RV meal planning and cooking
Enjoy hassle-free travel cooking! Plan ahead for healthy, easy-to-make meals on the go.
Meal planning and cooking while travelling need not be daunting – some good preparation and planning will ensure you can whip up easy, healthy and inexpensive meals on the road.
Any meal that you don’t have to prepare yourself is a good meal. That’s one of my favourite sayings. Like many, I find it exhausting to come up with easy but tasty meals that everyone in the family will enjoy, night after night.
When travelling in a caravan, camper or motorhome, there are a few things to consider in order to make sure everyone gets fed at the end of a long day of touring and activities.
Planning is the key. Here’s a few things to think of before you leave home:
How many people do you have to feed?
The number of people you have to feed will dictate the amount of food you need to take with you or buy along the way. Are there any special dietary requirements that you will need to consider? If you’re travelling in remote areas, it might not be easy to run into the supermarket to pick up some tofu or gluten-free pasta.
How long will you be gone?
If you’re heading off on a short trip for school holidays or the like, it will be easy to take a lot of supplies with you, as well as factoring in a couple of eating out nights at local pubs or restaurants. If you are heading off for months, or longer, you will need to regularly stock up on fresh food when you can.
How much storage do you have?
How much food you take will depend on the available storage in your rig. I try to take the basic staples with me – tins of corn, beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, beetroot and pineapple, jars of pasta sauce canned food, packets, sugar, flour, condiments and the like. I’ll then buy fresh meat and vegetables when I need them.
Where are you travelling?
Major cities and regional centres, where there is a choice of supermarkets, butchers and grocery stores are the best places to stock up on supplies. The further away you get from major centres, the less likely you are to have a choice. Most small country towns will have one supermarket, if that. In really remote areas such as the Nullarbor Plain or Cape York where there are vast distances between towns, often it will just be a roadhouse where you can pick up some basic supplies. And the choice will be very limited.
The cost of food will also increase once you’re in rural or remote regions, so be prepared to pay more for the basics than you do at home. Take advantage of farm gates stalls and farmer’s markets where you will often get fresh local produce at affordable prices.
What sort of climate will be you travelling in?
Keeping fruit and vegetables fresh in warm humid climates is difficult, even if you do have a fridge. Salad vegetables such as lettuce and tomatoes will go off very quickly. Think outside the square with your dinner choices. Vegetables such as onion, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, broccolini and so on will grill very nicely on the barbecue and will keep much longer than a lettuce.
Will you have a fridge or freezer?
Some form of refrigeration is essential to keep food fresh. Whether it’s a big fridge/freezer combination in your caravans, a smaller slide out fridge or an Esky with ice you will need something to keep the basics cold. The size of your fridge will also dictate how much food you can take with you. If you are lucky enough to have a big freezer, precook and freeze meals such as curries and Bolognese sauce for a quick and easy dinner at the end of the day. Vacuum seal your meat – it will almost double its fridge life. Packets of frozen vegies are great to have on hand.
Minced beef is very versatile, and I reckon it’s underrated. Buy a few kilos of the best you can afford when you’re next at the butcher or supermarket. Set aside some time to do a big cook up and you can make it go a long way, especially when you’re out on the road travelling.
What equipment do you have to cook with?
There are many ways to cook when camping and this will mostly be dictated by the what’s available in your rig and the power sources available to you. Most caravans will have an external gas barbecue and internal gas hotplates; most campers and hybrids will have an outdoor kitchen with gas hotplates; more rigs these days come with induction hotplates though these will often need access to 240V power so are better suited to camps where you can connect to mains power. Microwaves are handy but also require access to 240V power.
Campfire cooking over hot coals is the most basic form of cooking and, some would say, the simplest and tastiest.
Washing up
At home, with a dishwasher at our convenience, we often don’t think twice about using multiple pots and pans to cook an evening meal. But when you’re on the road and your dishwashing options are restricted, you may want to think about more one-pot dinners or meals that can be cooked solely on the barbecue or in the camp oven. Will you have access to a camp kitchen with hot water? Do you have hot water available in your van or camper? Or will you rely on boiling the kettle to get the dishes clean? Think ahead and try to keep your dishwashing to a minimum.
Easy recipes
Here are some of my tried-and-true recipes that I use on the road, and at home as well. They are all very easy, most use only one pot or bowl, are pretty economical to whip up and – most importantly – taste good too.
1. Pasta Bolognese
Bolognese sauce is a no brainer in most households and with a few basic ingredients you can turn it into a host of different meals that the whole family will enjoy – and stretch your dollar further.
Use your go-to recipe and cook a big batch long and slow so it’s full of flavour. I use store bought jars of pasta sauce to add to my browned mince and add some onion, garlic, a bit of red wine, some seasoning and Italian herbs.
You can cook this in your van on the cooktop – I use our induction cooktop outside – or the camp kitchen. Even a cast iron pot on the fire so long as it’s not too hot. Serve with your favourite pasta and some grated parmesan.
2. Baked jacket potatoes
As it is, without any adjustments, you can use this base Bolognese sauce to pop on top of some potatoes baked in their jackets in foil in the open fire or the Weber with lashings of butter, sour cream, and grated cheese and chopped spring onions.
3. Chilli con carne
For another easy meal add some chilli flakes, some ground cumin and coriander and a tin of red kidney beans (adjust seasonings and spices to suit your own tastes) to your Bolognese sauce and you have instant chilli con carne.
Serve this in a bowl with toppings/sides of grated cheese, sour cream, mashed avocado, a tin of corn kernels, or black beans, perhaps some chopped tomatoes, and some coriander sprigs. Use corn chips as utensils to scoop up the Mexican deliciousness and pop it all in your mouth. The kids will love these burrito bowls. You could substitute corn chips for taco shells or wraps and make burritos.
4. Shepherd’s Pie
Your big batch of meat sauce might be getting a bit low at this stage so add some peas, corn, diced carrot (you can buy frozen bags containing all three) or whatever other vegies you like and place it in a casserole dish or individual ramekins or other suitable pot. Cook and mash some spuds to spread on top and you have Shepherd’s Pie. Meal four down. You might need an oven to heat these through and get the top of the potato nice and brown and crunchy – whether that’s your van, the camp kitchen at the caravan park or even your Weber/Ziggy. Or if your meat and potatoes are already hot, just pop it under the griller to get the top browned.
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