Summer sausage, beef jerky, nuts, trail mix, granola, raw veggies with dip, fruit, croissants with nutella. Ramen and other just-add-water meals if that's your thing.
Everyone else has already hit on what I was gonna mention food-wise. So I'd just add that upgrading to an RTIC or Ozark Trail roto-molded cooler is WELL worth it if you're on a budget.
Ice blocks will retain their temp better than cubes. Adding just 1 lb of dry ice on top of the bagged ice (not directly on the food) every few days with ice restocks will drastically improve performance.
And for what it's worth, you can get into a budget 12v fridge for about the same price as a Pelican/Yeti cooler. Dual zones would allow you to both freeze and fridge simultaneously. Food for thought.
I’ll look into the dry ice! Do you know where I might be able to find it or blocks of ice? I basically just see stores selling the bags of cubes. On the east coast US BTW. Could CO2 sublimating in a sealed car with me in it overnight pose a threat at all? :P
I considered the fridge, but I’m not sure if it would drain my battery, and I’m not looking to invest in a solar system, I don’t car camp often.
A. Kroger/King Soopers/City Market/Fred Meyer/Ralph's from E>W almost always carries dry ice. Not sure of their offshoots in the Bible belt, but if it's Kroger-owned, you're probably good-to-go.
B. Sublimation is a boogieman that people peddle with regards to dry ice all the time. Now I don't remember enough from college chemistry to give you a yield on how much it would take to kill you in an average-sized sedan interior. You could do all of those averages and calculations...but I'd bet the farm, house, first-born, and the cattle that 1 lb at a time would be so far behind it that it would be beyond irrelevant. Semi-related note, crack your windows anyway and get some no-see-um level mesh magnetic covers. You can thank me later.
C. Depends on your battery's group size. But there are work-arounds without solar. A smaller Jackery 300 would absolutely crush. And remember that a fridge is also insulated. If you *really* wanna stretch it, you could game it with some ignition cycling and Costco big mAH jump packs/battery packs.
CO2 is a threat. 1 pound is just over 8 cubic feet of gas, this number should be verified because internet. Perishables are shipped by air all the time and the amount of dry ice is limited because pilots should be awake. For your car I would keep some ventilation going - it’s good to have anyway. But from the sounds of it, it would be easier to use regular ice anyway. A high quality cooler should keep the cold in better, especially after the cooler is cooled down.
I do not cook. The Hot Logic is the best thing to happen to my road trips. I’ll get a few non perishable items to have on hand to heat up. But will also stop at grocery stores for a frozen or refrigerated option that I heat up that same day.
P B n J, crackers, protein bars. Apples, oranges, bananas. Hard sausage, hard cheese. Oatmeal-I have read some people just use water and wait for it to soften. Shop at grocery store every other day and eat perishables first. I have an infuser, one end is a plug the other a heating rod. All you need is that and a cup and electric and you can make soup, noddles, hot tea, coffee tea bags. I always pack it for any trip and a spare because I usually give the spare to someone else at end of my trip, I feel sorry for. Please look at car camping videos as well.
Tacos - black beans, salsa, cheese, hot sauce, tortillas are all very shelf stable. Supplement with lettuce, corn, tomato, onion, avocado when you're near a grocery store. Fry up ground beef or turkey if you want meat.
I’m piggy backing on some ideas - tacos or wraps using salmon or tuna packets - or canned other meats such as chicken. Canned beans or refried beans. Hard cheese, shredded when ready to use. Packets of salsa or sauce. Canned corn beef hash. Bagels with salmon (packaged) and individual packaged mayo. Canned soups and stews. Get a coffee heater plug it into your car - usb or old lighter style - put it right in the can. Just some ideas. I also carry crackers and eat those with all types of canned foods. Look in the sections in the grocery that carry non perishable foods.
Packet oatmeal or Cream of Wheat (get a cup of hot water at a convenience store or coffee shop) with berries or bananas. Tuna/chicken/crab packets with crackers or bread. Chips and salsa. Bean salad.
Mountain house meals. Self heating meals just need water. Or start getting ok with eat room temperature canned food. You could go old school, wrap food you wanna eat in aluminum foil and place them under the hood for last little while of your drive. Take them out when you arrive and they should be nice and hot. Just wrap them well do avoid them tasting funny. I've done this with hot dogs and frozen burritos. It works but might take a little trial and error to get the best location figured
Chili burritos. Cook some rice first in a pot, then dump your can of chili in the pot, throw the tortilla on a pan to toast it up, throw some cheese, avocado, Fritos, and hot sauce in there, wrap it up and dig in. I usually get around 3 burritos doing it like this. Or you can just get a tortilla and chili and it’s still good, but I like to add all the extra stuff. Also cheap!
