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Old 06-26-2007, 06:04 PM   #1
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The wife and I are leaving this Saturday, in our 13fto Boler Lady-Bug, for a stay at a campground for a week and today the wife asked me what we were going to bring for food.

In my younger days when I was an advid hiker I could cram 5 days worth of food into a container that was 5 by12 by 8 inches but I know her idea of oatmeal for breakfast every day and dried fruit and cheese and some cured meat for lunch and a pkg. of rice or noodles will not cut it for her so I was wondering what everyone else brings for extended stays out camping.

Maybe you all just go out to eat every meal or buy every meal daily. I would like to know.

My freezer at home is filled with all kinds of beef, pork and chicken and I may take some and hope that the cooler will keep things frozen till I use it.

My fridge and freezer work just fine but it is just too small for a weeks worth of food.

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Old 06-26-2007, 09:38 PM   #2
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Plug in the trailer to shore power, turn the fridge to appropriate power setting and chill it down before hand. Take a good quality cooler (your call as to size) and chill it down with pre frozen ice packs. When you plan to leave, load the cooler with other prefrozen food stuffs and load the trailers fridge accordingly. You might want to also take along some freezer packs in your cooler to re-freeze (IF you can) at your destination. Failing that when you get to your destination, buy ICE for the cooler. Keep the cooler closed as much as you can and try to leave the melted ice in there (if possible) because cold/cool water is a better refridgerant than air!!!
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Old 06-26-2007, 11:15 PM   #3
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The wife and I are leaving this Saturday, in our 13fto Boler Lady-Bug, for a stay at a campground for a week and today the wife asked me what we were going to bring for food.
Gerry the canoebuilder
I do a lot of boondocking and everything that needs to be kept cool that I can freeze gets frozen in my deep freeze before I leave even the lunch meat. I have 3 well insulated coolers 2 for food an one just for extra ice.

I have been out for 8 or 9 days with no power and not had a problem with spoiled food and still had a few cool beers.

Enjoy your trip.
John
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Old 06-27-2007, 03:22 AM   #4
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I also pre-cool the frig and freeze whatever is appropriate. I start out with a nice supply of drinks in the frig, and then restock after the cool of the night. But mostly I try to keep the meals simple, and sometimes use canned meats. Running out of milk is my main problem. Well, that, and coming up with simple meals that actually taste good AND generate a minimum of dirty dishes. I don't like to bother with coolers and ice and such, but they might be necessary for more home-like cooking.

On one long backpacking trip years ago my husband talked me into bulgur and various freeze-dried meats for every dinner. It didn't weigh very much, but, UGH.
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Old 06-27-2007, 04:31 AM   #5
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On one long backpacking trip years ago my husband talked me into bulgur and various freeze-dried meats for every dinner. It didn't weigh very much, but, UGH.
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yea, I agree on that Freeze-Dried stuff
My hikeing buddy always took along one or two just to try and as I looked on his so called Gourmet Meal of meat/potato/vegi/ and even desert, eating my box of spiced up rice with some chunks of smoked meat in it for extra flavor, he would say..."Don't look so sad, your not missing much"

Once he even thew me some crumbs of his corn bread and he was right...ugh "no flavor and went down, with gulps of water, like sand-paper.

Guess the whole thing boils down to getting a better cooler.

The wife now owns an antique colman from back in the 60's and I been trying to get a newer one but she says "look how big they are and they are no bigger,even smaller inside then the one we got"

Can't make her understand the bulk is insulation to make it work.....
I guess I just have been home too long expecting a so called Sunday dinner every day of the week and have to get use to P/B/J sandwiches and water for lunches. ha ha ha.
Just kidding...I am hopeing the trout fishing will ge good enough for at least 4 or 5 meals

Gerry the canoebuilder
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Old 06-27-2007, 06:23 AM   #6
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When we got our Casita our kids gave us a 'Foodsaver' as a camper warming gift. It's great - . We plan most of our meals ahead and use the Foodsaver to vacum pack as much as possible - save a lot of space.


