Clipper Cooking and Meal Planning

[Toedtoes]

I was thinking about this today while reading a thread about accumulating stuff in an RV.  I have found that I have limited my "stuff" to a pretty efficient level.   This works great when I go camping with just the dogs and parrot, or have friends with their own RV join me.

However, when a friend joins me in the clipper, I get into "trouble" when it comes to food.  I always have a stash of staples (canned soups, chili, pancake mix, cream of wheat, snacks, etc.) put away in the pantry.  But for fresh food, I try to organize my meal planning so I'm not bringing a ton of extra food.  For example, I might choose to have tacos one night, spaghetti another night and then tacos again - this way I only have to bring hamburger (or the veggie version) and can use it all up during the trip.  If I do tacos one night, then I might have salad the next day - using all the veggie toppings.

When a friend joins me, I create a tentative meal plan and ask for feedback/recommendations.  I explain that my effort is to reduce the amount of food being brought so we don't have tons of leftovers or have more food than will fit in the space.  The friend says "that sounds great" and offers no changes, suggestions, etc. to make it better.  Then, when it's time to leave, they show up with 3 grocery bags filled with other food "just in case we want something different".  I end up spending the trip with food all over the clipper because it won't fit in the fridge/cupboards.  Add that case of bottled water they "just had to bring" and I'm tripping to go to the bathroom.  And when we get back home, they leave with the same 3 full bags of food.

So, my question is what do others do for meals?  How to you make it work?  Do you bring home more than you left with?  Do you use everything you bring?  Do you plan meals to minimize leftovers and extra?  Do you fight with your companion on what to bring?

[pdxpfeifer]

I love this topic Toedtoes

I too have been working at organizing Nina the Clipper. We have two boys 5 & 8 years. We are a family of 4, but will do mommy and kid camping trips with friends. So being meal planning is a must with 2-5 kids with you! I keep staples in the cabinets and snacks too. I have two rubbermaid totes that I put my pantry items into and then can take the box out and bring it to the picnic table for cooking (we like to do everything outside as much as possible.)

I sometimes do have leftover food, but have gotten much better at usually just having snacks and some vegetables leftover, things that can be used up at home..

Our fridge is not super huge and I found we had problems, because the children would like to cool there drinks and then kept opening and closing the door letting all the cold air out. Also when meal planning, if we were going for more than 3 days we would not have enough room in the refrigerator to keep all the perishables. We came up with the idea of the Coleman stackable party coolers - you can see it here
http://amzn.to/1REtCv1

The coolers are high enough to hold soda cans upright, but not a bicycle water bottle or bottled water in the upright position. We have 3 colors, they stack right under the dinette for when traveling, we will bring 2-3 of them as needed. One tote, has drinks in it - so the children can open it as much as they want. We will either get ice or keep ice packs rotating out of the freezer. The second tote has vegetables for the day and the third one if needed can either have meat in it for our cooking for the day or snacks. But by having the coolers, it puts everything for the day outside by the picnic table and my cooking station so I am not going in and out of the Clipper with one or two things in my hand. Also it keeps the kids from opening and closing my refrigerator as I said earlier.

For having friends join us, I lay out ground rules. I explain that space is limited and I have everything they need except for pillows and clothing. I let them know that I have towels, toys etc. Then I let them know that space is also limited for food. Often I have found if I ask them to pitch in and bring specific things it keeps the person more contained. So I might ask them to bring one bag of there favorite snack, chips, pretzels, etc. Of course I tell them wine is unlimited and the more the merrier

I let them know if they want water that I have a Britta pitcher, water in the RV tanks, and a 5 Gallon camp dispenser (again, I don't want the kids running water and filling my tanks if we don't have too). I tell them if they have a drink they want, they can bring a 6 pack or 2- 1 liter bottles.

Then we talk about the meal planning - here is my google doc I use, if you want a PDF let me know, I can email it to you. Your also welcome to download the google doc. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p-z7EFEvcvW2p4KOD5fYw6xlSkaw_uPv5qHzqwsFVTQ/edit?usp=sharing
I often do the entire meal plan with my spreadsheet and then tell the person what they can bring to contribute that fits into the meal plan, that seems to limit random food from showing up with guests. The meal planning for camping is based around about 10 meals that my family really likes and I usually only fix when camping so the recipes don't get old and the kids always like them. I do try to find new ideas, but with young kids and food sensitivity it kind of limits us in a good way by not having much processed or junk food when camping.

What I find works best for food, is pre-chopping and putting into ziplocs as much as possible so I have less work at campground. I have found that pre-cutting fruit is not a good idea for a long camping trip, because it all went mushy. I usually bring just enough meat to make the meal, with the exception of hot dogs (hubby always thinks there's more room for hot dogs.) I have also really gotten into using the slow cooker when we are camping with electricity, I love being able to dump everything in go play with the kids all day and then come back to the camp with our main dish all ready and hot.

When my friends show, and if they show with extra food - we go through it and I will leave behind what doesn't work and just let them know there is not enough room. I think just being able to throw down the hammer and saying no is the hardest part and not getting extra food on board before the trip begins. I think the meal plan helps and assigning food for the person to bring is super helpful.

Side bar topic outside of food:
for organizing the inside of the Clipper, especially with guest - I have three small pop up containers, one is used for a trash can next to the picnic table. Another is used for dirty laundry, I put it on the drivers seat, I give one to our guests to try and keep all the kids clothes from being sprawled all over the RV. I also keep a 14 gallon rubber maid tote with a lid http://amzn.to/1RTzNkp  in the RV, I usually have bed sheets in it when we are not camping, then I set up the beds and put the tote outside just below the hot water heater area and it holds all the shoes. That way, shoes don't come into the RV and they can sit in the campsite and stay dry if it rains outside.

[Toedtoes]

Your meal planning chart is pretty much the exact same as mine!    It works well.

I looked at those party coolers before my last group trip (I ended up going with a lunchbox style in the same line so it could sit in the cab with us for drinks and snacks).

For laundry, I have a hanging fabric laundry bag that hangs easily over the shower head.  It has a metal rim (removable) so it stays open - makes it real easy to toss dirty stuff in, and then I just grab the entire thing and bring it in to the laundry room for washing. The bag goes right in the wash also so it's always fresh and new.

With kids, the drink cooler and a snack cooler is pretty much necessary - they eat and drink constantly (especially teenage boys). 

I do think you're right in that it's about saying NO before you go.  I tend to want to make the trip fun for everyone and don't want to antagonize folks right at the start.  But, after spending a weekend with making it good for everyone else and no one making any effort to make it good for me, I'm at the point where if they don't like it they can stay home...

Oh, for condiments and such that I use very little of (no kids in the house, don't really eat sandwiches and burgers at home, etc.), I have started buying individual packets from www.minimus.biz.    The salad dressing last about 3 months without refrigeration, the rest last one year.  I do put them in the fridge and have a small caddy to carry the ketchup, mayo, mustard, relish - I just grab the caddy and bring it into the house in between trips, then pop it in the RV fridge the night before we leave.  The dressings, I usually buy a few different flavors and then stick them in the small tray in the fridge door.  Nice for folks to be able to have their favorite dressing.  And I don't end up with a 3/4 filled bottle of a flavor I don't really like that much (I know ranch is popular, and I will eat it, but it's not in my top 10).