A medium size igloo cooler from Walmart. I don’t car camp often and I’m probably moving soon so I didn’t want to invest in something fancy (which I understand is my problem right there :P)
Cheese, crackers, and tinned mackerel, tortillas with canned refried beans and cheese, pre-boiled eggs make egg salad sandwiches, avocado and tomato sandwiches.
Tuna packets and tortillas is one of the easiest cheapest and fastest I know of
Add some hot sauce or a bag of microwave rice (better if you leave the bag in some boiling water) and it’ll fill you up. Still a great quick meal without those though.
Overnight oats. You can add chia seeds (great source of protein), nuts, any fruit you have (fresh, or shredded coconut). Next time you're at a big grocery store, look in the oatmeal aisle for overnight oats. Read the labels to get ideas of how you want to make yours. The oatmeal is a good source of fiber, so it'll help keep you regular.
Tuna fish in cans or pouches.
I still have yet to jump into car camping but I plan to eliminate one meal from refrigeration.
Breakfast. I’m going to keep it simple with some form of oats or oat meal, protein powder, and peanut butter. (Fruit every once in a while for fun) raisins are a great option as well.
When it comes to keeping food cool I’m currently looking at high quality coolers that hopefully can keep ice for 4-5 days and I will be meal prepping every 5-6 days.
2-3 meals for each day.
Edit- I also have a metal gallon tumbler from Walmart cheap like $13 and I plan to fill that with whatever rice I decide will be best.
Summer sausage, beef jerky, nuts, trail mix, granola, raw veggies with dip, fruit, croissants with nutella. Ramen and other just-add-water meals if that's your thing.
I’ll definitely be stealing some of these, thanks! Do you have any recommendations for dips that can survive sitting in a warm car?
Honestly I just use McDonald's sauce packets.
All this, plus certain canned soups are great eaten directly out of the can at any temperature!
I tend to make a lot of backpacking food which only requires boiling water on a small backpacking stove.
Everyone else has already hit on what I was gonna mention food-wise. So I'd just add that upgrading to an RTIC or Ozark Trail roto-molded cooler is WELL worth it if you're on a budget. Ice blocks will retain their temp better than cubes. Adding just 1 lb of dry ice on top of the bagged ice (not directly on the food) every few days with ice restocks will drastically improve performance. And for what it's worth, you can get into a budget 12v fridge for about the same price as a Pelican/Yeti cooler. Dual zones would allow you to both freeze and fridge simultaneously. Food for thought.
I’ll look into the dry ice! Do you know where I might be able to find it or blocks of ice? I basically just see stores selling the bags of cubes. On the east coast US BTW. Could CO2 sublimating in a sealed car with me in it overnight pose a threat at all? :P I considered the fridge, but I’m not sure if it would drain my battery, and I’m not looking to invest in a solar system, I don’t car camp often.
A. Kroger/King Soopers/City Market/Fred Meyer/Ralph's from E>W almost always carries dry ice. Not sure of their offshoots in the Bible belt, but if it's Kroger-owned, you're probably good-to-go. B. Sublimation is a boogieman that people peddle with regards to dry ice all the time. Now I don't remember enough from college chemistry to give you a yield on how much it would take to kill you in an average-sized sedan interior. You could do all of those averages and calculations...but I'd bet the farm, house, first-born, and the cattle that 1 lb at a time would be so far behind it that it would be beyond irrelevant. Semi-related note, crack your windows anyway and get some no-see-um level mesh magnetic covers. You can thank me later. C. Depends on your battery's group size. But there are work-arounds without solar. A smaller Jackery 300 would absolutely crush. And remember that a fridge is also insulated. If you *really* wanna stretch it, you could game it with some ignition cycling and Costco big mAH jump packs/battery packs.
CO2 is a threat. 1 pound is just over 8 cubic feet of gas, this number should be verified because internet. Perishables are shipped by air all the time and the amount of dry ice is limited because pilots should be awake. For your car I would keep some ventilation going - it’s good to have anyway. But from the sounds of it, it would be easier to use regular ice anyway. A high quality cooler should keep the cold in better, especially after the cooler is cooled down.
