Your recreational vehicle is the ticket to a world of adventure, whether you stay close to home in the Show-Me State or venture further afield. The nice thing about RVs is that they provide you with the amenities you need to be comfortable and safe on the road, including a kitchen for preparing meals. However, you may feel somewhat challenged by the confines of your RV kitchen and you’ll need to adapt how you cook so that you can enjoy your vacation and have delicious home-cooked food at the same time.
Bourbon RV is proud to be your Missouri RV dealer. Here are a few tips for cooking in your RV that will make your camping experiences that much better.
1. Batch-Cook Foods to Freeze
Gather up the family at home before your trip and cook several of your favorite meals in large batches. You might choose a favorite lasagna recipe or your grandmother’s beef stew or any number of other labor-intensive dishes. You’ll have full access to your home kitchen and all the condiments and tools you need when you cook ahead of time at home, so you can save time later by putting these meals in containers to stash in your RV freezer. When it’s dinner time, all you have to do is heat up the meals in your microwave or put them in a heat-safe container to warm them in the oven.
2. Use Your Slow Cooker
One underrated tool in any kitchen, and especially in an RV kitchen, is the slow cooker. These plug-in devices come under a few different brand names, so choose the one that appeals to you most. All you have to do is place your cuts of meat and chopped vegetables into the cooker with some water or broth and seasonings, place the lid on top and turn it to low, medium or high, depending on the dish. After several hours, you can return to a delicious hot meal that took very little effort on your part! Add some fresh sliced bread and a green salad and you’ll be eating like a king.
3. Cook Outside
On a hot summer day, no one wants to be cooped up in their RV kitchen preparing food with all those heat sources around them. Why not take your cooking outside on a warm summer night instead? Set up a small grill to prepare chicken, burgers, kebabs or hot dogs. Cook over a campfire with aluminum foil to wrap up your vegetables and freshly-caught fish from the lake. Then you can make s’mores for dessert and enjoy more quality family time around the campfire.
4. Clean As You Go
Because you’re working with limited space, you’ll need to tidy up as you work. Put pans aside to soak, rinse cutting boards, put away spices and condiments, compost produce scraps and wipe down counter space so that you always have somewhere to chop vegetables or set a bowl. You’ll have much less clean-up work to do after you cook, too!
5. Cook Less
This might seem like a silly suggestion in an article about cooking, but the truth is that there are many dishes that can be prepared without ever turning on your stove or oven. Have one hot meal a day and two cold ones to reduce the amount of cooking and clean-up you have to do. For example, breakfast could be cold cereal or yogurt parfaits with fresh fruit, while lunch could be a sandwich buffet with cold cuts, cheese, chips, pickles and sliced veggies. Dinner might be a tossed green salad with leftover grilled fish or chicken for protein. Use your imagination to come up with meals that won’t require you to cook at all.
We hope this guide helps you and your family to more easily prepare food while you’re traveling. Seeking RVs for sale near St. Louis? Visit our website to take a look at the wide selection of new and used RVs for sale at our Bourbon, MO, dealership location. We even offer financing options and do trade-ins to help you fund your purchase. Bourbon RV proudly serves the greater St. Louis metro area as well as the city of Rolla, MO.
