vanlife4less

One of the biggest questions we get is:
“What do you eat when you’re on the road full-time?”
The answer? Simple, delicious, and budget-friendly meals—made with just a propane grill, a rice cooker, and smart grocery shopping.

We’re a family of four (plus our dog), and we cook almost every meal ourselves to save money, stay healthy, and keep things easy. Here’s how we do it.

🍽️ Our Basic Van Kitchen Setup

We don’t have a fancy kitchen or built-in stove. Here’s what we use:

• ✅ 1 propane grill (portable, quick to clean, works anywhere)
• ✅ 1 small rice cooker (for grains, soups, and steaming veggies)
• ✅ Cooler or fridge (depending on the site/power)
• ✅ Basic kitchen tools (cutting board, knife, pan, foil, tongs)

It’s not much—but it works for us. We’ve learned that you don’t need a lot to make a great meal—just creativity, prep, and a good grocery deal.

🛒 Budget-Friendly Grocery Tips

We shop smart by:

• Hitting local grocery store sales (we love a good clearance sticker!)
• Buying bulk rice, beans, and pasta
• Choosing versatile ingredients (like tortillas, cheese, canned beans)
• Stocking up on frozen veggies and proteins when on sale

We avoid wasting money on one-time ingredients and try to build meals around what’s fresh, cheap, and on sale.

🔥 What We Cooked:

• Pan-seared ribeye steaks — seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a little chili flake. Cooked in a hot cast iron skillet with a splash of oil and a pat of butter.
• Asparagus — tossed in garlic herb butter salt, and pepper, then charred in the same pan after the steaks rested.
• Quick chimichurri on the side — parsley, cilantro, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, red pepper flakes. No blender needed.

We ate it straight from the pan, doors open to a sunset, and zero dishes piling up

This garlic butter is a must and a life saver!!!

add that butter to any veggies and the whole family will gobble it up.

chimichurri

We plated it up, watched the sun dip below the waves, and ate every bite with happy hearts.

One pan. Full flavor. Bon appétit. 🍽️✨ Want more vanlife meals that taste like five stars with zero cleanup? Stay tuned! 🌿🔥

🍗 Vanlife Favorite: Chicken Katsu & Kimchi

Crispy, juicy, and packed with flavor — this chicken katsu meal hit all the right notes after a long day on the road.

🔥 What We Cooked:

• Crispy Chicken Katsu – thin chicken breast, panko-coated and pan-fried in our cast iron.
• Steamed rice – made in our trusty rice cooker.
• Homemade Cucumber Kimchi – sliced cukes tossed with gochugaru, fish sauce, sesame seeds, green onion, and garlic. Boom. Easy, fresh, spicy, crunchy.
• Quick katsu sauce – ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire, and sugar.

A full flavor bomb with minimal dishes. Ate it right out the bowl, toes in the sand, zero regrets.

🍳 How We Set Up Our Dredging Station (Van Edition)

For perfect, crispy chicken katsu, we set up a simple 3-step dredging station on our fold-out counter:

1. Flour – lightly coat each chicken cutlet to help the egg stick.
2. Beaten Eggs – just a couple whisked in a shallow bowl.
3. Panko Breadcrumbs – Japanese-style for that extra crunch.

We laid everything out in paper plates (easier cleanup in the van!), dredged, pressed in the panko, and dropped it straight into a hot cast iron skillet with oil.

Golden. Crispy. Ready to go.

🥞 Breakfast of Champions: Vanlife Pancakes (Chocolate Chips Optional… or Not)

There’s no better way to start a slow morning on the road than with a hot stack of pancakes — golden, fluffy, and maybe even a little chocolatey if you’re feeling fancy.

And here’s the best part: we prep the mix at home before we even hit the road.

🧳 Our Van-Ready Pancake Hack:

We pre-measure the dry ingredients and stash them in ziplock bags — one mix per breakfast. That way, when it’s time to cook, all we need to do is:

• Dump in 1 egg
• Add 1 cup of milk
• Stir in as many chocolate chips as your heart desires (spoiler: there’s no limit)

🥄 What’s in Our Dry Mix (roughly):

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Dash of salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder

(We eyeball most of this — vanlife isn’t about perfection.)

Cook them up on the skillet until golden on both sides, top with maple syrup (or Nutella if you’re living dangerously), and boom — breakfast of champions.