Threes for RV’s

It’s June, and we’re finalizing our travel plans for the balance of the RV season: A trip to Nova Scotia to celebrate a milestone birthday and then to the 25th annual Explorer RV Club Rally in Hanover.

This year we’re making a conscious effort to apply the rules of threes for RVs: Limit our daily driving distance to 300 kilometres; arrive by 3:00 PM daily; and aim to stay for three nights each time.

Why are we applying these guidelines? Looking back at our past travel patterns, we’ve realized that driving 300 kilometres a day can take up to five or six hours to allow for stops we’d like to make along the way and the inevitable construction season slowdowns. Limiting our daily distance makes things safer for our fellow travellers and us — driving or pulling RVs demands concentration, alertness, and patience. Driver fatigue is a real risk!

Arriving at our destination by 3:00 PM allows ample time to get set up during daylight, address any site issues, relax, make dinner, and look around.
Aiming to stay for three nights each time allows us to sleep in, relax, explore our surroundings, and “just be” without worrying about packing up and leaving early again the following day.

Realistically we know that given the amount of vacation time, we have this year and the fixed date and time for the milestone birthday celebration, we’ll not be staying three nights at a time. Instead, we’ll wait for two nights every other day, limit our distance to 300 kilometres, and aim to arrive at our campsite by 3 PM each day. (This means we’ll also need to be more disciplined to be on the road by 9:00 AM each travel day!)

Dahl with Spinach and Sweet Potatoes

Adapted from Sophie and Paul
Serves 4

Here’s another way to enjoy our time at the campsite: A one-pot RV-friendly recipe for delicious Dahl that takes less than 30 minutes to make on a cooktop or BBQ, using a cast iron pot with a lid!

This dish can be ready in 15 minutes using the pressure-cooking setting on our multi-cooker. If using the multi-cooker, reduce the amount of water by 20 ml (700 ml) and set the pressure cooker timing to 4 minutes. It’s also easy to make ahead and heat up in a microwave before serving.

Ingredients

• 40 ml grapeseed oil
• 60 ml coconut powder
• one onion, finely chopped.
• 2 cm ginger, minced.
• three cloves of garlic, minced and with the anima removed
• two medium-sized sweet potatoes, skinned and cubed.
• one brick (150 grams) of frozen spinach (allow to thaw at room temperature)
• 8 ml cumin
• 8 ml turmeric
• 8 ml coriander
• 3 ml cardamom
• 3 ml cinnamon
• 3 ml cayenne pepper
• 250 ml red lentils
• 720 ml water
• 5 ml salt
• 40 ml lemon juice
• 15 ml garam masala powder

Method

1. Allow the frozen spinach to thaw at room temperature.
2. Measure out and mix the dry spices in a bowl and set aside.
3. In a large pot, heat the grapeseed oil, and when the oil is hot, sprinkle in the coconut powder, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the oil becomes opaque.
4. Sauté the onions until they start to clarify.
5. Stir in the ginger and garlic and cook until the onions caramelize.
6. Add the spice mix, stir, and sauté until they release their fragrance (about a minute)
7. Add the cubed sweet potatoes, red lentils, water, and salt.
8. Bring lid-on to a boil on medium heat for 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.
9. Stir in the spinach and lemon juice. Remove from heat and allow to sit for a few minutes.
10. Just before serving, sprinkle the garam masala powder on top and gently stir in.

Note: Substitute 25 ml of your favourite curry powder if you don’t have all the individual spices listed here.