I’m wondering if any of you use a FoodSaver when you are packing for an upcoming camping trip.
I have a FoodSaver and have found it to be quite handy when I am packing provisions for a camping trip. I often cook meals in advance and then freeze them to simplify our family meals while we are traveling and camping. Deluxe macaroni and cheese, meatloaf, meatballs, cooked rice, and even twice-baked potatoes are some of my standbys.
Last summer, when I was prepping for our long trip from Seattle to Yellowstone National Park, I grabbed my FoodSaver and decided to vacuum pack a few of the items that I would stash in the freezer. I experimented with a batch of twice-baked potatoes. I baked the potatoes, mashed the flesh with butter and milk, and then returned the mash to the potato skin. I topped the potatoes with some grated cheddar and froze the potatoes on a tray in the freezer. Then when the potaotes were solid, I took them out and vacuum packed them individually with my FoodSaver. They were easily shoved in our travel trailer freezer the day we left.
When we were camping at the Madison Campground in Yellowstone National Park, we didn’t have any hookups so we cooked many of our meals over a campfire. It was the easiest option. One day, I defrosted those twice-baked potatoes and then wrapped them in foil. My husband set them around the campfire. They simply reheated. We served them with grilled steak, garlic green beans, and a Moose Drool beer. I suppose I could have saved myself some work and simply brought uncooked potatoes and placed them around the campfire, but that would have taken a lot longer. My prepared potatoes reheated quickly by the campfire.
So, do you vacuum pack anything, such as food, socks, or matches, before a familycamping trip?
butterbean carpenter
Howdy Melissa,
Thank you. Melissa for another 5***** piece.. We don’t have a sealer, but we do use & reuse ziplocks..
Thanx, to Don & Irene, now I’ll look at the MEGAMART for those bags…
Melissa A. Trainer
Janet, I reuse my Ziploc bags as well. I keep many camping items in Ziplocs and those bags get stored and reused each summer. They are great for packing things for my son’s Boy Scout campouts!
Don and Irene, Thanks for the comments. I like the idea of reusing the vacuum seal bags. They do get expensive also. Glad to hear that you live in British Columbia and travel in Alaska and Yukon territory. We have spent many wonderful camping vacations on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. We also traveled the Al Can with our children in the summer of 2006. What an adventure! When I was planning for that trip, I made many meals ahead and froze them. Amenities (even good grocery stores!) can be hard to find on the Al Can!
Don & Irene
Hi Janet good point we also re-use the vacumn seal bags after we have cut off the sealed part and can then wash and re-use other than the thin strip that was cut off. Not the perfect solution but we feel the same about plastic going to landfills.
Janet
Easy is nice but for me, the environmental impact of the plastic bags isn’t worth the time savings. Now I do use ziploc bags for transporting items to a 4 day outdoor country concert each year BUT I re-use them each year for the same things. I have one bag to hold napkins and plastic wear, another for handwipes and sanitizer, and so on. Yes it uses plastic but I can label each bag and use them again and again. I also now buy the Evolve plastic “ziploc” bags from Walmart and they are made with less plastic.
Don & Irene
Yes Melissa, we do this all the time, we live in Northwesternm British Columbia Canada so travel to the Yukon and Alaska and points inbetween so have learned this years ago that vacumn sealing is the smart way to go. We pre-cook many of our meats as well as pasta and our favorite perogies. The exception to this is the fresh rainbow and lake trout we catch along the way, as there are never any leftovers.
Huge timesaver at mealtimes for us both.
Have learned that you need to pay for the higher priced foodsavers as the value is there.