We don't motor home, but we camp and we go for long weekends in rented cabins etc, bringing food & basic cooking supplies since we never know exactly what the kitchen that is advertised as, "fully equipped" really contains!

One thing I've found helpful is to plan ahead a bit more than you might usually do, even to making up a "menu" for the number of days/meals involved. You don't have to stick to it, but it helps in organizing. For example, if I decide to boil potatoes for mashed with dinner, I can plan to boil a couple of extra to use for home fries or potato salad for one of the next day's meals. If I barbecue some chicken, I can cook a few pieces without the sauce to use for a meal salad.

I know this is stuff we do at home, but when we're not taking our whole pantry & fridge with us, it helps to plan a bit more carefully.

I also always make sure I have canned/dry ingredients for the odd, impromptu meal. Pasta is a great thing for that. A box of dry pasta, a can of clams, anchovies or ham, a jar of olives, roasted red bell pepper, capers or green peppercorns, a can of stock, sun dried tomatoes...etc. Then a meal is there and ready to make if I just don't feel like stopping in town to pick up anything!

Learn to use a pressure cooker. Really. Lots of good food quickly with minimal energy. (Since you're carrying your energy source with you, efficiency is important.) The set at the link is great for confined spaces like motor homes and yachts. The pots can be used as regular pots (stock pot, pasta pot or saute pan) or as a pressure cooker.

Get a book on pressure cooking if you're not convinced; two of the best I've seen are Lorna Sass's "Pressure Perfect" and Vicki Smith's "Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes. I never cooked with a pressure cooker until I was in my fifties, and now I wouldn't consider having a kitchen without one. And in an environment where efficiency of space and energy is important, the pressure cooker shines...use one for a few weeks at home, and I bet you'll get one for the motor home.

Here is a link that might be useful: pressure cooker

I stocked the galley of a small sailboat and found a couple of very useful galley cookbooks on Amazon.

I agree with using a pressure cooker. Many of the recipes in the sailboat cookbooks I found were created for a pressure cooker.

Here is a link that might be useful: Galley cooking.

For a short trip I would plan to use some of your favorite easy meals like chicken and rice cooked fresh together in a skillet, already prepared meatballs for Swedish meatballs over noodles or jarred pasta sauce over spaghetti, stir fried meat and vegetables put together with linguine for Lo Mein or other meals you both enjoy.

A Google search brought up lots of web sites that feature cooking in a RV.

Here is a link that might be useful: RV Cooking

A lot depends on how civilized you're going. Will you have a hook-up? Will you be in the wilderness? Will you be in a town? Are you driving a long way? Do you have a freezer? And if so, will it be on while you're driving?

If the answer to the last couple is no, you can pack your frozen food in a cooler with dry ice, cover the cooler with a pad or blanket, and keep it out of the sun. Your food should hold well. It's not as easy to buy dry ice as it used to be--lots of gas stations used to have it and now it's a specialty item--but it's better than ice because it's colder, and doesn't soak your food. If you don't open it a lot (i.e., once a day), you should make it through your short getaway without having to replace the dry ice. When I was a kid, and there were less options available, we travelled with a month's worth of dinners, both precooked, and cryovac meat, in a cooler. Once in awhile we had to supplement with water ice, and every now and then we'd have to find a butcher who'd put the cooler in his walk-in for a few days, but it was a great way to have truly home cooking without Mom spending her whole vacation slaving over dinner.

Any kind of chicken will freeze well, and can be rewarmed in a dutch oven, or in a skillet with some liquid (sauce), and you can try it in the MW with a small amount of water on the side so it won't dry out.

You can freeze a stew, using stock and no fresh veg., and put the vegetables in when you heat it.

Meatballs (tonight's dinner!) are easy to make in a frying pan. Or freeze them and heat them in sauce.

Pasta, rice, potatoes, and any other starch can be easily made on the stove. You can steam vegetables with a petal steamer, or a bamboo one, as well.

And you can cook an awful lot of what you might make in an oven, in a dutch oven either on the stove or grill. Just don't check too often because that lets out all the steam.

The main issue is having enough moisture in whatever you're reheating, which is why all the recommendations for a sauce.

