#vanlife cooking

How do you cook (more than Cup o’ Noodles) when you live in a van?

Let us begin by saying that Googling “camping meals” and related search terms is a waste of time. Because everyone will suggest either a) cooking a grand feast in your full kitchen, freezing it, and reheating at your campsite, or b) making something in a Dutch oven over the fire that takes six hours. Neither of those are practical for van life.

Our first meals started out pretty, well, sad:

Is it cheese…or poo?

For those of you on our email list, you’ve already come to know and loathe this photo. We made it somewhat healthier by adding broccoli, but come on. Now that we’ve been on the road for a few weeks, we’ve figured some things out.

A Typical Breakfast

We usually make breakfast at camp; it’s nice to take your time in the morning rather than rush to leave. When we used to go camping on weekends, we loved making bacon and eggs — they were the perfect accompaniment to fresh air and forest. But we can’t eat that every day. Instead, our typical breakfast looks like this:

Black coffee, hard-boiled eggs with salt and pepper, toast with jam, and fresh fruit

We hard boil the eggs so we don’t have to be too obsessive about ice in the cooler. For the toast, we fry up the bread in the frying pan with some butter (like when you’re making a grilled cheese). And coffee is made by French press, so all we need is boiling water. Simple, filling, and tasty.

A Typical Lunch

We usually eat lunch out. Why? Lunch at restaurants is cheaper than dinner, and trying local food is the hands-down best way to get to know a place.

For instance, Chris found a map of the best BBQ joints in Texas, so we’ve been eating a lot of chopped brisket sandwiches for lunch. But the best one by far was at The Salt Lick outside of Austin:

The sauce was mustard-based. YUM. Thanks for recommending, Ben and Chuck!

When looking for restaurants, we usually go for inexpensive to moderately priced, as in $7-12/person. Looking on Yelp usually helps, as does driving around to see where everyone else is.

A Typical Dinner

Because we’re usually eating big for lunch, we tend to keep dinners simple yet fresh. This has been the hardest to get right: the balance between things that are fresh AND easy. The key is knowing:

You’ll need to stop by the grocery store at least every other day, and
It’s OK to get pre-made things, like pizza crusts or sausages, if you pair them with fresh things.

Some of the meals we’ve enjoyed most so far:

When the weather’s good, a meat and cheese “board” with wine makes for a tasty meal.

Spinach and kale caesar with avocado and pre-cooked (then reheated) jalapeño sausages. Usually we top the sausages with sauteed onions and sweet peppers, but, as you can see, it was raining and we were in a hurry.

Bagged salad is actually a real lifesaver for getting some fresh greens. The all-in-one packs that already include dressing are great because then you don’t end up with extras of everything.

We’ve even made fajitas! There’s lots of chopping involved, but the actual cooking is simple. Don’t forget to buy a spicy chile to add to the meat and veggies, as well as the guacamole. And heating the tortillas in a pan makes a big difference.

Stovetop pizza with pre-made crust, tomato sauce, Italian-blend cheese, sausage, red onion, corn, and tomato. Cook it slowly, and cover it briefly to help melt the cheese.

Don’t Forget a Nightcap

Lastly, there’s nothing better than sitting under the stars with a hot apple cider spiked with bourbon or whiskey. We buy the just-add-water packets and add liquor.

In line at our very first drive-thru liquor store in Louisiana

Our “Kitchen”

To make all of these things, we have a fairly basic kitchen that includes the essentials. Here’s everything we have, along with links to the exact items (or reasonably similar ones) if you want to stock up:

Two-burner camp stove (with propane and lighter)
Small cooler with 12-count egg holder
French press
Saucepan with strainer built into the lid
Frying pan with folding handle
Aluminum mess kit, including:
- Two bowls that double as small pots
- Two small plates
- Two small cups

Two small wooden cutting boards
One good, sharp chopping knife
Two knives, two forks, two spoons, two sporks
Spatula, wooden spoon, rubber spatula
Two insulated travel mugs
Can opener
Corkscrew/bottle opener
Salt, pepper, 21 Seasoning Salute

Hope you all found this useful and inspirational for your camp cooking! To close us out, here are some fun photos from the remainder of our time in Texas and our first day in Louisiana.

Texas State Capitol in Austin

One of Austin’s many, many, many food truck stands — and Chris pretending not to know me as I embarrassingly take a photo of the scene

This is not Texas — it’s New York! I spent a few days there for work and was very happy to come back to…

…the beautiful weather in Austin

Wandering around Zilker Park in Austin

Barton Springs Pool — a pool in the middle of a spring

An old amphitheater in Zilker Park, given back to the spring

A super fun reunion with my friend Courtney from high school who’d just moved to Austin the previous week; Chris and her husband David played golf together too