Living out of a campervan means you need to plan for everything – including home-cooked meals for the week. The easiest (and cheapest) option is to find a meal you’re happy to eat more than once, cook up a big batch and portion it out for the week. This way, you’re not wasting precious van space on heaps of ingredients or spending too much time cooking when you should be sightseeing.
Regardless of your dietary requirements, the below meals can be customised to suit vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free diets. Buy enough ingredients to last a few days (or even a week!) and you’re all set for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We’ve included similar ingredients across all meals to cut down on storage space and keep meals cheap.
Breakfast
Chill Scramble on Toast
Eggs or tofu both make a delicious and filling, quick and easy breakfast.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
2 Free range eggs or 100g tofu
Pinch of salt and pepper
Splash of milk of your choice (nut mylk is fine)
1 tsp butter or canola oil
¼ tsp chilli flakes
1 slice of bread, toasted
Directions:
- In a bowl, lightly whisk the eggs or tofu with a pinch of pepper and a splash of milk.
- Heat the butter or oil in a pan over medium heat.
- Add the eggs or tofu, and after 10 seconds, scrape the mixture from the edges into the centre. After 30 seconds, remove from heat and continue pulling mixture to the middle. Return to heat for another 30 seconds, alternating from direct heat to pan heat until just set.
- Meanwhile, toast your bread. Add butter and serve scramble on top.
- Enjoy!
Lunchtime
Chicken or Tofu Burritos
With a little bit of preparation and a couple of storage containers, you can cut the ingredients ahead of time and make your burrito fresh each day.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Tortillas (gluten-free available)
1 tbs canola oil
500g tofu or chicken breast, sliced
A pinch of salt & pepper
2 tomatoes, diced
½ head lettuce, shredded
Cheddar cheese, grated
Salsa or hot sauce
Heavy-duty foil
For the guacamole:
1 avocado
1/4 Cup Coriander, roughly chopped
¼ red onion, finely diced
Juice of 1 lime
Directions:
- Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Set aside once browned and cooked through.
- Mash the avocado and stir through coriander, onion and lime juice.
- Lay out a square of tin foil slightly larger than the diameter of the tortilla. Spread the avocado down the middle, and add the remaining ingredients.
- Tuck the bottom, then fold right and left sides over, and roll the foil to secure.
- Enjoy!
Dinner
Chicken, Pumpkin and Mushroom Risotto
A delicious and hearty chicken, mushroom and pumpkin risotto that can be cooked in bulk, portioned into storage containers and frozen or refrigerated for the week ahead. This recipe is great, as you only need to get one pan dirty.
Ingredients:
1 cup risotto rice
1 tbs canola oil or butter
500g chicken breast
1 red onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
200g button mushrooms, sliced
250g kent pumpkin, diced
¼ cup dry white wine
1L vegetable stock
50g parmesan, grated
Directions:
- Heat the oil or butter in a large saucepan and cook chicken until sealed.
- Add garlic and onion, and cook until soft.
- Stir through rice and sauté until translucent.
- Add wine, stir and allow moisture to be absorbed by the rice.
- Add the mushrooms and pumpkin, plus a soup ladle of stock.
- Bring to boil, then turn down to a simmer. As each ladle of liquid is absorbed, add another ladle until all liquid is absorbed. Stir regularly to avoid rice sticking to the base of the pan.
- Once absorbed, rice should be sticky but perfectly cooked. The pumpkin will have disintegrated slightly, creating a delicious, creamy sauce.
- Serve with grated Parmesan and refrigerate or freeze the remainder.
- Enjoy!
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