🍳 Explore My Camp Kitchen

My camp kitchen has evolved over years of camping into a simple system that makes cooking easy without filling every cabinet. Everything here has earned its place through real camping experience.

If you ever need more room, one of the best upgrades isn’t buying more gear—it’s taking your kitchen outside. I’ll show you a few of my favorite ways to do that as we go.

Let’s take a look inside.

🥩 Save Refrigerator Space with a Vacuum Sealer

One of the best space-saving tricks I’ve discovered is using a good vacuum sealer before every trip.

Instead of throwing large packages of meat into the refrigerator, I divide everything into individual meal portions—ground beef, turkey, chicken, steaks, whatever we’re planning to eat—and vacuum seal each one separately before stacking them in the freezer.

Not only does this free up a surprising amount of refrigerator space, but it also keeps everything fresh for the entire trip. Around lunchtime, I simply pull out that evening’s meal and let it thaw while we’re out hiking or exploring. By dinner, it’s ready to cook.

💡 Road Ready Tip: Freeze your meat flat before your trip. Flat packages stack neatly like a deck of cards, making it much easier to fit several days’ worth of meals into the Casita’s small freezer.

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🍲 My Casita Doesn’t Have an Oven… This Solves That Problem

One compromise with my Casita is that it doesn’t have an oven. While I don’t miss it most of the time, there are trips when it’s nice to have the ability to bake or cook meals that aren’t practical in a skillet alone.

That’s why I recently added a 2-in-1 Cast Iron Dutch Oven to my camp kitchen.

The clever part is that the lid doubles as a cast iron skillet. That means one piece of cookware gives me two ways to cook—perfect when space is limited.

🍽️ One Piece of Cookware… Endless Possibilities

💡 Road Ready Tip: Cast iron holds heat extremely well, so you don’t need to cook on high. Medium heat is usually all you’ll need, which also helps conserve propane.

🟢 Check Current Dutch Oven Price on Amazon →

🍽️ How I Instantly Create More Counter Space

The original sink cover works exactly as intended, but after a while I started looking for something that was a little more convenient for the way we cook.

That’s when I discovered this roll-up sink rack. If I need to use the sink, I simply roll it back. When I need more counter space, I roll it over the sink again in seconds. It’s one of those small upgrades that makes cooking in a Casita even more enjoyable.

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💧 An Extra Layer of Confidence

Even though I cover how to properly sanitize your fresh water tank in one of my guides, I still like having one extra layer of filtration before I drink the water.

That’s why I keep a Brita Faucet Mount Water Filter installed in my Casita. It takes just a few minutes to install and gives me filtered water right from the faucet for drinking, making coffee, and cooking.

I have no problem drinking water from my fresh water tank because I keep it properly sanitized. The Brita filter simply gives me a little extra peace of mind while also improving the taste of the water.

💡 Road Ready Tip: Sanitizing your fresh water system and filtering your drinking water serve two different purposes. I recommend doing both. I also connect a Camco TastePURE RV Inline Water Filter to the campground water spigot whenever I’m hooked up to city water. It filters the water before it ever enters my fresh water tank, while the Brita faucet filter gives me an extra layer of filtration right at the sink for drinking, cooking, and making coffee.

🟢 Check Current Brita Faucet Mount Price on Amazon →

🧲 Keeping Cooking Utensils Within Easy Reach

One thing you’ll notice when you step inside my Casita is that I use magnetic hooks on the vent hood to hang many of my cooking utensils.

It keeps spatulas, spoons, and other frequently used tools within easy reach without taking up drawer or counter space. The magnets are surprisingly strong, and most of the time I can leave the utensils hanging while traveling without them falling.

I use the DIYMAG Heavy-Duty Magnetic Hooks, and they’ve become one of those simple little additions that makes the kitchen feel much more organized.

💡 Road Ready Tip: Before traveling, give each utensil a quick tug to make sure it is secure. Heavier or awkwardly shaped items may be better placed in a drawer until you arrive.

🟢 Check Current Price on Amazon →

☕ Our Coffee Routine Has Evolved

We started with a hand grinder and a French press, but after a few trips we decided simpler was better. The French press was a chore to clean, and hand-grinding coffee every morning quickly lost its appeal.

Now we use pre-ground coffee with a Hario V60 Pour-Over Coffee Dripper and disposable filters. Cleanup takes seconds, and we can brew a fresh cup directly into our mugs.

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💡 Road Ready Tip: I also recommend using a whistling tea kettle instead of a saucepan. The narrow spout gives you much better control when pouring into the V60, making it safer and much less messy inside a small Casita.

🍷 Any Wine Drinkers Out There?

If you enjoy relaxing with a glass of wine around the campfire, this is one of those little luxuries we never leave home without.

We use the CIRCLE JOY USB Rechargeable Wine Opener, and it makes opening a bottle effortless. It even includes an electric vacuum pump and wine stoppers, so if we don’t finish the bottle, we can reseal it and enjoy the rest another evening. It takes up a little room in our silverware drawer, but for us, it’s worth the space.

🟢 Check Current Price on Amazon →

💡 Road Ready Tip: Once you’ve opened the bottle, I recommend using JoyJolt Stemless Wine Glasses. Their wider base makes them much less likely to get knocked over inside a Casita than traditional stemmed glasses.

Here’s another trick that’s worked great for us: don’t throw away the box they come in. Simply cut the top off and keep the partitioned bottom as a storage tray. We’ve used ours trip after trip, and it keeps the glasses protected while traveling. I store the entire box in the very top cabinet above the refrigerator, and it fits perfectly.