We get questions about how we cook/eat in the camper a decent amount so without further ado…. let me tell you about it!
I’ve always been the gal that buy 5 pounds of hamburger cooks it all at once and then divides it out for future meals. That browned hamburger then turns into: tacos (which those left overs can turn into nachos, chili, quesadillas and taco soup), sloppy joes, spaghetti (which that left over sauce turns into bagel pizzas, homemade pizza, and lasagna), hamburger pie, goulash, Mongolia beef and noodles, sukiyaki, Asian lettuce wraps….you know stuff that you use hamburger in. After I’ve cooked the 5 lbs. of hamburger we use it for that one meal and then freeze the rest into meal size portions that I can turn into any of the above without having to start from ground zero–this also helps with limiting my onion cutting to once a week or so 😜. The base has been built and then it is just easier to add to it. (I do the same with ground sausage and turn into- biscuits and gravy (that left over gravy can turn into breakfast pizza), biscuits and gravy casserole, zuppa soup, sausage babies, breakfast burritos and or skillets…etc).
We do the same with chicken breast. I buy a large quantity I put x amount into the crock pot and shredded it. And then I cut up the rest of the chicken so its ready for meals. Shredded chicken turns into: BBQ chicken sliders, chicken mango wraps, chicken salad sandwiches, alfredo, white chicken chili, chicken tortilla soup, chicken fried rice, buffalo chicken dip, coconut chicken curry…. stuff like that. And then the cut up chicken is something that has to be cooked and made into a meal… often times- chicken fajitas, chicken veggie skillet, chicken marsala, chicken rice casserole, chicken parmesan, good ole fried chicken….you know just meals with chicken.
When I’m making a meal say like pork chops… and I have to cook the meat…..I typically cook veggies/sides one two ways 1) right in with the meat….turning it into a skillet, we eat it that way or in a tortilla as a wrap or 2) roast all the veggies in the oven. When we eat pork chops or steak etc then diced sweet potatoes, carrots and broccoli all go into a 9×13 pan in the oven while and cook them selves while I cook the meat.
This has pretty much always been the way I’ve cooked. When I started buying meat it is obviously cheaper buying in larger quantities. And I think when I worked nights and was cooking before work….I wasn’t trying to be fancy, I was trying to be efficient with my time and healthy as I could. It has streamlined a bit in the camper because we don’t… ummm have a deep freeze. Some places we’ve lived 30ish minutes from a grocery store, so we started making weekly meal plans at our first place in North Carolina and have continued to do so. Then it’s a lot easier to make sure 1) you have what you need and 2) you can make spaghetti on Monday and turn that left over sauce into lasagna on Friday and its really easy.
Some camper folks say they can not get their oven to bake right and they actually use it for storage. Thankfully that hasn’t been the case for us. We use it all the time just like a normal oven. We bake cookies and cakes, fresh bread and money bread, we roast our veggies and can cook a frozen pizza all in the oven. We also use the crock pot for you know crock pot-y things….regular roast, Mississippi roast, soups etc. We have a griddle and make pancakes and French toast. We cook bacon. We eat different types of fish……and I don’t know why but my brain pairs fish with seasoned rice so you better believe earlier in the week we made rice for x meal so that all I have to do is get the left over rice and season it and put in the pan with the fish when it’s done cooking and we are ready to eat.
So when I cook rarely am I “cooking” 3 or 4 things at one time and using multiple pots and pans at once. I’d say most times there are 1-2 things being cooked on the stove top and maybe something in the oven. Cooking in a camper really doesn’t feel very different than cooking in a house to us.
Hope that was insightful, if you have more questions just let me know and if you have some favorite meal ideas we are always open to try new things!
