One Pot Meals in a Super Small Space

[Len n Jeanne]

Home dehydrators come in all levels of cost and sophistication. We picked up our Nesco dehydrator at Walmart, of all places, and it's worked pretty well. We've done a lot of home freezing and canning, but I am moving more towards dehydrating for certain foods, like fruits, *kale chips*, (yum) mushroom slices, and tomato slices & tomato "leather" which is basically dehydrated tomato paste. Generally I would buy dried porcini mushrooms, onions, and garlic in the supermarket.

On our last trip out (8 weeks in the Mojave desert and southern Utah) I used a lot of the dried tomatoes and paste, because they are so versatile. Unlike the canned products, they are light and a lot less bulky, pack well in plastic and they don't require freezing or refrigerating. The dried tomatoes also work well in a salad. Ours are organic, locally grown, no preservatives, and otherwise pretty virtuous.

The curry paste (ground fresh garlic, ginger, and hot pepper in whatever proportion you like) is one of those things best made at home, but it keeps a long time and I'm sure it could be frozen in small quantities for RVing. I've not had a problem with curry dishes overwhelming our air space, but then we do keep that fan over the stove going, and the stuff doesn't have to cook for very long.

How we got into Indian food (vegetarian) is kind of an odd story. We were paying horribly high college tuition for my son, and having to belt-tighten in a lot of other areas. We joked that we'd be living on rice and beans. Till we realized that traditional Indian cooking is based on rice and beans. So we started experimenting.

By the same token, I won't fry bacon in the Bambi-- it's not the smell so much as the grease spatters.... and our unit didn't come with a microwave.

Speaking of growing food to preserve at home and freeze or not-- have you all roasted tomatoes at home? (Line a cookie sheet with foil, arrange tomato slices or small halves cut-side up on it, sprinkle with herbs, optional EVOO, and bake under low heat till the tomatoes are dense-- even chewy, if you prefer.) They take on a more tomato-paste flavour, but so much better due to the herbs and partial carmelizing that occurs. Dried basil would be a traditional herb, but I grew some lemon thyme that was just super with home-grown yellow tomatoes. The tomato volume is considerably reduced, so they pack into small plastic containers to use soon or to freeze, and are great as a quick pizza or pasta addition.

So another easy one pot dish would be to boil up some pasta, drain, toss in some cut-up dried or roasted tomatoes, kalamata olives, a drained can of solid-pack tuna fish, whatever else you feel like, and top with grated or shaved Parmesan or other hard Italian cheese.

[Lily&Me]

I love this soup, not so much the mixing and cooking of tiny meatballs.

I have found that skipping the meatball making and substituting Italian sausage still gives an excellent flavor, minus the mess.

This makes a delicious, nutritious, one pot meal.

Quick & Easy Italian Wedding Soup

1 pound turkey Italian sausage, browned and drained

Add 8 cups chicken broth, bring to boil, then add
1/2 cup orzo or other tiny pasta, and cook til nearly done.

Add 1 pound curly endive or escarole coarsely chopped, simmer about 5 minutes

Beat together 2 large eggs and 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Drizzle into simmering soup mixture, while stirring briskly, as for egg drop soup, and simmer about 1 minute.

Salt and fresh pepper to taste, more chicken broth if needed, freshly grated Parmesan cheese to sprinkle onto bowls.


Maggie

[Lily&Me]

This would be yummy for any meal, but would be especially nice for breakfast potlucks at rallies for those of us who don't have ovens in our rigs.

I would use one package of cooked turkey breakfast sausage, rather than two of links, tho, as it's a bit fat and meat-heavy to suit me.

http://www.johnsonville.com/recipe/s...ontent=recipe&

Maggie

[OTRA15]

Not sure I could sleep all night with the sausages etc. cooking slowly overnight for 7-8 hours!

[Lily&Me]

It could be a distraction, but think of that already cooked breakfast you would get up to.


Maggie

[Hittenstiehl]

Len and Jeanne the roasted tomato idea sounds great I have some extra in the fridge now starting to wrinkle a bit. Maggie that soup sounds great also.

I do believe I could live on soup and bread. That's my comfort food. Something about warm soup, a toasted slice of (good) bread lightly buttered says "life is good" to me.

[Lily&Me]

I invented this dish today, to use up the last of a batch of this tapenade I made a week or so ago. The tapenade makes a delicious! sauce.

