3. Getting Ready

Getting the van organised for the longest trip I have done so far means thinking about what sort of things I will eat, what I need to cook the food and where new items will be stored in the van.

I need to store fresh food, so I invested in an Alpicool fridge/freezer. Whilst travelling, it fits neatly behind the passenger seat and plugs into the cigarette lighter socket to cool while I travel. When parked up, it lifts easily and sits on top of the dog crate in the passenger seat where I can access the contents as required. I am hoping that this will enable me to prepare good meals and store leftovers, so I can cook once and eat twice, reducing gas usage and food waste.

Whilst away for a couple of nights in the summer I realised that draining pasta was tricky, so I bought a sieve, a small metal one that sits inside the pan. I also bought a mini food chopper (where you pull a string and the blade spins, chopping the food), and a cute lemon juicer with a container underneath to catch the juice. A lot of things that I cook use lemon or lime juice so I wanted to make that easy.

I have also found an organic, gluten free oat milk powder which actually tastes nice. I put some in a small pot and take it wherever I go so I can always have a cup of tea. I will take a jar in the van, large enough to make 250ml of milk so I can have cereal for breakfast if I choose. Make it up in advance and keep it in the fridge so it is nice cold, just the way I like it.

Will report on how all this worked and what interesting food I managed to prepare while I was away in my next blog entry.