High calorie freezer bag recipes?

[vaporjourney]

hey there....i'm looking for some possible freezer bag recipes that I could put together at stores on my thru next month. I mainly want to stick with cous cous or angel hair pasta as a base because of their quick cooking time. I can't afford to purchase/dehydrate freeze dried or dehydrated veggies/meats. I know people like to add curry to cous cous, and maybe some oil, but this will still probably still lack calories that a boring Pasta Sides/Mac n Cheese dish offers. I'm very concerned about losing weight, especially in the winter.

[bigcranky]

I love adding Cashews and dried tomatoes to my curried couscous. Also, buy a small plastic bottle of olive oil, and add liberally to your dinner. (And don't worry about the weight -- it's exceptionally calorie-dense.) You could also add pine nuts, which have a lot of calories.

You could make a sweet couscous with pecans and cinnamon (and some brown sugar). Add some dried blueberries and maybe some butter. Mmmm, making me hungry. The nuts add calories and fat to all of these dishes.

For angel hair pasta, add the olive oil or butter, the pine nuts, a lot of Parmesan cheese, and some black pepper.

Dehydrated or freeze dried meat adds some protein, but not a lot of calories. It's nice to get some dried veggies, though -- the Just Veggies brand occasionally shows up at supermarkets. This is more for flavor, though.

You've seen Sarbar's freezer bag cooking site (http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/), right?

[sarbar]

You can also get freeze dried corn in the baby section nowdays, under both Gerber and Walmart's brand :)

But yes, add olive oil! To all meals! And if a creamy dish, add in whole fat instant milk (Nido).

And to boost calories, get tuna packed in oil, and use it. It actually is pretty good. You can get flavored tuna this way even.

As noted, chopped up nuts are good, from cashews to walnutes, etc.

I also add coconut cream powder to curry.

[vaporjourney]

ah, these recipes sound delicious, keep em coming

I was trying to avoid freeze-dried veggies because I assumed they were expensive. but if gerber makes some, its probably not too bad??

Nuts are good, and I'll probabbly definitely add some cashews/walnuts. Those nuts specifically can be expensive, but can be split up into 5 meals to justify the cost. The rest into the GORP bag.

I try to avoid tuna (AT sacriledge?) because of the high mercury content that most people tend to ignore. I know that it's high in calories, but extremely expensive if packed in the foil. The Albacore/chicken is even worse.

I've been substituting canola oil for olive oil to save money as well, and the calorie content seems to be the same. Olive is sure is better though! Just buy a 4oz nalgene bottle, and save weight over the store bottles.

Trying to save weight and money, and offer more variety/flexibility in resupply stops.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

If you are going to avoid olive oil, use corn oil. It cost about the same as canola, but taste far better. Olive oil's taste and what it adds to meals is worth the extra costs for me.

One of my hiking buddies used to carry lard years ago. It was a surprisingly good addition to meals, but it isn't available readily in small packs anymore. Butter and margarine are both high in calories and last about 5 - 7 days out of the fridge. My buddy that used lard now uses butter flavored Crisco.

[Buckles]

In the same grocery store aisle where you'd find tuna in the foil, self-stable packets, you'll also find chicken in foil packets, and sometimes ham. You can add that to your couscous (when you can find it) or rice (I used brown Minute Rice).

[sarbar]

Vapor, I get my olive oil at Trader Joe's. Very affordable! I buy the big containers of it.
Pricewise, while FD veggies seem pricey, they really are affordable. All you need is 1/4 cup dry for a recipe-they double in size with water. And taste wise, even 1-2 Tbl of them add so much, so you can stretch out a $5 bag for many meals!
Nuts: I buy mine in bulk or at Trader Joe's to save money-and usually get a fresher product to boot :)

[Topcat]

I bought something that i saw for the first time today, it was a whole chicken bread in a foil bag. It is made by Bumble Bee, the tuna people. Comes in Bar b Que, Southwest and Garlic flavor. We are tryig it with rice today for lunch. Hope its good

[sarbar]

Topcat, they are good. So are the whole salmon fillets they make :)

[vaporjourney]

Are there any good dried sauces that come in powdered form to add to angel hair pasta? I know I could add some pepper/oil to angel hair pasta, but need some sort of flavor!!! Same goes for the couscous. I like the idea of adding cinnamon/brown sugar, or curry powder.

Also...does the dried powder style of parmesian cheese even offer many calories? i don't have any lying around the house anymore to check. You never really care about counting calories until you hit the trail and worry about losing weight...

[Topcat]

Sabar,
Just finished my chicken breast out of the bag and it was very good. It was the Southwest seasoning variety. Next trip it will be chicken quesadillas for me. My grocery store has them on sale this week so i will be loading up the hiker pantry.

[sarbar]

Vapor-get the Knorr pasta sauce packets, they can be added to rice, couscous, pasta, etc. If it calls for milk (say 1 cup) just add in 1/3 cup dry milk to make it creamy and to boost calories!

[sarbar]

Also, McCormick's makes good pasta sauce packets.