Eating on the road

Food is just one of the many expenses you get to enjoy when living on the road.  For us, everything comes out of our savings so eating cheap is essential to keep our travel costs down and allows us to spend money on other things or even continue living on the road for longer.

Meal ideas can be limited when you’re living out of a small space and even when you’re battling different weather conditions at times. This doesn't mean you have to live off 2 minute noodles/Mi goreng or baked beans every night. Although, they can be a good backup if you can’t be eff’d cooking in the rain or strong winds!
There are still ways to eat low cost meals that are healthy, nutritious and easy to make on the road. With a little bit of planning and by following a suitable food budget, you'll be able to save yourself some money. Here’s a little insight to how we eat on the road.

What we eat & keeping healthy

Jasper and I are the kind of people who seriously LOVE their food. We love teaming up in the kitchen or in our case, at the back of the troopy to cook up a tasty feed together. We like to eat a wide range of foods and our meals can vary from vegetarian & vegan recipes to also enjoying seafood and meats.

I know everyone’s opinions on ‘healthy foods’ can vary. There are so many different beliefs these days on what you should and shouldn’t eat. To us, eating healthy is about giving our bodies wholesome, nourished foods and making sure we’re getting enough nutrients like proteins, fats, carbs, vitamins and minerals.  We’re usually extremely active throughout the day so planning out balanced meals and eating good food is important for us.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t like to enjoy a little sweet treat or a cold beer/glass of wine every now and then. We believe it’s all about having a little bit of balance and just keeping yourself happy!

Food Budget

You don’t have to spend big to eat healthy on the road and sometimes it’s just about sacrificing those naughty treats for something more nourishing. The best way to keep your food costs down is by going off a manageable budget. We always aim to follow a weekly food budget of around $100 a week so that we don’t overspend or splurge out on unnecessary things.

I must admit, it can be a bit of a struggle when you’re strolling through the supermarkets and some of your favourite (and expensive) foods are literally staring at you and you have to force yourself to walk away. Sometimes it all comes down to having self control. By taking the time to plan out our daily meals for the week and write up a shopping list, it allows us to only purchase the products that we need and stops us from buying random items. 

Buying staple products

If there’s one thing that is going to help you maintain your food budget, it’s buying staple or basic products that allow you to create various, cheap and easy meals.  

Foods like: rice, quinoa, pasta, noodles, oats, bread or wraps, spices, sauces and eggs can easily be stored for longer periods of time.  Buying meat can be expensive so eggs are a great source of protein and will last around 3 weeks in the fridge.

We also like to make sure we have a range of tinned foods to add to meals or for when we’re traveling through more remote areas. They’re super cheap and stay preserved for even longer. We usually buy anything from lentils, chickpeas or bean mixes, coconut milk (for curries), tuna, tinned tomatoes or sometimes vegetables (incase we can’t access fresh ones).

When it comes to fruit and veggies, we try to keep them stored in our fridge for as long as possible. However, if you’re off the beaten track or away from fresh produce, foods like potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, avocados, apples, stone fruits & citrus fruits usually store well without refrigeration so you can still manage to add them to your diet.

Catching our own food

Fish and other seafood make up a huge part of our diet. The ocean always provides us with a lot of our food on the road, which makes eating even cheaper! Apart from surfing and getting sandy on the beach, a lot of our time is spent fishing, spearfishing and diving for fresh seafood together.  Most of our catches consist of a range of fish, crayfish (or rock lobster), abalone, squid and sometimes oysters as a treat.

Storing these types of foods can be difficult so we prefer to eat it while it’s fresh and only ever take what we need (or sometimes a little extra fish as Bowie loves it too!).  I know I have probably turned off a number of vegans right now and I apologise (especially my lovely vegan friends!). But for us, it’s a rewarding feeling when you’ve provided food on the table that you have successfully and sustainably caught yourself.

Cooking on the fire

Don’t get me wrong, we love cooking with our double burner stove and 2.5kg gas bottle but when it comes to cooking on the campfire it’s a whole other world of flavours! Not all campsites allow fires and sometimes through summer there are fire bans in place. So when and wherever we can, we usually like to get some flames going and sizzle up some dishes. 

