Freezer Bag Cooking's (www.trailcooking.com) Cran-Mac Carmel Bar Review

I saw these posted by Sarah from FBC on their Facebook page along with several of the backpacking message forums. Since I first saw them I've been meaning to make some and give them a world, especially since my Cliff bars are starting to get really bland... It may have taken me awhile, but I finally made some to taste test.

The recipe can be found here
Cran-Mac Carmel Bars

Approximate cook time is less than 30 minutes.

Cutting the bars.
The bars wrapped in parchment paper and ready to be packed.


The recipe was really simple and fast to make. It was literally boil the liquid ingredients, then mix in the dry ingredients, and then spread them in a pan to harden. It couldn't have been any easier and I still don't know why it took me so long to try them out. I had a Costco size box of Honey Bunches of Oats laying around, so I measured out 13oz on my scale and used it for my choice of cereal.

Overall I am very pleased with the taste of these bars, they taste like candy (mind you there's lots of sugar) With the peanut butter, cereal and the doses of simple sugars these should complement my trail meals and snacks nicely. I definitely give them 2 thumbs up for taste flavor, and what seemed to be fairly filling as well. We'll see how filling they are after hiking mile after mile tomorrow.

WARNING!!! If you are trying to be a health nut on the trail and only eat 1200 calories a day these are not the bars for you, and in no way shape or form are they advertised as healthy food. If you are an avid hiker that likes to pump out the miles and needs the large amount of calories per day to keep knocking out the miles I can see these as a good complement to beef jerky and trail mixes for your constant trail-side snacking.

The Mass dehydration has begun... Hiking Season is Upon us in the NW.

With El Nino bringing in high snow-levels in the Pacific Northwest, It's time to start prepping for early season backpacking trips! Last night I fired up the trusty Cabela's commercial dehydrator and started drying the first of several large loads of Staple backpacking foods. The staples are the main ingredients that I mix and match for making my backpacking meals and need around in mass quantity for the just in case there is a last minute dash out the door to a trail-head. Having a large store of dehydrated ground turkey, re-fried beans, chicken, chili, pasta and several other ingredients prepped and dryed lying around make it easy to throw several simple dinners together at a last minute dash to the trail head. The ground turkey by far is the most used ingredient in most all of my backpacking adventures. If you need a quick/light/cheap meal on the fly, grab a Lipton/Knorr pasta or rice meal, dump half a cup of turkey in and you have an instant dinner.

Last night I started off with shoving 12 cans of re-fried beans into the dehydrator, while tonight will consist of 12 cans of Costco chicken. Later this week will be 8 or so pounds of pasta, 10lbs or so of ground turkey and an arsenal of canned chili to follow. The beans can be used in anything from fluffing up a meal, to tacos, to cutting the chicken that I use for lightweight chicken wraps for trail side lunch. What are you doing to prep for hiking season?

What 12 cans of dried refried beans looks like.


Also a few things that are on order is a set of driducks and a 700mL Ti mug/cookpot from backcountry.com
I'll have a new mug highlight post as soon as the mug shows up and I can run some boil tests and install some measuring marks.

Stevens Pass Burritos

I've mentioned the big tasty burritos for awhile. The are super simple, and extremely filling.

Makes 2 servings, or 1 serving for a hungry hiker (2 large burritos).

Ingredients:
1 cup Taco Seasoned Dehydrated Turkey
~1/3 cup of instant rice
~1/3 cup dehydrated or store bought dried refried beans.
a few Taco Bell hot sauces to flavor to taste
2 Large burrito tortillas

Optional ingredients: (I haven't got around to trying these yet but they should work great)

dehydrated onions, tomatoes, cheese powders...

Directions:
At home:
Take 1 cup of dehydrated turkey and dump it into a 1 quart ziploc freezer bag. Add 1/3 cup of rice and 1/3 cup of dehydrated re-fried beans to the freezer bag.

Cooking:
Add about 2 cups of boiling water to the freezer bag and insulate in a freezer bag cozy or with some type of cloth that you won't have in your tent in bear country. Let the meal stand for 15 to 20 minutes in the cozy and than you can assemble your burritos.



Edit:
I finally tried them with just using my plain dehydrated turkey and adding the seasoning into the mix before adding the water to the freezer bag. It tastes the same, so no separate pre-seasoning is required if you already have dried meat lying around, just throw it in and add the desired amount of taco seasoning.

Also since this makes a very large and filling portion size, feel free to half it the first time you try it.

Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass via the PCT Pretrip Planning.

Well due to college finals, becoming single and a multitude of other stress factors my planning got cut a lot shorter than I wanted. I had to mix and match some stuff I had already bought and design a meal plan that would work and still be on the lighter side. Here's my gearlist and food menu. One or 2 items I might of left off the list since the 4 oz trail guide was not on my scale in time to make it to the list. The bivy was also replaced with the new MYOG bug bivy which only weighs 6.1 oz, so some things counter acted each other and it's close enough for me...

