Keeping Frozen Items Frozen - Cooler Question

[jsmla]

Before we got our fifth wheel we always used a two cooler system. Our, uhm, "vintage" 1966 Airstream only had a dorm sized fridge and no freezer.

Cooler #1 held drinks and things we accessed several times a day. We just used regular old ice in this one. Sandwich fixings were stored in Ziplocs and placed inside Tupperware to keep them dry. We had to refill it with ice fairly often. This was a cheaper Coleman type ice chest.

Cooler #2 (Yeti) held frozen items-pans of lasagna, bags of gumbo, meat for the grill, etc. On the night before we left I filled it with re-purposed plastic drink bottles refilled with water and frozen. The next morning I took out those bottles and filled the pre-cooled chest with our frozen food items, filling in any empty space with more frozen drink bottles. It needs to be as full as possible with pre-frozen items.

Everyone had access to Cooler #1. I was the ONLY person allowed into Cooler #2. By opening it as little as possible we were able to keep stuff frozen for close to a week. I had a system of using things that thawed first (jambalaya, chicken, taco meat) early in the trip and those that remained frozen longer (lasagna, steaks) near the end.

 

[peg110]

I had a system of using things that thawed first (jambalaya, chicken, taco meat) early in the trip and those that remained frozen longer (lasagna, steaks) near the end.

Now that's planning! That's exactly how I'd figure it out too. LIFO so no "Digging".

 

[jsmla]

Now that's planning! That's exactly how I'd figure it out too. LIFO so no "Digging".

It took a few trips to figure out! We have always been a camping family and I am always working on my "system" which really is just perfecting the one my mother used on tent camping trips back when I was a child and dinosaurs roamed the earth