"Boil in the bag" food

[Rossy]

I'd been thinking about boil in the bag meals for a while and really enjoyed the wayfairer ones as we're trying to go more lightweight when camping. They tasted fine and the bonus was cook them in the bag and eat them out of the bag all I had to wash up (lick clean) was my spork. Perfect. Trouble is, damn they're pricey and not really a lot of food but enough to keep you going. So , how to make my own?

Lakeland do a bag sealer that's about £7 only takes two AA batteries. It looks like a stapler and is a bit fiddly but it does work. Then they also do a pack of 50 boil in the bag specific bags which were about £3.
So bought them up as it only cost a tenner and set about testing them out. Well like I said it was a bit fiddly but once I got the hang of it it worked a treat I managed to bag up a pint of water so that it didn't leak at all just for testing purposes.
With that come the Tursday before my camping weekend I cooked up two full english breakfasts (for two mornings) that's two rashers of bacon, two Cumberland sausages, a boiled egg, Black pud and a can of beans in each bag obv I chppped up the bacon sausage and egg. Dollop of HP in the bag and Black pepper to taste. Sealed it up double bagged just in case. I can honestly say I have never eaten such a good home cooked breakfast whilst camping. I also had a couple of dinners Spag bol and a Chili con carne. Same deal. This is definitely the way to go from now on. You can pretty much make your dinner or brekkie at home as usual and just make extra for the bag and freeze it up.
I've even started making stuff at home for if I've not got time to cook in the evening you can microwave these bags too if you can't be bothered to boil. (obv not whilst camping).
My mouths still watering from remembering that breakfast.

[tankosl]

This sounds like a great idea....................
I wonder how long it would keep fresh for?????

[Rossy]

This was just a weekend trip. But I'd be suprised if they didn't keep fresh for a good while. In theory they're no different from the wayfairer packs which pretty much last years. I think the trick is to get as much air out of them as possible so they're vacuum packed. But I personally never go for longer than a few days and they definitely last that long.

[tankosl]

Well, I think a bag sealer could now be on the wish list...............

[davsato]

ive kind of given up on the vacsealed food now, ive decided its not worth the effort unless its for something special. the local chinese supermarket does such a variety of tasty dried goods, coupled with some lovely napalm flavoured ribbon noodles they have, thats all i use now, added to either/and walls micro sausages or pepperamis. (precooked and packed in individual portions in nitrogen so lasts ages unrefridgerated)

[tankosl]

My wife appeared from the local Lidl's a few days ago with some "look what we found" soups
she said there wasn't any of the ready meals on the shelfs but you never know in the future!!!

[Nick B]

Cheers for the reveiws here, I'd definitely try this. Not really something I'd considered before but to be honest it's a useful idea, tins can be a right pain and weighty. I do a bit of cycling as well, we did the Tarka Trail in Devon last year over two days and to be honest, we stayed over half way (won't mention the town) but we struggled to find a decent meal, ended up spending a fortune and it was really bad. When I've been cycling like that I just want something quick and easy with no fuss so pre-packed bait does really appeal, I just always assumed it would be nasty stuff, but on this thread I'm trying it.