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Favorite/easy travel food for condo?


TABmom
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When you travel and stay in a condo or hotel with a kitchenette- what is your favorite, easy things to eat? We're traveling with family and sometimes it's easier to stay in and eat, when you've spent all day doing touristy things. Suggestions?

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We go for interchangeable ingredients and things that can be easy to pack up if you have leftover ingredients. 

Ground beef, cheese, lettuce can be used for burgers or for taco dishes or potentially for spaghetti and meatballs.

Pasta is easy, and you can make a variety of dishes with it.

Salads.

Fresh veggies for salads, stir fry, or steamed veggies.

Fruit desserts that you can buy a crumb topping for or a pie shell for are easy, or you can make them into coffee cake with Bisquick. Cake mixes or cookie mixes make good desserts.

Sandwiches can be good lunches to pack, or you can fancy them up for supper (toasted or fancy bread, subs, etc.).

Soup is good with bread and salad, and you can plan veggies that go well in soup--then the last day, you can make soup with leftover meat and veggies.

Chips and salsa can be part of a main taco-themed meal, or you can use them for snacks and sides.

If you are staying several days and have a crock pot, a roast is great with veggies and potatoes, and the leftovers can go into a soup, or the meat can make sandwiches, fajitas, etc.

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Instant noodles 🙂

Usually we make a trip to the supermarket after checking in to the hotel so we buy:

bread

ham (a few different variety)

fruits

milk

cheese spread

We bring our own travel kettle to boil water, and microwave bowl to microwave food. Sometimes we buy more for lunch to use as leftovers for dinner and supper.

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We always bring a picnic set in case 'kitchenette' doesn't mean 'we provide utensils' for instance.  And a barbeque set in a briefcase like container.  

What else we bring:

Ground coffee and filters and a Melitta cone

Frozen spaghetti sauce

Spaghetti noodles and parmesan cheese in a can (the only time we use it)

Frozen chili

Bread

4 cheeses

Milk

Carrots

Dry cereal and/or granola

Oranges

Bananas

Condiments (mustard, ketchup)

Herbs and spices--we pick out the ones we use most and put them in the spaghetti pot to bring along

A single electric burner--lots of kitchenettes only have a microwave and a coffee maker

Mac and Cheese in a box

Frozen steaks.

Bag of romaine lettuce hearts

We eat the stuff in the order that it thaws or spoils in.

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Bagged salads

Frozen veggies, especially edamame

Nachos. Might bring frozen shredded chicken or ground beef from home for extra protein

Meatballs

Grapes

Pickles or cucumbers

Nuts

Bagels

Yogurt

Dips that I might not normally buy

Basically I try to some plants and fresh stuff in there, just to feel normal and good, and don't sweat the rest. I mean, it's not normal for me to have a bagel for breakfast and nachos for dinner. But if I'm walking and being touristy all day, pack reasonable snacks like grapes and nuts, and order a decently healthy lunch, I figure it evens out.

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Thanks! There are some great ideas here! The condo we're staying in this time will have a full kitchen. I'm definitely going with some crockpot ideas! I don't feel like it's much of a vacation if I have to think about food/cooking too much. 

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One simple one we did on vacation was Black Bean tacos

1 can corn, drained

1 can black beans drained

1 can petite diced tomatoes, partially drained

1 packet taco seasoning mix

Heat this up and serve on warmed up flour tortillas.  You can top with cheese, lettuce, or what ever other toppings you have.  Easy to add in left over cooked chicken or ground beef.  Another option is to serve with or over rice.....the microwave rice packages aren't too bad.

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we get:

Pizza (frozen)

steak and baked potatoes

Hamburgers and buns

rice and chicken one skillet dish

Pancakes and eggs

Those are the dinners.  For breakfast and lunch we are pretty grab and go, sandwiches, chips, cereal, trail mix, crackers

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2 hours ago, TABmom said:

Thanks! There are some great ideas here! The condo we're staying in this time will have a full kitchen. I'm definitely going with some crockpot ideas! I don't feel like it's much of a vacation if I have to think about food/cooking too much. 

Don’t forget that it is ok to pick up some of the prepared stuff at Costco or sams or grocery store.  Costco mac and cheese and the spinach salad are wonderful. 

Sandwich supplies, cereal that I don’t normally buy, fruit, breakfast burritos or sandwiches I made and froze, spaghetti and meatballs are our usual vacation stuff.  

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Forgot to mention we of course bring butter, peanut butter, jelly, olive oil, and 1-2 really good vinegars.

Also packaged or premade cookies.  

And at least two kinds of crackers.

Raisin bread and regular bread and usually some kind of special bread.  (These places almost always have a toaster even if they don’t have burners.). 

KEY:  Something to put left overs in.  It took us a while to learn that one.  Canning jars are great for this.  

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I dislike cooking when I am on vacation. But I did do it last summer. I can remember three easy meals that I made.

The first day, we were in a hotel, not a condo, and I did not have a kitchen, other than a sink and microwave. I put meatballs and sauce in the crock pot. They were large, cheese-filled homemade meatballs. One meatball is a serving, and we eat them without pasta, so I knew it would not require cooking noodles. For that meal, I packed the frozen meatballs, a jar of sauce, a loaf of French bread already sliced, a tub of spreadable butter, a container of parmesan cheese, and paper/plastic bowls and spoons. I think I had some baby carrots for the side.

I never do this at home, but I used a disposable crock pot liner.

The second quick meal only requires three ingredients: a pack of hamburger buns, two 12 oz cans of pre-cooked chicken, and a can of mushroom soup. Drain the chicken, place in a pot and break into smaller bits, so that it is shredded, add the soup, and heat through. Serve on the buns. I am not a great fan of recipes with canned soup, but this is one from my childhood that I like. And nothing needs to be refrigerated before cooking. We had more carrots on the side, and we probably had chips and fruit cups.

The third meal was a soup. I picked this recipe, because it can be made entirely from packaged ingredients but is really good.

Chicken Chili

2-4 cans of Great Northern beans, undrained (original recipe calls for 4 but I use 2)
2 cans of cooked chicken
1 can of Rotel (tomato and green chilis)
1 can of diced tomatoes (original recipe calls for 2 cans of Rotel, but I subbed diced tomatoes to make it less spicy)
1 can of chicken broth
1 packet of white chili seasoning.
Combine all ingredients in a pot or crock pot and heat thoroughly. Can be served with your choice of cooked rice, sour cream, and/or cheese

Don't forget to take a can opener and a serving spoon or ladle, in case the kitchenette is not fully stocked with utensils.
 

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