How Vanlife Changed What We Eat

When we were designing our campervan, we put a big emphasis on having a spacious and functional kitchen area. We wanted to be comfortable cooking most meals in our own kitchen, like we’ve always done.

Emily & I both love to cook and also appreciate the savings from not eating out all the time. And despite some sacrifices, we are happy to say that our campervan kitchen is everything we had hoped.

We still eat lots of our favorite things all the time, like tacos, pizza, fresh veggies, pasta, cheese, fruit, and ice cream!

However, we have found that our new kitchen and lifestyle have had some effects on how and what we eat. Some changes have been out of necessity, while others are more about convenience. And we like to stay mindful about how our diet affects our overall health. We are thrilled with some of the changes but are still working to fix or avoid the negative changes.

And these things are in no way black and white. You could conceivably eat any diet you choose while living in a van. These are just observations about how Vanlife has changed how and what we eat.

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We Replace Meals With Snacking

Our only cooking method is our Camp Chef Propane Campstove, and it doesn’t have a permanent home on our countertop. We have to set it up every time we want to cook something. And sometimes we don’t feel like setting up the stove, especially when we are on the go.

So we often end up just snacking on something quick like fruit, granola bars, or other snacks.  Sometimes it’s a good thing because it stops us from eating too much just for the sake of eating an “official meal”.

Or other times we fill up on junk food when we really should have taken the time to prepare something a little healthier.

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We Make Simpler Meals

Cleaning up after an elaborate meal is more of a pain in a small kitchen without a dishwasher. And, we only have two burners to cook with.

Thus, we have started making simpler meals.

That usually means just cooking multiple things in the same pan whenever possible, or just reducing the number of ingredients altogether.

Before Vanlife, we might have had eggs, bacon, and avocado toast for breakfast. But now we might cut out one of those things just to simplify prep and cleanup.

Sometimes it feels boring to eat simply, but this one is more about convenience.  And we still occasionally splurge for more elaborate meals.

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We Eat Less Meat

Cooking in our campervan kitchen, we find that we are eating a lot less meat. Before moving into our van, we had already been trending in this direction. We went from having meat with almost every meal, to about once per day on average.

We have several reasons for this change.

Aside from animal welfare, reducing our carbon footprint, and health benefits, we have several logistical reasons that we don’t eat as much meat.

We find that cooking meat requires a lot more of our limited water supply. When our water jugs are full we only have 11 gallons total, and our sink only has cold water.

Cleaning greasy animal fats/oils requires a lot more water and soap when you only have cold water. And even more water is needed to wash cutting boards and knives during prep to prevent cross-contamination.

Additionally, cooking meats on a stovetop can also be really smoky, and we don’t have a proper hood to vent the smoke. So, for example, cooking a steak on the cast iron skillet makes the van really smokey. It’s definitely do-able but just not super pleasant.

We have resolved to cooking smokey meals outside the van. Though the weather or parking spot is not always accommodating of this.

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We Don’t Boil As Many Foods

We have cut back or adapted certain recipes that call for boiling, like pasta, corn on the cob, and mashed potatoes. It just seems like a big waste of our limited water supply to boil a large amount to then just dump it into our grey-water tank, which we have to empty manually whenever it’s full.

So we try to find ways of adapting recipes to be cooked without boiling in water. Or we use less water than the recipe calls for.

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We Don’t Have An Oven

We really wanted to put the Camp Chef Oven into our van, but ultimately decided against it for a couple of reasons. So sadly, we have cut out of our diet most things that require an oven. 

So oven-baked pizza is sadly something that we had to give up. Which, let’s be honest is probably the top 3 biggest tragedies of switching to vanlife food. However, there is still always the option of going out for pizza.

Or we have even started making a stovetop pizza recipe that turns out surprisingly delicious. Stovetop pizza can hit the spot when we’re having that craving for pizza.

Another thing we had to give up is homemade cookies and other baked goods. And as a baker’s daughter, Emily was especially sad about this one.

The silver lining here is that we cut lots of unnecessary sugar out of our diets. Don’t get me wrong, we buy cookies and other sweets occasionally, but it’s not something that’s always stored in our kitchen cabinets.

A couple of desserts that we make without an oven are rice crispy treats, muddy-buddies, and cast iron cookie skillet.

Another thing we used to make often when living in a house is baked potatoes. So without boiling or baking potatoes, we basically haven’t eaten them since we moved into the van months ago.

We have talked about incorporating some stovetop potato recipes into our normal rotation, but have yet to make it happen.

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We Eat More Impulsively

When you have your kitchen with you at all times, and only feet away, sometimes it’s hard to forget about food. Unlike a normal lifestyle, our kitchen travels with us everywhere we go.

And with the freedom to make our own schedule, we sometimes end up eating just because it’s available. It can be hard to keep to a disciplined eating schedule.

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We Waste Less

Our van Vitrifrigo fridge is much smaller than a traditional household fridge. And so, we have to be very efficient about how we buy and use groceries.

We usually need to eat what’s in our fridge to make room for new groceries. This has brought our food waste down to nearly zero, except for things that occasionally go bad. But there are tons of other great camper van fridges that can fit more groceries.

If you want to prioritize having a large freezer in your fridge, that can help keep you out on the road longer. I think next time we build out a camper van, we will try to have a much larger freezer to store more food.

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Takeaway | How Vanlife Changed What We Eat

After moving into our van, it was hard to give up some of our regular meals and special treats, like oven-baked pizza, baked potatoes, and homemade cookies. But as I mentioned, we have found other ways to still enjoy these things, even if we aren’t making them ourselves.

Losing some of the meals that used to be part of our regular rotation was tough at first. Initially, we got stuck in a rut and tired of eating the same things.

But we have found vanlife food inspiration through other vanlifers and blogs to help diversify our recipes. And it has challenged us to step outside our comfort zone and experiment with new foods.

So while living in a van has definitely changed how and what we eat, we are happy with some of the changes. The closing of some doors has led us to find new culinary doors to open.

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