Heating up kiddie food while on the road?

[The Adam Blaster]

Hey everyone, just throwing out the question how do you heat up food while on the road?
My wife and I have 2 boys, 4 and 14 months and will be doing a cross-country trip with them this summer and we'd like to be able to heat up food occasionally for lunches.
I found this item by Koolatron and was curious if anyone has used it or one like it?
http://koolatrononline.stores.yahoo.net/koolatron-lunch-box-stove.html

Or if anyone has a better device or method?


EDIT: The types of food that we would want to heat up would include soups/stews and random types of leftovers (maybe pizza?) that we would have had for dinner the night before, from a restaurant on the road or at the hotel. The little guy is past the bottle stage, which does make travelling easier.

The other detail is that the youngest has a wheat allergy, and I imagine finding gluten-free food on the road won't be that easy. So when we find something he likes, we try to keep as much of it as long as we can.

 

[DaveNay]

You could build or buy a simple solar cooker.

http://solarcooking.org/plans/

 

[The Adam Blaster]

Thanks for the idea Dave, but I would still need something that will work independent of the weather.

 

[Abel Villesca]

How about an engine manifold cooker like the Hot Dogger?

 

[Silver dude]

If its milk bottles then the hot glove warmers packets you can pickup at most sportsmans stores work well when wrapped around a bottle. Otherwise as long as you have a free air eviroment basic camping stoves and grills work nicely. Your basic compact home appliances can be brought to the trail if you have big enough inverter.

 

[robertwalker2003]

Hey everyone, just throwing out the question how do you heat up food while on the road?
My wife and I have 2 boys, 4 and 14 months and will be doing a cross-country trip with them this summer and we'd like to be able to heat up food occasionally for lunches.
I found this item by Koolatron and was curious if anyone has used it or one like it?
http://koolatrononline.stores.yahoo.net/koolatron-lunch-box-stove.html

Or if anyone has a better device or method?

I have one of those or something close to it. I used it when I was driving trucks. It works well for heating up prepacked foods but if you use alum loaf pans then you can cook just about anything in one. I add just a bit of water to make some steam for prepacked foods.

Just about any truck stop will have these. Pilot I think is where I got mine.

Robert Walker

 

[MarcoPolo]

If you have an inverter, a small rice cooker only pulls 300 watts. Good for soups and re-heating.

 

[slvyj]

My wife carries a thermos filled with hot water, in rest areas the hot water is used to heat the food or milk. The next trip I'm planning to carry a backpack stove, and use it to heat stuff up at rest areas.

 

[The Adam Blaster]

I edited my first post and added some additional details.

I have a Coleman 2-burner stove that would do the job for the most part, but we are driving approx. 3000 km over 4-5 days, so we want to make our stops as efficient as possible. And the Coleman stove requires a couple minutes of setup and take down, so if there's another solution out there that will work better/faster I'm willing to entertain it.

 

[JIMBO]

:sombrero: A lotta choices--

www.fieldandstream.com sells an all purpose cooker that'll pop corn/make soup/cook hot dogs-etc

It's a small stovetop type pot, like you use at home and plugs into your vehicle pwr outlet--I've had mine over 5 years and used it/ along with their 12vdc coffee maker many times--

Don't remember the price lookit up

:costumed-smiley-007:wings: JIMBO

 

[Mrknowitall]

We carry thermos hot water as well. There are 12V bottle warmers avaialble, But I would think you're past that. Hit your friendly truck stop for some other small 12V appliances.

 

[762X39]

I found this item by Koolatron and was curious if anyone has used it or one like it?
http://koolatrononline.stores.yahoo.net/koolatron-lunch-box-stove.html

Katherine purchased one of these for me at a yard sale ($5) and we love using it. Anything you can wrap in foil can be reheated/cooked in it.As another poster stated, a small aluminum container (or other heat resistant material I suppose) can be used to cook stuff in it. Just remember that you only have 12 volts and 10 amps to work with (150 watts or so) so you need to plan ahead. I usually throw a frozen entree in about an hour before I am ready to eat. Katherine also purchased a 12 volt kettle and a 1 cup coffee maker for me and the same rule applies (plan ahead for your needs). Because of the current draw it is best if you use these devices while en-route with the engine running. If you have a van (mini or otherwise) or a full size truck, you can probably find a safe spot close to or on the floor to use these items while moving (the Koolatron is fine on the seat if there is no room on the floor or footwell.).