I know I'm strange, but when doing manual labor in hot weather the last thing I want for lunch is hot chili, soup or the like! LOL What's popular around here are the small coolers, little six pack size, to use as a lunch box. Freeze water bottles to keep things chilled or get blue ice packs. I always liked meatloaf, turkey, roast beef, chicken sandwiches, with or without cheese, on a nice coarse dark wheat bread. Cold chicken works great too, or turkey or ham chunks. Pasta salads, other salads that can handle some time, green salad, coleslaw and the like. A meat-laden chef's salad with lots of cheese can be very good too. Meatball sandwich and a container of marinara to pour on it would be good although meatloaf might be easier to make and eat both. Without knowing more about the person it's tough to suggest things. Some like the foo-foo type spread it on a cracker things. I never did. That's a snack, when I want lunch, I want something to sink my teeth into. I even like cold hamburger patties with or without bread/bun. I second the cold/room temp pizza. I like the macaroni/beef hotdish cold too. One thing, if a sandwich is going to have tomato, lettuce and stuff on it, I'd sometimes put that and condiments separate especially if using a soft white bread. If bread gets too wet, it gets gross like paste. I tend to use Ranch dressing on a sandwich rather than mayo or the dreaded "MW". A small bottle transports well and add it when you're ready to eat is my preference. Either fresh fruit or the little containers of applesauce, diced fruit or the like are often welcome. I even like *good* quality hot dogs/sausage to eat as a beef stick. Cheaper than the beef sticks out there and often better. Around here is a brand called Ambassador and their old fashioned, coarse ground dogs are great hot or cold. Salami, cheese, crackers or variations.

Well, we had a good week. Let's see, what about the eating part . . . we had ginger-garlic stirfry chicken w/ candied walnuts, classic hot and sour soup, abondigas (Mexican meatball) soup, pesto both normal/basil and tomato/trapanese, seared salmon with sweet sauce that I'd call ''semi-sashimi'', broiled beef short ribs w/ hoisin/BBQ sauce, miso soup, slow-cooked beef brisket, tomatoes baked and broiled w/ cheese and mayo, some excellent couscous in a great chicken broth, lots of tangy salads, orange cake, peach cobbler, spicy marinated and grilled steaks which put me in a food coma, two chicken and chorizo paellas which worked out even though we used long-grain rice, and some other stuff that I forget. Poor dishwasher worked overtime. Even though we dined like, well, oinkers, the total food and wine bill for the whole week was probably the equivalent of a couple of group dinners out. Doing your own cooking just beats restaurants all day long. Took a five hour kayak trip, mis-timed the wind (lake wind advisories the last couple of days) and paddled our arms off to get home before the whitecaps and waves got too bad. Some mild sunburns. A cigar and scotch night, which basically means me and W_____ being banished to chairs way far downwind, out where the coyotes prowl. Lots of ''stitch and b*tch'' circles, there was quite an obsessive knitting group - which is why we resorted to the cigars in the first place. Fixed some plumbing leaks - it is a very old cabin, and something always has to be mended. Some serious napping. Got caught up on our friend's lives, mid-life menopauses, growing kids, and how everyone is coping w/ the current economy - lots of ''re-inventing oneself'', ''consulting'' and ''living more simply'' going on, but things are okay. The BP oil spill cleanup looks to be a surprise positive for one guy's research funding, glad someone I know is benefiting from that. 13 y/o R_____ has become quite the jazz pianist. 11 y/o C____ does a mean Michael Jackson dance routine. Found a quirkly old-time gun and blade store that had a particular discontinued Forschner Chinese vegetable cleaver that I've been looking for. Then a 12 hour drive back to Portland, kayaks on the roof killing the fuel economy, and back to work today. The best thing is that we are all getting together in a month to rebuild a rotten deck at another cabin. And there's an excellent little oyster farm just five miles down the road . . .

Surfer, I've lived in Tornado Alley most of my life. The bomb shelter is the first place everyone should go in a tornado. I remember growing up, I went to a very old school that was built in the early 1900's. The basement had been turned into a fall-out shelter in the '50's, and if there was ever threat of tornadoes, the entire school would end up in the basement. Underground is best, and like TS says, away from all glass. The main bathroom in my house wouldn't be a good choice, (even when there was a tub) because there's a window nearby. We do, however, have a very small bathroom in the middle of the house with no windows, and if I didn't have time to make it to the basement, that's where I would go. If you're at home, pick a closet on an interior wall, closest to the middle of your home. You want to be surrounded by walls and no windows, on a ground floor if there's no basement. My mom would always stuff that particular closet with her extra pillows and bedding for some extra cushion around her. She was horribly afraid of tornadoes, yet lived in a house without a basement. It certainly kept that closet clutter to a bare minimum! Can you prepare for a tornado? Not really, regarding supplies. The best thing you can do is prepare a place to go, or know where the basements are around you. If you need to head there, grab a cell phone and hunker down. I think you were extremely lucky to have survived being picked up in your car. F5 tornadoes like the one in Greensburg, KS are rare, but being prepared and going underground is the only thing that kept that town alive.

We have a 30' class A RV. With your space constrictions (we used to tent camp with everything in totes and coolers), I would say 1 skillet, 1 sauce pan, and a dutch oven with a lid. Lids for them all if possible. 1 flipper, 1 spatula/scraper, 1 slotted spoon, 1 solid bowl spoon. Collapsable bowls and collander. Pot holders/mits. Matches. Salt, pepper, paprika, italian seasoning, chili powder, what ever seasonings you would usually use at home. Tones makes tiny containers with a large selection of spices/seasonings for around $1, that are about the size of Annie's film cans. Portable gas grill. Dish soap, dish towels, paper towels. A friend gave me the idea of using a paper towel holder bungie corded to the awning post to have them handy outside when cooking/eating. Table ware can be stored in small plastic totes. Dish pan. That tiny sink will be a pain in the you know what to do dishes in, so take a dish pan and do them outside when possible. As to packaged food. Check the book sites for a book called Make-A-Mix. There is a volume two, I think. I have the first one. That is my where my sloppy joe recipe came from. Tastes pretty much like manwich. I leave out the green peppers and garlic, but I don't like green peppers and am allergic to the garlic. Still really good. I thing Grainlady mentioned the make a mix books in another thread. Many good recipes for mixes in there. You can use very small plastic zip bags that I find in the jewelry dept of the craft stores to store the seasoning mixes like the sloppy joe mixes in, writing the date made and any needed instructions in marker on the bag. Store a bunch of the small bags in a larger one. Tea bags, coffee, hot chocolate mixes (can find one in the make a mix book, but I have a better one. If you want it, I'll look it up and post it). A camp coffee pot works for boiling water for tea, hot chocolate, coffee, and heating water for dishes. The camp percolater, figure out how many cups it makes, add the amt of coffee you like for that amount of water, and after it starts to perk, time it for 8 minutes. If you want it stronger, go 9, no more than 10 minutes or it gets bitter. And it takes up less space than a counter top coffee maker. We use more paper plates and plastic silver ware than use regular, but your choice. Cereal bowls. Sugar, flour, cornmeal, all in small amts, in airtight containers. If it's airtight, you can leave it there all season, same with the spices. I don't even take the jars of flour and stuff like that out in the winter. Instant rice. dcarch, we have the E2000 generator, and it weighs lots more than the one you have listed. It is very quiet, tho. It would store great on the grate in the hitch, too! So would a portable gas grill. If you want the hot chocolate recipe, and don't get a reply here in this post, email me thru my page, incase I forget to check the thread! I'm getting forgetful! Tami