By Perri
Our van kitchen is tiny: a cooler-sized fridge, two drawers and one small shelf. This means some adjustment in diet. But not as much as you’d think. Van camping has challenged us to maintain our healthy, tasty eating habits from home, but more simply, with minimal mess… and on a tighter budget.
Dan and I spend between $400 & $550 dollars per month on groceries. This is our second biggest budget item after gasoline. If we stocked only ramen, Kraft Dinner, potatoes and eggs, we could probably cut our grocery budget by half. But we’d lose a lot of nutrients in the process… and, aside from the health repercussions, we love our spicy, veggie-intensive dinners!
Variety is important to us, as is taste, nutrition and cost. We are able to go about five days between grocery stops. We’ve found that the key is to shop so that you have as many food meal options as possible.
With the following items on hand, we rarely feel like we are missing out when we pass up restaurants and fast food fare:
Veggies
Veggies are the meat and potatoes of our meals! While we are not vegetarians, we eat chicken/turkey only once or twice a week and rarely eat red meat or pork. We always buy a few bags of salad (best van living hack ever!). In addition, we stock greens (collards are our current fave) or a bag of washed spinach. We add these to almost every meal, to boost both taste and nutrition. We also buy sliced mushrooms, jalapenos, onions and bell peppers every week. These keep well and can be added to almost every meal.
When they are on sale, we add cut broccoli/cauliflower mix, asparagus, celery, cilantro or parsley, and/or cherry tomatoes to our weekly list. These are terrific in stir fries, pasta dishes or to add to bag salad. In addition, we often buy a couple of avocados for the week. These are great in Mexican-inspired dishes and sandwiches.
We often splurge on Calamata Olives, which are terrific in salad and in Middle-Eastern inspired stews with whole grains and tomatoes.
Dairy and Lunchmeat
We try to minimize our cheese and deli purchases. They tend to be pricey and less healthy for our low cholesterol diet. But we often pack sandwiches on hiking days So we stock pre-sliced swiss cheese (it lasts for a few weeks in our fridge). Sometimes we buy non-nitrate sliced turkey or canned tuna.
We often keep feta cheese and shredded parmesan as well. These really add zing to a less than awesome meal.
We splurge (both health-wise and price-wise) on half-and-half for our coffee, buy unsweetened almond or oatmilk for morning cereal, and keep a small tub or two of plain non-fat yogurt for snacking.
Canned Goods
In general, we are not fans of cans. But there are a few canned goods we always keep on hand: black beans, garbanzo beans, tomato sauce and and diced tomatoes. We also stock a can of “lite” coconut milk for curries and a jar of vegetarian pasta sauce for (achem) pasta.
Grains and Such
We stock buckwheat soba and brown rice noodles for stir fries and Asian-inspired dishes. AND we also buy whole wheat and/or lentil noodles for Italian pasta dishes. These all cost a little more than run-of-the-mill noodles but they are healthier. White flour is on our NOPE list these days.
We also keep a bag of couscous (the honkin’ big Israeli kind) and brown rice, which takes a bit more propane to cook but is healthier. We’ve experimented with other grains such as faro (thumbs up!) and quinoa (meh). We keep a bag of dried lentils for stews. We discovered freeze-dried refried beans at Western grocery stores (Love these!)
Steel cut oats are on our list for occasional breakfasts and we always have at least TWO boxes of low sugar cereal for more typical mornings. (We eat straight up cereal with almond milk for breakfast about five days a week)
We buy fiber-full bread for sandwiches, even though it hurts to pay $5+ dollars for a loaf of it. We go through about one loaf of bread a week, and keep tortillas as a “shelf-safe” back up.
Coffee…. oh, coffee. It is a weakness. We prefer snooty-fancy dark roast, fresh ground. And often try local coffee roasters’ offerings when we can find them… with mixed results. And yes, probably not a budget-friendly idea. But whether you live in a house or a van, morning coffee is one of the absolute joys of life.
