Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple

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

Customer Reviews:

Excellent resource for the ultralight backpacker!

By Perry P. Perkins "Author of La Caja China Coo... - February 10, 2006

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... read more

Junk Food in a Bag

By BekahKnits - January 9, 2010

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... read more

Backpackers' stomachs best friend is this book!

By Linda Voll "Mataharihiker" - December 30, 2005

This is a superb resource for those tired of paying for the tasteless and expensive, pre-packaged freeze-dried dinners. The recipes use easily acquired ingredients and sources are listed for those harder to attain. I began eating out of zip-lock bags around 2001 but I was only using them to divide the pre-packaged dinners. Sarah Svien has taken it much farther and made eating on the trail much healthier, tastier, cheaper and easier...not to mention LIGHTER as you do not carry pots and pans...and you do not have anything to wash! I've always loved the later aspect in regards to using freezer bags. Week-end backpackers and thru hikers alike rejoice! On behalf of your stomach, I thank you for purchasing this book.