It’s important to make sure you’re using the right equipment as not everything is suitable to cook in that extreme heat. The perfect pan is a cast iron skillet to cook up anything from meats to sauces and stirfrys.  If you’re like us and you love hearty stews or soups you’ll also want to carry a decent camp oven to use on those hot coals. You can even use it for baking! 

When it comes to burning up your hot coals for cooking, it helps to have decent timber that will burn well and radiate enough heat throughout the process.  Whether you're finding your own or buying it on the road, here is a little list of some of the best timber for the different states around Australia.

Western Australia - Jarrah & Wandoo wood
QLD & Northern Territory - Ironbark & Box wood
NSW, Victoria & South Australia - River red gum
Tasmania - Brown peppermint wood

Cooking on a campfire sometimes takes a bit of practice and even some patience at first, but once you get the hang of it your creativity is endless and it’s always good fun!

Where we buy our food

Finding the cheapest yet best quality food is the key. For most of our staple products and some fruit or veg, we usually shop at Coles (or if we can't excess one, we use woolworths and ALDI). A lot of their homebrand products are the cheapest you're going to find on the market and you can hardly taste the difference these days.  

Wherever we can, we love finding a good farmers market because nothing beats fresh produce straight off the farms! If you're like me and you tend to get a little excited at these sorts of markets, just remember to stick to your shopping list. Also a little tip: You can score some great bargains in the last hour of the stalls being open as most of the farmers need to sell their products that day! 

When you're driving on the road, be sure to lookout for fresh fruit & veg signs or fresh eggs as it's another way to purchase even cheaper, fresh produce. We prefer to purchase our eggs at these sorts of places rather than buying them at supermarkets. 

Some of our favourite meals

Our meals can vary each week as we tend to mix it up so we don't feel like we're eating the same thing.  Here's a couple of dishes that get us going throughout the day and night.

Whole Oats are a great option for breakfast in the morning. These little cereal grains will keep you going for hours! They are naturally gluten free and super easy to make. It may seem boring to eat these every day but the trick is changing up your toppings! We like to mix it up with different things like honey, dried fruits, fresh fruit, nuts & seeds, peanut butter, cinnamon or even cacao powder.  

All you need is:

Oats

Water or milk (we usually just use water)

Honey or brown sugar 

Cinnamon

Your choice of toppings!

Noodle or Rice Bowls are a great idea for lunch or dinner. We enjoy eating these a few times throughout the week.  Once again it's as simple as changing up your proteins and veggies. Add a little bit of soy sauce (or your preferred sauce) or some mayonnaise. And voila! A tasty bowl of goodness!

All you need:

Tin of tuna or cooked chicken (or if your vegan, you can use seaweed strips)

Veggies & Salads

Noodles (we like soba noodles) or just plain rice

Soy sauce or other sauces

Mayo (optional)

Curries or Dahl are always easy to make and pack a whole lot of flavour. Whether you're vegan, vegetarian or meat eaters, you can always alter the recipe to suit your needs.  We usually like to use KEENS curry powder as the base for our curries. It's compact, super easy to store and lasts for ages! From there we like mixing it up with different veggies, legumes, coconut milk and tinned tomatoes. Most of our curries are vegetarian, however if we do decide to add meat in we'll usually have beef, chicken or fresh fish. When it comes to making dahl we are loving this sweet potato dahl (pictured). Using the same curry powder, turmeric and tinned lentils, I was able to improvise from my dear friends original and vegan recipe, which you can find at: www.lifeofgoodness.com.au

All you need for a decent curry:
KEENS curry powder
Onions
Garlic
Ginger
Veggies (potatoes, carrots, broccoli, zucchini etc.)
Legumes (lentils or beans)
Coconut milk
Salt & Pepper
Rice (we like to use Basmati as it cooks quicker on the stove)

Crayfish & Abalone pasta would have to be one of our all time favourite dishes we have had on the trip so far. The first time we made this was in Tasmania on a little fire beside a beautiful lake on the East Coast.  We were catching heaps of crayfish and abalone off the beaches during that time and there's something about seafood and pasta that just goes so well together!  If you're into catching your own seafood then this dish is incredibly easy to make and with only few ingredients you need to buy.

All you need is:
Fresh crayfish & abalone 
Spagettini 
Bunch of fresh parsley (sometimes we used dried parsley if we can't access fresh)
Chilli flakes (or fresh chilli)
Brown onion
Garlic 
Olive oil
Lemon wedges