Food Prep

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by MsNomer

...
When the home-made stuff has run out, I buy a rotisserie chicken. ASAP, sometimes right there in the grocery parking lot when fridge space is tight, I cut up and de-bone the chicken. The meat, in serving-size portions, goes into ziploc bags in the fridge. The packing and bones go in the trash. One clean-up and done for several days.

That's an awesome idea. I have a habit of driving the van up to the g-store and directly packing it with prepared foods from the deli cases, but I hadn't thought of that one. It's a good high protein strategy.

[Reflex439]

I do much the same, the chicken is great for main dish, salads, sandwiches, roll ups, or just snacking. I do save the bones if there is a cold rainy day in the forecast, and I'll make chicken soup and rice. Having the bones simmering on the stove making the broth ads a nice warmth to the RV, and whats not to like about soup on a rainy day

But my typical plan of action is to prepare ahead and have on had supplies that require minimal effort. Camping or traveling, I'd rather not have to think much about preparing food and would rather enjoy the area I'm in or the activities that I traveled there for. I do a lot of premade foods, grilled meat/veggies, sandwiches, easy prep, produce, fruits, smoothies. Anything delicious, fast, and easy cleanup gets my attention.

[Anachr0n]

Originally Posted by Fishalert

Camping is all about relaxing, taking your time and not worrying about it. If you go to the trouble of preparing your meals in advance you are missing out on today. You have to get away from being efficient in the kitchen. Camping is a completely different life style and you shouldn't try to change it. Just try to make the change to a more relaxed state of affairs. If you are trying to be efficient for preparing meals, you are probably still doing as you would do, if you were in the big house.

'Spontaneity is a meticulously prepared art'
-Oscar Wilde -

[MsNomer]

There’s one exception to the made-at-home that I have to be careful about. I don’t have a freezer in the van, so I have to be careful about getting stuff eaten up before it goes bad. This can be inconvenient when I’ve traveled to someplace with great food. For example, when I travel to Cajun country in a few weeks, I’ll make sure the fridge is empty.

[Reflex439]

Lack of freezer space can be a problem. The factory refrigerators lacks severely in usable freezer space. I added a Dometic CFX28 that I can use as a freezer or refrigerator based on my needs. I use it in conjunction with the factory refrigerator. It’s also efficient enought to run off the battery/solar setup without issue. I’m no longer limited with regard to refrig/freezer space. Probably the best mod I’ve done on the Roadtrek.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Reflex439

Lack of freezer space can be a problem. The factory refrigerators lacks severely in usable freezer space. ....

Not all of them. You know the famous line, "You had me at hello"? Well, the Vitrifrigo C115IBD4-F had me at hello. As soon as I saw that freezer, that purchase was a done deal for me (my retrofitting story here).

I bought the wire mesh insert shown in the photo below at Container Store. In the photos, I show it loosely filled with various frozen foods, but I can vacuum-pack sized meals using my Foodsaver and fit them in here like blocks (some blocks shown on the left side of the photo, but not space-optimized). It holds an impressive amount of food, PLUS, when loading and unloading the van, I pull the whole unit out. Typically I keep that thing in our stick-and-brick freezer packed up and ready to be placed in the van on a moment's notice. *HUGE* improvement over my previous logistic. It doesn't get any more efficient than this.

[Anna Sail]

That is certainly a very clever solution, Bravo!

I presume you have something glued on the bottom of your metal tray, perhaps plastic "rails", so it doesn't scrap the protective paint on the aluminum evaporator plate as you slide the tray in and out. Of course, such a scrap can be easily repaired with a dab of white epoxy paint when the system is off.

[InterBlog]

I've been using it for the better part of a year and haven't noticed any scraping. The fit is very tight, and I've considered putting down a piece of Teflon baking paper to help it slide in and out of there.