There comes a time at some point in everyone's day where the big question comes up. You sit down, hair frazzled, confusion on your face, begging your significant other to stop saying "I don't know" and give you advice. Yes, it's that time of day. Time to decide what to eat.
Living in a van is no different in this aspect. The only difference is the kinds of foods you can eat. Here are a few of our common van meals, and how we cook them.
Our Stove
We actually have a couple of different stoves that we can utilize, but the one that we use most often is our foldable Sterno Stove.
Seriously, this thing is a life saver. When it folds it disappears into an almost flat piece of metal that stores very easily. You unfold it into this little cube, stick a Sterno can underneath and you can cook almost anything.
If you're in an area where you can't find a store that sells Sterno cans, the dollar store knock off brand works almost as well, it will just take twice as long.
Another advantage of these things is that they are safe to use indoors. We keep a carbon monoxide sensor just in case, but we have had this stove going inside the van with all the windows closed for an hour or more at a time with no issues.
Rice and Spam
Ok, yes I know, this isn't the healthiest meal you can eat, but it is a really easy, and cheap van meal. We have a small pot that fits perfectly on our Sterno stove that we fill with rice and water and wait for it to cook. This can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes depending on how long you've used the Sterno can, and what brand of can you're using.
Since we only have one foldable stove right now, we wait for the rice to be done and set it aside. We have a small flat pan that we use to cook the spam in. We just get it out of the container cut it into slices and then cook it in coconut oil.
Sometimes we serve this 5 star gourmet meal with ketchup packets that we've stashed away from gas stations or fast food restaurants.
Stew
This meal is a bit nicer than the rice and spam meal, and actually utilizes some vegetables. It does require one of our other cooking methods, our crock pot. We have a marine battery that is charged with our solar panel and alternator, and then that goes to our 500 watt inverter, which is perfect for running a 300 crock pot.
Crock pots are amazing for van living. And there are a million great recipes out there for what you can make in them. Here are two of our most recent one that we used.
Send us your own van dinner recipes from your life on the road!
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