Gear List:
Big 3 oz.
Solo Tarp w/stakes 9.90
Bivy Sack 8.55
Bivy Sack Stuff sack 0.15
Golite Ultra20 19.00
Sea To Summit Dry sack 1.20
NeoAir 9.10
BPL large Pillow 0.90
Modified Golite Ion 9.40
Subtotal 58.20

Clothes Carried oz.
Beanie 1.20
Stretch liner gloves 0.80
686 Polypro top 6.05
Minima Vest 4.90
Subtotal 12.95

Rain Gear oz.
Rain Wrap 2.45
jacket 13.95
Subtotal 16.40

Solo Cook kit oz.
Ti windscreen 0.30
BPL Trapper Mug 1.25
foil lid 0.05
handle 0.30
BPL Esbit Wing Stove 0.45
mini bic 0.45
rag 0.40
Freezerbag cozy 0.35
Ti Spork 0.55
Stuff Sack 0.30
Subtotal 4.40

UL Essentials Bag oz.
Epipen 2.15
matches+bandaids + tape+pills 2.30
compass 1.00
petzl e+lite w/out case 0.95
fire starter 0.35
Sportslick 1.00
mini swis knife 0.90
10 Tablets Micropur 0.25
sunscreen (empty) 0.20
handsanitizer (empty) 0.20
donner's soap (empty) 0.20
ace wrap 0.65
chapstick 0.25
Spinnaker Stuff Sack 0.15
Subtotal 10.55

Other Stuff oz.
2L Platy bladder 1.30
1L platy bladder 0.80
1L platy bladder 0.80
play hydration hose 2.20
Cabela's 5 piece rod w/sleeve 4.00
Scientific Angler's 456 reel w/line 5.05
Dry Fly Dressing 0.75
Leader line 0.10
Forceps 0.75
fishing License 0.60
Fly box w/flies 0.70
Ursack 8.00
nitelite clip #1 0.15
Green trails map 0.45
Mosquito Head Net 0.40
Subtotal 26.05

Solo Kit Total Ounces 128.55
Solo Kit Total Pounds 8.03

+9.28 lbs of food and 4lbs of H2O...

Total Starting Pack weight of 21.3 pounds for 5 to 6 days along the PCT

Meal Plan:


It was paired down in the amount of bags, but this is a picture as I separated out the food per day.


Later I'll post a blog on the trail burritos I made from some ingredients laying around the house.

FBC SUL Cozy Review

Company: Freezer Bag Cooking
Model: SUL Cozy
Web Site: Trailcooking.com
Dimensions: 6"x8"
Weight: 0.60 oz as tested, 0.80 oz in the standard UL size.
Materials: dual sided Insulbrite insulation and a rare Reflective sil-nylon shell
Manufactured: Washington, USA
Quality: Excellent stitching and a very clean look.


As the quest for quality lightweight gear continues, I was afforded the opportunity to test out the new FBC UL Cozy in a slightly shorter size than the present standard production. I do not have a standard style cozy at this moment to compare and contrast the results from the UL Style and the Standard style cozies. So a compare and contrast of the heat retention between the Standard and UL is a possiblity. Either way the UL style cozies are lighter than the standard cozy which comes in at 1.1 to 1.5oz depending on the fabric and size chosen.

Comparing size differences between my old homemade cozy (0.35 oz) to the FBC SUL style cozy (0.60 oz).

Field Testing:
Consisted of rehydrating a Lipton/Knorr Broccoli Cheddar Rice with a 1/2 cup of dehydrated turkey on a cool afternoon at Big Crow Basin in the Central Cascades. After about 15 minutes I took my first bite, and all the way to the last bite there was no crunchy instant rice in the bag. Generally I have a few spoonfuls that still have some crunchiness to them from the rice not completely rehydrating within the 15 minute rehydration period. Rice always seems to be my vice when it comes to cooking along the trail, there is either not enough water or heat retention to quickly hydrate the rice with my homemade cozy. The meal was still very hot after sitting over 15 minutes.

Home Testing:
Test Design:
The ambient temperature was 71^oF and the initial water was brought to 200^oF and transferred into a quart sized Ziplock bag that was placed in the Cozy. Temperature readings were then taken at 5 minute intervals including the initial temperature of the water within the cozy. The graph reflects from time 0 in the cozy.

Water starting to boil.

Taking Temperature Readings.

Time or Location	Temperature (oF)
Ambient Temperature	71
On the burner	200
0 minutes in bag	188
5 minutes	184
10 minutes	179
15 minutes	173.5
20 minutes	169

After running the test in the kitchen, I have determined that the heat retention of the cozy is excellent for the intended purposes of the cozy. The overall average temperature loss was 4.75^oF per 5 minute interval, still keeping the cozy in the high 160’s by the end of 20 minutes. This represents a really good heat retention for rehydrating hot meals.

Pros:
High Heat Retention for FBC style cooking
Quality stitching
A very clean and appealing to the eye design

Cons:
Hand wash only (understandably can not be gotten around with the lightweight insulation.)

Suggestions:
Offer the short version at a height of about 5.75" and trim the pointed corner to save a few more grams of weight for the gram weenie solo users.

Recommendation:
I strongly recommend the UL style FBC cozies for all your solo FBC cooking needs. They are lighter than the standard cozies and retain heat very well.