What's on your grocery list - cooler only/no food prep

golden

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 16, 2004
We will be there next week and will stop at a grocery store on the way to our itty bitty room at Pop Century with only a styrofoam cooler. I know there is a microwave in the food court, but we won't have the ability to keep anything frozen.

What is on your grocery list? my kiddos are 8 and 3. No meal plan either.

Water of course
yogurt
bananas
bringing Lara Bars
cheese stix
bread
pb&J
microwave popcorn

What else?
 
you may want to get deli cheese for cheese sandwiches (my son loves cheese) Microwave popcorn may be a pain cause you don't know how far from the foodcourt your room may be. You might just want to get the already popped kind.
Are you kids allowed pop-tarts or pastry of some sort? What about juice? OJ? Snacks like cookies or small bags of dried fruit are much cheaper at the grocery store. Try to hit up the bulk section.
You could get some celery to go with your peanut butter for a nice snack. That should keep in a cooler.

Just remember to put the ice for the cooler in a plastic garbage bag. It will save you from the dreaded "floating" food!! :rotfl:
 
fruit
lunchables
and don't forget zip loc bags - varying sizes - to pack sandwiches/snacks in, large ones to put the ice in for the cooler
 
Using hot water (refillable mugs) we generally have instant oatmeal in the mornings. We also get some bagles to toast and put peanut butter on. Add a piece of fruit and you're good to go :-)

Hot water (again) used in cup o noodles for DH and DD (they like this in the evenings when we return--DS and I just like popcorn).
 
We generally stick to breakfast items and snacks that don't need refrigeration. We will then get some milk for cereal and juice for drinks. We have always rented a fridge or had one in our room already, but those things would easily keep in the cooler too.
 
We usually bring:

cheese sticks
celery w/ ranch dipping cups


my daughters favorite things to bring are:
cereal in plastic cups. she loves dry cheerios in the am!
and cereal bars! she also loves to have fruit snacks in the am!
 
Mostly, we snack in the room. So items we purchase, may be different from those bought with meals in mind.

My kids love fruit salad, so we always stock up on lots of fruit and some fruit salad dressing. They also like sliced apples with cheddar cheese.

Everyone enjoys snacking on good sesame crackers with one of the garlic/herb/cream cheese spreads.

Plenty of salty snacks, like Pringles.

Sweet snacks that we can't always get at home, like Hits cookies (shortbread with great chocolate--I got addicted to these where we used to live and was so excited to find them at Publixs).
 
Easy Mac!
Juice boxes!
Oatmeal to go or cereal bars
If the room has a coffee pot (or if you buy a little one at the store w/ the groceries) you can use it not only for coffee, but to heat water for oatmeal, easy mac, cup o noodles, etc!
 
Ok, 2 things:
so those of you who have used the coffee maker for oatmeal water.
Does the water really get hot enough to cook the oatmeal? My experience of hotel coffee makers, at least when making coffee, is that they weren't very hot (not like Starbucks hot or Dunkin Donuts hot!).

And the bag in the cooler? Duh. Thanks for the idea! Why did I think of that!

Any other healthy ideas? We will certainly eat the junk in the parks. I was just hoping to at least have what eat in the room or bring for extra snacks be healthy or healthier.
 
i second the microwave macaroni...we get the Annie's brand (so at least it is somewhat healthy). we also buy canned fruit and canned green beans (which we'll eat room temp.) and baby carrots. that's 1 meal option that we'll use as a "break" from the restaurants or if we want something quick before heading back into the park.

breakfast food for us is often pbj sandwiches and juice boxes, but we also do granola bars, bagels and cream cheese, and dried cereal. all of this stuff can be found organic/no preservatives/no processed sugar, etc, so i feel good about starting our day with that (good thing, because Lord knows that once we are in the parks, anything goes for food with us!!) . we drive, so i always pack this stuff. not sure if publix has a decent natural food section.

your list looks pretty similar to mine. the only other thing i pack is "healthy" snack food...fruit leather, whole wheat crackers, raisins etc. not that we eat super healthy at home (and as i said, we eat loads of yummy junky stuff in the parks), but i know that my kids' behavior is better if they have some decent food at least for part of the day, especially first thing in the morning.

have you considering renting a fridge for your stay? if you are looking to save some money, even renting for part of your week might vary your food options quite a bit with the tiny freezer section and more space for cold items than a cooler. i don't know about your little one, but at 3 y.o., my kids still NEEDED milk. it would have been worth the cost to know that we didn't have to keep running out to get milk (and milk is EXPENSIVE in those little shops at the resorts!)


have fun!
 
