Australia So Much to See
I am not a talented cook, so what I make is fairly basic and from ordinary ingredients. When we are caravanning, we are on holidays,
and I do not intend to spend good touring time working in the kitchen. We also do not spend a huge budget on food.
We
are on the move most days, and when staying at one place we usually to do walks or day trips so we often spend a long day away from
the caravan, and may return rather tired. I like cooking food to make good healthy meals with little preparation time and minimal
washing up. Recipes are adaptable to what is on hand. Very few convenience products or prepared meals are purchased as these are often
high in salts and sugars.
Breakfast:
We don’t often have a cooked breakfast such as bacon and eggs as we usually want to get on the road or start out early on a walk. Most mornings it is a quick and easy breakfast of cereal. Weet Bix is our preferred cereal, as it takes up little room and is cost effective as well as being a nutritious cereal without too much added sugar.
Cereal with canned or dried fruit and UHT milk
Creamy porridge is welcome on cold mornings. Quantities for two people hereunder. Vary water according to your preferred thickness of porridge.
¾ cup quick cooking oats
3
cups boiling water
Bringing back to the boil will further decrease time cooking next morning.
Before cooking next morning, add one or two spoonfuls of low fat milk powder.
Simmer while stirring until porridge thickens. I stir ours for five minutes after bringing to the boil as we like a soft smooth and creamy porridge.
Lunch:
A simple lunch is prepared and taken into the car fridge. This can be corned beef and salad, salad rolls or sandwiches
with the filling placed in just prior to eating to maintain freshness, flavoured tuna in sandwiches, or cheese and cracker biscuits
(substitute crispbreads, corn or rice thins, or wraps such as Mountain Bread). Fresh fruit when available.
In cold
weather, we can have pies heated in the twelve volt pie warmer. This takes some hours and is best when planning to drive
all morning as when we stop to take a walk, turning off the ignition also turns of power to the cigarette lighter which powers the
pie warmer. This is not suitable if going on very rough roads as the pies will break up.
I keep a plastic tub in the car with a tray, chopping board, sharp knife with a round point for spreading butter or margarine, cups, plates # and plastic cutlery, paper towels, pepper and salt, cracker or crispbread biscuits, as well as sweet biscuits for snacks. This tub also includes an insulated 'six pack' size soft carry case which can hold the square plates #'', cups and lunch to take on long walks. We keep hand wipes (like Wet Ones) in the glove or console box of the car. Washing up is usually just wiping the crumbs off the plates with paper towels. Even the knife comes clean with the paper.
# Two litre icecream container lids make
ideal lunch plates as they pack easier than larger round picnic plates.
Evening meal:
If we have been driving all day rather than doing anything energetic, or if our day has been too exhausting to want to cook and eat a big meal, packet instant soup is our stand by; accompanied by toast, crumpets or freshly made damper. Scrambled eggs or baked beans on toast are other quick and easy options when stopping late and tired.
Cooked meals are similar to our normal meals at home, although when travelling we rarely have roasts or other longer cooking time meals due to time constraints, and I prefer to use only one or two pots to minimise washing up. We have not invested in a thermal slow cooker such as Dream Pot.
For easy storage in the freezer and quick cooking we carry more mince than other meat; I cook one pot mince and vegetable meals for simplicity often served with rice or pasta. Dehydrated vegetables are ideal cooked with mince when the supply of fresh vegetables has run out. See more tasty ways to use mince.
If there is enough mince and vegetables left over, we can
have jaffles the next evening, or with frozen puff pastry make a pie. I also prepare mince and vegetables to take with us
when camping away from the caravan for a day or two and have hot jaffles ready soon after coming back from a sightseeing walk.
If you have a camp fire (weather permitting) jaffles are an ideal easy to cook meal. If you are travelling with your children
they will love making jaffles on an open fire.
Baked bean jaffles or baked beans on toast on days when a large meal is not required.
Stir fry meals such as chicken and vegetables, served with rice or with two minute noodles
stirred through the sauce before serving. A packet of instant cream of chicken or mushroom soup dissolved in half a cup of hot
water with a little soy and/or chilli sauce added poured over the stir fry and brought to the boil before serving makes a tasty addition.
Sausages cooked either in the large fry pan, or outside on a camp barbecue. Sometimes steak or chops if they have been recently purchased cooked similarly. Hot vegetables or salad vegetables to accompany.
Curried sausages are quick and easy. Cut the sausages into bite sized portions and fry with sliced onion. Add diced potatoes and other vegetables; which can include carrot, peas, corn kernels, mushrooms, cauliflower or what ever is on hand. Cover with water, add some soy sauce and a few teaspoons of curry powder according to taste. Simmer while cooking rice then thicken remaining water with a spoonful of cornflour.
