My simple travel hack that saves us money on vacation meals

One writer used to make do with deli sandwiches and brought-from-home snacks, but now they have a secret weapon for quick but satisfying road trip lunches.

You know what I love doing in the summer? I’ll give you three things:

That last one is a little tricky to pull off because — and I admit this might be an obvious statement — the cost of eating adds up over the course of a vacation.

Even if you’re not the kind of person who loves to fill up on a big, leisurely brunch, finding affordable but memorable options for every meal during a long trip can be challenging.

I used to make do with deli sandwiches and brought-from-home snacks, but now I have a secret weapon for quick but satisfying road trip lunches: my Coleman camp stove.

Despite my outdoorsy hippie reputation among friends, this was the first time I dove into cooking on an outdoor propane stove before renting a camper van for a cross-country trip with my husband on Route 66. But once we were on the road and figured out the logistics of our travel routine, I realized the stove’s versatility and utility, not to mention the genuine fun of being able to cook lunch on the go.

With a two-burner stove and pump sink in the back of our camper van, we could pull over and cook lunch pretty much anywhere during each day’s adventures. I made pesto rotini in the parking lot of Ulysses S. Grant’s historic home in Missouri, flipped grilled cheese sandwiches in a local park in Baxter Springs, Kansas, and slurped up cheesy zoodles outside the Painted Desert Inn in Petrified Forest National Park.

Now I’m a seasoned outdoor cook and have invested in a full mini kitchen setup for my camping excursions. I’ve fallen in love with camp stove cooking so much that I now bring it with us on most of our summer road trips — whether we’re camping or not.