Meal in a Bag | Freeze Drying a Complete Meal
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 30. 03. 2023
- MRE style meals like those "meal in a bag" from Mountain House can run on average about $10 each. With a freeze dryer, you can make you own at home for a faction of the cost. So today, that's what we're going to do - after we whip up a huge batch of Jambalaya. This was super easy to do, the hardest part is trying to figure out how much water to add to reconstitute. For our meals, we added about 2 cups of dried food to the bags. We started with 1.5 Cups of water, but that seemed like a bit too much. So for this recipe, about 1.25 Cups of water should be about perfect!
We were really impressed with the mylar bags. They're super thick, and really hold the heat in. There's a link to them below if you're interested.
đ Mylar Meal Pouch Bags: amzn.to/3M3u5gH
đ HARVEST Right Freeze Dryers: affiliates.harvestright.com/1...
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I freeze dry chili, sausage gravy, split pea soup, chicken fried rice, ham and bean soup, and refried beans! Yum and a game changer on busy nights!
Do you ever have issues with pasta or rice being too mushy? Trying to decide if I should leave the pasta out and add later or cook it and freeze dry all together
You have to know how much the tray weighs. Then weigh it with the frozen food on it. After itâs done, subtract and get the amount of water it lost- divided by the amount of meals you got, then you know how much water to add đ Itâs not perfect but less is more! You can always add but you cannot take away. Youâll be good. đł
After two minutes open it and fluff, close back up. Lay it on its side while rehydrating.
Chili and spaghetti works GREAT! So do mashed potatoes.
We made numerous freeze dried meals for trip to Florida after last falls hurricanes. It worked well, and we ate food that was healthy and home cooked. My hubby's favorite was homemade mac and cheese.
Wow! More of these videos please!!! My husband is an airline pilot and we were just discussing the possibility of doing this for his on the road meals so he can eat more real food and less restaurant meals. So your timing is absolute perfection.
We do this all the time. My husband likes to go motorcycle camping so these are super light and can allow him to have good meals while out riding. Weâve done spaghetti, chili with beans, goulash, fried rice, etc. Just need to be careful when using any kind of meat. Like we will cook the beef and rinse it in hot water and then add it to the sauce and noodles.
You can weigh the trays but we just kind of add some water, wait and then add more if needed.
Itâs so much fun!
That's such a good idea! Would definitely love to see more videos on the freeze drying meals.
I second this. More freeze-dried meals.
Yes! I second this. Please more of this.
Thank you for sharing. Iâve got my freeze dryer on layaway & canât wait to get it here & begin freeze drying food for our long term pantry
We do many of these in Pint jars (single person) or Quart jars (for hubby and I). I even made little cozies for the jars so we can pour the hot water in and let them set until we need them a few hours later on our road trips, doctors appointments, on our way to somewhere, our homemade goodness! Love this!!!!!
Question. In the jars, do you use the oxygen absorbers? Thank you.
And great idea about the jar cozies.
Growing up in a large family and use to help cook for 10 Like Todd it was hard to scale down to 2 people when I got married. That jambalya looks so good.
I've done chili Mac, spaghetti, chili, soups, goulash. You'll love doing the meals once you get used to it. đ
My favorite meal to freeze dry is pasta bake. Mashed potatoes are excellent. You almost can't tell them from fresh. I too have been concentrating on ingredients. Then realized I needed to make some meals for power outages etc. Oatmeal is another good choice for the freeze drier.
This is so timely. I just took out breakfast scramble from my freeze dryer last night and packed it in individual meals. Working on teriyaki chicken and rice today, biscuits and sausage gravy, chicken and dumplings but I'm always looking for inspiration. I've been watching the channel Retired at 40. He goes through the entire process to include how to figure out the water ratio for rehydration.
Love watching Todd and his magic knife!
I don't have meal in a jar, that is ready to heat and eat. I am researching that now, love your channel guys. Pat
The production of the videos keeps getting better ! Great job on the content and the video.
How exciting! I suggest unstuffed pepper casserole to try
We have made and eaten many dishes. Chili with Meat, Chicken and Rice, Beef Stroganoff, Baked Ziti with Meat Sauce, Chicken Ala King with veggies, Breakfast Egg Scramble with onions, peppers, cheese and sausage, Split Pea and Ham soup and many more.....we bring them on camping trips and heat boiling water seal the pouch and wait until it's rehydrated. We have freeze dried a lot of fruits we bring for snacks. It has simplified camping
Glad you did this video! My freeze dryer is going to save in lunch money! It will cost a few bucks up front but, the plan is to use thermos' to pack the lunches in, and use those for work. I freeze leftovers, but, at 5AM it's hard to think about "what's for lunch", from the freezer! I ordered the food dividers from Freeze Drying Supplies, so that I can portion out the servings and pop them into a thermos for lunches.
