Freezer Bag Cooking

The concept is ideal for back packers. We need something light weight, convenient, easy to prepare, and easy to cleanup, not to mention tasty and substantial. I did some internet research on the subject after Thomas introduced the concept to me a few months back. Freezer bag cooking is a brilliant idea that uses simple dehydrated and freeze dried ingredients, a zip lock bag, and some boiling water to cook up good hot food that has plenty of calories for hard hiking.

Considering I'm an experienced cook, I want to use what knowledge I have of cooking methods and food prep to come up with easy recipes that will work well for our needs. I found several sites on the internet that explain how to dehydrate foods and can use my own oven for many different things. I can also use the sun, or a semi cool dry room. I can even build my own dehydrator and found plans for several different types.

Cooking can be an art form and I wonder if there is any artistry to freezer bag cooking. Just how gourmet can one get on the trail? I found several different recipes that sound interesting. One of them contains an odd ingredient....orange flavored Crystal Light, or Tang. It's for making sesame chicken! Use lemon flavored drink mix for lemon chicken. I'm a little skeptical until I test it out in my own kitchen. I'm already brainstorming and trying to come up with an alternative that might be better...such as the zest of a lemon rind, lemon pepper seasoning, and maybe a pinch of brown sugar, but who knows. Maybe the recipes I've come across online are the best of what can be expected, but I will find out.

The important thing is kitchen testing. I've already tried one recipe that I gussied up a bit which worked great in my kitchen and the field test. It was chicken and stuffing. I have ideas for pasta primavera and spagetti with meat sauce too. I can't wait to gather up all the stuff I need and start making up a few things. Stay tuned for updates on this project.