Van Life 101: How to Cook When Living in a Van

in the beginning I actually wash dishes and I got really tired of that said I'm not doing that anymore hi everyone welcome back to my next video today we're going to answer a question that I've gotten a lot over the years and that is how do you cook do you cook in your van is it safe to cook in your van what kind of foods do you cook in your van how much will it cost me to cook in my van so that's what I'm gonna do today I'm going to answer as many of those questions as I can will begin a longer series on how the kind of foods I cook and how much they cost that will be an ongoing thing this will cover the basics of cooking in your van I moved into my van because I had just gone through a divorce and my income while adequate as a family when it's had to support two households it could not so I moved into the van and eliminate eliminated my house payments on my part I still of course was support paying to support my ex-wife and the kids and so I learned right away that if I didn't cook I was going to spend a lot of money every month going out to eat and I and that defeated the whole purpose I wanted to be able to save money at least to survive and so I decided well I had to cook now I've been a camper in a backpacker all my life I mean I've always had my first stove backpacking stove was a Svea one two three some of you will know what that means still around I believe great little stove so I knew how to cook I had always gone camping I'd had Coleman Stowe's one and two burners so I knew how to cook this was just going camping that's what people fail to realize when you move into a van or a car you're just going camping except it's going camping for the rest of your life so whatever you did to cook while you were going camping you do while you're living in your van in your car of course you have an RV you have a whole system you don't need any of this but let me cover the basics so it's really simple here is what I do have done nearly all of my cooking in the last 16 years I've lived in a van now for 16 years and this is how I've done my cooking on a coleman's propane camping stove this is a one burner and I love this thing you can see it's very broad very flat very low to the ground so it it's not in the least bit tipsy I've been very very pleased with this stove now you can get a two burner stove if you cook enough to need two burners it'll be much larger it would still fit on here I believe but I don't need a two burner I just use the one in fact now I'm cooking with a microwave and will cover a microwave cooking in a little bit on in future videos not today and that is something has taken over pretty much for cooking on this but I'm gonna tell you how to cook on this because most of you won't have a microwave and any rate I love these this is what I recommend it's 32 dollars on Amazon I'll put a link in at the bottom one thing you'll notice right away is there's no green bottle here instead there is a hose that goes down and around and I have a two gallon bottle a two and a half gallon bottle underneath this unit when I built this van I built this unit two to be my kitchen my cooking center so I got a flat area for the stove now for his cooking just cooking a green bottle will work fine but I use this for heat as well and you can't use green bottles for heat it's too expensive so it has to be hooked up if you're just cooking I you wouldn't have to bother with any of that just the green bottles the green bottle will ask you a week or two depending on how much are cooking your cooking elaborate meals it may go faster but I can't imagine a green bottle wouldn't last a week cooking and doing the kind of cooking that I do really simple stuff I can't imagine wouldn't last a week or two and maybe more cooking is not much in propane so if you burn a bottle a week that's three dollars in fuel if you get him at Walmart and that's not bad so that's how I do that this just sits here it lives here all the time but before I had this van and this you shelf unit from my kitchen I have I can kick cook on outside you can carry a table and cook outside if you don't want to cook inside I estimated I've cooked I cooked a meal a day at least for ten years that's a minimum that's that's four thousand meals I have cooked probably between three and four thousand meals inside a van I have never had the slightest problem and I don't have the slightest problem doing it that somewhere on here do not use inside but and and so that is the safety rule and you should follow them and like I've told you before I have magical powers that allow me to cook on this inside and use it for heat and I don't die but I have magical powers and you don't hahahaha so my advice to you is not to cook inside cook outside unless you want to take that risk completely on your own I'm not taking any liability you're breaking safety rules if you cook inside to me the risk is so minor I don't hesitate again three to four thousand meals cooked inside a van you're watching you're gonna take you to cook five minutes ten minutes and and how much propane and carbon or carbon monoxide could you possibly put in near if it was all carbon monoxide so I just think it's a minor issue it's not something I'm gonna give worry any thought to you should not cook inside the van because you will almost certainly die if you do I have a shelf so I have the top and I have about a six-inch shelf which I measured to hold all the stuff I needed to hold so I just have a standard you know this is just a standard plastic box from Walmart you got to have a can opener no matter what you got to have some knives you got to have