Pasta dishes can be made with "freezer bag cooking" you just need to pick the right noodles. You want very thin/small noodles and an insulating pouch to store the ziploc in while it's hydrating to help retain heat. The smaller and thinner the noodle the better it is for freezer bag cooking. I like the tiny shell noodles for mac and cheese and the extra small noodles for spaghetti dishes. They will hydrate in 6-7 minutes just fine IMPE. If anyone is curious, my mac and cheese recipe is:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup small shell noodles
2 heaping tablespoons cheddar cheese powder
1 heaping tablespoon Nido
1 teaspoon cornstarch (helps thicken the sauce)
hunk of Velveeta cheese (to taste, I usually have Velveeta on my crackers for lunch and just use whatever's left over, maybe 2 tablespoons if you like it really cheesy like me)
optional: a little bit of meat can be nice: SPAM or chicken pouch, or little bacon jerky is really good too
Cooking Directions:
I separate the powders in a small ziploc inside the quart bag when I prep my meals it - pull the bag of powders out and save that for later.
Boil 1 3/4 cup water
Poor into 1 qt ziplock freezer bag with noodles, let hot steam out for a couple of seconds and then seal the ziploc bag
Put ziploc into the insulated pouch
Mix every minute or so by gently shaking and pushing on sides of bag to mix (don't bust the bag open by squeezing too hard!)
Wait 5-8 minutes until noodles are cooked.
If the
noodles have soaked up all of the water and still are not soft I'll add a splash of water (not too much)
If the noodles are done and there's still a lot of water in the bag then just pour some of it our (but you need a little fluid in there to mix the powders: you don't want it dry)
Mix in powders and then the Velveeta
Stir to mix (if the powder is clumping and it's not making a sauce, add just a bit of water and mix some more)
Optional: add your meat
Enjoy!