Legomom, my husband and I have a 5th wheel and one thing a lot of RVers find helpful is a crockpot. If you're traveling any distance the first day out, stick a suitable meal in the crockpot, sit the pot in the RV's sink, plug it in and have dinner ready once you get to your destination and have set up. Also, its great to put your dinner in it in the morning then head out sight seeing or hiking or whatever and dinner is ready by the time you are.

Also, go to RV.net, click on Forums and quite a way down the page is Camp Cooks and Connoisseurs. This will answer any question you may have on cooking, equipment to take and supplies to keep on hand. The rest of the Forums are full of super information that you'll enjoy, too. You should be able to get any question you have concerning RVing answered on this site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Camp Cooks and Connoisseurs

Legomom, first, I'd like to say, "Congratulations!" We have had tow behind campers since 1995, but upgraded to a 30' class A about 3 years ago. It was the best thing we ever did.

That said, anything you cook at home and freeze for leftovers, you can freeze and reheat in the RV. I have the same oven/micro set up you have. The only complaint I have with it (and I love it, cause it gives me more storage space) is that the microwave is unusable when you use the oven. At home, I tend to use both at the same time.

Last time out, I took homemade beef pot pies, made in foil pans from GFS, meatloaf in the same pans, chicken which ended up flattened and breaded in parmeasan cheese and rosemary, then pan fried in a little butter & olive oil. Fresh potatoes, mostly fingerlings from costco, that got sliced in half or quarters and tossed with olive oil and rosemary & roasted in a 400 oven for about 1 hour.

I keep in airtight containers, instant potatoes, minute rice, biscuit mix, pancake mix, ect in the cabinets, and for my spices, I buy the little tiny cans of Tones spices for about $1.50 found at some of the stores around here. It's only about 1 1/2 ozs, but I have yet to use the whole container in a season. I did in the foil pans also, breakfast "bowls" with precooked potatoes, ham or bacon, & scrambled eggs to reheat in the micro for fast breakfast. Or you can make biscuits ahead. I do my bacon in the oven at home in a jelly roll pan at 425° for approx 20 min. until it's just short of being as crisp as we like it, and it finishes crisping when we warm it. Or bulk sausage in the roll, Bob Evens or Jimmy Dean, or whatever you like, in a shallow pan in the oven at about 350-375° until an instant read thermometer reads 160°. It cooks in the log, like a meatloaf, and is easily sliced and warmed to make your breakfast sandwiches. The sausage or bacon warms quickly while you fry the eggs to go with them.

Before you buy a pressure cooker, MEASURE the space you have between your stove top and the range hood. I have very limited space, so, unless the pc is short, I can't use it.

As to the crock pot, unless you run the generator while you are driving down the road, or buy a 12-volt crock pot made for rv's or semi's, you can't cook anything in it while you are driving.

Feel free to email me thru my page here for any questions. I'm sure there is more I can tell you after I get some sleep!

Oh, my pot pie was just left over stew with a piece of....don't hate me!.....store bought pie crust on top!

We also found that if you line the foil pan with parchment paper, whatever you freeze in it, comes out much nicer to reheat.

If you have the room and utensils, Oh, and in my case, the time (DH likes to hit the road for the day then come back and eat soon, forgetting that I need time to cook, even if it's just warming things up!), you can make anything in the motor home that you make at home.

Something else to think about,non cooking related, is if you are going to tow a vehicle behind the rv like we do, it's great to park the rv somewhere in the middle of where you want to sight see, and use the towed to "wagon wheel" out around the rv, going a different direction each day. It saves on gas, too!

Tami

Pulled pork (cook ahead and freeze) for sandwiches
Deli lunch meats, cheeses.
Grill (or bake) some chicken breasts ahead and slice. They can be used on a salad, in a wrap or just as your entree.
Frozen shrimp is a versatile and quick meat too. Again, salads, pasta, appetizer, whatever!
I like my spaghetti mixed with the sauce and don't mind it frozen and reheated, so that works for me.

Based on your menu, if you'll want chopped veggies, do it at home and refrigerate onions, bell peppers, celery, etc.
Pickles are an easy "veggie" for lunches.

