Lucy:
Fresh pasta with a tub of sauce to stir in. Job done.
Even better with some fried chopped bacon and onion.
Treat your self to a microwave. Ready meals are good most are even healthy, you dont want to spend half your nite cooking then washing up and having pots and pans and crap cluttering ur cab up .Best investment i ever made
I’ve been going the tinned route, had some cracking meals (well, they were spot on after a 12hr+ day).
ravioli (or beans) baby potatoes and bacon
any tinned stew /curry with a handful of pasta to bulk it up a bit.
tins of all day breakfast - though it can be hard to find them without egg (which I don’t like)
goblin tinned pie/“pudding” with beans and baby potatoes.
I’m out again on tuesday, but I’ve been thinking I should find quicker food to make because I stop for 9hrs (only 2nights out per week) so time spent cooking reduces time in bed. So, having had caeser salad at the pub last night, I’ve decided to give that a go.
1 chicken breast half,
a lump of cucumber
a few lettuce leaves
a sachet of salad cream (need to pinch that from somewhere 
)
1/4 to 1/2 a small red onion
should be good, no idea how long it takes to cook the chicken though - maybe I’ll cook it at home and just warm it up.
I was speaking to one of the other drivers the other day though and he’s set me wondering about this whole “I preffer to do my own thing” thing;
What he was saying was that he’s never spent the night in a layby and never will - he pays for parking and gets a free meal, then claims the parking back so the meal’s cost nothing and he doesn’t have to struggle to find a layby / ind est with space 
guy’s got a point…
darkseeker:
then claims the parking back so the meal’s cost nothing and he doesn’t have to struggle to find a layby / ind est with space guy’s got a point…
That only works if your gaffer pays for parking though! I certainly don’t, and don’t see why I should, the truck and driver are safer on an industrial estate IMHO. And I certainly wouldn’t be paying for any meals, thats what night-out money is for!
I don’t do much driving these days, and nights out are extremely rare, but when I do I am not a cab dweller. I try and park somewhere that’s out of the way, but still within 20 mins walk of a decent pub and some sort of eatery. If I do decide to dine at hotel Actros, it tends to be something that I can stick in the microwave.
For ease i eat tesco micrwave meals and most of them can be heated on the stove 
FH16Globetrotter:
darkseeker:
then claims the parking back so the meal’s cost nothing and he doesn’t have to struggle to find a layby / ind est with space guy’s got a point…That only works if your gaffer pays for parking though!
And I certainly wouldn’t be paying for any meals, thats what night-out money is for!
Parking’s refunded, meals, as you say are what night out money’s for. I don’t know how many truckstops / m.s.a’s give a full meal free when you park there but if I found one in the right place, it’d certainly be tempting.
Sofar though, I’m the opposite; I’ve never paid for overnight parking and am quite happy doing my own thing - though my new job involves trying to find somewhere to park at about 1am which is easier said than done.
steve07:
i found some hot pots which have chill and rice, tikka and rice, spag bol, and some others made for microwave but you cook em in pan only a pound each. or tins off beans and chill
how do you know how long to cook em in pan for when theyre designed for micro?
I have got a microwave, George Foreman Grill and a Ramoska oven Standard Remoska Electric Cooker with Glass Lid | Lakeland
I can cook nearly everything I can at home if I decide not to dine out.
Tend not to eat too much microwave ready meals because they seem to be full of salt when you look at the label.
Here is a selection off my menu, ala Volvo!
darkseeker:
no idea how long it takes to cook the chicken though - maybe I’ll cook it at home and just warm it up.
You control the cooking time depending how you chop the chicken. Smaller the bits the quicker the cooking time obviously.
If you want to cook it without chopping it up then turn it over to the back side and make a cut longways down the middle of it, about three-quarters of the way through the breast, which will shorten the cooking time a lot.
Alternatively you can make a cut longways right through the thick end of the meat to about two thirds of the way down, so you end up with a sort of ‘Y’. This way means the thick end cooks in the same time as the thin end.
Season and rub a bit of oil, not from the sump, onto the chicken and it should take around 15 minutes in the pan depending on the thickness of the breast.
Coffeeholic:
Season and rub a bit of oil, not from the sump, onto the chicken and it should take around 15 minutes in the pan depending on the thickness of the breast.
