Cooking on The Road

 Hi all,

Got another product review for ya.

Mind you I do not get paid for this I just want to share some valuable information with you to help you eat and stay healthy (and keep more of your paycheck in your pocket) while doing the work that makes this nation great.

I am of course hoping that you will decide to check out the book I wrote, "So You Want To Be A TruckDriver?" and buy it for someone you know that's thinking about joining us out here. My book is not the run of the mill book of this type and you can preview a bit of it at the link above, or on Amazon (available on Kindel also).

Okay, so back to business.

In the photo above you see the Rival, 2 quart crock pot. This is my second one, the first one disappeared between jobs, gotta be around the house but just can't find it. And that's part of what makes this little gem so awesome, that's the price, right about ten bucks at most Wall Marts. Lose it or break it and it's very affordable to replace.

Another wonderful thing about this little guy is that you can operate it on a 300 watt inverter which these days runs between 20 to 30.00 dollars at the truck stops. On high, it uses about 80 watts of power.

Within a few meals it will pay for it's self. The black bean chili that is in the photo below makes three 1 cup servings, about three meals. The ingredients for the chilli cost me right about $3.00, or about $1.00 a serving. try to beat that at the truck stop! Add a can of veggies, some tossed green salad and a piece of fruit and you have a full course meal thats very filling, low in calories and under four bucks.

There is only one draw back to this product and that is that the lid does not lock down, so if your going to cook a meal while driving better find some way to secure the lid. I don't cook in it while driving, I usually start cooking before going to bed so it's done or near done when I get up.

Chilli is one of the many things I have cooked in it. I have cooked sweet potatoes, potatoes, squash, stew, chicken thighs and breast, and sausage.

I would be remiss if I didn't include my recipe for my delicious black bean chili, so here it is.

Throw into the crock pot in this order:

1 cup uncooked black beans

1 can stewed chop tomatoes

1 to 1/1/2 lbs of meat (chopped steak or roast or hamburger, I sometimes use turkey sausage

1 package of chili seasonings (I use Great Value from Wall Mart)

Onion and Jalapeno peppers in any amount you want

and about 2 cups of water.

Mix, put on high and forget it for 8 to 10 hours or until the beans are as done as you like.

That's it. Enjoy.

I also have a web site that you can check out at http://augerles.wix.com/be-a-truck-driver

Inverters

Ahhh, the smell of freshly perked coffee!! A hot dinner, YES!!! Eggs and oatmeal on a cold morning, mmmm.

Simple pleasures that the non-trucking public take for granted.

Even in theses modern times, most semi-trucks come with a bunk, a few shelves, and little else. Somehow, they forgot that the monkey behind the wheel needs fuel just as much as that cat under the hood. Then again, maybe it's a great conspiracy with the truck stops who are in such a hurry to provide us with the latest greatest health killers on the market, like Micky D's.

Real restaurants with truck parking are getting scarce.

And the cost!! 3 meals a day at an average of $12 a meal for a total of  a whopping $252.00 a week add $1.00 a cup for coffee (I drink three a day), and you have spent $273 a week or about 1/3 of the average drivers paycheck. Who can afford it?!

Well, good news! There is a solution. Get an inverter.

Most companies will install an inverter for you, if you ask nicely. If you are an O/O then you should know how to instal one yourself. Be sure it is installed correctly or you may kill you batteries or cause a fire. That being said, what size and brand should you get?

Regarding size, it all depends on what you plan to run on it. For a 900 watt microwave, you will need at least a 1500 watt inverter as it will pull right about 1100 watts or so. My coffee pot pulls 670 watts while it is perking and about 60 watts to keep the coffee hot. When I say 1500 watt rating on the inverter, I mean continuous operating watts, NOT peek watts. The peek watts can only be maintained for a short time before the inverter overloads and shuts down. Most appliances pull a larger amount of wattage during start up, which is why the peek wattage is important. My opinion is, if your start up pull is greater than your continuous wattage, the inverter is too small.

Regarding Brand, get the best you can afford. That being said, let me tell you about the one I purchased a month ago.

The one I bought is the Whistler Pro-2000W (pictured above). What I liked about it was the price at $149.00 which is about $100.00 to $50.00 less than a comparable model at the truck stops. So far it has preformed like a champ. This past Sunday I cooked a weeks worth of chicken breast and pork chops in my 900 watt microwave and didn't have a lick of trouble with it overheating although I did have to run the big motor as my APU couldn't keep the batteries sufficiently charged under that much demand.

Already the Whistler Pro-2000W has paid for it's self and provided hot meals and fresh brewed coffee. I highly recommend it.