Protein
Eggs are one of our staples, good for any time of the day as far as we are concerned. We are fans of adding fried eggs, salsa, guacamole and red onion to a bowl of black beans for an easy dinner. We are also fans of “whatever’s left in the fridge” omelets, huevos rancheros, and egg burritos.
Tofu is another “always” for us. We keep a cube of “extra firm” in the fridge to up the protein in curries and stir fry meals.
We often buy a pack of veggie or no-nitrate chicken sausages to add to pasta and to grill up and eat with the jar of sauerkraut or Pickles that is always in our fridge.
Once every week or two, we buy chicken breast, grill it up with barbecue sauce. We eat half as part of a meal and cut the rest up to add to salad or pasta the next day.
Once, I got the urge for chili and we bought ground turkey and red beans for that. But generally, we stock whatever we need to minimize expensive extra shopping.
Spur-of-the-Moment Sauces
Sauces are the KEY to satisfying camp cooking. We stock up on a variety of these, in packets, jars and bags. We are particularly fond of curry paste, stir fry sauces, enchilada sauces, salsas, hot sauce and whatever new taste is available in the local stores. When we can, we visit “international” grocery stores for new sauces and flavors to try.
We don’t ever plan our our weekly meals, or even our daily meals. For us, the dinner conversation starts around three o’clock in the afternoon. I (Perri) will suggest two or three options. And together we pick one. The sauces are what makes this system work. As long as we have the sauces, we can almost always make curry or stir fry or Italian style pasta or salad or Mexican style bowls. No planning or special shopping needed!
The sauces also cut down on the amount of time and equipment needed. We have a small non-stick frying pan, a large pot with lid and a small backpacking pot with a wonky lid. And we clean these with minimal water waste and no real “sink”. The sauces make almost any meal do-able in one or two pots.
Fruit
We buy fresh fruit for snacking every time we shop. Oranges and bananas are available everywhere. Often we buy in-season fruit such as plums, nectarines or apples. Once, it was a pineapple(!)
Fruit not only makes for healthy snacking. We add chopped fruit to our morning cereal. Sometimes, I add it to plain yogurt and granola to make a refreshing lunch.
Snacks
Snacks are our Waterloo. Aside from fresh fruit, there are few healthy options we can agree on. Dan is all about those figs and nuts. I have a (rarely indulged in) taste for peanut butter filled pretzels and Sour Patch Kids. We both like corn nuts and tortilla chips, but we can’t eat unhealthy crap like that anymore. What to do?
We sometimes buy a bag of air-popped popcorn for the road, or share dried mangos/apricots. Often, we’ll stop and make nut butter sandwiches, though we don’t agree on these either. Dan is all about the Sunbutter, while I like plain old no-added-sugar peanut butter. We buy BOTH which adds to the budget but, with some things, compromise is just not possible 🙂
Storage Containers, Lists and a “Real” Fridge
A crucial part of our strategy is… leftovers! We keep four sealable storage containers so that we can reheat and eat our leftovers for the next day’s lunch or save half an onion until it is needed.
To avoid “supermarket paralysis”, we keep a running list on our van dashboard. When we run out of something, we add it to the list. We USE the list when we grocery shop, which keeps us focused on what we actually need… mostly. (I have been known to shove a Cadbury bar into the shopping cart on occasion.)
Probably the most important kitchen item in our van is our12volt Bouge refrigerator. It is a game-changer, keeping our veggies and leftovers and, well, everything, fresh and ready when we need it. We spent many car-camping years sloshing around in a food-strewn cooler and can honestly say, the fridge is worth it’s weight, if not in gold than in tofu and veggies and half-and-half.
Quality and Variety
Some of our grocery items are a bit extravagant, we’ll admit, and our meals are rarely “meat and potatoes”. But we are thinking of the long game here. Satisfying, healthy dinners keep us out of restaurants (most of the time) and within our budget (most of the time). Good food makes the road more like home for us.
If you have any healthy shopping or camp cooking suggestions or meal ideas, we’d love to hear from you!
