Meal Planning for a Long RV Trip

When you are taking your RV out for a longer trip, there is so much to plan. You have to plan your destination, your stops along the way, and what it looks like to do meal planning.

In this video, longer trips are defined as anything beyond a week. Lisa McEwen, a contributor with RV Lifestyle and Repair, walks you through successfully planning meals for a longer RV trip.

Dealing with limited space

One of the biggest challenges the McEwen family faces when they are out in the RV is limited space in the cupboards, pantries, and refrigerator. Everything is much smaller than it is in your home, so you have to adapt.

You have to learn what things you can bring, what stays behind, and how to maximize the space in each one of these areas.

A week's worth of meals

One of the first things the McEwen family does when taking these longer trips is to plan to bring about a week's worth of food along with them. A week's worth of food covers drinks, snacks, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. One of the big reasons Lisa plans ahead is to maximize family time.

Nearby stores

Some RV campgrounds are pretty far out there. When you’re remote, it’s a little bit more difficult to get to a store. Do some homework before you get to your destination. Figure out where the closest grocery store is so that you know what’s nearby.

If it’s farther than you want to travel to get groceries, you may want to pre plan more meals and make other accommodations based solely on the distance to your nearest grocery store.

Meal planning

The McEwen family usually does a lot of our camping in Florida. If it's hot outside, they don't want to turn the oven on inside the camper, so that’s a meal-planning factor. It makes more sense to plan meals that could be cooked outside using the grill and outdoor kitchen.

Lisa also uses a meal planner and plots out breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every single day. Meal planning takes time, but eases the day’s chores.