Ada/Canyon County (Boise/Nampa/Caldwell Area) Idaho Truckers Only: Rate Your Local Companies

I do cook. Eating truckstop food is too expensive. I have a 12v Coleman thermo electric cooler. I use a 12v crockpot to cook with. Just fill it up, turn it on, and by the time your are done running for the day you have your meal. I take 1 day at home for every week on the road. So I will get 4 days. Nothing set in stone though. Sometimes it gets cut short. Then my next home time I will get home early. Or I might be ran close to home where I can do a 10hr at home while I am out. I usually will run near the house once a week, so.

Drive Safe and God Speed

Ok, Patrick:

There's a slim possibility I could still make this whole damn thing work out. I was scared that you were seeing home only once per month. Your latest revelation inspires a little more confidence in me.

No, sir. I am not a habitual crock pot user. I use a PAM-coated skillet, a saucepan, a table-top gas barbecue, and a microwave mostly. For trucking, and me both, it would most likely pre-made stuff packed in coolers, the fridge and freezer made up for the entire road trip.

No candy, no chips, no junk food for me.

For breakfast, I have a bowl of oatmeal with skim milk and a half of grapefruit. Every other day, I will have 2 scrambled eggs with milk, 2 or 3 deli fried ham slices and sometimes hash browns from a baking potato I shred with my cheese grater. I use Pam spray only.

For lunch I hardly ever eat sandwiches. Bread is largely out of my diet. It is salad mix with a can of chicken one day or two cans of sardines packed in water another day, plain yogurt and a spoonful of mayonnaise. I use steak sauce and lemon juice on my sardine salads.

For dinner it is BBQ chicken breast, or hamburger patties with rice, fried potatoes, pasta, and/or polenta (Italian cornmeal bread pudding type product) with spaghetti sauce that I make in a saucepan or a skillet and frozen vegetable.

Once in a while it is tacos with Mexican rice and beans. Pizza is extremely rare on my diet. Not much hamburgers on buns, hot dogs and fries for me. Occasionally it is BBQ lamb chops or liver and bacon sauteed with yellow onion. Once in a blue moon it is Popeyes chicken.

For desert it is a smoothie made in a blender with fresh or frozen fruit and skim milk with a dash of vanilla. I might have to pack pre-made smoothies in large bottles for road trips. I also drink spring water from gallon jugs. I drink fruit juice and iced tea fro instant also. I put my 1 quart beverage bottles in the freezer with a third liquid in them so I don't have to deal with ice cubes. Truckers may have to deal with store-bought ice a lot.

For snacks, I eat rolled oats plain.

Yes, Mr. Natural, Ule Gibbons here.

There are basically 3 things to cook with that are 12v. A lunchbox oven, a crockpot, and a electric frying pan. I have seen 12v rice pots, and a different style oven as well. You can always hit up the Walmart's for a 30 min break to do shopping. There just isn't a lot of room to store stuff.

My breakfast consists of a bottle of carnation instant breakfast. I do keep some snacks but rarely indulge myself. My snack is usually a piece of bread and butter. TBH, the best kind of bread to keep on a truck is sourdough. (Especially if you don't eat a lot of bread). It will keep the longest and withstands temperature changes well. So no worry about ending up with moldy bread. I always keep a loaf of sourdough. I also keep a tub of honey butter. A piece of sourdough with honey butter on it contains simple and complex carbs to give you a pick me up and keep you going. I generally only eat 1 "meal" per day.

1 of my favorite meals to make in my crockpot is polish sausage and sauerkraut. Must be my German heritage, lol. Put left overs in a ziplock bag and throw it in my cooler. I just make sure to make a quick pit stop the next day to throw them back in the crockpot a couple hours before I am done for the day. I get 2 days out of 1 pkg of sausage and a can of kraut.

A crockpot is also great for heating up soups. You would be amazed at some of the selections. Again throw it in 1-2 hours before you shutdown.

Tonight I had clam chowder.

Will truckers on long trips ever be allowed to store personal items in the cargo area? That is inside the trailer.

It sounds like the trucking industry is in cahoots with Walmarts and truck stop businesses to try to force drivers to spend their money there.

Do many trucks stops serve low-cal meals? Is there a "health-nut" menu in some restaurants along a driver's way?

I would need some sort of stove top or portable electric burner for some of my things. Perhaps, a gas Coleman stove.

So, Patrick, you are saying there is absolutely no space to store a week's supply of pre-cooked foods and any number of coolers?

No Jonathan you cannot store personal belongings in or on a trailer. Not that I'd want my belongings to commingle with load remnants, even so you'd be in a constant state of moving stuff in and out.

No cahoots with Walmart...just so happens they are far more truck friendly than most places. So unless you plan on somehow growing your food in the truck, Walmart is a very convenient place to purchase foodstuffs.

There isn't a definitive yes or no answer to your questions beyond the two I addresse. Nothing you want is out of the question if you can adapt and be willing to compromise on occasion. I never eat TS food, except for an occasional snack and a coffee.

If you're this new to the business ("Considering a career") don't be so fast to jump to conclusions.

The trailers are either empty or sealed. If it's empty, no telling what used to be in there - barrels of lubricants, fertilizer, spaghetti sauce. If it's loaded, it's the customer's stuff, you can't get in there.

There are no "cahoots". As G-Town explains, you need a truck friendly place to stop. Yes, Wally World can be your home away from home. And truck stops do charge C-store prices but they do allow you to bring your own meals. And it's not hard to get into the truck stop and "borrow" their microwave.

Some truck stops do offer salads and such. Some even have exercise rooms and maps for local walking paths. Do a search for "bicycle" here. There's a few drivers that ride a bit on their breaks.

There are 12v cookers and other contraptions for on-board cuisine. Bon apètit!

You could get away with a week as long as you don't go overboard. Just remember space is limited. Coolers take up space and a 12v outlet. My Freightliner has 6 12v outlets. Use them wisely.