Chef Natalie’s pandemic survival meal
Oat Pancakes
Oat Pancakes (you haven’t lived until you’ve tried them)
Twix Bars
Twix Bars
Best Ever Chicken and Cheese Empanadas
We’ve had who knows how many empanadas in the past year. And while most are good, there’s those few that go beyond good to “Oh wow, this is incredible! I’ll have 4 at once…”
And these are just like that! Sooo much flavor in these little guys that you won’t be able to stop at eating just a couple
Van-Made Granola
APPLE COMPOTE
To make apple compote, stew four big, peeled, cored and chopped cooking apples in a little water until they turn into mush. Then mash them up with a fork (or use a food processor)
Dirty brownies
These super-indulgent brownies are easy to make, look incredible and taste even better. Reserved only for those who have a serious sweet tooth! Best served warmed up with vanilla ice-cream.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
This is our absolute favorite cookie recipe! I made it all the time in the early years of our marriage, before we left for Vanlife. And I was delighted to learn that I could make cookies on a propane stove top with a covered pan!
If you are like us, and don’t have an oven in your van, you will need a lidded pan to make these cookies. It creates an oven effect on your stove top. If you don’t have a pan lid, perhaps you could try a dinner plate!
If you have an electric mixer, you would be fine just using softened butter. I melt my butter to make mixing easier. I didn’t bring my hand mixer, since we boondock most of the time, and rely completely on our solar panels and battery bank. Fellow boondockers, I know you understand!
Make pizza in the van yourself (Non-Omnia-edition)
Since we are two huge pizza fanatics, this was the ultimate criteria for our vanlife. If we can’t make a pizza without an oven or Omnia, then we would be forced to let our dream of vanlife die. But we wanted to travel so badly!
So we sat down, tinkered and finally developed a really cool recipe, which we would like to share with you. And we can now rightly say, especially since we now have an Omnia, that we stick to the pan-pizza method. It is the best pizza you can make in a van!
If you want, you can watch our pan pizza tutorial on YouTube in advance (german, English subs are following):
Spiced Red Lentil Mini Burgers
A burger-less burger. That’s my idea of heaven. I’m a vegetarian and I don’t eat bread so I am just used to avoiding burgers altogether. These little micro burgers are so useful for bite sized sustenance you can grab and eat when you are busy. They can be made ahead of time and store well in the fridge. Likewise you can freeze the ‘dough’ to make them quickly at will, handy for spontaneous camping trips or BBQs. The addition of quinoa makes them hearty and filling, and their size makes them versatile for snack boards or picnics or sliders.
They make a great lunch spread with Handmade Hummus, Summer Tomato Salad and Golden Flatbreads.
Could the Omnia oven be the best campervan oven?
As a passionate cook and living full-time van life, here is my honest review of the Omnia oven, and will I claim this to be the best campervan...