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Old 06-27-2007, 09:35 AM   #7
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There's ways to do things don't need a lot of "cooling" space. We do a lot of "one pot" meals.
Suggestions;
Study the prepared foods isle at your local store. Those things in boxes and bags.
Study the canned meats. You'd be surprised what's there.
Plan or semi plan your meals and look for ways to NOT take perishables.
Don't take loaves of bread, substitute tortitas. They take up less space and don't require refrigeration until opened.
Try to get stuff is containers small enough that you'll use it all when opened. Many things don't require refrigeration until open.


We have a 13' with the little refrigerator and find it has plenty of room. Breakfasts are usually pancakes or eggs with corned beef hash, scramble eggs with a canned ham and a couplle tortitas.

Lunchs are meat spread on tortitas, peanut butter on tortitas. String cheese or small cheeses. In cold weather a "cup of soup" will add that warm food.

Dinners are usually a box or bag meal with some added stuff.

One of great things about these small trailers is the similicity. Maybe meals need to be the same, simple and easy. Spend more time watching the birds, and the water roll over the rocks. Less time futzing with stuff.
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Old 06-27-2007, 10:50 AM   #8
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Byron- looked all over the grocery store and no one knew what tortitas were. Is that an Oregon thing?
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Old 06-27-2007, 10:58 AM   #9
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Lots of fruit and vegies (think the harder stuff like carrots and cabbage instead of lettuce; apples, oranges, melons instead of berries) will last a week with very little refrigeration. A cooler is great - or if you're near water, submerge a 'dry bag' with your perishables in the water.

We used to do this when kayaking - of course, the hold of a kayak on the ocean is near refrigerator temp anyway - we wrapped stuff in newspaper to keep the condensation down to prevent mold - cabbage, melons, and cheese would last over a week.

Cheese and eggs I trust for awhile in cool unrefrigerated conditions (organic ones last longer; farm fresh - where they haven't washed off all the natural coating last longest). For meat, I'd go with the advice on starting out with frozen or canned.

I use a high quality powdered milk and make it up as I need it. For cream in my coffee, I used canned. Not quite as good as fresh - but pretty darn close for camping.

It's harder if your travels take you out into the wilderness for the whole trip. Often, if I'm traveling between places in the summer, I'll restock fruit and vegies from farm stands - extremely yummy.
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Old 06-27-2007, 11:27 AM   #10
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Byron- looked all over the grocery store and no one knew what tortitas were. Is that an Oregon thing?
Greg, You are too funny. You don’t understand the Oregonian accent

Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortilla

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Old 06-27-2007, 02:22 PM   #11
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Byron- looked all over the grocery store and no one knew what tortitas were. Is that an Oregon thing?
Some of us aint quite got this Spanish thing down yet.
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Old 06-27-2007, 06:55 PM   #12
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Here's my list for a long camp out:

Cooler 1: Freezer packs on the bottom, then One "Big Meat" per day: to BBQ for supper. Steak, Chicken kabobs, Salmon, Pork tenderloin, Bratwurst, etc. "Small Meats" like weiners, bacon, ham for breakfast/brunch/lunch. "Sandwich Meats" like salami. If in butcher paper, first put in big freezer bag so don't get damp. Bag of ice cubes on top.

Cooler 2: Freezer packs on bottom, then cukes, red pepper, cottage cheese, sour cream, cheddar cheese, orange juice, eggs, tomatoes, nectarines: things that are "nice to be cold" but can be simply cool. Bag of cubed ice on top.

Food Box: Potatoes, carrots, onions, apples. Tins of soup, beans, corn, diced tomatoes, devilled ham, tuna, jars of salsa, mustard, peanut butter, jam. Boxes of crackers, KD, fettucini, etc. On top: bread, hot dog buns, hamburger buns, nacho chips. Note: when making up the bed, DO NOT crush the buns (It does NOT "taste the same" no matter what my hubby sez.)

