Van Life Eats

What do you eat when you're living in a converted van?

If you don't know, my boyfriend has a converted van. We drove it across the country from MA to Cali. It's our studio apartment on wheels! It's a different lifestyle than I ever imagined living, but it's been such a privilege to travel all over the U.S. and see so many beautiful places.

One of the questions we most often get is what do you guys eat? How do you cook? Well, there's no oven, microwave, convection oven or air fryer in good Ole Bertha (yes, we named the Dodge Ram Bertha). What we lack in appliances, we make up in ingenuity! Our trusty kitchen appliances are a one burner hot plate, electric water boiler, coffee pot (that's Mr. Coffee to you), electric bean press and a refrigerator (if you count that).

So, what do we make with our few kitchen appliances? Well here's our van life staples:

Coffee

Working full time and living out of a tiny space is exhausting, so coffee is a MUST. Jake is a stickler for a nice brewed cup, so our Mr. Coffee is put to good use. Of course he has to have whole beans, and grinds them using his electric bean press. I'm not a stickler for the best coffee, sometimes the caffeine is enough, but Jake does brew a delicious cup of joe. He drinks his black, but I add some sweet cream creamer :)

Oatmeal

Grandpa and Grandma love our oatmeal. It's an easy breakfast to make in the van. The oats are easily stored in our "pantry" (the bin under the seats), and it takes just a few mins to heat on the hot plate. From there it's usually a hodge podge of what we have in the van. I like mine with honey, cinnamon and whatever fruits we have that week — blueberries, strawberries or bananas. Sometimes I'll add granola or coconut flakes. Jakes oatmeal is all about getting him the protein and nutrients he needs, loading it up with honey, cinnamon, peanut butter, protein powder, fruit and whatever else he can find. Doesn't always look pretty, but it get's the job done.

Pasta

One of my most favorite foods is pasta. My mom's side is Italian and it's a staple in our household. However, Jake being the health nut he is, I have to compromise with chick-pea pasta. Honestly, it's not bad. A lot of times I hardly notice a difference. Our go to is Bonza cavatelli pasta, which is super high in protein. In the van we have to find creative ways to get out protein in, since cooking meat in such a small space isn't exactly ideal.

Again, it's easy to store in the cabinets and spruce up with sauce, cheese or seasoning. Right now our favorite is artichoke pasta sauce from Trader Joe's. It's out of this world, I'm BEGGING you to go buy some. We also usually sauté some spinach to go with it.

How do you cook pasta and spinach when you only have one burner? Well, we've come up with a very special technique. Since the spinach doesn't need a lot of heat to actually cook, we place the frying pan of spinach on top of the boiling pot of water. The steam from the water heats up the pan enough to sauté the spinach! By the time the pasta is cooked the spinach is ready to eat too! It's really efficient and gets us some greens.

Stir Fry

Another way we get our veggies and protein in is stir fry. Usually it's a one pan meal. Often we'll already have some rice cooked, so we'll heat up some veggies in the pan. We buy a few packs of frozen stir fry mixes at the grocery store and sauté them on the hot plate. Then we'll toss in some tofu or some pre-cooked grilled chicken (our favorite is from Trader Joes). Once that's all good to go we'll toss in the rice to eat it up, and dinner is served!

Quesadilla

We almost always have tortilla chips and salsa or guacamole on hand, so we started turning it into a whole meal. Quesadillas are super easy to make on the hot plate, just add some cheese, pre-grilled chicken and whatever else we have on hand: rice, beans, jalapenos or avocado. Then serve them up with some chips and salsa.

Snacks

I'm obsessed with Trader Joe's. I read their newspaper from cover to cover. They just have so many fun snacks at affordable prices, so we usually stock up there. Our new favorite is their take on Funyuns; sour cream and onion flavored lentil and rice rings (gf my homies). Ok I know, sounds weird. I was skeptical too, but they are a homerun. The perfect snack for road trips or to bring climbing. I strongly recommend trying them yourself.

We also always have humus, dried fruit, nuts, beef jerky and some sort of chocolate at hand at all times. A lot of times we'll take what we have on hand and make a charcuterie board. It's the perfect thing to pick on while overlooking a beautiful sunset.

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Living on the road is definitely an adventure, and it's always fun coming up with new meals to whip up in the van. If you have any ideas on comida vibes we should add to our repertoire, let me know!