I love this episode! I have a harvest right too and I freeze fried some chili and Moroccan chicken and some they turned out great but Iâd love more ideas!
I use my canning jar funnel to fill bags. Also, I cut a vacuum seal bag roll the length of my FD tray and seal it from a couple of inches down the side at an angle to the cut end making a smaller opening. I use a chip bag clip to close the angled bottom and slide the tray inform the top, and dump the food into the bag to fill my mylar bags...think frosting piping bag.
I add a can of Rotel to the Zatarains jambalaya. I try to keep one of the rice mixes and Rotel and a sausage in my freezer so there is always a meal that s quick and easy
I love watching your videos. As a person who can't afford a freeze dryer I usually don't watch my favorite channels freeze dryer videos.
This is so great! Love this video! Thanks
Great idea!! Even though I couldn't afford one, fun idea to watch!
Give us an update on how it was the next day after sitting on the fridge did the meat fully hydrate and did the soupy-ness get any better?
Todd has it the next day for lunch, and everything was fully hydrated and tastey.
When I seen what your making I jumped for joy!!! I had recently started cleaning out the fridge freezer and came across my leftover Zatarains beans and rice.
Love the stuff!!!
Love it! Thank you. My husband and I will be trying this next.
I like Todd's knife skills
This is one of my favorite videos that you have made yet. The recipe and the freeze drying turn out so well.
Love the idea of meals đ
Just what I have been looking for!!!
What a lovely family.
What a great idea đ
A great addition to freeze dryer use! Thanks for a great idea.
Such great idea
Loved this! â€
As soon as I started watching this the second you said you were doing meals. I knew what meal would be first! Todds go to meal.
Totally in! Great music.
Thanks! This was very interesting.
That's neat, great idea.
I'd love to see more dehydrator content. Most of us will never be able to afford a freeze drier. Kudos to those who can but looking for dehydrator content. Love your channel. Just skip these that showcase things that I will not be able to do. â€
The Purposful Pantry is a great channel for dehydrating. That's how she does most of her food preservation. đ
Harvest Right has 3 sizes. Different prices. Always think about preservation and cost saving. Some things in life just pay for themselves. This is just one example. I wish you the best.
Itâs nice being able to make your own meals. If you want to buy them like my dad did one year for camping, they would cost a fortune for sure.
So awesome that you have posted this video! This entire past week I have been thinking about doing some FD meals. I too, just have been doing single ingredient freeze-drying. Thank you for motivating me to ACTUALLY DO IT!!
Very cool! It makes me want to get a freeze dryer! Thanks.
I love to fd meals. Spaghetti, chili, butternut squash soup, and beef stroganoff are my favorites.
Thank you !!
I was going to say 2 to 1 when rehydrating!!! Thank you for sharing this with us!!! God Bless!!!
Love your videos.
Iâve never made anything intentionally for the freeze dryer but Iâve recently been freeze drying left overs and itâs worked amazing! Always looking for new items to add so thanks for the video
I've found that with freeze dried rice meals, in particular, the rice seems to get over, hydrated. Maybe slightly undercooked rice would help this, but I haven't had a chance to test my idea. I also want to try "pearling" or toasting the rice before cooking it, which helps limit the amount of water it will absorb while cooking.
I also found that sausage, due to its high fat content, tends to go rancid faster than is ideal. Be aware of where you store it, make sure to keep it as cool as possible. It will take on a cardboard-y taste.
They freeze drying some chili!
Also, get some garlic chopped and freeze dried and ditch the Jarlic! You'll never go back
Thank you so much for showing this. I have a Harvest Right and I am very curious, so more videos like this is much appreciated. Thank you again. â€
Thank You for keeping a great beard brother. Equipping the world for better living. You both are doing a great job for humanity's sake. Thank you.â€
What a great way to save leftovers!!!
I agree Echridge smoked sausage is the best!! That looked delicious!
Great video! Inspired a lot of ideas for us! Thank you! Blessings on your day Kiddos!đ„°đ»đđ
Awesome!
