by Russ and Tiña De Maris
Heading out for an RV trip and don’t want to spend too much time slaving over a hot stove on the road? Here are some tips to help you prep meals at home for your RV use so you “work a bit before you go, less while you’re gone.”
What meals can you prep at home?
Nearly any soup, stew or side dish can be worked up ahead at home, frozen, then kept on ice in the RV until you’re ready to use it. Thaw it in the refrigerator or a microwave and finish it up on the stove. If you’re a home canner, make extra stew or soup, can it and have it ready in the RV pantry.
You can get a jump on dry stuff, too
Don’t settle for “store bread.” You can put together the dry ingredients for homemade bread, stuff ’em in a plastic storage bag, then add the wet ingredients when it’s time to bake. Not just bread, but waffle, pancakes, biscuits, muffins and cookies, too! Yum! And won’t your RV smell good?!
Got a pasta meal or more on the menu? You can mostly cook pasta at home, bag it and keep it in the RV refrigerator. No boiling water – just nuke the pasta and serve. No power for the microwave? Heat it in hot water on the stove in less time than to cook from the raw state.
Grill time?
Stick your meats in your favorite marinade at home, keep in a zip lock freezer bag in the RV fridge. Alternative: Bag in marinade, freeze and then thaw.
More on cooking in an RV:
Never use water to put out a cooking oil or grease fire
Check out Janet Groene’s delicious recipes for RVers
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One-pot meals are helpful here, too. We make paella, jambalaya, stroganoff, Mexican quinoa, and lots more. We tend to marinate meat in the wet ingredients and some seasonings in one bag and place the dry ingredients in another. When we are set up at camp, dinner is ready in a flash. And when the meal is all pre-measured and cooked in one pot, cleanup is fast, too.
If you haven’t purchased a food sealer, consider it. My wife seals complete dinners that can easily be dropped in boiling water (without it tasting “re-cooked.”) We’ll begin cooking extra portions before we leave on a trip and seal the leftovers – – reheating takes 15-20 minutes, and cleanup is a breeze. In addition to sealing precooked meals, we seal and freeze fresh steaks, chicken, etc., so we’re not having to run to the store as often.
When heating cooked meat in the microwave, heat it for 10 seconds, and then another 10 seconds, repeat this until the meat is meal warm. When you use this method the meat warms up but does not get cooked more. If you like your steak rare it will stay rare.
Being full timers, we find it easier to make meals designed for 4 and freeze the other half to eat with a side some other night. We use the crock pot a lot also. I’m sure you can do the same at home before you leave on a camping trip. When we camped with our daughter, we had a lot of camping meals with very little clean-up – most recipes we found on Pinterest.
I precook chicken and put in dinner-size freezer bags before we leave home. On the road, I put fresh vegetables in a steamer, remove chicken from freezer bag and place on top of veggies. It only takes 10-15 minutes to cook. Meat is tender and drippings add to the taste of vegetables. I also precook ground meat to use in spaghetti or chili.
If you haven’t tried an Instant Pot, you’re in for a treat. I just had spareribs last night…took about 1 hour to get juicy, fall-off-the-bone ribs. There are tons of recipes on the internet for anything you want to try.