Omelets In A Bag

Omelets In A Baghttp://camping.about.com/od/recipes/r/ucrec031.htm

From David Sweet,

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A camping recipe from Kim. This recipe is especially fun for kids. I learned it from a cub scout camping trip with my son.

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs

diced ham (lunchmeat kind)

diced onion

diced sweet pepper

PREPARATION:

Take a large Ziplock freezer bag and put in all the ingredients they want in their omelet. Each person will "scramble" their omelet by squishing the bag with their hands until it is all nicely mixed. Next, in a large pot of boiling water, place the bags (one or two at a time) and move them around with a large spoon for 4-5 minutes, until you think the eggs are done.

Pour the omelet onto a paper plate, and you have breakfast! No mess, no fuss, and lot's of fun for kids.

Servings: as needed

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Fred, two comments...

The bags need to come out a couple of times during the cooking, so the Scouts can shake/squish up the contents and aerate them (getting fluffy eggs that don't feel rubbery as a result).

With boiling water, gloves and tongs are a really good idea, and an adult (or Den Chief) watching the stove and fire is an absolute must.

Try and remove as much of the air from the bag the bag.

Unless you like your onion and pepper a little on the Al dente side it's a good idea to pre-cook them a little first.

Adding a little salt and vinegar to the water helps with clean up if for some reason the bag breaks.

Seasoning the eggs before you cook them is a good idea.

To ensure that everyone is safe you might want to use pasteurized eggs,or egg substitutes, this helps ensure that any salmonella enteritidis is removed from the eggs if they aren't cooked to at least 160 degrees F.

Eamonn.

Our guys still do this every once in a while. Don't limit yourself. You can include cheese, mushrooms, garlic, any kind of spice and lipton onion soup for flavoring.

Get the heavy ziplock freezer bags. Squeeze all the air out of the one with the eggs in it. Then put them inside another bag. This helps keep the bags from melting on the side of the pot. Keep rotating them around the pot, so one doesn't get stuck to the side.

Bring flour tortillas and make it an omlette wrap. Mmmm, good. Well, it's not Bob Evans, but it does pretty good.

Our guys make the baggie omelets on Sundays on almost all of our camping trips. Their reason - no cleanup! Meat/veggies are chopped at home ahead of time.

Good advice about using freezer bags and egg substitute. We also use a sharpie and write initials/names on the outside of the bags so everyone can identify their omelet after cooking.

Use a flour tortilla and you really have no mess. Roll out the contents of the baggie into the tortilla - now you don't even have to clean up a plate or use a paper plate (something our troop frowns on).

On sort of a side note ...

We had purchased the quart freezer bags to do eggs-in-a-bag, but at dinner-time we found a new use also.

We were making fajitas and needed to warm up the refried beans, so we put the beans in a left-over freezer bag and put them in the boiling water intended for cleanup. Once warmed up we then clipped a corner of the bag and simply squirted the beans out as needed. It worked great required zero cleanup time.

Some tips on this...

Take the bags out when the eggs look done and squish them a second time. Gloves help with this. Otherwise you will have runny eggs.

Don't cook cheese with the eggs it makes a gooey mess. Put the cheese on top after the eggs are on the plate.

Squeeze out most of the air in the bag but not all of it. If the bag sits on the bottom of the pot the plastic may melt. You want it to float around and touch the pot as little as possible.

Unless you enjoy instigating chaos and confusion, a shapie to put names on bags is essential equipment.

I love this idea. My den is responsible for Sunday breakfast for the pack during our summer campout and I'm already thinking of stuff that can be prepped ahead of time and kept in a cooler like crumbled bacon, crumbled sausage, ham, mushrooms, onions, peppers, salsa, etc.

Breakfast burrito! Here we come!

Another tip: bacos in the jar instead of using fresh ham or other meats. no need to refrigerate or chop. Tastes great too!

The troop I serve in has "zip-loc eggs", usually on the menu for Saturday morning when there is a lot of activities planned that would be infringed on by a long prep and clean-up time.

We have one of the scouts fry up a pound or two of bacon on the Thursday before the event and crumble it up and seal it in a large zip-loc bag.

This has the advantage of little to no prep in the field time and best of all, NO greasy dishes in the field to waste lots of time cleaning!

I like the suggestions to knead the eggs to avoid the infamous "BF Goodrich" omlette.

I have seen that even most Boy Scouts dont care for onions and green peppers in their eggs, so its more for those who do like them(namely the adults).

I'll have to try the Liptons onion soup mix idea, sounds good!!

On sundays, we tend to favor a mountain man breakfast done in a dutch oven. Clean-up is no big deal if you line the oven with aluminum foil.

The double bag option is good. Remember a Sharpie for names on each as yellow hammer said. Tongs are good to stir, but not always to pick up. We use silicone oven mitts, good to 500 degrees and waterproof.

Definitely make sure you use the heavy-duty bags -- no scrimping here! If you use frozen onions & peppers (or whaterver else), you don't end up with al dente products, and you don't have to pre-cook. This also works with hobo dinners -- and you can just put a twistie tie on them & throw them back in a freezer!

We have also used this method for heating soup. If we are arriving in a campsite late we sometimes have each boy bring his soup in a baggie, then we toss it into a pot of boiling water. Quick, hot soup. And you don't have to have someone on "pot watch" so supper doesn't scorch while tents are going up.

You can keep your cost and waste down by using sliced cheese for the previous days luch or super!

Bill Q

Great idea!!

Thanks to everyone for the different ideas and tips. I'm just getting started with a new Troop and love finding new/easy meals.

Thanks again!!

For backpacking, we like to first re-hydrate each Scout's favorite omelet innards, including dried onion, spinach, tomato, peppers, etc. Then, in go the eggs (either fresh or rehydrated)and the bag goes into the pot of boiling water. After the eggs begin to set, we like to shred and add a string cheese, and then finish off in the pot.

They can be eaten out of the bag or dumped onto a flour tortilla for a breakfast burrito.

Use the hot water for K.P., pack out the baggies and you're on the trail.