Everything from your pantry, but for the tapenade out of your frig.

Pasta with Black Olive Tapenade

Combine in cooking pan...
1/2 lb spaghetti, linguini, orzo, etc., cooked and drained, leaving about 2 tbsp cooking water in the pan with the pasta
1 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp olive oil

Add...
2 tbsp Black Olive Tapenade
1 2.6oz pouch of Starkist Tuna in water

Toss to blend well, cover a few minutes to allow the heat from the cooked pasta to warm the tapenade and the tuna.

Sprinkle with a little chopped fresh parsley, if you have it. Serves 2.

Black Olive Tapenade

1/2 cup black olives
1/2 tsp capers
1 anchovy fillet (I leave this out)
2-3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil

In food processor or using an immersion blender, process til smooth. Store in covered container in fridge, and will keep several weeks. Great spread on crackers or crusty bread.


Maggie

[Lily&Me]

I found this recipe on a bag of Ronco Long Macaroni, which is exactly what it sounds like...long, tubular pasta.

The entire dish is prepared in one pot, and it sounds yummy!

Memphis BBQ Pasta

12 oz bag Ronco Long Macaroni, uncooked
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cups water
18 oz pulled pork in BBQ sauce
24 oz Marinara sauce

Heat oil in a Dutch Oven or other large pot, break the macaroni in half, cook and stir in the oil 2-3 minutes, until it has begun to brown.

Add the 3 cups water, bring to a boil and cook 6 minutes. Add pork with sauce, and Marinara sauce, breaking apart pork with a fork.

Simmer together 3-5 minutes, til pasta is fully cooked and pork is hot.


This would be a great potluck dish.


Maggie

[elgo]

If you’re going with one pot meals, I would go Instapot. Surprised this hasn’t been mentioned by some fanatic like my wife or one of her friends. They’re are a ton of recipes for this appliance online. With the pressure cooking feature it saves a lot of time and since it cooks rice too so you can ditch the rice cooker and crockpot. When we have electrical hookup I just cook outside with it.

[OTRA15]

FYI elgo, the Stella's Kitchen forum:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f484/

. . . has a long and detailed thread about the Instant Pot:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f484...ot-155429.html

There is also a great Dutch Oven thread:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f484...ing-40090.html

. . . for a more general approach to one-pot cooking, often without electricity.

The new search function above works great, with these results for "Instant Pot" in various threads:

https://www.google.com/search?q=inst...=airforums.com

[bugsbunny]

I recently bought the 3 quart instant pot (the Instant Pot Mini) It works great also and takes us less space. It uses 700 Watts versus 1000 Watts of the 6 quart. They are available of course on Amazon, but also can walk in and get them at Target.

It also fits great in the small refrigerators!

I am hooked on the Instant Pot and almost never use my stove anymore. The liner can also be used on top of the burner

[OTRA15]

bugsbunny, FYI I have quoted you on the IP thread linked earlier, so that readers of that extensive thread will have some continuity on the Instant Pot comments.

[mjsully]

I have a 3 qrt for my AS and use it daily at home or on the road!

[elgo]

Originally Posted by bugsbunny

I recently bought the 3 quart instant pot (the Instant Pot Mini) It works great also and takes us less space. It uses 700 Watts versus 1000 Watts of the 6 quart. They are available of course on Amazon, but also can walk in and get them at Target.



It also fits great in the small refrigerators!



I am hooked on the Instant Pot and almost never use my stove anymore. The liner can also be used on top of the burner

This is a great idea. Last time out boondocking I carried a lithium generator bc my house batteries situation is in need of fixing. Always looking for ways to save the batteries and storage space.

[InterBlog]

This thread deserves a resurrection, and I've just the product to do it.

My two bottles of Uncle Bob's replenishment just arrived. I don't go anywhere without it. It can only be bought from Uncle Bob himself, and he lives in Missouri. But he will ship it to you for a fair price.

Show Me (State) a beef and burger spice that is NOT 90% salt - gosh I hate that, it drives me nuts to pay high prices for mostly-salt seasoning junk. Well, here you go for an alternative - look at the product picture that I took below. It has salt in it, sure, but salt does not dominate.

This stuff is awesome (to my personal taste). It makes many, many van and campfire meals better.