Cleaning up after cooking in the truck?

I do hope it's your truck and not a company truck because cooking in trucks without a good vent like on RVs will make a truck interior start to smell. The interior can start to smell worse than a cat box!

I had a microwave, a coffee maker and that was that! I left home with 2 sandwiches, 1 or 2 frozen home cooked meals in a cold bag that kept the meals frozen for a good 2 days but I didn't keep a refrigerator if it wasn't already built into the truck. Wasn't worth the floor space to me. I did keep a milk crate full of dry goods that could be nuked into a nice meal. They were boxed as such came in a "serving" unless you got the family sized meals and if you do then you really need to rethink things about your healt! There is always a Walmart or grocery store close to your route where you can get these "TV" type bowed meals.

If you do crock pots you can mix the meals in big ziplock bags and cook in them and not have to worry about cleaning the pot.

I did keep 8 gallons of water in milk crates under the bunk for my coffee and water needs. I never let the water level get below 4 full gallons. Just remember that in winter time when you go home to pour a little water out of those jugs and leave the caps off as when water freezes it expands and if you leave the cap on and the bottle all the way full they will expand and split the jugs!

I do not like to clean plates or silverware so I always used plastic and did not feel the need for bowls and such if they were not plastic or paper. Those cups of soup worked fine when you nuked water and filled the cup up and let it set and do it's thing!

Packaged snacks like crackers and bread items will give good calories in place of a full meal when pressed for time. Fruits and freeze dried foods are good and healthy. as is canned veggies that you do not need to heat like pork and beans, beans of any kind and soups. If you have those large styfoam cups from the snack bar that are MT and you want a soup then pour into the cup, cover, and nuke and the cleanup is minimum!

I kept a 8 gallon square trash can and WalMart has those scented 200 count rolls of trash bags that fit nicely. Just remember it's just as easy to throw trash in a can at the fuel pumps as it is to throw it out on the ground!

At least once or twice a week go in and have a nice sit down restaurant meal and get out of the truck and socialize a little!

 

I got to the point I hardly ate anything I didn't cook on the road. Cleanup was a breeze - just made sure to keep extra paper towels (strung on a bungee on the ceiling of the cab or top bunk in a condo, to make a quick "holder") and a bottle of "Clorox Anywhere" as it's food safe. For the worst messes I'd use a little bottled water (carried around 5gal at a time) to rinse out prior to the Clorox wipedown. Poured out the dirty water in the grass, or under my trailer when I didn't have any other option.

Kept one plate, one bowl and one cup in the truck....that plastic melamine stuff Target sells to cut down on having to buy so much disposable stuff. (Less environment and more $$ concerns) When I got a shower, my single cook pot and dishes came in with me to get a good scrubbing. The IMUSA cookware is great stuff.... non-stick surface that's been near impossible to kill (I'm STILL using it at home, and I have a set of professional chef pans... I prefer my IMUSA pot). As people have said, for crockpots or 12v ovens, I'd use the liners or the oven bags for easy cleanup...but I hardly went the slow cooker route. Would make me too hungry during the day and I could never get the smell out of the cab.

Cooking on a hotplate or the little butane burners was easy with the front windows down and a fan exhausting out one window. Never had a truck that smelled odd from it, but I did make sure to wipe down all plastic surfaces once a month with a magic eraser and some 409. Cooked outside weather permitting, of course.

 

We keep 2 melemine plates, 2 large melamine bowls, 1 glass 2cup measuring cup, 1 microwave-safe mixing bowl and 2 knives, 2 forks, 2 spoons, and a large spoon. Also a good cutting board slides into a skinny spot by the shelves. It serves as a "counter" for making sandwiches or mixing ingredients for cooking. Most everything cooked in the microwave or lunchbox oven is either eaten from the bowl or the plate. Clean-up is Clorox wipes and paper towels. A large jug of water is always on hand for clean-up, adding water to food if called for, filling the dog's water bowl or just rinsing the toothbrush when parked in the middle of nowhere. Bottles of water kept in a milk crate under the bunk.