Cooking in your CampEasy van – a few tasty recipes

You’ve purchased your flights, reserved your Camp Easy rental, and plotted out your route. Congratulations! Now all you need to figure out is what you’re going to cook on your road trip! 

Cooking in a camper van can be a challenge, but it also can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your entire trip. Being able to cook inside your van will allow you a lot of freedom as you travel about the country. It will also save you a ton of money. So if you are looking for some suggestions on what to cook in your Camp Easy van, then we’ve got a few ideas to help you get started.  

Make a Meal Plan

After seeing what’s available on the Camp Easy pantry shelf, you should start formulating a meal plan. Storage in the camper vans is limited and you won’t have room for a bunch of “just-in-case” items, so come up with a plan for what you want to eat. It doesn’t have to be exact (you will have places to resupply along the way), but a little bit of preparation goes a long way

Keep breakfast and lunches simple:​ We usually wanted to get up and going in the morning, so we opted for relatively quick no-cook breakfasts. Skyr & granola and instant oatmeal packets were common breakfasts. We had a similar keep-it-simple strategy for lunch as well, which allowed us to keep exploring without disrupting the tempo of the day. Hummus, tuna salad, and bread were common lunches. The main goal of these meals was to reduce prep & clean up time.

Enjoy the Dinner Experience​: In the evenings, we stayed at an established campground (as per Icelandic law). This means we had access to hot water dishwashing stations every night. So if we ever wanted to make a slightly more elaborate meal, we would do it for dinner. It is a lot easier to make something special when you know you have access to a nice big sink with lots of hot running water. (The vans do come with a small kitchen sink, but they do not have hot running water.) 

Visit a Bonus for Ingredients

There are lots of different places to pick up groceries in Iceland, but the one we visited the most was Bonus. They have a good selection of items and very reasonable prices. If you were looking for a one-stop place to do your grocery shopping for your trip, we would highly recommend going to Bonus.   * Be sure to bring a jacket. The produce, meats, and dairy sections are in refrigerated rooms, so if you are taking your time examining ingredients and prices, it can get chilly quick!  

Minimize Trash from Groceries

A lot of your groceries will come in plastic wrapping or cardboard boxes. Once you get everything out to your van, we suggest removing any unnecessary packaging and throwing it away immediately (in the trash can in front of the store). There is limited space in the van for trash and you don’t want to be carrying it around with you. This is the easiest time to discard it.  

Cooking on Your Trip – Some Recipe Inspirations 

While we kept our breakfasts and lunches relatively simple, we did come up with a few interesting dinner ideas.   

Breakfast:  

• Skyr & Granola
• Instant Oatmeal Packets
• Pastries & Jam
• Scrambled Eggs

Lunch:  

• Store-bought tuna salads or hummus with bread
• Instant Soups
• Hot dogs

Cooking Dinners

Chicken Pesto Pasta with Tomatoes and Store-made Pesto

Ingredients:
Chicken (thighs or breast)
Pasta (dry or fresh)
Cherry tomatoes
Pesto (store-bought)
Cheese
Oil, salt & pepper  

Cook chicken with a little bit of oil in a skillet, then chop and set aside. Boil pasta according to the package directions, then drain if needed. Add tomatoes and pesto, chicken, and top with cheese. 

Indian Simmer Sauce Curry Chicken with Naan

Ingredients:
Chicken (thighs or breast)
Onion
Bell pepper
Jar of curry simmer sauce
Naan bread or rice
Oil, salt & pepper 

Chop up an onion and a bell pepper, then sauté both in some oil in a skillet until the vegetables starts to soften. Then add chicken pieces, and cook. Once the chicken has nearly cooked through, add a jar of store-bought curry or tikka masala sauce and simmer until the chicken is done. Serve with rice or store-bought naan. 

Salmon, Potatoes, and Spinach

Bonus sells packages of par-boiled potatoes, which you will need for this recipe. Alternatively, you can boil potatoes on the side using your Camp Easy saucepot.

Ingredients:
Par-boiled potatoes
Onion
Garlic
Fresh Spinach
Salmon filets
Oil, salt & pepper  

In one skillet, cook chopped onion and par-boiled potatoes in some oil, until the potatoes are soft. Add minced garlic towards the end. Once the garlic is fragrant, reduce the heat and stir in fresh spinach until it wilts.  Meanwhile, cook the salmon in a second skillet. Over medium, warm some oil or butter. Place the salmon skin-side down and cook until crispy. Once the salmon is nearly cooked (about 6 minutes), flip and cook 1-2 minutes more. 

Hot Dog Pasta Carbonara

Ingredients:
Hot dogs
Pasta (dry or fresh)
Eggs 
Cheese
Oil, salt & pepper

In a cup, beat 1 egg per person until smooth. Grate a tablespoon of cheese per person into the egg and set aside. Chop hotdogs (1 per person) into bite-sized pieces, then cook in a bit of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once they begin to brown, remove and set aside. Cook the pasta in the skillet according to the package directions. When they have cooked through, drain nearly all the water off, but do save about ¼ cup to help make the sauce. Slowly add the egg & cheese mixture to the pasta, stirring so it blends with the pasta water to make a sauce. If needed, cook over a very gentle heat so a smooth sauce forms – but do not overcook or you will end up with scrambled eggs! Toss with the hot dogs, additional cheese, and ground pepper.