One of the first tasks when setting up your RV for travel is to equip your kitchen. I will admit I made mistakes initially. Rattling dishes while you are driving, cabinets that don’t close tightly, poorly packed items that shift, and missing key pieces of equipment you need (like the cork screw to open your bottle of wine) are rude awakenings when you are boondocking in the middle of nowhere. By no means will my list be complete but I would love to share some of the essentials and double duty items that I have found helpful.
The Greatest Cooking Invention
So many people rave about Instapots and they are great, however, lets go the extra mile. This amazing piece of cooking equipment by Ninja is my favorite multitasker. With this I can slow cook, quick cook with pressure making a roast in 30 minutes, air fry, broil and even dehydrate. That last feature has come in handy when I have found some great herbs in the wild. I can layer items with the accessories and cook my veggies, rice and meat all at the same time in the same piece of equipment. It is, quite simply, my go to for meals.
Some words of caution: When releasing pressure from pressure cooker, be aware of where the steam is going. I typically have a dish towel handy. The last thing I need is to add moisture to the ceiling in our RV or damage the cabinets. Some RV’s still have wall paper on the walls and I assure you that this steam will make quick work of loosening that paper. So be aware and vent with care.
No Party is Complete Until You Have Ice
Our RV came equipped with a fridge that has an icemaker but the prior owners did not properly winterize and had a leak. So they disconnected the water lines. We talked about fixing that but realized that we really like to have the option to take our ice machine on to the patio and limit traffic through the RV when we want a drink. We purchased another ice maker in the past and it did not last long. So we did more research and found that this one has a lot of great reviews. If you visit a campground, you will likely find a broken ice machine near the dumpster. But you won’t find this one.
A Slushing Drink or Great Smoothie Awaits
Every morning I start the day with a protein smoothie. It is just what you need to fuel your hike. I like to end the day with a great slushy drink of choice. This one amazing appliance keeps me going. It also is great for making sauces for pasta. I store mine in a small basket in an upper cabinet. Another great feature is that there are two blending containers with lids that you can easily store in the fridge. Remember that all blenders are self cleaning. All you need to do is add a little dish soap, water and blend. Rinse and put it away…. super easy!
Brew Up Something Great
I love my tea and my husband loves a good coffee. We initially started with a Keurig pod coffee maker and purchased the tea and coffee cartridges. However, that adds up quickly in cost and storage of the pods as well as the machine eats up valuable space. We found that we can get canisters of coffee and teas that take up much less space. I can pick herbs and make my own teas. And this French Press works great to make our favorite beverages and keeps them warm longer. The insulated lining has kept our coffee warm for up to 6 hours. Who in the world lets it go that long without finishing the pot. The only regret is that when my husband wants coffee, I have to either make my tea in the microwave or wait for him to complete his full pot.
Let’s Toast Multi Functioning Appliances
Everything in your RV possible needs to have more than one purpose. I initially tried to use the convection oven to toast but it really dehydrated the food items too much. Then I tried using the Ninja Air Fryer…. worked great! However, I cook meals in it all the time and it is usually running when I need to make toast. So we resorted to buying a toaster. However, my goal is to always have dual purpose and we found that this amazing toaster is a great help to warm pastries and even cookies. It was a welcome addition and easy to store.
That is it! I do not carry any other appliances on our travels. We do have some outdoor cooking options that I will cover in a later post but for inside the RV, these are the essentials we have found make travel easy and help us Rough it Smoothly.
RV There Yet 