overly concerned more just curious.

Who is to say? The point I hoped to make is that they keep finding new threats from such things. I seem to remember reading that food grade plastics are or were not tested for chemicals at high temperature; rather they were tested at low temperature for leaching, then at high temperature only for stability. Hopefully this has changed or I was misinformed, but I have no confidence in such things now and I won't use plastic for hot (160°+) food.

[mreha]

It's true that cooking in Ziploc bags is probably not the healthiest thing, but I think unless you're spending most of your nights on the trail (like thru-hiking or something) it's probably pretty harmless. I do it because personally I think there are much greater things to worry about than eating out of plastic bags 20 or 30 nights a year...if you live in Portland and you're breathing the air and drinking the water you're probably getting much more toxic stuff into your body every day.

Also, Ziploc bags do not contain BPA. I'm sure there is other not-so-great stuff, though.

And, to answer the original question, instant brown rice doesn't rehydrate very well that way, you're right! Unlike white rice, where the directions say to put it in the boiling water and turn the burner off, the directions for brown rice call for simmering for 5 minutes and THEN letting it sit for another 5 minutes...

[jessbee]

The question is this: has anyone tried instant brown rice using the freezer bag cooking method? White rice rehydrates just fine but it's not as nutritious. I suspect the instant brown rice may be a bit crunchy unless you were to actually simmer it for a while.

Brown rice has more fiber and some additional micronutrients, but as far as protein and carbs they're almost identical: http://www.livestrong.com/article/38124 ... rown-rice/

So, not worth the switch for a few nights of backpacking, IMHO.

I bought a dehydrator years ago so it is super easy to make backpacking meals. Pretty much anything can be turned into a 1 pot meal. My favorite recipe book is Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe. Once you get a feel for how the meals are made you can easily improvise your own recipes.