Have you considered a rice cooker? Stuff cooked in it is steamed rather than fried, and you can control the amount of salt.

I don't have this book, but it was highly recommended to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: rice cooker cookbook

I love, love, love freeze-dried veggies and fruit when it comes to cooking while traveling. I just reordered a pail of fruit and a pail of vegetables while they were on sale in December. The pouches are a great size for a traveling couple, and typically hold 2 very generous servings.

The pails of freeze-dried food are from Augason Farms - but I order them from Sam's Club and save a little money + free delivery :-). There are 222 servings of vegetables and 256 servings of fruit (2-servings per resealable pouch) in each pail and each one weighs under 5-pounds.

Fruit: sliced strawberries, sliced peaches, whole raspberries, whole blueberries, sliced bananas and sliced apples.

Vegetables: diced potatoes, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, corn and green beans.

And I'd second arley's suggestion for a rice cooker. I have the book "The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. It's chock full of great recipes. Be sure to get the revised and updated copy because it has over 50 new recipes.

-Grainlady

If I'm going to be on the road, driving for a while, I sometimes bring my portable induction "burner" and a small saucepan and small cast iron skillet and a few utensils. I have a picnic pack with dishes, etc, ready to go, as well as a basket of the essentials. I've used them in motels as well as poorly stocked cabins.

I tire pretty quickly of fast food and microwaved frozen meals, and I can't afford to eat in restaurants too often.

You can get those restaurant packs of condiments at Sam's Club, etc, but you'll get a lot of each. I think grocery stores carry the individual packs, especially salad dressings, and you don't have to refrigerate them or mustard. (I much prefer mustard to mayo or ketchup)

Happy trails

Here is a link that might be useful: Then there's this!

Salads. Easy to prepare, flexible enough to use what looks good in the local markets, add protein (chopped ham, canned tuna or salmon or sardines, hard boiled eggs) to make a complete meal (think salade nicoise). Bring a secure, leakproof container to hold oil and vinegar; measure out enough dressing base for each salad and add flavors to suit that salad (citrus juice, balsamic, garlic and shallots, etc). Super healthy, you'll end the vacation slimmer than you started.

Stirfries. Make them in your electric frypan, combine with rice in a small cooker. You'll need to carry small bottles of oil, soy sauce, salt/pepper and spices. Can be made quickly, bring home the veg and protein, start the rice, the stirfry will be done before the rice is.

And, of course, homemade sandwiches, easy on the bread, heavy on the yummy stuff.

There's more but I assume we're only talking about a week or two of motel cuisine? That should be enough variety, for me anyway.

You would be wise to check with the motels you are planning on staying in to see if they allow this degree of cooking. The "stink" of some cooking can be very hard to get out of bedspreads and curtains, and affect the room's future rentability.

Plus without a vent hood and any sort of fire suppression system, you are probably violating any number of local fire statues.

Steve

Probably, but I've always carried an electric frying pan with me when travelling. I've made everything from chili to eggs to tacos, Spanish rice, grilled cheese, even toast. I figure if they have a coffee pot and a microwave and a refrigerator in so many rooms, they know people are going to cook and eat there.

I do try to avoid things like fish, cabbage, exceptionally stiny things. Well, except one time in Florida we stopped and got crab claws and fresh oranges. By the time we had eaten them in the room (no cooking required) the place smelled like a fishmonger next to an orange grove. We had to set the garbage can outside the door because of the smell from the crab shells, which we hadn't thought of before. We left a big tip for the maid service that time.

Annie

It's against the rules most likely, but if you use good sense and don't set the drapes on fire or cook curry, what's the harm.

I still have the large electric frying pans that we used when we traveled with our girls ball team, we usually cooked in the hotel rooms for them and their parents. We would try to get a balcony room and carried an extension cord so we could cook on the balcony. One time we blew out the circuit breakers for the whole floor. We would use grills for outdoor cooking then cook sides in the room/balcony. Yup, did a lot of motel cooking over the years. I'll have to think back to some of the methods we used.

How about a small toaster oven? I got one at the Goodwill Store for $15. Of course you have to also carry cookware.

Pasta and "raw" sauces - diced tomatoes, olives, a jar of anchovies, radishes, herbs, lots of healthy things!

I've never been in a position to want to cook in a hotel room, so didn't think of the mess and smell it could cause. :p

For healthy and easy, my first thought was lemon-pepper chicken in the skillet made w/ boneless/skinless breasts, optionally pounded thin. Use the microwave to "bake" a potato and steam some broccoli to go with it. :)

When we traveled with the electric fry pan in summer '12, we only saw two or three motels (in 5 weeks of actual travel) that said "no cooking in the room other than coffee/tea". At those, we were careful and went out. Since I'm allergic to fish, we didn't cook fish in any motel. For that trip, cooking in the motel was reserved for places where we looked around and didn't see a lot of choice. ("What? Denny's AGAIN?!") I cooked hot dogs (shouldn't eat those any more), Hamburger Helper (not too bad), Chicken Helper (ditto), grilled cheese sandwiches. The problem with the latter was having leftover bread and cheese to preserve and then eat up quickly. Still, we figured if a loaf of bread went moldy, it was still cheaper than the meals we would have had to buy in the restaurant.

