Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple [Paperback]

Sarah Svien Kirkconnell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2007

Spend any amount of time in the outdoors and you have probably found that mealtime is full of trade-offs. Do you choose foods that fuel your body or foods that satisfy your taste buds? Do you spend the extra time to prepare a real meal or grab a protein bar on the go? Freezer Bag Cooking™ minimizes these trade-offs by changing the concepts of traditional outdoor food. It offers simplicity, convenience and variety and whirls them together with the philosophies of lightweight outdoor adventuring. The cooking gear needed is minimal, lightweight and can be bought, found or even made. When ready to eat, the meal is prepared in and eaten out of the freezer bag. Mealtime becomes fast, effortless and cleanup is as easy as licking your utensil and sealing the zip top bag. So whether you like to be fancy with your food or keep it simple, “Freezer Bag Cooking™: Trail Food Made Simple” can be your ticket to better eating and enjoyment of your outdoor experience

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Lulu.com (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1411660315
• ISBN-13: 978-1411660311
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kirk and I brought out 'Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple' in late 2005. It came out of our website, www.freezerbagcooking.com In 2007 we brought out the second edition of the book, the current version, which had a new cover and more "how-to" info.

We are writing two more trail cookbooks and as well run the FBC website, which has been rolled into www.trailcooking.com in the past couple years. We maintain the websites and our blog which we actively post on.

Kirk, our sons Ford and Walker and I live in the foothills of the Central Cascades, near Mt. Rainier, in Washington State. Our favorite areas to hike are Mt. Rainier National Park and the trails near the park along the Cascade Crest.

We are opinionated, hard users of gear and more so - walk the talk when it comes to getting in the outdoors. Be it hiking, backpacking, trail cooking or even 4 wheeling we love being outside.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for the ultralight backpacker!, February 10, 2006

By 

Perry P. Perkins "Author of La Caja China Coo... (Wilsonville, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple (Paperback)

I too was given this book as a gift and it's great!

I've tried a number of the recipes (and a few of my own now) and have never had any problems with pouring hot water in a freezer bag. (I called the manufacturer and they said it would be fine.)

The author outlines the simple prep/packaging/cooking process clearly and what I got were great, tasty meals that cut the weight of my pack by 25%. Also, for once I was able to improve my packweight (and menu) without having to buy a bunch of expensive gear. My kitchen now consists of a tin pot, plastic spoon and a super-cheap pepsi can stove. (So I blew the money on a new tent...but that's another story...)

As the child of a professional chef, I never could stomach the freeze-dried stuff and MRE's (which don't taste much better)weigh a ton. Now I've got a book full of great tasting, easy to prepare recipes and I can leave the 20lbs of canned/fresh food (along with most of my old cook gear) at home.

Hope to see a Book 2 soon!

Thanks,

Perry P. Perkins

Author

"Just Past Oysterville"

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Junk Food in a Bag, January 9, 2010

By 

BekahKnits (Utah USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple (Paperback)

Taking dehydrated food in bags is as old as Lewis and Clark taking jerky and dried berries in leather pouches on their big explore. But that doesn't stop the author from trying to take credit for starting a movement.

Aside from the sparse writing and large spaces between lines (it's more of a pamphlet than a book, judging on content, entire pages will have only a short paragraph and the author rambles to fill even that space), the recipes are horrible.

The main ingredient for most of the recipes is Ramen noodles and couscous. The whole chapter on Dessert is 11 ways to make pudding with crushed up cookies or candy; written out separately for each flavor.

The author acknowledges this isn't very healthy and tells us all to buy her next book for the healthier recipes. You also have to go to the website (which is mentioned so often it is laughable) to get the low sodium versions. This appears to be planned to get us all to the website which is no better--the same basic recipes and, of course, lots of stuff available for purchase (including plastic bags.)

If that isn't bad enough, the author encourages you to get extra packets of condiments from all the fast food restaurants you visit to use in the recipes. Not only is this tacky, these do cost the business money which brings prices up for everybody else (she claims to have started a movement, so that's a lot of packets.) You might say this isn't "eco-friendly" for the Economy. ; ) But now we all know where the recipes come from--Ramen with soy sauce. Ramen with Ketchup. Couscous with Ketchup...

If you want a real book on real food, get "Trail Food" by Alan Kesselheim. There is plenty of content including instructions on how to dry all your own stuff (you could of course just buy it, even Walmart is carrying #10 cans of dehydrated fruits and veggies.) And while the author of Trail Food prefers to put his all together in a little pot, it doesn't take any stretch of the imagination to consider just pouring the water into the bags. Kesselheim even explains all about drying pasta and rice to make it cook faster, etc.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Response to "Kate24", March 19, 2007

By 

Thornyrrose "Thorny" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple (Paperback)

In response to reviewer Kate24: I am not the author, I do not know the author, I purchased an earlier version of this book, directly from the author's website, before it was available on Amazon, based on the free information she had posted on the Web. In addition, I own a number of other camping/backpacking recipe books, and I do camp and backpack.

This is a useful little book, with lots of ideas that can serve as a starting point for making up your own recipes. I have actually used very few of the recipes in this book, but I still HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT, because it gets my mind thinking about recipes of my own.

Although Sarah did not originate the idea of using freezer bags, dehydrated foods and boiling H2O, she has helped to spread the word on a great way to pack meals for a backpacking trip that cut weight, eliminate cleanup that wastes time and valuable potable water, and taste good while providing more than adequate nutrition.

Buy this book and a dehydrater and get busy before your next backpacking trip!