Cooking in the truck while on the road?

+1 on the above. I go to Dollar Tree / Dollar Store and buy containers, usually 3 or 4 for $1.25. Then just toss them when finished. I have a microwave and coffee maker, I'm good....

 

1800 watt. I could only run one cooking appliance at a time but was never too big of a problem.

I preferred the skillet, just for the space savings. The deep ones will cook anything you need and are less expensive overall than having separate pans.
I used one like this.
Robot or human?
I have no idea why it says robot or human. Its a link to walmart.
The microwave is nice for quick reheats, especially of liquids but is not necessary. I started off with one before I added the counter top oven and ended up building a little shelf over the foot of my bed to keep it on. The little oven went where the microwave would normally go.

 

I use an instapot as well…

 

Aluminum foil on a hot exhaust manifold,,hey, it worked for us and didn't cost a dime,,whatever you do, don't burn down the truck,,

 

I think that equipment choice is a function of what you like to eat, your driving schedule, etc.

Having said that, I really liked the versatility of the Instant Pot. You can sautee, fry, use it as a crock pot and/or pressure cooker. I would make scrambled eggs in there. When frying or sauteeing, the high sides prevented splattering all over inside the truck.

Plus a few other tools based on things I liked to make. In my case a toaster, electric kettle, microwave, and 2 plastic egg poaching cups. Because one of my staples was Egg McMuffins in the truck (maybe I need to post my recipe for that, too...). I could have them any time of the day or night, anywhere I was located. Plus McDonald's got crazy at some point, I was no longer willing to fork out almost $4 per each. Not that I could get the rig in there anyway (depending on location)...

For cleaning I used a simple spray bottle with water in it, a brush, scrubbie, small bottle of dish soap. But one really cool thing I found was this collapsible basin. It would fold down almost flat and pop up to create a dishpan, which I would use to catch all my rinse water. Really cool thing I found on Amazon, made for camping I think. Just dump it in the grass and rinse out (with the spray bottle) when finished. I mentioned it before, but I also found my folding table invaluable as a kitchen, dining room table, office, etc...

Speaking more generally, I eventually realized that eating/cooking is tradeoff between several competing priorities: time, cleanup, health, cost, taste, variety, etc. For example, when I was company driver I found that I rarely had time to cook a full meal, I was too busy running hard and crashing out afterwards. So I would grab and go something that looked OK, often fast food at my fuel stop, just because of time and I had some points. Other times I would take/make the time to cook. Some times I would grab that chef salad at Pilot, they used to be $5, I'm sure they are more now. But that's a healthy meal, and fast. But usually you have to chose between one or more of those factors.

I also did what I called 'opportunistic scavenging' where I would grab whatever I saw that looked good, prioritizing rare and unique finds. For example at Kwik Trip they have those containers of picked off rotisserie chicken, ready to go. I would grab that and add it to my salads and other meals to bulk up the protein. If I knew I was passing by that rare good restaurant with truck parking along my way, I would try and stop there for the night if possible, etc. If all these 'easy/better' options fell through, I kept enough things in the truck (combination of refrigerated and non) to always be able to make myself something decent when and where ever I stopped (which was often at a shipper, receiver, or rest area for the night).

I did most of my grocery shopping at Walmart (while spending the night), with occasional stops at Sam's Club, easy to get truck in and out of both usually. I actually prefer ALDI these days, but many are small / hard to get truck in and out of. Be careful trying to circle around back, many of them are not made for trucks the same way that bigger stores / shopping centers are, I almost got stuck back there one time.

 

Search YouTube there are tons of videos that show what they are cooking, how, and what equipment they use. There are a million more YT videos from the yuppie vanlife people than truck drivers showing their cooking strategy.
https://www.youtube.com/@12vcooking17
CheapRVLiving

 

One trick some of the vanlife yuppies use is wipe down your pots, dishes, utensils, etc with a aper towel and then spray them down with white vinegar and wipe down. The vinegar keeps the microbes from growing.
AdventureVanMan has a good YouTube channel, although he's about living in his van, not only cooking in his van.