Eating on the Road & Saving money

I used to bring one of those little portable barbeques. I used to work for a smaller company and we used to run up here in the north a lot, we would park for the night at some little pull off on the side of the road and cook some hamburgers, it was great almost like camping, we could have even had a camp fire if we wanted too, I miss those days.

I eat almost entirely out of my truck, now days you can't afford to eat out of the truck stops, let alone even have the time to stop and eat. I live off of cans of tuna.

 

About 3 years ago, we bought, (from Wal*Mart) a little portable, butane grill. It has legs that fold up under, and fits perfectly in the side box.

I can't TELL you how how well this has worked out for us!! One canister of butane, and the grill itself, takes up very little space (the butane we keep stored IN the cab, because in the side box, too hot, may explode.)
And the times we can grill? Pretty much anytime/anywhere that we have 1/2 an hour, as long as we have the food.

Judi Kay

P.S. Grilled fresh veggies are the BEST!

 

In the military we used to cook meals using heat off the engine. We would wrap a piece of meat with veggies up in a couple layers of tinfoil and tie it near the exhaust manifold. You can add marinade too, just be careful your tinfoil has no leaks. Most times the meat would be cooked in about 3-4 hours of driving, it's a learning curve.

 

My grandfather used to do this when we went camping. He called it "Hobo Stew", and it was delicious!

 

I think I eat better on the road than I do at home. Lots of fresh fruit and veges. I buy quarts of low fat milk and drink them at once so they don't get warm. Lots of yougurt and cheese. I like granola bars and dried fruit and nuts. I eat a lot of healthy bread. I eat too many cold cuts but I love them so what can I do? Instant porridge is a good one if you like it. I do. I'm a teatotler but I like beer so I drink lots of near beer. No alcohol but is refreshing and good for you.
I have my fav restaraunts all over and I eat there if I'm passing by. They have to be good food and real good prices for me to be interested. Unless I happen to be in Louisiana and then I have to eat cajun no matter the cost.

 

I'm vegetarian, have been cooking in the truck (stew of vegetables and brown rice). Have been using a rice cooker plugged on the power inverter but power inverter turns off soooooooo many times (and I have to turn it back on constantly) that now rice cooker is about to die... it's not working very well). I don't know what to do to cook my rice (gotta have rice, real rice, not that stuff in a bag), and pasta and vegetables.... Was wondering if that portable stove (the black lunch box) is good for cooking too or it only warms up meals. I also have a slow cooker but that takes toooooo long and it's good only to cook beans when I am driving. I need something that I can plug into the cigarett ligther and cook my rice and vegetables in no more than one hr. If anybody has any idea that can help, plz let me know. I appreciate.

 

I buy my husband the healthly snack bars , there's dinty more dinners that you can put in a microwave, you can buy canned soup nd crackers, i also buy tuna fish lunch meals, they now have spam in individual packages that make a sandwich, he also used to use a burton stove to cook a roast in going down the road. he has a small refrigerator, and also some truckstops will let you bring in a meal and heat it up. Also i used to freeze leftovers at home and he would put them in the refrigerator and with being frozen they last a bit longer.

 

I bet it would cook it. I have one and tried making macaroni and cheese in it, but it overcooked it so bad it turned to baby food type mush.

 

Hmmm.... I wonder..... Maybe will look into propane burners... just don't like the idea of propane gas and flames inside the truck...

 

For the person that lines his crockpot with foil. Why not use some of those brown and serve bags? They have a twisty type closure and the whole thing won't melt. You could also store the left overs in the bag and reheat it again in the crockpot or in the microwave at a place where you might be loading or unloading. The problem with foil is you can't reheat it in a microwave and it doesn't store very will since once you open the packet up you will get leaks. Just my 2 cents. Using the brown and serve bags will cut down on storage problems with using plastic containers. Clean up is a snap. I can see you being able to not worry about the sloshing of liquid from the crockpot, since the twisty would be facing up. You could also cook "real" rice in the bag. 2 cups water one rice...twist and set it in the pot.