Fridge: Milk to go (can reseal top and store sideways if needed) cans or plastic bottles of pop, and ketchup, relish packs from fast-food places, butter (in fridge door), white wine in box or bag, maple syrup. In freezer: small box of pre-made burgers (fits perfectly!) and a small freezer pack.

Overhead Cupboard: Coffee, tea, sugar, powdered milk, salt and pepper and to make home made biscuits or pancakes: flour, baking powder. Under sink/stove, more beverages in plastic or cardboard containers.

Now, as the ice melts, one must Manage the Coolers. Move ice bag from "nice to be cold" to "must be cold" as needed. If you want ice in your drink, tear open "nice to be cold" ice cube bag to use.

As you go, save fridge space to store left-overs from meals. (Yesterdays's sad small bacon leftovers are great crumbled on tonight's baked potatoe!) Exchange small freezer pack from cooler to freezer as needed. Bring freezer bags to wrap/contain leftovers in the event of crazy bumpy roads with lots of jostling and sloshing. (reference: The Revenge of the Chowder: lost in the hacking.)

If you do travel to Civilization and think you only need gas and milk, you are wrong: Given the chance, ALWAYS BUY ICE.
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Old 06-27-2007, 07:18 PM   #13
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One of the really nice parts of having a larger 3-way fridge, is the freezer expanse. I can get 5-6 ice cube trays in there with space leftover. Which, to me, is a better use of space than putting food in there. Because that way, I can constantly create ice for a food cooler or two...as necessary. (which I've done...when friends without the ability to create ice come along) Besides it's pretty special having ice cream when camping
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Old 06-28-2007, 04:56 AM   #14
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One of the really nice parts of having a larger 3-way fridge, is the freezer expanse. I can get 5-6 ice cube trays in there with space leftover.
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Donna: I to have a 3 way fridge but not as big as yours but I have a 24 ice cube tray but the cubes are about the size of a pea and do not last long in a glass of liquid .
CharlynnT: Thanks for a ready made menu I will print this out and adapt to our taste but the key to whole thing is a good cooler I guess and will pick one up regardless of what the wife says about its bulkyness.
Tell me do you all store these coolers outside when you get to your destination?
.
The small floor space in the Lady-Bug doesn't allow room down there but on the bunks, I set up just to have more shelf space for things also fills up fast with boxes and my guitar.
Got to start to get everything ready as we are off Saturday and it just seems that the "TO-DO before we leave" list just gets longer and longer as the time of departure gets closer.
Gerry the canoebuilder
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Old 06-28-2007, 12:32 PM   #15
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CharlynnT: Thanks for a ready made menu I will print this out and adapt to our taste but the key to whole thing is a good cooler I guess and will pick one up regardless of what the wife says about its bulkyness.
Tell me do you all store these coolers outside when you get to your destination?
.
Hey, Gerry

Yes, we usually have a cooler or two outside where they become "coffee tables." Pull them in at night (bears) and stack 'em up in the "hallway."
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Old 06-28-2007, 01:47 PM   #16
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Last year 5 of us (3 adults and 2 kids) went out to the Burningman Festival for 10 days in the Black Rock Desert, where there are NO stores to buy food and you can't really go in and out of the Event to drive all over and look for a store (Reno is 130 miles away) Basically we had to bring all of our food and water. On top of that, our dometic fridge only works on electricity, and there wasn't any. We basically had to use it as an icebox all week-and out there it gets around 95 every day (or hotter) with little or no shade.