I really like your videos,there very calm and quiet there's not a lot of noise.
Iâve been freeze drying for the last three or four years. And I cooked a huge supply of gumbo, jambalaya and rice and beans. I would suggest taking out some of your jambalaya with the next few months and trying it. From my experience, the sausage and the fat from the sausage, and the jambalaya has produced a slightly stale taste. This also has happened in the beans. But not the gumbo, Iâm pretty sure that Iâve come up with a solution to fix that. The first is to remove the sausage from his casing and smash it up into a smaller pieces. The second thing that I do is that I cook the jambalaya , but I do not add the rice until the last step I allow the liquid to sit overnight in the refrigerator to cool off so that the fat will come to the top and harden and then I skim the excess fat. Then I reheat the liquid and add the rice and let it cook for an hour or two on low heat . Iâve also gotten into making my own sausage. This is a huge benefit because it allows me to control the fat content that goes within my sausage thereâs also a huge savings compared to the price of store-bought . Itâs around 75% savings , I can make 20 pounds of sausage for about 25 to 30 dollars vs 140to 160 that I would spend at tue store minus the 1 time investment of the equipment. Are use a KitchenAid make sure with a meat grinder attachment to ground the meat and a pop LEM sausage stuffer that I purchased new on offer up for half the price for 80. Third itâs very easy to make it is time consuming but itâs well worth it because I can make the sausage according to what I desire as far as taste itâs very rewarding. Last, but not least, I vacuum seal my mylar bags, and I add oxygen absorbers to get rid of all the excess oxygen. Fat needs oxygen in order to become rancid. These are the steps that I use now to make the beans and rice, and the jambalaya That I freeze dryer hope this helps!!!
Love the video! My only comment is y'all should kindly consider using a wood cutting board instead of the plastic - you're introducing a ton of microplastics from it into your food and those don't ever leave the body. It's cheaper... but at a cost.
Awesome..That looked really good. Like you, I just wing it on water when re-hydrating.
I too have been FD items. I need to now do meals. In a pinch if we cannot "cook" a meal this would be great.
I still cook for a full house. I also find that after being the only cook for 48 years I donât mind having leftovers. I donât have to cook every single day. I often freeze individual servings of leftovers. This would be a much better option in case electricity goes out. Luckily we donât have that very often.
TV. Went really well. We are wanting to do this
Great idea! Beef stew would be a good one to do! My guess would be to try 2/1. 2 dry/1 wet.
I want a freeze dryer so bad for camping and food preservation! Good to know the meals do well in the freeze dryer.
Oh my †today is the first day I looked up videos for freeze drying and yours popped up first. I was like that looks a lot like Rachel and then when I looked at the description in the video I was like holy cow that is Rachel! How exciting is this adding you to my subscribers list and can't wait to watch all your videos. Currently making applesauce for my granddaughter the dehydrator has sweet and spicy bacon and I'm getting ready to cook up some hamburger meat to can that. Looking so much forward to learning from you too!
We make hash and use them to dry faster. Then we press that in heated presses and make rosin.
Some of you guys have inspired me to start my on channel. i had a stroke a few years back
i wanted to start a homesteading content. we have lots of animals but my left leg isn't to good so have to use a cane left hand doesn't work at all so walking around with a Camra while doing my chores just doesn't work. lol but as i was watching some of you guys freeze drying cooking, canning one day i thought what the heck i can cook and love cooking, canning and have a freeze dryer and love talking. lol i can put the camera on a tripod so I'm gonna do it i made three little videos just fooling round talking cooking shared on face book got great feed back so down loaded to you tube for a start pray for me pleas .
Hi ,just come across ur Chanel,
Watched for first time ,
So looking forward to the next ,best of luck with ur meal ,and drying ,hope u manage sort water level ,
All the best from UK
I stopped buying the Zatarain's Jambalaya because they changed the flavor. đą. I'll buy it again and add the Tony's with peppers and onions. Thanks for sharing. Looked good.
Cutest couple â„ïž
The sausage may li:it the number of years you can keep the meal freeze dried.
How do you store the bags? Canât beat how beautiful canned goods look when stored.