We pack breakfast bars, 100 calories cookie bars, packs of crackers, packs of fruit & nuts, we bring the great value brand of crystal lite for our water bottles because of the yucky water in the fountains.
We always eat breakfast in the room (regular boxes of cereal and plastic bowls/spoons) and pack our lunch to the parks in an awesome insulated back pack. We'd rather not spend our $$$ on food in the parks or waste our time eating when we would be riding rides or seeing shows. We always have snacks in our backpack that we munch on in line. :banana:
We live on p.b. & j and lunch meat sandwiches that we pack in sandwich bags and take to the parks. We are on a fridge swap here on the Dis that helps out a TON!
Hope this helps!
Good Luck!
 
We got a frig at POP for no charge. You should ask. We ordered from Greengrocer.com. They brought our order up with a frig. and we never got charged anything.
 
just at costco and wanted to let you know that they have the horizon brand single serve, pasturized milk in the boxes (like a juice box). i'm not sure if it tastes as good, but we've used the chocolate milk on trips...no worries because there is no need for refrigeration.

i might consider them for this trip just to have them available for cereal or a quick "milk fix" on the way down or between hotels (we have a fridge, but we're switching half way through).

have fun,
 
Boxes or bags of cereal. That's our family staple when we're OOP. The kids snack on it dry, and eat it for breakfast each morning.

If you buy a refillable mug, you can get "coffee creamer" each morning at the beverage station in the food court. Coffee Creamer = milk:thumbsup2 . If you think it's a little too rich, water it down a little. You'll never notice over cereal.

We also enjoy grapes when they're not outrageously expensive.
 
We are doing DDP, but we will still be getting food for breakfast and snacks.....

fruit snacks
bananas
100 calorie packs or crackers/ziplock baggies
bread
peanut butter
juice boxes
those crystal light single serve things
raisins
cereal bars
rice krispie treats

hmmm. thats all I can think of for now.
 
We did this a few months ago with a better cooler - drinkable yogurt turned - at least DD said it tasted funny. Cheese sticks, grapes, apples were fine. The cooler couldn't handle 12 hours without an ice recharge. (We had a little coleman that wasn't too full.)
 
individual chocolate milk servings in aseptic containers

homemade dried fruit/ fruit leather

trail mix - with nuts, dried fruit, granola, etc.

frozen bagel sandwiches - the bagels don't get squished like bread plus frozen keeps it cold

yup..and the basics like fresh fruit, homemade granola bars, pudding cups, fruit cups, homemade muffins, etc.

* I make a lot of baked goods beforehand and freeze them. Then I place them in my plug-in cooler.
 
Even though we stay at the mods and have a refrigerator, we only use it to keep our waters and sodas cold. Besides that, here is what we bring:

$6 Toaster that we throw away upon check-out
Instant oatmeal
Bagels
Pop-tarts
Jelly
Our own coffee
Pretzels and/or chips to snack on at night

We have no problem using the coffee pot water for oatmeal. I heat the water up and then put in an insulated mug so DH can make his coffee.

We also only eat breakfast in our room and no longer bring snacks for the parks. We never would eat them, the call of the Mickey Bar is just too strong!
 
just at costco and wanted to let you know that they have the horizon brand single serve, pasturized milk in the boxes (like a juice box). i'm not sure if it tastes as good, but we've used the chocolate milk on trips...no worries because there is no need for refrigeration.

i might consider them for this trip just to have them available for cereal or a quick "milk fix" on the way down or between hotels (we have a fridge, but we're switching half way through).

have fun,

Horizon is great!!! This is what my girls drink as it is hormome free and is "real" milk.
 

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