Lots of food in a small RV kitchen?

Hi All,
Does anyone have any ideas or tips on preparing or cooking a good amount of food in a very small kitchen?

I have an opportunity to go on a week long vacation in an RV. There will be 7 of us... and I am trying to minimize eating out. We will have access to a tiny 3 burner stove and oven in the RV as well as a firepit outside for a few of the nights.

I've done motor-homing, but not with such a large group usually.

1. Think 1 and 2 pot meals, all planned in advance. Things like spaghetti sauce over nice noodles (don't have to be spaghetti shaped ones - my kids adored 'drill bit' noodles), Curry over rice, etc. Then pre-measure and pre-mix any of the ingredients that you can, and label it. It might even be worthwhile dehydrating some pre-cooked ingredients, so they take up less space.
2. Consider adding recipes to groups of ingredients, so it's clear what meal the can of whatever belongs to.
3. Definitely plan as much of the week's menu as you can. That doesn't mean you can't leave room for spontaneity - especially if someone catches fresh fish - but having a plan really helps.
4. Pull-in 'helper monkeys' as needed, but send them elsewhere to do the task - like outside on a picnic table to chop a bunch of veggies.  
5. Unless the motor home has a better than average kitchen, bring a couple of large rubber tote bins that can be used outside as a dishwashing station. Use a rubber scraper to get as much leftover food off as possible, then do a pre-rinse, then a wash. There's nothing that bugs me more than feeling like all I'm doing is moving around the dirt!

Matt, we started full timing when we had 3 kids and were still full time with 5. We still live in the RV and do some traveling with the 8 of us now. The answer depends on a few things. Will it be hot, moderate, cold where you will be? How long will you be in the RV? 7 adults or will there be children?

Our pattern is to cook inside when it is cold and outside when it is hot or moderate. We travel with a smaller air fryer oven and single burner plug in electric stovetop. They fit easily in the storage compartments of the RV and set up easily on a picnic table or fold out table. This is a very important one.

The limiting factor for us are the 10cuft fridge/freezer not the cooking appliances and space when cooking inside or outside. If 6 of the 7 bodies are made to go away from the outside cooking station or go outside if cooking inside, you'll have plenty of space. Sometimes it is easier for one person to be making one thing inside and another outside. My wife and I do this a lot. We do dishes outside if dry camping and inside in the single bowl sink if we have hookups. You can use and reuse paper plates and the when they are beyond reuse, they become the evening fire or charcoal starter.

Due to the varying state of repair and configuration of the fire pits we encountered, we started carrying our own. Also, sometimes people have burned trash in the pits and if the hosts don't clean them out for every visitor, you could be cooking over burning plastic. A weber smokey joe small kettle grill or the rectangular "Go anywhere" are good options. Roasting hot dogs and sausages are very popular for us and they fit nicely in the small fridge in their packaging. Grilled chicken thighs or breasts, hamburgers, etc. Ground beef is very versatile and compact. Pork tenderloin cooks quick and is great over a fire or charcoal along with boneless turkey beast and both are packaged well and compact. Leftovers get turned into sandwiches, quesadillas or added to the scrambled egg breakfast the next day. If you are a soup person, those are very efficient due to having a lot of dry ingredients.

Unless you are doing something like hot dog fires, where everyone participates, the group may have to get used to not eating at exactly the same time, all of the time. We make pizzas a lot and will make 2 or 3 small ones then get everyone started on eating them and continue to add them to the oven or air fryer oven. The dry ingredients for pizza dough, bread, quesadillas, etc. don't take fridge space so we do those a lot.

Outdoor and/or campfire cooking is very enjoyable.

We are expert at what does not need to be refrigerated and for how long as far as condiments, fruits and vegetables. Potatoes, apples, bananas, avocado, etc. stored on the counter or on wire shelves.

I don't know how often you'll be camping/traveling but you'll figure out what works for you guys pretty quickly, what is enjoyable, and be making some priceless memories!

And, because I can be a gear junky, we had a folding wood stove/pizza oven that was used for about 1 year and a half instead of the grill. Pizza, quesadillas, flat bread, pots and pans on top, evening fires, etc.

Jackson, is that fire wind shield easy to assemble and set up? I can imagine it being very helpful in windy areas even to shield a pot on a stove from the breeze.

Jay Angler wrote:Jackson, is that fire wind shield easy to assemble and set up? I can imagine it being very helpful in windy areas even to shield a pot on a stove from the breeze.

If you are familiar with or can watch a video of a CLAM screen tent setup, it is the same for the panels and it has some carbon fiber poles you insert at the joints. If it is mildly windy, you can just make it into a "U" or a "V" shape and a few stakes at the bottom are good. If it will be gusty, you can guy out the top of the poles at the panel joint sections.

So about 3 to 5 minutes without guy outs. Yes, made a huge difference when cooking outside. We still use it and it is 3 years old.

A ground fire would not be a good situation because the material is canvas. Anything else works great as long as the fire does not get out of hand and you have coals popping out and on the shield.

I've done some similar things with events and agree on doing as much as possible outside! tables for prep, for appliances if you have any that move, depending on the camping setup you may be able to do water-related things elsewhere (I've camped at some places that had washing stations where you could wash/peel veggies, for example).
Do whatever you can to decrease the number of cooks in the kitchen.