Easy Meal Suggestions...

[TraciWA]

We leave for vacation for a week on Sat. We are staying in a vacation condo with a full kitchen. We are a family of six and eating out is not an option. The resort town is extremely pricey so we are bringing our food with us. I want to bring as many pre made or at least as easy to make meals as possible. After all it it supposed to be my vacation too!

 

So far I have Chili(meat and spices precooked and in the freezer), Lasagna(frozen), chicken taquitos (I made them and froze them), Meatloaf (premixed and frozen).

 

Any other suggestions? Breakfast? Lunch?

 

Why does going on vacation have to be so much work!

[Mom-ninja.]

Muffins. Every time we go camping or on vacation my family requests muffins.

 

Waffles and pancakes can be frozen as well.

 

Soup, either home made or can soup is easy.

[nova147]

Eggs are easy for breakfast or dinner. You can pre make a casserole, or just scramble and serve with bacon and toast.

 

I would do sandwiches for lunch.

 

If you have a grill, do burgers one night and chicken breasts/legs another night. Pizza (homemade or store bought) is another easy meal.

[pfamilygal]

Bring your crockpot and rice cooker. There are lots of easy variations on dump chicken you can serve over rice or noodles. You can preassemble at home in ziplock bags and dump in the crockpot there.

[mariposa]

We do this every year (condo with a full kitchen). We buy most of our groceries when we get there, but I bring a lot from home so I don't have to buy as much.

 

For an easy (minimal ingredients) meal, I like to mix:

1 pkg. pasta of your choice, cooked

1 jar sauce (we like Trader Joe's or Newman's 3/5-cheese spaghetti sauces)

1 pkg. spinach

Meat of your choice, cooked - ground beef, ground chicken, cooked cubed chicken, italian sausage (you can add up to a pound)

 

You can cook it there or mix it together ahead like a casserole and bake it until it's warm. I might mix in cottage cheese or mozzarella if I have it and top with parmesan.

 

Obvious sides to this would be italian bread or salad, but it's good just on its own, too!

 

Some other ideas:

Make-ahead muffin mix, so all you have to add is the wet ingredients (don't have one on hand, but I know I've used them before)

Coffee cake/muffins

Make pancake mix ahead, again just add the wet ingredients (we do this when we camp, too)

My kids could live off of pb&j for lunch so I tend not to get too fancy with that, and there's always leftovers (which you don't want to have to take home!)

 

Hope you have a great vacation!

Sarah

[Jennifer in MI]

When we do condo vacations, we go with easy meals! Some of our favorites:

 

1. Roasted chicken and potatoes.

2. Chicken noodle soup (made from the chicken bones from the chicken)

3. Spaghetti and meat sauce

4. chicken pot pie

 

Breakfasts are eggs, bacon, oatmeal, toast. Easy stuff to make. Mostly cheap.

 

Lunches are sandwiches, chips, carrots, and fruit.

 

Our next condo vaca is in August! I can't wait!!!!

[TraciWA]

Forgot that I am bringing home made pizza. I will freeze the dough for the crust.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

[TraciWA]

We are also crossing the boarder north and so will need to stop and buy produce on the way.

[saraha]

For breakfast:

sausage gravy and pillsbury biscuits or bisquick biscuits

frozen homemade pancakes

yogurt bar- vanilla yogurt bought in the big tub and various toppings

egg mcmuffins- english muffins with a sausage or can. bacon slice and egg

 

For lunch:

English muffin pizzas

grilled chicken salad- cook chicken ahead

salad bar - put out lots of fixin's and build our own

tacos- cook meat ahead, bagged salad

chicken fajitas-cook meat and veggies ahead, reheat and fill

spaghetti is always quick and inexpensive

My kids love box mac and cheese with sliced polish sausage in it. I only fix this on vacations or as birthday requests, they think it is really special for some reason:tongue_smilie:

 

Have a great trip. One thing we always do is take the kids out to one of those buffet restaurants at lunch time (cheaper at that time of day) and let them eat all they want:) then serve a lighter lunch like meal for dinner if they are hungry, or popcorn and fruit.