Canned tuna or salmon can be used to make a kedgeree with left over cooked rice and a few vegetables, made into fish patties or fish mornay.
Rice can also be used for sweet corn and rice patties using canned sweet corn or freshly cooked corn kernels from a frozen packet. Left over boled rice is ideal.
Another tasty tuna meal: Spread
a can of tuna in an oven browning dish, add any cooked vegetables such as diced potato, carrot, sweet potato, pumpkin, green vegetables,
lightly fried onions and sliced mushrooms. Tip over a can of cream of chicken soup slightly diluted. Top with grated cheese
and brown in the oven.
Frozen fish fillets fried and served with mashed potato or wedges cooked in the oven. Fresh fish if we have been successfully fishing even better.
Vegetables (any available) and ten minute pasta and sauce mix cooked together then topped with grated cheese and browned under the grill is nice meal without the need for meat and is quick to cook.
Zucchini Cheese Puffs are another meat free alternative. Mix together one grated
zucchini, a cup of grated cheese and a cup of self raising flour with two beaten eggs, adding pepper and salt to your taste. Place tablespoonfuls of mixture onto an oiled oven tray or a heated oiled stove top frypan or barbecue hotplate. Bake in oven
at 200° for twenty minutes or turn during cooking in pan or on hotplate.
We have yoghurt with canned
fruit for sweets most evenings, or just fresh fruit when available.
Our only concession to a roast dinner is
a take away roast chicken, if late in the day we are driving through a town where these are sold. To accompany the
chicken I par-boil potatoes, pumpkin and sweet potato before placing in the oven with the chicken so they brown in the juice while
the chicken is thoroughly re-heated. Green vegetables can be boiled in the pot and even the same water the potatoes and
pumpkin were boiled in. A very tasty roast chicken dinner prepared quickly with little work for the cook.
Our snacks are more likely to be cracker biscuits, sweet biscuits, peanuts, dried fruit or any other snacks that travel and keep
well.
Muffins can be made quickly and easily, so I carry silicon muffin pans although cup cake papers can be used. No electric mixer is required.
Ingredients
One cup self raising flour, half a cup of sugar, a tablespoon of milk
powder, one egg (whisked), almost half a cup of water, adding a tablespoon of cooking oil if wanting to keep them for more than one
day.
Method
Whisk the egg with a small whisk together with the water and oil before adding to the dry ingredients. These can be flavoured as desired, including adding cocoa and choc chips, sliced glace cherries and toasted coconut for cherry choc
muffins. Grated lemon rind (zest) is another flavouring I like.
Cooking
Cook for twenty minutes in a moderate oven.
Double the quantity if you are expected a number of guests and you have a standard sized oven. My oven is too small to cook a larger batch all at the one time.
In season, you may be offered huge Zucchinis. What do you do with them when travelling? After all, there is only so much
you can cook on the barbecue.
This easy recipe is popular in my family, even amongst the “zucchini haters”. It does
not require an electric mixer; you can use it to cream the oil, eggs, zest and sugar easily using a whisk.
This is a big
batch of mixture, which can be scaled down to make only one or two loaf cakes.
Zucchini Cake (loaf or muffins)
Ingredients
3 cups SR flour (500 grams)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon
ground cloves
1 cup canola oil (250 mls)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind (optional)
2 cups packed sugar (500 grams)
3
cups packed grated zucchini (one large or two small zucchinis)
1 cup walnuts or pecans coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped dates, dried apricots or dried fruit of your choice
Method
Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
In another bowl, whisk together oil, eggs,
vanilla and zest until well blended; whisk in sugar until smooth. Stir in zucchini, then add flour mixture and stir until just combined.
Stir in walnuts and fruit.
Half fill oiled or lined loaf tins, cup cake papers or muffin trays. This will make three loaves or three
dozen cup cakes. Use one third of recipe for one loaf.
Cooking
Bake in a moderate oven (around 180°c) until a cake
tester inserted in centres comes out clean. Large loaves will takes 60 – 90 minutes whereas cup cakes will takes 20 – 30 minutes.
It is easier to remove this soft cake without it breaking if using silcon bakeware.
Can be iced with lemon icing (icing sugar, softened butter and lemon juice) if an iced cake is desired.
Being a moist cake, it will keep well over a few days (if it doesn't all get eaten first), or it can be refrigerated or frozen.
The above recipe was adapted from one given to me by a contributor to Nuttycake's Camp Kitchen on the Caravanners Forum