a spatula I mean you got this in your home if you're at home living at home this is stuff you should all have you just get a box you throw it on there and you're ready to go camping that's what you would do what if you went camping I do like to keep a big knife this is kind of a bread knife it's heavily serrated and it cuts it cuts through things pretty well I like those I always keep extra Leiter's I do keep extra lighters the cheap ones actually work best oddly I think I keep scrubbies you know you're gonna clean sometimes I'm not very often doing so clean I will use a big one of these but I rarely use one of those and of course I do keep a set of measuring cups on hand because I do occasionally have to measure things not very often but often enough that I'm gonna keep them on hand this is just the stuff you've got in your kitchen and you're using there's no difference between using it here and using it there so here's all this is just the standard stuff that I keep and you're gonna have and you're gonna keep them - it's no big it's not the slightest big deal now how many pots and pans and what kind now there's no one answer for this everyone is different everyone cooks differently everyone has different issues with safety some would not use aluminum under any conditions some would not use Teflon or nonstick coatings under any conditions stainless steel or cast iron cast iron is too heavy I don't carry cast iron but I know many of you do and will and that's great I'm encourage you to carry whatever works for you we're all individuals we all do what we individually feel like works for us and that if art works for you I'm all in favor of you doing it here's what I'm doing this is my pots and pans they're all nested they fit under this shelf well everything my whole kitchen is in this little shelf you know I'll start with the smallest so here's a just a standard you know it's it's Teflon I'm a big fan of Teflon I use Teflon that's just a standard old 1 quart pot now this I will make cans of chili canned stew canned soup and I will use this on on the stove and of course you have a lid because it's going to cook faster if you use the lid and so it's just a standard pot it's easier to clean now I do carry a larger pot I do make you know I'll make something like spaghetti or Hamburger Helper or some of those things so I do carry a larger pot this is just another standard you know I mean you've all seen these before I like Teflon there is a help there's a real health risk I'm not denying that with Teflon yes it's not eating the stuff it's it's the stuff as a nerd you can eat then and a little bit will flake off and so little that's not even an issue the health risk is fumes these things put out a fume which is proven has been proven to be cancerous it only puts out the fume under high heat so if you always have a serf something on it so the surface doesn't get above I think it's like six six hundred degrees I'm not a I'm not an expert do your own research decide for your own self if this is safe I'm not telling you what to do telling you this is what I think and what I do and so if you just keep it covered it won't get that hot it'll get to 300 degrees on it on I think on a stove so I carry these two things for a bigger meal spaghetti I will make spaghetti I will have friends over I'll make spaghetti for a group a pot of big pot of beans whatever and a small one and why why not just the one this one will do everything so why not just one just the one big one will do all the jobs I want done because it's harder to clean up it takes more fuel and if I do put a can of chili in here it can be done really quick and also what I would like to do what I like to do is I make egg sandwiches and I will just spray this with Pam cooking spray nonstick cooking spray and then break two eggs in here scramble them just a little bit and and and then cook that and then turn it and there I've got a an egg sandwich so I use this for that purpose as well to me it's worth carrying it it's weighs almost nothing and it's worth carrying both at some point I may give up seems like I'm not spaghetti and big meals hardly ever it might be time to get rid of this but we'll see but my mom bought a set of these and when I you know I spend a whole bunch of time with my mom while she's been on you know she's had some health problems and I love this thing it is better than any stick and there's no Teflon it's just a ceramic coating that looks copper is what really isn't copper is what I'm told but it's copper looking so we can call copper can't we and so I love this thing now I'll make I can make easily make 2 or 4 grilled cheese sandwiches if I have friends over I can make four hamburgers in here I love the way that four hamburgers fit inside if I'm making Hamburger Helper it cooks in here you can make almost anything in here I'm a big fan of this I really love this and somewhere I took out and have the lid for it so I like this I like this a lot so I've eliminated Teflon I don't think ceramic has any of the health issues that these other things have and when I store it I don't want to store them and have them scratch each other to pieces so I just put a I put something like this in here of course you got to have you know you got to have mitts and hot plates and so those go in here and this goes in here and I got to have one in here too so I don't want my I don't want my Teflon getting all scratched up and again I understand if you hate Teflon and you're gonna write in and tell me I'm gonna die because I use Teflon I do have done the research it is hell it is unhealthy and I understand all of that so then that goes in here and I know