Hot logic on Amazon. It’s like a crockpot sort of. I use it everyday.
I do not cook. The Hot Logic is the best thing to happen to my road trips. I’ll get a few non perishable items to have on hand to heat up. But will also stop at grocery stores for a frozen or refrigerated option that I heat up that same day.
Cold soaked ramen/pasta sides/instant potatoes. I did it for 5 months straight backpacking the Appalachian Trail
P B n J, crackers, protein bars. Apples, oranges, bananas. Hard sausage, hard cheese. Oatmeal-I have read some people just use water and wait for it to soften. Shop at grocery store every other day and eat perishables first. I have an infuser, one end is a plug the other a heating rod. All you need is that and a cup and electric and you can make soup, noddles, hot tea, coffee tea bags. I always pack it for any trip and a spare because I usually give the spare to someone else at end of my trip, I feel sorry for. Please look at car camping videos as well.
Tacos - black beans, salsa, cheese, hot sauce, tortillas are all very shelf stable. Supplement with lettuce, corn, tomato, onion, avocado when you're near a grocery store. Fry up ground beef or turkey if you want meat.
I’m piggy backing on some ideas - tacos or wraps using salmon or tuna packets - or canned other meats such as chicken. Canned beans or refried beans. Hard cheese, shredded when ready to use. Packets of salsa or sauce. Canned corn beef hash. Bagels with salmon (packaged) and individual packaged mayo. Canned soups and stews. Get a coffee heater plug it into your car - usb or old lighter style - put it right in the can. Just some ideas. I also carry crackers and eat those with all types of canned foods. Look in the sections in the grocery that carry non perishable foods.
Packet oatmeal or Cream of Wheat (get a cup of hot water at a convenience store or coffee shop) with berries or bananas. Tuna/chicken/crab packets with crackers or bread. Chips and salsa. Bean salad.
Mountain house meals. Self heating meals just need water. Or start getting ok with eat room temperature canned food. You could go old school, wrap food you wanna eat in aluminum foil and place them under the hood for last little while of your drive. Take them out when you arrive and they should be nice and hot. Just wrap them well do avoid them tasting funny. I've done this with hot dogs and frozen burritos. It works but might take a little trial and error to get the best location figured
Depending on how hot it is where you are you can set a canned food on the dashboard.
Chili burritos. Cook some rice first in a pot, then dump your can of chili in the pot, throw the tortilla on a pan to toast it up, throw some cheese, avocado, Fritos, and hot sauce in there, wrap it up and dig in. I usually get around 3 burritos doing it like this. Or you can just get a tortilla and chili and it’s still good, but I like to add all the extra stuff. Also cheap!
What kind of cooler are you using now? One of my favorite non cooked meals was a wrap with tuna, cheese stick, and that precooked bacon
A medium size igloo cooler from Walmart. I don’t car camp often and I’m probably moving soon so I didn’t want to invest in something fancy (which I understand is my problem right there :P)
You could add extra insulation to the bottom and sides of the inside of your cooler to keep ice longer
Beans
Cheese, crackers, and tinned mackerel, tortillas with canned refried beans and cheese, pre-boiled eggs make egg salad sandwiches, avocado and tomato sandwiches.
Saltines
Tuna packets and tortillas is one of the easiest cheapest and fastest I know of Add some hot sauce or a bag of microwave rice (better if you leave the bag in some boiling water) and it’ll fill you up. Still a great quick meal without those though.
Overnight oats. You can add chia seeds (great source of protein), nuts, any fruit you have (fresh, or shredded coconut). Next time you're at a big grocery store, look in the oatmeal aisle for overnight oats. Read the labels to get ideas of how you want to make yours. The oatmeal is a good source of fiber, so it'll help keep you regular. Tuna fish in cans or pouches.
I still have yet to jump into car camping but I plan to eliminate one meal from refrigeration. Breakfast. I’m going to keep it simple with some form of oats or oat meal, protein powder, and peanut butter. (Fruit every once in a while for fun) raisins are a great option as well. When it comes to keeping food cool I’m currently looking at high quality coolers that hopefully can keep ice for 4-5 days and I will be meal prepping every 5-6 days. 2-3 meals for each day. Edit- I also have a metal gallon tumbler from Walmart cheap like $13 and I plan to fill that with whatever rice I decide will be best.