3. When it comes to food, think shelf-stable.
One of the perks of RV travel is the ability to plug that sucker into an electrical outlet if you overnight at RV parks. When you do, your fridge will get cold. If you’re like us, though, and spend your days driving from place-to-place, that fridge might soon lose its mojo and anything in it could start to warm. For this reason, we shied away from bringing raw meat and other high-risk perishables and opted largely for shelf-stable items. (Small quantities of cheese, yogurt, and eggs did fine because we ate them quickly.)
Some of our favorite provisions included:
- Canned oil-packed tuna and beans; taco shells; peanut butter and jelly; bread; dry salami; couscous; tomato sauce; tube polenta; olive oil; cereal; oatmeal; fruit; avocados; cocoa; and tea. And graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate for nightly s’mores.
- Catch-all spices rather than individual bottles. I packed a small jar of salt and a packet of taco seasoning. I don’t normally use seasoning packets at home (where I’ve got a fully-stocked spice drawer), but taco seasoning’s as good over tuna-and-bean tacos (don’t laugh, they’re delicious) as it is over avocados and eggs.
- If you do want to bring more highly perishable food, pack a large cooler you can replenish with ice. Transfer items from the fridge if necessary.
4. Avoid a few tricky foods.
My family loves pasta, but with limited propane, boiling a big pot of water in an RV is inefficient. Plus, any heat you generate will raise the temperature in your sleeping space, which can be problematic on warm nights. For this reason, couscous, quickly sautéed polenta, and the aforementioned tacos worked better for us than anything that needed to be boiled or fried. (The exception was hard-boiled eggs, since I turned off the heat as soon as the small saucepan came to a boil.)
I also shied away from making pancakes or other dishes requiring batch-cooking. In cramped quarters, I wanted to cook as quickly as possible, then get outside and enjoy time with my family.
5. Leave room for local finds
One of our favorite drives was along Oregon’s fertile Hood River Fruit Loop with its abundant orchards and U-pick farms. We stopped at Montavon’s Berries, which could accommodate our RV (not all can, as parking may be tight), and had a ball filling our buckets with blueberries. When Lee Montavon, the owner, weighed our abundant haul, we were shocked at the total price: $2.60. (The same berries would have cost ten times more at home.)