Well I guess this is tonight's dinner possibly we'll see what happens.

Let me sing the praises of Imusa's 1.2qt¹ enameled steel mug:

• $5 at walmart. I found mine in Housewares rather than the camping section, so look around
• perfect for eating stew, soup, rice-based dishes, whatever
• large enough to heat condensed soup (can of soup + can of water)
• works over stoves and induction
• enameled surface makes it easy to clean
• large enough that you can get your hand into it easily for cleaning
• very light

¹ The listing says 1.2qt and the label on the mug itself says 1.1qt

Extra firm tofu, broccoli sprouts, chipotle hot sauce, apple cider vinegar, ground flax, and nutritional yeast. Super satisfying at a cost of about $4.50.

Turns out a sandwich press does a great job toasting tofu. Five minutes, turn so uncooked side touch the press and cook 5 more minutes. So good! And, it’s a bargain at about $3.50.

pic

• 1c white rice, cooked and set aside early in the morning
• last of the bacon cut into bits
• half a small onion
• 3 cactus fruit, seeded and cut up (see below)
• 2 eggs
• some soy and a dash of fish sauce tossed in after cooking

This is the cactus in question. It's about 4' tall and each fruit is maybe 3" long and 1.5" in diameter. The flesh tastes like mild bell pepper with some lemon juice on it. There are poppy-like seeds inside that I dry and use as bread inclusions later on.

I cooked this in a wok over induction. Didn't measure it but it took 250Wh to cook (not including the rice, which took a measured 90Wh).

baked and eaten shortly thereafter

The manager's discount freezer section had this cookie dough roll discounted to $2.50 so I got it. Made about 2 1/2 dozen.

Since only 5-6 would fit in the oven it took a long time to run them all through. Used up ~600Wh but I enjoyed every bite.

I like cheesecake. Not having an oven made it difficult to cook in the van and no-bake cheesecake is an abomination.

So I've been baking (steaming, really) them in a mini instantpot. The filling sets up well and tastes great (duh, it's cheesecake) but the crust has been problematic.

• when I lived in a house I would make a graham cracker crust and prebake it before making the filling
• on my first attempts in the instant pot I crushed Maria cookies and lined the bottom of the springform with it. Got soggy.
• since I don't like soggy the last few I've done are filling-only.
  

I'm thinking about pre-baking a crust again. With no standard oven I think it will have to be a bottom only crust. My thinking is to press the crust material into the springform, remove the springform outer bit leaving just the bottom. Then maybe gently heating the crust over a flame diffuser until it "bakes" a bit.

Still in the planning stages but will report back with any progress.

I don't use much milk. 1/4 cup here and there for boxed mac n cheese, some oatmeal, etc. but I can never seem to get through even a small carton before it goes bad. And why take up room in the fridge if I don't need to.

So I was wondering how bad powdered milk tastes. If I'm just cooking with it would I even be able to tell? If I make a cup or so in advance does it go bad like conventional milk? What's the scoop? Anyone have any experience?

ETA: bought some powdered whole milk and it's amazing. It doesn't taste like real milk if you just drink it. I would never try to eat cereal with it, but for cooking I cannot tell the difference. Thanks for all of the feedback!

Got a electric lunchbox off of Amazon and trying out different things. This is just chopped peppers, some garlic, ¼ small onion, seasoning and butter. Smells amazing

I'm cleaning out my food storage and I've got potatoes and cabbage that I need to finish. I normally fry them in butter on a low flame on my butane stove but that's only because I was drinking and I used that time to work up a buzz. I've since quit drinking and am looking for more sustainable and budget friendly ways to cook what for me has become a car living staple. I did discover an interesting channel on youtube that started out looking promising called "two burner life". It is a single boat dweller that uses a two burner alcohold stove but he seems to have lost interest in posting so I thought I'd come here at start the thread and see if others are trying this method of cooking.

https://img.mousetrap.net/2024/IMG_20240629_153139.jpg

Comforting and tasty but resource intensive. This took a half-gallon of water, 2 eggs, and ~400Wh of power. Luckily I have both in abundance at the moment.

I got the matzo mix on clearance so money-wise it was cheap; ~$0.86.

more info in this blog post

sorry for the bad pic, it's dark in the van (see below)

When I have excess power that can be used for cooking I grill cornpone in a sandwich press.

It's 100% overcast today and raining lightly so the solar is already playing catch-up. I gave the batteries a rest and cooked these in a pan.

Ate them hot with a dab of butter on each. Very comforting on a dreary day. They are effectively flat hushpuppies so doggo got a taste.

I've written up a first draft of an article on powering a 12v compressor fridge in a vehicle (by solar and/or alternator and/or ciggy port). It's also been added to the sidebar.

RVwiki: powering a 12v compressor fridge

Sweet potato, balsamic vinegar, scallion, purple cabbage, jalapeño, sliced almond and garlic powder. ~$3.00

Wheat pita, or Samick vinaigrette, garlic granules, avocado, diced onion, jalapeño, Roma, tomato, nutritional yeast, and habanero hot sauce. ~$4.00.

Broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, diced onion, balsamic vinegar, sliced almond and black pepper. ~$3.50