it's not going to scratch it up and then the lids go in there and it goes underneath so that's my pots in my pants I used to cook everyday I had a menu that I planned out for the week in the month and made sure I had the foods on hand for it but I've stopped doing that now with a microwave I do most of my cooking microwave now thing I've left out here there are other options and in the past I've carried them a pressure cooker is a superb tool if you like if you're willing to do the cooking and make beans and rice you can you can live so cheaply on beans and rice or if you buy a really cheap roast and you put it in a pressure cooker and pressure cook it it will come out of there falling apart it will use less fuel it will cook faster pressure cookers are it you learn how to use them you handle them right there 100% safe there was a period of time after World War two when metal was so hard to find that they made really cheap bad ones and they got a bad reputation as blowing up and hurting people and that's not true anymore today they're made to high standards and they're completely safe and they are a phenomenal tool I don't have one anymore I've had one and I've used it I just don't want to spend that much of my life cooking so I don't but if you are willing if you're willing to buy us good one or two quart pressure cooker make your own beans and rice and and your own grains cook your own grains for breakfast and you could save a lot of money and he really well for really really cheap so I'm a big fan of pressure cookers now I don't I hate doing dishes okay let's talk about doing dishes 99% of my dishes are washed with a roll of paper towel and a spray bottle so how am I gonna clean this here's how I do my dishes I would I would first I would just wipe out all all of the excess that you can you know you can get out probably 90% of it just wiping it down good it's not gonna be clean but it's gonna be washed down really good basics done and then I would do a quick spray like that keep at it so a second one now and then it's still not gonna be clean yet I don't think so I got I only buy the I only buy brownie towel with the any towel but I buy brawny and it has the two so that's a smaller one so I'm not waste so much I'll probably use three of these no more than four of these to get to get anything clean so one more time with water you know you can see it's just a spray I can cook dishes with a quart of water like this for a month this just uses no water again just wiping it out that's all I'm doing here just just taking it and wiping it out now it's probably clean if you don't use it again for a day or two or three germs don't live well outside of out you know out exposed to the air and so the germs are gonna die if there's anything in there it's gonna die and now then I would use a final antiseptic and in the past I have used vinegar I have used rubbing alcohol and they are both very good and now I have a friend now who buys the cheapest vodka that she can fills a spray bottle so she'll have a spray bottle of water and a spray bottle of vodka and then she will spray it all with vodka and it again a quart will last you I don't know how long the court lasts I it is it lasts so long that I've never been able to keep one and measure how long I guess I could write it down I lose a piece of paper a Florida limp tea it would last a long time it's just one quick skirt squirt and then you you'll let it sit in there and do its job and then you do a final again just a final wipe down of all the out of the vodka or vinegar I know people who do hydrogen peroxide and vinegar they do vinegar and then hydrogen peroxide and I guess there's actually been some research that shows the two together are quite a good antiseptic or a rubbing alcohol but I didn't like the smell of rubbing alcohol so I never used it I stopped using it here's what I'm doing right now it's Clorox anywhere hard surface cleaner and the idea behind it is it's bleach that's all it is it's just a set percentage of bleach that is safe for anything they say it is safe kills 99.9% of bacteria but it's gentle enough to be used around kids pets and food so if if wouldn't you if you have a baby tray and you the last thing you do is wipe it spray it with this it's gonna be completely dead inert of all the kill all the germs and then it's not going to hurt the baby at all if there is a residue so then I would just if I'm especially if I've cooked meat or eggs things that are going to be can't really be dangerous I will give it a final squirt and then again just another piece of paper towel just another piece of paper towel and wipe it all out and it's done and so I've been doing the spray bottle I can't even remember at least 10 years more than 10 years and it's I've never had the slightest stomach distress from food from not cleaning in any way shape or form it just worked really really well for me it's something I highly recommend it takes it eliminates it just essentially takes this bad job away of washing dishes and uses virtually no water I mean ounces per for dishwashing so there you have it I mean it's just it really is so simple to live in a van and cook alrighty I'll stop there I hope this helps if it did like us on YouTube hit that thumbs up button and subscribe to the channel and we'll talk to you later [Music]

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 249,557

Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, snowbird, caravan, tiny, house, tribe, RTR, adventure, cooking, coleman stove, microwave, copper, pan, cook

Id: iPex8wJmO_A

Length: 19min 32sec (1172 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 03 2018