I have to confess, I am a campervan addict (it gets you like that, doesn’t it?). I’m also passionate about no-fuss, tasty, nutritious food and the two have now blissfully joined up in my life. Let me tell you more…
My campervan addiction started back in 2013 when my partner, Glyn, and I bought a Groupon for a week in a motorhome. Yes, it was one of the big white ones (with a bed that I say is a bit like sleeping in an MRI scanner!) but we were hooked. We had an amazing week in Cornwall and Devon (the West Country is a very magical place) and knew that, somehow, we had to get a campervan of our own.
Just Couldn’t Afford it
We knew we wanted something smaller but didn’t have anything like the £30,000+ budget you would need to buy one of the newer van conversions. In fact, you could divide that by 10 and that was about where our budget was. So we visited lots of campervan shows and drooled over the yummy Vee Dubs we saw there but realised, with dismay, that there was nothing at the shows that we could afford at all.
Then, as fate would have it, an online search took us to Bumble Campers (www.bumblecampers.com) who rent out and sell Toyota Previa conversions. These MPVs have been used as campervans for years in Australia and are really popular because they can go anywhere a car can go but are much roomier inside than you think (in fact the Bumble people say that they have a similar footprint to a Vee Dub van just not the height).
We tried one of their conversions for a weekend and fell in love with these amazing Tardis-like cars.
We bought our own Previa (we wanted the one with the electric sunroof so that, on a warm night, we could lay in bed and look at the stars) and Bumble converted it for us and our camper is now known as ‘Trev-the-Prev’. The rest is history and we have had many trips away in Trev, mostly around the South of England, but we hope to take him to visit our friends in Holland one day soon.
And Then Came the Food…
As it happens, I am also a keen, home cook and I am passionate about no-fuss, tasty food and I was finding that I was struggling to make real food in the limited kitchen that we have in Trev. Most small campers have just 2 rings and maybe a grill if you are lucky.
So I found that I was starting to collect and develop recipes that could be easily cooked in a camper kitchen. Talking to other campervan people I also realised that they were experiencing the same challenge so I decided to create this blog and a simple campervan cookbook, ‘The Camper Cookie’, (out in Spring 2016) which will have recipes that I have adapted for campervan life. I call myself the Camper Cookie because I am a cook rather than a chef and I’m told I can sometimes be a bit cookie-ish too!
So now, I’m always researching and experimenting with new recipe ideas as well as finding gadgets that make life easier in a small campervan and I’d love to share what I discover with you in my blog.
I’d also be delighted to hear from you if you have a recipe that works for you when you’re camping that I could maybe share with other campers here (with full acknowledgement, of course!)
So here’s to our camping adventures and the bliss of sitting next to your campervan at the end of a warm summer’s day with a great view and a tasty, home-cooked meal. Life just doesn’t get any better.
Happy camping!
Summer
’The Camper Cookie’