RV Cooking Made Easy

Whether you’ve spent the day traveling or just adventuring at your latest destination, you probably don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking in your RV. Especially if your RV adventure is part of a vacation, then your limited time may feel better spent enjoying your holiday rather than confined to an RV kitchen. So, we’ve got some helpful tips to make your RV cooking easy and enjoyable, freeing you up for a game of charades, another bike ride or just relaxing by the campfire.

Tips for Planning Ahead

Successful RV cooking starts before the road trip. If you put in a bit of work ahead of time, it’ll make things easier on the road.

1. Make out a meal plan. Be smart with your meal planning by not only deciding ahead of time what breakfast, lunch and dinner will be for each day, but also selecting recipes that can pull from a common ingredients list. For example, if you cook a large pork roast in a slow cooker for dinner, you can use leftovers for sandwiches or in tacos the next day.
2. Stick with what you know. Use recipes you’ve cooked before and that don’t require a lot of steps, a lot of time, or a lot of extras. Counter space and cooking equipment is limited in an RV, so you don’t want a lot of things going on and no place to do it.
3. Print your recipes. Consider that where you’re camping you might not have access to cell service or Wi-Fi, so always print out or save recipes to your phone or tablet so you’re not struggling in case of bad or no reception.
4. Prep ingredients before the trip. Prep anything you can at home ahead of time. This includes chopping veggies and making things like marinades or dressings. You can also premeasure out items like rice, flour, etc. Don’t take the entire 5-pound bag of potatoes if you only need six.
5. Casseroles are your friend. Think of meals you can completely prepare ahead of time such as a casserole. It can be frozen or just covered in a foil pan in the fridge, ready to stick in the oven for a simple no-effort meal when you’re on the road.
6. Prep your galley. Even if your recipes are simple, make sure you have what you need before you hit the road. It’s a drag when you’re at the campground and realize you don’t have the right size pot, a measuring cup or other basic item.
7. Check your cooking appliances. As part of your pre-trip check list make sure that your appliances are in good working order and your propane or (other fuel source) is full.

Tips When on the Road

With a thoughtfully prepared kitchen space, culinary success on the road becomes all about controlling the galley so that you can enjoy the meal.

1. Maintain air flow. Make sure to use your exhaust fan and open a window in the RV during cooking whenever possible. You don’t want to set off the smoke detector and send all the nearby campers running out to see what’s happening! Our choice for kitchen ventilation is the Maxxfan Deluxe with a 10-speed reversible fan that proves ideal for ventilating RV kitchens and gallies, and with its built-in rain shield the fan can run in any weather.
   And as tasty as those sautéed vegetables were for dinner, the lingering smell the following morning won’t be nearly as appetizing. Coleman-Mach’s new iWave Air Purifier can help alleviate cooking odors inside an RV with its innovative ionization that also kills bacteria, virus spores, and airborne mold for cleaner, safer and less smelly RV interiors.
2. Clean as you go. Counter space in an RV is worth its weight in gold, so if you can stay on top of your mess, it’ll make cooking easier by freeing up more space to work.
3. Cook outdoors when you can. With boundless beauty outside, there’s no reason you have to stay inside when cooking. Suburban has a new line of outdoor slide-out kitchens (with or without sinks) in addition to their well-known selection of ranges, cooktops and griddles for RV gallies. So, no matter where or how you like to cook, you can have high-quality kitchen appliances that make making meals easy and efficient. And never forget the authentic fun of cooking a meal or two over an open campfire!

Do you have a great RV cooking hack or useful tip? Share it with us below: