These super-long workdays are killing me.  The crazy thing is, when all's said and done, my check-stubs say I work less than 60 hours a week, which is way less than what some people work regularly.  I'm not sure if I'd be able to keep it up indefinitely, and I'm glad I don't have to find out.

Jenna and I have been getting in contact with WWOOF farms in Michigan, for late June or early July, and in Washington and Oregon, for early September.  I think we've got our first stay booked, but until it's less tentative, I'll hold off on posting details.  The prospects are exciting, and having almost two months free of gas, rent, and food costs makes this sojourn seem more manageable.

Jenna and I have talked a lot about food in the van.  I'm vegan, and Jenna is vegetarian.  What can we eat that is cheap, reasonably nutritive, requires minimal cooking and preparation, and stays good without refrigeration for extended periods?  This is obviously a pretty difficult list of requirements, and there are almost no foods that satisfy all of them.  We do have a refrigerator in the van, but since we won't be plugging into RV sites most of the time, I doubt we'll have enough battery reserves to run it for very long.  Instead, I think we'll freeze Blue Ice packs when we have access to a freezer, and use the fridge as a cooler.

I think that we're going to find out what does and doesn't work through practice.  It's tough to tell in advance, but here are some of the foods I think we're going to rely on in the van, in addition to some basics (spices, salts, sugar, a couple basic sauces/bases, flour, coffee, oil):

•  Fresh fruits and vegetables.  We just have to be judicious and buy only what we can eat in a day or two.  The best types will probably be fruits, salad greens, spinach, carrots, and celery, because they can be eaten raw.  Onion, garlic, yams, corn, and potatoes can be kept unrefrigerated.  We'll eat a lot of dark leafy greens like kale and swiss chard, because they're very good for you and require pretty minimal cooking.  Tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, peppers, eggplant, cabbage, beets, and squash will make less frequent appearances. 
• Vitamins.  Off the top of my head, I think we're going to need calcium, vitamin D, acidophilus, probably iron, and generic EmergenC packets.
• Dried beans and lentils.  By using various types of beans, I'm hoping to keep from getting too sick of them.  The major downside is that reconstituting beans requires the forethought of soaking them for hours.  Lentils require much less time, and can pretty quickly turn into soup bases.
• Instant rice.  Crucial for our situation, because it doesn't have to be boiled for very long. 
• Peanut butter.  Keeps indefinitely, lots of protein, delicious.
• Jelly. 
• Canned foods.  Chickpeas, especially, but probably also canned beans as instant taco-stuffers, vegetarian baked beans, refried beans, green beans, tomatoes, canned spinach (if I can learn to stomach it), duck-style seitan, peas, and corn.
• Nutritional yeast.  I put this on every damn thing.  Lots of B-vitamins and it's delicious. 
• Whole-wheat pasta will probably be an occasional treat, at best, because even spaghetti has to boil for three or four minutes, plus then you have the issue of what to put on it.  Jarred pasta sauce only keeps as long as it's sealed, and then there's more in the jar than you can use on one pound of pasta.  Canned sauce has similar challenges, plus, ugh, canned sauce.
• Rice noodles, on the other hand, can be put in not-quite-boiling water for like a minute and a half and they're good to go.  Could probably whip up a somewhat passable peanut sauce with peanut butter, soy sauce, Hoisin sauce, water, sugar, garlic, and hot sauce, none of which need to be refrigerated.  Add broccoli (cooked with the noodles?), onion, and bell pepper and you have a stir-fry.  Alternately, by preparing a simple broth with miso paste, you can have a basic noodle soup.
• We may use more "exotic" grains like bulgur and quinoa on occasion.
• Clif Bars.  A single Clif bar and a piece of fruit is usually enough for me for breakfast, and they pack 10g of protein each (20, for the marginally more expensive Builder Bars), and if you buy them in boxes, they cost like $.75 each.
• Jenna will probably eat yogurt, and maybe goat cheese on occasion.
• Instant oatmeal.  Fibery, filling, cheap.
• Vegetable broth in Tetra Paks.  This makes sense in case we're somewhere without access to municipal water, and can't/don't want to use the van's tank.  You can use it to cook rice or beans in, and it only improves the flavor.  Even pasta, in a pinch.  Coffee, not as much.
• Instant soups.  While I'm sure we'll eat a little Nissin Oriental ramen, I'm thinking more of health-food-store soup cups, canned soups, and Annie Chun's-type noodle bowls.  These are more expensive, but are also a little healthier (depending on the product).
• Tortillas.  Mushroom tacos, tempeh tacos, bean tacos.  Sometimes I just heat them up with peanut butter on them.
• Whole wheat or multigrain bread and bagels.  We're especially partial to the hippie-dippy and surprisingly cheap sprouted-grain loaves available in Philadelphia, but I'm not counting on being able to obtain similar products in, say, North Dakota.  
• Tempeh.  It needs to be refrigerated, but it's too healthy to ignore.  Can be cooked over a fire, or sauteed.
• Tofu, for use in stir-fries.  Same deal as tempeh.  We'll probably spring for processed vegan sausages and hot dogs once in a while, for cooking over campfires.
• Snacks: dried fruits, nuts (especially the Emerald brand cocoa-roasted almonds), trail mixes, Peanut Chews, Tings, Jolly Ranchers.

Posted by Aram

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