Good Cheap Food ideas for road trip

[Eamonn McG]

Hello all,

I'm planning on taking a 2 week trip up thru the finger lakes but want to do it on a minimal budget. Does anyone have any ideas as far as what kinda food I should bring? I'd like to bring as much as possible so i can keep costs down and avoid eating out. I'll be using the stove, microwave and a Coleman camp grill. Any ideas would be super helpfull

Thanks!!

Eamonn

[craigmar]

It' s hard to know what to suggest because what do you like, we don't know. As for me and my wife, we try to plan out what we might want and then prepare some things like cooked ground meat for different pastas or maybe something like sloppy joes, etc. after dividing the mixture into several bags (I use a vac sealer) and then freeze. The little packets also help to keep things cool in the fridge. We take smaller cartons of egg mixture as well for breakfast like scrambled eggs, french toast etc. also good for dinner as well. I like to have some of the dinners ready to cook that are not frozen, some are good, some are crappy. During the growing season we like to stop along the way at roadside stands for fresh veggies and fruit, and stop at smaller stores for needed items. During the winter its usually caned goods such as tomatoes, instant potatoes and stuff like that to have on hand in case we get weather that keeps us in but really it's just an in case thing because you can always find an open market.
I have put quite a few things in the food section and they are all good and easy to cook or make up. An example being the self rising flour, milk and sugar recipe for easy biscuits, they are easy to make and taste great. From that recipe you can smother them with a meat and gravy mixture for SOS or cut them in half and put scramble eggs on the bottom top with the other half and again smother them with a gravy. You can roll the mixture out and deep fry for a scone, put butter and honey on them and it's good for any meal or side bread.
You can cook up some onion until they caramelize, add some ground meat, cook it up until it's lightly browned, add a can of tomato sauce, some worcestershire ( I like to add more than what I think it needs because it cooks out ) add some thawed out or fresh peas, corn carrots beans , put the mixture in a throwaway pie pan,cover with mashed potatoes either fresh or instant and pop into the oven (about 350) and bake until the potatoes get a light brown, wa la shepherds pie and if it isn't eaten at one siting it gets even better flavor as a left over a day or so later.
You just have to plan and then buy accordingly. but check out some of the food section items as there is even pizza made my way or a cool way in the bar b que.

[skater]

I'm just going to comment that you can always stop at grocery stores on the way to restock.

[weekender]

I did a 2 week trip thru the Canadian Maritime's 2 years ago. We were not sure what we would have for food options, both grocery and dining out for options. We planned with portioned meats (chicken breasts, hamburgers, pork tenderloin etc) packaged in ziplock freezer bags and stuffed the freezer-- it actually is pretty amazing how much you can fit in there if you minimize the packaging. There is an amazing amount of room in the kitchen cabinets to pack dry goods, cereals, pasta's, sauces etc. We found it very easy to pack every day meals, prepared either on the stove top or on a camp grill. Perishables such as milk, salads, vegetables were only a slight challenge, just something to monitor and watch for every couple of days. We found our rig, storage and options for meal prep to be amazing for a 2 week trip, without having to make much in the way of compromise. About the only think that was a daily chore was to constantly restock, water, soda and beer-- having a system to replace what you consume to be sure you have cold stock every time you open the fridge.

A side note, we found, the more you keep the fridge/freezer stocked, the better (or less) it works-- lots of cold stuff, keeps stuff cold.

[Eamonn McG]

Thanks guys this helps a lot. I dont have an oven in my 92 only a 2 burner stove top and the camp grill i"m bringing. I'm also bringing along a cooler that I bought made by coleman that garauntees to keep ice for 5 days. (this thing really lives up to its promise, last time I used it I had to chisel through the top layer to get my beer) Anyway I'm sure this is gonna be one of those live and learn experiences just figured I'd ask for some suggestions so I'm not going into this completely blind.

[weekender]

We have only used our oven for baking cookies!-- other than that, it stores our frying pans and the cookie sheet. Your storage cubby, I'm sure-- fits a lot more. As good as home baked cookies are, you can buy some pretty good ones these days

[Eamonn McG]

HAHA Thats true, I have a cabinet underneath the stove top where I'm guessing the oven would go but the previous owner but a 650 Watt Subwoofer in there. Fine by me since I'm a musician and could always use a louder sound system.

[Wakeslayer]

You have a 650w sub instead of an oven ? Wicked.
I may have to negotiate with my wife... Haha, not really. She is an extremely talented gourmet cook, so I would lose that battle all day long.

I do want to update my sound system as dollars and winter projects allow... would love to see how you have your system setup.

Just get on the Bus!

Mike