Campervan Meals

Eating is obviously an important part of camping (it is for us anyway), but you are quite limited in terms of ingredients, equipment and space, even in a campervan (maybe not so in a larger motorhome?!)

What are peoples classic campervan meals?

Are you quite creative and cook from scratch or do you just prefer to cook from a tin (or a box if you have an oven or microwave)?



Cheers,

Steven

Good post different, not an often discussed topic. We tend to vary things.

- Management may prepare a meal, take it along and cook in the van,
- Stir fries (no fat used)are another option as these can sometimes be prepped.
- Canned meals are of course and option along with canned veg. (packet meals included in this section)
- One thing I do miss since I was put on a diet (this will make bulldog01 laugh) is Caravan Pie ( I thought it was just us called them this but many
campers this expression for Fray Bentos pies )
- Buy a carry out
- Eat Out
- Roast Dinners have been known

I know many are not as blessed with storage space for veg etc so quite a bit of thought is required, for longer trips. I guess bacon,sausage, eggs etc may figure along with cans as it did in our teenage camping years. Cant remember eating anything else then other than that bought at chippys'

Did you see the TV Prog on the guys that toured Scotland in a VW Camper and the meals they managed to scrounge and cook as they went round

Hi
Yes an interesting topic.
We tend to use a lot of pasta with jars of assorted sauces and any type of meat that can easily be cut up and fried to mix with the pasta. ie; chicken breast, sausages.
Just need one (standard kit) largish lidded casserole dish and a frying pan. makes for less washing up and we love pasta (which helps)!
Plattypus

Hi All.
A little of topic but to inform any of you with new vans or pristine condition older vans not to make the mistake I made. I used a large size frying pan logic being all in one pan on one gas ring. Well the heat under the pan spreads to the sides and burns the fascia panel that fits to the hob around the knobs. Spinflo do replacements but it cost me £20 inc vat and postage to get a new one.
Hope this helps.

Whisky.

I have to say that we eat very much as we do at home. Carol cooks virtually anything we have at home but may adapt it to be able to cook on 2 rings, grill and oven. We don't have or want a microwave in a MH.
So we have anything from steak and chips (but we use those small cubes of potato that you do in the oven like oven chips, or wedges) with salad or veg, sausage and mash, chicken breasts, spag bol (although if we have one in the freezer at home we will take that and just cook the pasta, pizza, burgers, and the compulsary full english beakfast.
We use a set of steamer pans so that we still have one ring on the hob free for the frying pan or griddle. We found a smallish set of steamer pans that fit in the bottom cupboard by the gas taps, those with a symphony or similar will know where I mean and we also found a small cast iron griddle pan with folding handle that fits with the other pans in the cupboard under the oven.
I'm sure that if we did not have an oven then we would be limited in our choice of meals, but luckily Carol does like to cook.

All very interesting, I have camped (in a tent) for years and but not long had my campervan or slept away in it for any length of time.

I am very fond of Asian/Mexican/Indian food (its about all I eat), so used to take select pre-made spice mixes and pastes with me to make curries. I used to buy ready made onion curry bases in a jar, all I then needed was a tin of toms and my curry mixes and a had a curry (with veg/meat/fish added obviously).

One of my mates used to make his own Naan bread mix (from scratch) and cook it on his camper grill!

One of my faves was chilli with nachos, sour cream and guacamole, I would make the chilli from scratch (with veg and beans, don't like minced beef) - everything else was bought.

My only worry about my fondness for spicy food is how it will make my campervan interior smell?! Never really a problem when I was cooking outisde the tent on my camping stove .....

Hi Neldadog.

Have a look at Mikes thread in the Technical Chat Section. Listed as Exterior gas point yes or no. Some good info and ideas there. re cooking smells etc.
Whisky.

One of the meals that I will often have is what I call a tuppenny all in. This consists of half a tin of M&S stewing steak with tinned potatoes,tinned carrots and tinned peas all heated up in the same single saucepan. Simple and easy for the cook to make [not me] but unfortunately she will not eat this herself so she has make something different to eat.
We usually take away a few tins of each when we go away.
squip

Free food!
Like the idea for tenderizing steak though.

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Free food!
Like the idea for tenderizing steak though

Far out!

Wouldn't the food smell/taste of petrol fumes?

My chef cooks a double size portion of an all in casserole using chicken,beef or pork.half we have the night before we depart and the other half we eat the first evening we are away.Lidl's do two really good goulash meals in tins(beef and pork)which we alwaya carry as a emergency meal if we cannot shop for fresh produce.We tend to have lots of meals with rice when away as it takes up little space and cuts down on our potato consumption.

Groper

dogseal wrote:Free food!
Like the idea for tenderizing steak though.

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i saw him at a vw show once in february walkin round bare footed in the snow

Looks like I need to be a bit adventurous - I seem to have salads! Ham at that. Occasionally I get the Barby out and cook barby meat (burgers, pork etc) but nothing as good as those mentioned above. I'm afraid my camper will smell of stale smells if I cook on it! I know thats what the cooker is there for, perhaps I will try some of those ideas above.

Waves117

Waves117 wrote:I'm afraid my camper will smell of stale smells if I cook on it! I know thats what the cooker is there for, perhaps I will try some of those ideas above.

Waves117

I reckon if there is a bit of a breeze up and you have all the windows and doors open the smell probably wouldn't linger too much ............. I might try that and do a kipper curry!