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Tips: Making Class A Meals in a Class B

| Updated Mar 8, 2015

There are great RV cookbooks out there. However, in a Class B there is little storage room for the turkey roaster, Hobart mixer, double boiler, waffle iron, and toaster.  Actually, between the two-burner propane stove and a microwave, you really do have all you need for cooking great meals.  We greatly prefer cooking on gas (we have a gas cooktop and an electric oven at home – the perfect combination).  We don't use the oven often at home except when cooking for crowds, so we don't need one in our camper where the space is limited.   “How do you cook in that cute little kitchen?” asked the visitor. We'll list the cooking tools we use, then tell you our simplified menus.

Cooking Utensils
Basic Cooking Utensils – All you need.

Here are the kitchen utensils we actually use: silicone rubber spatula, small drainer spoon, and a small paring knife. A French waiter's corkscrew opens all adult beverages. We do carry a few other items that are not often used, and we have 6 servings of stainless steel flatware. We use mostly paper plates and bowls, but plastic cups for milk or juice.  We have a 4 service set of Corelle dishes if we want to impress our guests.

Two SkilletsTwo skillets serve the main cooking chores: The small one is an Emeril 8″ non-stick (the most durable of the brands we tried), and larger is a CSI 10″ non-stick camping type frying pan with a folding handle.  The larger skillet is not as nice, but with the folding handle it fits in the sink, which is important for clean up.  Thin flexible cutting boards have a width that just fits the sink and they store nicely between the slides on our pull out shelves under the stove.   Nothing is more frustrating than trying to wash something that doesn't fit into your sink.  Take that into account when choosing your kitchenware.

Shelf 1
First Shelf

The shelves under the sink hold our kitchenware.  We added ball bearing 100% pull out drawers to make things easy to get.  The two skillets, a saucepan, a blue silicon streamer and a collapsible bowl (inside the skittle) are on the first shelf. The silicon steamer is easy to clean and a great way to cook fresh or frozen veggies. We have a plastic bacon cooker for the microwave that usually rides in the microwave, but it fits in the empty spot on the first shelf.

Shelf 2
Second Shelf

The second shelf has a bigger pot with a strainer lid that can be used for pasta (which we rarely eat).  The crockpot is mostly for potluck preparations. A silicon steamer insert is rarely used any more because of the silicon steamer, and the MicroHearth.  The MicroHearth is a microwave cooker that will saute or fry meat.  For those that dislike cooking on the stove, a MicroHeath might be perfect.

Cutting Boards
Flexible cutting boards store between slides

Here's what we carry but don't often use: a tiny meat thermometer for grill use, corn on the cob handles, a solid plastic spoon, and a larger knife.  We also have a small square glass dish with two lids (glass lid and tight plastic cover) which can be used for serving or microwaving, a collapsible colander, and a big collapsible bowl which fit on the bottom shelf in the dishpan.  We could get by with less, but we have all we need for any occasion. Unused items are eliminated eventually.

Silverware Drawer
Everything fits nicely in the small drawer.

You won't find our recipes and menus anywhere, Of course we wouldn’t reveal that sometimes we heat a can of chunky soup for lunch on cold days. And have two pieces of Dove dark chocolate for dessert. Most of our lunches are low-carb tortilla rollups with salami, pastrami, ham or turkey, cheese, and a dill pickle slice. Water or pop quench thirst.  We carry almonds and apples for snacks.

Breakfast is low-carb. Scrambled eggs, bacon, coffee or milk and a banana. (No toast or muffin.)

Supper: sautéed pork, kielbasa, salmon, or chicken or hamburgers. Microwave in a bag vegetables mean we don't even dirty our great little steamer, salad with Italian dressing, ice cream. Grilled ribeye steak is for special guests. Our small Coleman grill uses its own propane cylinder.

Spice Box 2
The all important box of spices.

Lynn has a favorite delicious potluck dish whenever we are invited. Red potatoes are cut into bite size pieces and thrown into a gallon Ziploc bag along with 1/4 cup olive oil, a tablespoon of dill weed (or use Rosemary for a change), and a little seasoned salt and some garlic pepper. The mix is dumped into a Crockpot set for 4 hours on high if it is several hours to the meal. If the meal is 20 minutes away, the mixture is microwaved until almost completely cooked then dumped into the Crockpot set on high. There is never any left over. We realize there are a zillion wonderful recipes for Crockpot cooking. But heck, it's vacation!

Last night at Paynes Prarie State Park in FL we invited nearby campers in for maple nut ice cream. They brought and shared their own homemade maple syrup…yum, yum, yum! Even better, they left the remainder of the syrup with us.

Mike Wendland

Published on 2015-03-08

Mike Wendland is a multiple Emmy-award-winning Journalist, Podcaster, YouTuber, and Blogger, who has traveled with his wife, Jennifer, all over North America in an RV, sharing adventures and reviewing RV, Camping, Outdoor, Travel and Tech Gear for the past 12 years. They are leading industry experts in RV living and have written 18 travel books.

4 Responses to “Tips: Making Class A Meals in a Class B”

March 13, 2015at1:03 am, J. Gilbert said:

Loved seeing what you take and how it is stored.

March 08, 2015at5:20 pm, katyinnh said:

Hi Thanks for the great write-up.

I was wondering what type of grill you use and if you are happy with it? Thanks Katy

March 08, 2015at1:50 pm, Lynne said:

Many thanks, we just emptied our trailer in preparation for selling and couldn’t believe the crap we had accumulated over 10 years! We know that we truly have to downsize for our new to us 210P and you’ve given some great suggestions. Love your posts.

March 08, 2015at12:09 pm, Susan Hanna Read said:

What kind of coffee maker do you use? Thanks for the info!

Comments are closed.

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