Retired at 40 CZcams channel has gobs of tips & tricks ! I highly recommend looking there for questions
A fruit crisp like cherry or rhubarb and apple would make a yummy camping breakfast or dessert
You guys are wonderful. I learned to make yogurt, from watching you. I'm good at it now. Got the xl freeze dryer. I have freezes dried cows milk, whey, Cottage cheese, cheese, my favorite vegetables, chicken, beef, pork, dog food, horse radish, French fries, fried Yams, hamburgers. Gonna freeze dry my favorite old settler beans, with bacon and hamburger. Gonna mail my grandson some. Lol They love my beans. I've freeze dried fresh Peaches, apples. Eggs galore. The cows milk is delicious. Tastes fresh, when restored. I make a ton of cheese. When I'm overloaded with milk, I put it in the freeze dryer. The xl trays can take a half a gallon of liquid. Eggs, 36 blended. I don't buy Chewys anymore. I'm freeze drying chicken and meats, for my dog. Saving me a load. I love going to the store and not having to buy any dairy. I've mastered what I would buy. Loving the CZcams education, I'm getting. God bless you both. Love your videos. đđđđđ
I was wondering how it would taste and the texture of the meat. Thank for doing this.
Spaghetti has been the best meal that I've ever freeze dried. Reconstitutes really well.
Being from Indiana, we usually use Eckrich everything. I may have to try the Dearborn brand if you think it is good.
If you watch some of "retired at 40" videos--he has tons of tips on freeze drying all kinds of stuff. The one thing I would get if you want to do meals is dividers..so you can portion out each tray. That way you can figure how much water to add back in. You will have to weigh each tray separately because the trays will all weight different.
So glad I found your page. Wifey is super excited to make freeze dried food. I was hoping to ask in you opinion what a good brand to buy and on average how long does the equipment last before replacement. Thank you for the awesome demonstration Iâm hooked.
Please watch the guy one School Reports seams to have is together with rehydrating. And I do like his was of checking for dryness. Hope this as much help for you two as you have been for me.
I make a lot of things to make a quick burrito. Carnitas, pork, potato, green chili stew and beef with mushrooms, potatoes and green chili stew. It all rehydrates wonderfully. I also make big batches of Spanish rice that freeze dries great. I add a little amount of water at a time and donât weigh anything. Thatâs to much work. The only time I weigh anything is when I put the food and oxygen absorbers in the bag. I weigh the bag and write the total grams on the bag, so that when I get ready to open the bags I weigh them again to make sure that they have remained sealed.
I have a freeze dryer like you. I would recommend double sealing the bag. Two separate lines across it
I have freeze dried goulash but havenât tried it yet. So glad you tried jambalaya. Have been wanting to try gumbo also. Have been loving my freeze dryer. đ„°
Dearborn sausage is great stuff
If you ever can, purchase some Conecuh sausage made in Alabama, itâs delicious and some are spicey
i am doing that now with speghetti. I have pressured canned hamburger, tomato sauce, freeze dried mushroom, onions. Tomorrow I will cook speghetti noodles and add to my crock cookeed meat sauce and load it onto
freeze dried pans. Did you pre-freeze your meal prior to freeze drying? So much better to have all in one meals.
Thanks for sharing you experiment.
you should try it on chili
Hello, that was SO interesting! I was wondering if you could do something like that. I was wondering, because the bags are resealable, can you wash them and then reuse them? Maybe not for anything hot, or maybe yes, but for something else? Thanks, i loved this video. Have a wonderful day!
We measure out the water and divide it by the amount of containers. So it gives us an idea how much water to add. Put it on the bag too.
You guys are so lucky to have a freeze dryer, I do not need one my Children are grown now., I wouldnât know how to use it any 4-8-2023â€
What kind of bag sealer do you use?
Just an FYI try at least 10 minutes to let it rehydrate for the meat that might have also taken a bit more of the water. In between mix and reseal.
Those meals that we can't make a smaller batch, kind of like when I make soup, somehow it always turns into a full pot, its hard to cook small when your used to making a big amount.
I'm so new to freeze drying and loving it. Can regular gusseted mylar bags be used for meals or does it have to be designated a meal pouch?
sure you can, they likely won't have the zip-lock seal on them though to "steam" the food when rehydrating it.
Where did you find the gusseted meal pouches? We have been doing mostly meals in our freeze dryer. We will be traveling in our fifth wheel for 2 years and this will be a great way to stock it up, without a lot of weight.
I found the pouches through your Amazon link.
How does it taste
Couldn't you go by what a boughten package has. The mountain one I looked at says 4.2oz serves 2 and add 1 1/3 cups of water? Just an idea... Love the channel!
You used Johnsonville sausage and it already is spicy then you added Tony's I would say that's why it was more spicy then your use to.