Get you, with your posh cooking! If I can stir my coffee with the dipstick in the workshop, then I should be safe enough cooking my chicken in the finest fully synthetic! 
have you ever thought about using a slow cooker through a inverter i think they are around 200 to 240 watts
i do not drive for a living anymore but if i am on a job with no catering before i go out of the door of my caravan
i put something like a stew or casserole spag bowl beef bourgion and when i get back in 12 hrs later i have a meal ready
you can even use them for warming pre cooked food i have done this on site on the back of my landcruiser using a small portable generator
i just thought that the night before you can brown the meat off put all the ingrediants in the pot drive for 8 to 10 hrs
and when you stop your meal is cooked
and every thing is fresh not tinned
beattun:
steve07:
i found some hot pots which have chill and rice, tikka and rice, spag bol, and some others made for microwave but you cook em in pan only a pound each. or tins off beans and chillhow do you know how long to cook em in pan for when theyre designed for micro?
cos they are already pre cooked you just basically warming them up, i just add a bit off water in pan to stop sauce burning to sides. You can eat them cold but not as nice.
FH16Globetrotter:
That only works if your gaffer pays for parking though! I certainly don’t, and don’t see why I should, the truck and driver are safer on an industrial estate IMHO. And I certainly wouldn’t be paying for any meals, thats what night-out money is for!
As long as you realise night out money is not for parking 
If you are only out for a couple of nights, a baguette and a couple of tins of soup or stew, curry etc and a box of Crunchy Nut or Frosties is all you need. every garage in the country sells snacks and milk, there are dozens of ASDA, Tescos and Morrisons with room to park for 15 minutes. Hot chicken legs or half a chicken will keep you going two days!
For washing up use kitchen towel and unperfumed wet wipes
Wheel Nut:
As long as you realise night out money is not for parking
Indeed, but on the other hand if the lads want to park in an MSA then the cost is coming out of their own pockets!
I provide the maximum tax-free night allowance along with a good sized cab with fridge, microwave, TV and dvd player in every truck and free use of the company phone to call home as much as they want - if they want any more home comforts then it’s up to them!
Get a decent fridge and get some chicken ands couple jars of curry sauce or sweet and sour will go with some pork tip use olive oil to flash fry the chicken and use it very sparingly so you eont get any spatter all overthe place and make sure you open both windows a food bit so you won’t stknkthe cab out to
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Looks like i might be doing regular nights out soon, if the company say no gas they can whistle
Another tip is to cook as much as you can at home, saves alot of time when out on the road. I eat alot of pasta, i boil it all at home and store it in tubs in my coolbox, it can be eaten cold or it takes a couple of minutes to reheat, same for most meats.
currently back to doing 4 nights out a week, just use the normal single ring stove, tinned stuff mainly which has improved no end, the morrisons indian curry’s are spot on, packet rice that cooks in five mins, usually get a fresh french stick on the day, four nights would be two different curries, pasta with a tin of bol sauce and a stew with tinned veg, cereal in the morning for breky and the compulsory packet of digestives for a dunk on the mid shift break.
like most the company dosn’t pay parking and personally i will never under any circumstances pay to park someone elses wagon.
You can get all manor of things in a tin for your main and dessert, and most of them are pretty good. Pasta is easy, fresh pasta is quicker and taste better. Some sauces you don’t even have to heat up you just mix them into your strained pasta If your lucky enough to have a microwave then you can get endless options on ready meals. But my favourite is a tin of chicken curry, vindaloo optional, and a Uncle Ben’s bag of micro rice. Heat the curry on the stove, when it has warmed through bung in the rice and wait untill the whole dish reaches your desired temperature Yummmeee
The best thing you can buy is a good non stick frying pan with high sides and a lid. I cook everything. Stakes, pork chops, fish etc. I have egg and bacon for breakfast every morning. The key is not to use oil. Hence the good non stick pan. I never use tinned stuff anymore. You can buy the pots of fresh veg and mash in the ready meals section and heat them through in the pan. You can do the same for many fresh ready meals. I even do chips which I think is in one of my vids. Just buy the thin frites, splash of oil, some salt and pepper, put the lid on and cook on a high heat, moving frequently. And hey presto you got lovely crunchy chip. M&S do little boxes of frites that are ideal. They also do delicious pots of golden syrup flavour porridge that you just add water to. I generally eat in truck all the time, I like cooking. Maybe I’ll get one or two takeaways a month, if that.