I hadn't thought of freeze-dried foods. Goodness knows we have a few left from years back when we camped -- and they don't expire, do they? They're Mountain House.

I love the idea of stir-fry, but then it means carrying something else to make the rice. Hubby wants to make this a "one appliance" thing.

I also love the idea of the lemon-pepper chicken. I can probably do that with dark meat for hubby, and the chicken breasts for me, provided I can find a small mixed package.

When we travel these days, we're usually on the road for 3 to 4 weeks, stopping for a few days here and there to sightsee, and we stay with family or friends for a week or a few days in between. To me, restaurants of any kind get old, even the convenience continental breakfasts done by many hotels these days. We do love going into a local restaurant and getting different fare than the chain restaurants, but I won't have the slightest idea on calories, fat and sodium when we do that.

A road trip forum gave me a link to a place that sells mini-everything for traveling - minimus.biz. You can buy individual salad dressings, or by the case. I am not going to order yet -- our city is supposed to get a Smart & Final within the next few months, the sign went up on the property about 2 days ago (so I'm excited).

Keep the ideas coming, please!

Donna

Part of the fun of traveling, in my mind, is experiencing the local culture and flavors through the local cuisine, in the local restaurants, not "Denny's again". Even when my family was younger and we took road trips we ate a local restaurants, not 5 stars, but always good. Not much of a vacation for mom if she has to do all the cooking and cleaning up, same as at home, only in much more primitive conditions.

Steve

Steve, you are right, local culture and flavors are wonderful when traveling. Some of the great places we've eaten:

Shad's Catfish Hole - Sallisaw, OK - hubby LOVED and would love to figure out a way to go through Sallisaw again just so we can eat there.

Lobster in Maine - another favorite of hubby's - in summer '12 we ate out for all meals when in Maine.

BBQ in Missouri - can't remember the place we went but it was great.

Where we felt the need to "eat in":

Van Horn, TX - because Denny's, fast food, and Mexican food were our choices and we didn't feel like any of those. And the grocery store was right next to our motel.

Myrtle Beach, SC - because our motel cost us a lot more than we expected and the grocery store was next door again

Johnstown, NY - because nothing looked appetizing at the time

Moab, UT - we brought frozen meals back for dinner after a particularly expensive (and not very tasty) local lunch. The night before, we'd cooked in when we got there because we felt like it.

There were other times, but these were the memorable places. As long as I'm not cooking EVERY night, I look on cooking in a motel as a challenge. Doing the dishes can be, as well.

Donna

We did our own cooking when we travelled because otherwise we couldn't have afforded to go at all. I had a full sized conversion van with a back seat that folded into a bed, so in a pinch I could stay at a campground. The largest expense of our vacations was always the food, so if we could get by with cold cereal, muffins, etc. for breakfast and made supper at the motel, we could usually afford to buy lunch somewhere, lunch specials were always the cheapest. One of the best lunches I've had while travelling was in Wisconsin at a small diner, got a grilled cheese sandwich on homemade bread with good cheese for $1.25. It was so good we got some to go and reheated them that night at the motel in our frying pan!

Donna, many places now sell pre-cooked rice, either frozen or in those shelf stable packages, so you wouldn't actually have to cook rice if you find some of those.

Annie

What about those pouches or ready cooked rice for stir fries? Then you only need one pan. Just cook up your veggies and seasoning, add the rice and soy sauce.

Looking at the 2011 and 2012 vacations we took, the motels and food were the bigger expense over fuel. Sometimes we ate cheap and had a more expensive motel. Other times, vice versa. But on both trips, eating out just got old. Period. On the 2011 trip, for our final stop, we ran to a grocery store and picked up salads. We were in Albuquerque at that time, and had gone out to dinner with a friend the night before. That's where we decided that taking an electric fry pan on a trip might be a great thing.

I didn't know about pre-cooked rice, though I shouldn't be too surprised. I'll have to check our local stores and see if they carry those, so I will know what they look like. I will have to learn how to halve my current stir fry recipes, as I always make enough to have leftovers. That's a good thing at home -- I take them to work with me the next day or two -- but when on the road, I'd have to bring a storage plastic or two and then be prepared to keep them in the cooler.

