On the Road Cookbooks

[highdesertranger]

same fumes you breathe everyday in a big city. actually much less unless you have an exhaust leak. highdesertranger

 

[TrainChaser]

When I first started reading this thread, I looked to see if my local library had any 'traveling' cookbooks.  They had three in the system, for camping and for RVs.  So I got them...... ......

I don't even cook like that in a house!  One of them, America's Best RV Cookbook, had a 'master supply list' that took up three pages!  This included 13 types of chocolate and sweet baking chips and chunks, 8 types of imitation extracts (incl. black walnut, which I've never heard of), 5 kinds of vinegar, canned artichoke hearts and hearts of palm.  In my own personal card file, I doubt that I have a single recipe with 15 ingredients.

Of course, this is RV living, which I've never done.  But it certainly opened my eyes!  You need to be parked in a crowded RV park and hooked up to full utilities just to wash all of the dishes.  You need to choose an RV park that has a large grocery store on the other side of the fence.  And where do you STORE all of this stuff?  And you get to spend half (or more) of every day cooking instead of doing something interesting ...... YIKES!

When I live in a van, it goes more like this:
* Heat water for tea, make tea, add sugar, stir.
* Open can of Raviolios, dump into pot, heat, stir, eat out of pot w/stirring spoon.
* Peel back top of Chips Ahoy cookies (on sale), remove 3 or 4, reseal, eat cookies.
* Maybe make another cup of tea to wash everything down.
* Fill cook pot with water, heat, add a little detergent, wash cup, spoon, pot. Rinse.

 

[AbuelaLoca]

LOL... Yeah, I'm not looking for 5 course meals out there!! Love your 5 step meal, though!! My fear of meals on the road, I think, is mostly because I grew up in a house with 7 siblings, then raised 5 kids, and now I have to feed just 1. Just one with not a lot of refrigeration... just one without a microwave... you get it... I guess I want cheap, simple meals that I can cook on the camp stove but that don't take hours... I like a variety in my life or I get bored and go back to fattening, not so good for me, staples!

 

[Almost There]

Belinda, even though I love to cook for a crowd (and do so as often as possible), cooking for one is mostly simple meals!

Stir fries are one pot meals that make cleaning up easy. I can take just about any kind of meat and turn it in to a stir fry with only a few simple ingredients.

The other quick meals that I depend on mean a piece of meat and a salad. I have one of those water grills that sit on top of the stove burner so I can grill  anything without carrying around a barbecue.

When I was running on little to no refrigeration (one large cooler) and had to buy single packages of meat I could take a package of 4 chicken breasts and turn them in to 4 different meals....Quesadillas, chicken grilled, chicken stir fry and cold chicken in a dinner sized salad. Same with a pound of ground beef...tacos, hamburger, poor mans beef stroganoff and campfire package dinner. All made from a quarter pound of ground beef each!

Maybe sit down, grab a notebook and start listing all the meals you CAN make with just a few ingredients. That and google '5 ingredient meals' and see what pops up.

I have one of those 'campground cookbooks'...hardly ever use it. My meals are the same as when I lived in a S&B except for when I break out the tin foil and do one of the campers packet dinners. I carry one of the folding coleman ovens but hardly ever set it up. Most of my meals are either done on the grill or in a fry pan.

 

[AbuelaLoca]

We need links, Beth to the "water grill"!

 

[waldenbound]

My approach to cooking is as fresh as possible and real simple ingredients and methods. I have a cast iron skillet, 2 Primus pots, and a Snowpeak pot that can be used as a steamer with a mini metal colander. I've got good knives, and everything has to be cooked with what I've got. No creme brûlée out there, and I'm not going to exist on Campbells soup.

I"m thinking skillet meals, steamed vegetables, when my food gets low use what's leftover for a pot of soup. When it's really hot, go raw. Munch on raw veggies.

 

[jacqueg]

I've gotten some good recipes out of this one - https://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Chow-Well-When-Power/dp/B001B2HIIS - basically, how to eat out of cans and boxes if you're a foodie and Spaghetti-os just don't cut it. They're all vegetarian, but it would be easy to add meat if you wanted it.

And I just checked this one out from the library - https://www.amazon.com/Hughs-Three-...&keywords=hugh's+three+good+things+on+a+plate
Hugh is a brit, so some of the recipes in here are, um, a bit odd from an american standpoint. And they are all in metric. But - they're simple! I'd think any six-ingredients-or-less recipe book would have some useful ideas as well.

 

[Thirsty Boots Nomad]

You have to sign up for the newsletter (though when I did I was sent to a page that let me download the cookbook immediately so you could invent an email addy) to get access to the cookbook; ... but it's designed specifically for rv'ers so should have recipes good for vandwellers: http://www.rvcookingshow.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90

 

[Ladybug]

Thank you for the link. I was able to download without signing up for a newsletter.