We bought one of those 5 day coolers for the trip (we already had an old Coleman) and bought a 24 pack of bottled water and 3 of those gallon jugs of bottled water and put them all in our home freezer for a couple of days. We took them out after they were frozen solid and used them to keep everything cold. It was nice because the food didn't get all wet and soggy floating around in melted ice water. The frozen waterbottles also stayed frozen a lot longer than ice cubes would have, and when the water in them was pretty much melted we still had a nice cold bottle of water to drink. We used about 4 or 5 of the smaller bottles in the door racks of our "icebox" to keep the milk and butter and cheese and fresh fruit cold and put the rest of them in our 5 day cooler to keep the perishable foods cold. We only opened the 5 day cooler full of perishable foods once or twice a day and transfered the next day's meals and drinks into the less insulated cooler (that we were in an out of all day) in the evenings after it had cooled down. Every day the icebox frozen bottles of water thawed out a little, so we could drink cold ice water all day long.

We also pre-cooked our meals for the most part and then froze them all along with the water. Since they were in the Coleman the day we were going to eat them, they weren't frozen rock-hard (some were even thawed) when we cooked them, which helped out a lot because we only had one bottle of propane to cook with for the 10 days.

The perishable foods lasted pretty well in the 5 day cooler for about 7 days since we pretty much only opened that cooler once a day. We also brought along a little tent to store it in so it wouldn't be in the direct sunlight all day long, and put that tent up where it would be in the shade of our camper all afternoon.

Some really great meals don't even need to be kept cold. Betty Crocker has these great boxed meals with canned "Chicken n Dumplings" and "Chili and Cornbread" in the grocery aisle near the Hamburger Helper. One or two of our end of the week meals included "Mung" made with Past-Roni and canned chicken. There is also a type of meal called "Tastee Bites" (I find it in the "Cultural foods" aisle ofthe grocery store) which is a full meal in a metallic pouch that doesn't need to be refrigerated. When you are ready to eat it you can just put it out in the sun on your table and it will be warm for lunch (warning-some of those meals are pretty spicy since I think they are prepared and packaged as Indian Cuisine for the most part!) I also prefer canned fruits and vegetables for camping-it is too hard to steam fresh or frozen vegies out in the desert. We tend to be pretty lazy since we don't want to spend all of our vacation time cooking!
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Old 06-28-2007, 02:28 PM   #17
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There is also a type of meal called "Tastee Bites" (I find it in the "Cultural foods" aisle of the grocery store) which is a full meal in a metallic pouch that doesn't need to be refrigerated.
We LOVE Tastee Bites! Too bad they cost so much, but they're so delicious, and so convenient - great for camping! One of our favorites is the Bombay potatoes.

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Old 06-28-2007, 07:59 PM   #18
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Several of the guys in my Land Rover club have the Engel/ARB portable coolers. They run off 12 volts but they have a very low current draw and will run off a deep cycle battery for a week. They will almost run off a mid sized solar panel. These aren't those electric coolers that Coleman and others sell for around $200 - they cost around $600-$700 but they are extensively used on expeditions in South Africa and Australia. They will freeze water even in 90 degree weather. I'm considering replacing the 3-way fridge in my Boler with one of these if I can't get the Dometic working right.
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Old 06-28-2007, 10:02 PM   #19
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Several of the guys in my Land Rover club have the Engel/ARB portable coolers. They run off 12 volts but they have a very low current draw and will run off a deep cycle battery for a week. They will almost run off a mid sized solar panel. These aren't those electric coolers that Coleman and others sell for around $200 - they cost around $600-$700 but they are extensively used on expeditions in South Africa and Australia. They will freeze water even in 90 degree weather. I'm considering replacing the 3-way fridge in my Boler with one of these if I can't get the Dometic working right.
Jack,

I'm intrigued...I looked up these Engel/ARB's and they look really great! How are you thinking of installing it in your Boler? It seems to sit with a lift up lid like a traditional cooler. Can it sit on it's side like a refer? Tell me more!!!

Sharon
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Old 06-29-2007, 12:03 AM   #20
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just in case you need to know what can be really interesting. just do a google for half safe
. Its a totally unbelievabls thing. Its bad enough to pay what we do for fuel, but what about a hurricane? lovely honeymoon. and if you read the book, you'll find a valve job in the middle of the Atlantic too. So just pick up a deli chicken and have fun, lol

.
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