Pre-made soups can be frozen and reheated.

Breakfast items? Oatmeal packets (homemade if you like), fresh fruit, muffins, Egg McMuffins made at home, bread pudding, eggs, toast, granola bars.

Cookies or brownies for desserts?

I agree totally with the menu plan and crockpot!

Have fun in your new "home".

Deanna

I actually have this cookbook out from the library - no, its not a joke, Kermit the Frog, grandma and other youtube reaction videos notwithstanding

(anyone with teens might know what I'm talking about - my kids rolled their eyes and groaned when I showed it to them)

'Two Dudes One Pan'

Yup, the cookbook

Anyhoo - lots of good recipes for 'one pan', to conserve on space/work in an RV. Hey at least its not 'one cup' roflmao. Gag.

Tami, I was hoping you'd jump in here, I know you do a LOT of RV cooking.

I've only done tent camping, so my recipes tend to be those over a campfire or in a dutch oven, with a few things made on a portable camping stove. That's why lunch tended to be things like sardines and crackers, LOL.

Annie

Jessy! hahahahah!!!

Thanks so much for all the great ideas. I am trying to menu plan - I think that is key, and not my strong suit.
I am trying to make things that I can freeze. What are the best techniques for that? Tami - did you mean you put parchment paper inside the foil pan and then freeze? Do you leave it in when you reheat, and do you reheat in the microwave or the oven? I have not used the oven yet to cook in, only to microwave.
Thanks for the links too. I am going to try to get those books from the library.
Has anyone had any success with the tinfoil packet cooking?

I like tinfoil or parchment paper for cooking chicken breasts or fish with aromatic vegetables. Season the chicken with salt and pepper first and lay on a bed of sliced zucchini, onion, bell pepper, Italian herbs. For the fish, lay the fish down on a bed of snow peas or sugar snap peas, mushrooms, and chopped green onions, sprinkle some grated fresh ginger and garlic on the fish, then splash on soy sauce. Bake at 400 about 30-35 minutes for the chicken and about 20 minutes for the fish.

I bake a lot so added a big step-stone from HD to the bottom of the oven. Then aluminum foil on the oven rack. Before these changes I was burning the bottom of everything before it cooked through.
Made some great breads this past six months while waiting on house rebuild from fire .

Hi legomom and all - What a terrific site and great RV cooking ideas! Congrats on your new MH...very exciting. My hubby and I have been fulltime RVers since 2000 and we cook all the time.

bcskye has a great idea with the crockpot. These meals are so easy, delicious, and can be really good for you, too.

Tinfoil packet cooking is easy enough. Just think protein (fish and chicken work great), aromatics - like onion, lemon, etc, and a spice or herb like dill or cumin. Just remember to seal the packet tightly so the steam does not escape. And be careful...it billows out when opened.

A pressure cooker is an interesting idea. I'm going to try it. Thanks arley.

Well, happy camping...summer is almost here!

Wendy, I don't remember if I told you in my reply to your email, that I line the foil pan with the parchment. For the breakfast bowls, I laid parchment and all on a plate and heated in the microwave. The meatloaf got dumped on a plate and sliced. I forgot about the parchment when I made the pot pies, so it wasn't even in the pan, but still on the roll! I would have left it in to heat it in the oven, tho. By the way, the pot pie was just left over stew topped with store bought pie crust.

If you want a recipe for hamburger hobo's done in foil packets let me know. They can be done on the grill or in the oven. Bottom has a cabbage leaf topped with burger patty and other stuff, cant remember. Pretty good, too.

Oh, and with that oven/micro combo, get some GOOD oven mits/gloves. I like the ovgloves better than the mits for that one. I'll just use the mitts in the house until the season is over, or break down and buy another pair!

Tracy, Is your oven the convection oven/microwave combo that legomom & I have, or is it a regular oven? If it's the combo, did you put the stone on the turntable, and do you leave it in when you microwave?

Tami

Legomom,

Now that I'm home, in my own chair, I just remembered that you had asked for freezing methods. My own are very old fashioned, so when I joined this forum I asked for some advice about how people go about freezing nowadays. There's some great advice in this thread, from all the wonderful people here.