We carried two coolers with us in 2012. We are going to try to keep it to 1 cooler this coming trip, as ice cost us $55 over the 6 week trip. (Buying blocks of ice was almost unheard of. Most truck stops and convenience stores look at you like you're nuts! A bag of cubes lasted us a day -- maybe -- and cost us anywhere from $1 - 2 per bag.)

Donna

Look here

Here is a link that might be useful: Rice

Do you like eggplant parmesan? It can be made in the skillet -- I have an old recipe if you can't find one to your liking on-line. I don't want the breading so omit it whenever I make it. :)

Re rice, you could easily make various "rice casseroles" and things like spanish rice and rice pilaf in the skillet. Saute the rice w/ things like onion, celery, etc., then add the required liquid and cover/simmer til done.

I'm currently using my elec. skillet to make a sort of rice pilaf w/ some leftover turkey and will probably add broccoli. :o)

I don't know why it escaped me, but the skillet would be perfect for making sauerkraut, potatoes, and either pork chops or kielbasa! That's best when all done in the same pan. I think you could also use a skillet and produce a decent "ham & scalloped potatoes".

This post was edited by party_music50 on Mon, Jan 6, 14 at 13:50

I am reviving this old thread - I had no idea it was still around! On our trip this past summer, we ran into quite a few places that had "no cooking in the room" signs. Several others had BBQ grills outside, and the only thing you had to do to use one was get the key to unlock the padlock. Nice feature!

One place we stayed had a kitchenette (in Three Forks, MT, in the middle of small-town-MT) and we took full advantage of it. The kitchenette was rare in that it had a real oven in it, but we had to use the toaster in the dressing room since there were no outlets near the kitchen counter or table! There was a grocery store and a dollar store within walking distance of this little motel, so we picked up enough things for two dinner meals and a full breakfast. That's when we learned about the toaster placement.

New health issue is going to make it imperative to cook in the room from now on: diabetes diagnosis. So we're looking into the possibility now of using those extended stay places whenever we can -- Extended Stay America, Candlewood Suites, or other places with a kitchenette. At least they won't have a sign that says "no cooking" when there's a stove-top, full refrigerator, microwave, etc. If anyone can tell me what types of cooking things I should always still carry of my own for these places?

Donna

I'd bring an electric frypan and utensils too. Considering the variety of people staying in these places there's NO WAY I'd use their provided stuff. I shudder thinking about it. And lots of foil if you need to use the oven.

I wouldn't hesitate to use provided utensils as long as I had dish soap to wash them first. I do always carry a knife and cutting board and some leftover containers, which are usually in short supply and you can then take them with you. I won't heat in plastic in a microwave, or on plates I'm unsure of lead content, so I sometimes carry a 2 c pyrex measuring cup. I can heat water in it, or leftovers in a pinch.

In looking at the information on the ESA and Candlewood websites, neither place offers a full range that includes an oven. Good point about the can opener and some of the other things. We had been wondering if we should just continue to haul our "purple tub" with our kitchen things in it. The only thing we might be able to leave in the truck would be the dish-tub! We are thinking we should add either a Crock-Pot or a rice cooker to the truck. We have both at home, so would not have to purchase one.

Donna

I agree that you need a can opener and a decent knife, probably a spatula/turner and maybe a large spoon. Other than that, I'd make sure I had dish soap to wash dishes. With your electric skillet you probably don't even need a frying pan, although the cooking utensils I've encountered in the "kitchenettes" were uniformly abysmal. If you have one, instead of a Crock Pot, consider taking along a small Nesco Roaster. Mine is a 6 quart and it cost less than $50. It can be turned very low and used as a slow cooker, or turned up and used to make pulled pork, a pot roast, roast chicken, a mess of beans, lots of things. You can also use it for baking, it makes outstanding baked potatoes and sweet potatoes, stuffed acorn squash halves with sausage, even muffins. Just pre-heat, put the pan on the rack, replace the lid and bake it. Things don't brown as much as a regular oven, but it works just fine.

With your diabetes diagnosis, I know you'll have to be even more careful. Many grocery stores now have salad bars where you can buy prepared vegetables like sliced peppers or broccoli florets, and some also have bags of things like butternut squash cubes and vegetable mixtures. Add a chicken breast and you could make a fast stir fry with some of that pre-made brown rice. Produce is often available by the piece instead of by packages, so you could pick up a squash or a couple of sweet potatoes, and salad comes in a bag now and even has the dressing with it sometimes. Hash is easy in an electric skillet too, a small bag of frozen hash brown cubes with onions added, some cooked deli type meat (lots of low salt options available now), cook and stir until done. Add some eggs and you have breakfast without the need for bread. Even better, bake a couple extra potatoes the night before and use those!

Travelling with Dad was interesting as he was diabetic and had to eat regularly, but eventually we caught on, so it's doable. It takes more thought, but it'll all fall into place, I know.

Good luck, travel safely and have fun!

Annie