Best Use of 2BR Kitchen

[MamaCrush]

Hi all! New DVC'er here and we'll be traveling in March on our brand spankin new incentive points at SSR! My question is-- since I really don't want to cook much dinner after a long day in the parks-- how do other folks use the kitchen during their trips? For example, any easy dinners that won't stress me out having to cook?? After all, it's my vacation too! It's a no brainer that we'll do our breakfasts in the room, but I'm not sure what to think about the other meals.

What's worked for you??? Thanks!!

 

[Brian Noble]

We normally use the kitchen only for breakfast. Once in a while, we'll bake a couple of frozen pizzas, or maybe make a pot of spaghetti if we don't feel like going out.

 

[DisFlan]

We use the kitchen mostly for breakfast - cereal, toast, coffee and juice - or maybe something from one of the bakeries. Toward the end of a trip, our fridge usually ends up with a bunch of white boxes of leftovers from TS meals - partial steaks, pasta, desserts etc. I hate to completely waste them, so we have a couple of "Leftover Lunchs" to use them up, and maybe add a can of soup. (They're also good for a re-heated late night snack.) A small chunk of nice meat slices up to make a great sandwich. It saves a buck or two - and I don't have to "cook".

A simple evening meal would be a microwaved frozen Bertolli pasta dinner (or a microwaved lasagna) and a bag salad - and some wine. It doesn't require much effort, which is my MAJOR guideline when I'm on vacation.

DisFlan

 

[MikeyNS]

We use the kitchen for almost all our meals. We like to eat somewhat healthy and not spend a wack of cash on meals so we stop off at Target or whatever and get our groceries for the week. Many people don't like to cook on vacation, but what we do isn't really cooking more of a meal assembly. Breakfasts are easy, sandwiches for lunch and pasta or whatever for supper. Quick 'n' easy!

 

[Jeremy&Susan]

Soup and Sandwiches are an easy quick dinner.

Lasagna is a bit or work for the noodles and then the baking in the pan but then you have the meal to eat for a few days after as a snack or a lunch back in the room.

Oh yeah, I forgot about a tossed salad, or chef salad with coldcuts or left-over chicken, beef or pork for protein.

A cookout by the pool is always a less stressful meal. Have plenty of beverages and snacks while the charcoal is heating up and it's a fun evening at the pool.

Order Pizza or Chinese... Real easy to cook that stuff.

 

[Brian Noble]

what we do isn't really cooking more of a meal assembly.

This is exactly the way I describe it!

 

[homedad]

its great for b-fast, snack and drinks, I cannot see us cooking on vacation....and were good with the DP....oh it also great to have for leftovers.....

 

[LindaBabe]

Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings for 6 with football and naps for afters! It sure beat an overpriced meal in a crowded restaurant with harried servers and screaming kids.

 

[yandbfan]

We kept milk and juice. Fresh fruit and lots of breakfast supplies. We ended up overbuying for lunch and had to leave bread, lunch meat and cheese.

 

[famcruisefun]

We love to do breakfast in the room in the morning - allows everyone to wake at their own pace and eat while reading or watching the news. We don't typically cook any other meals in the room - but we do cook snacks.
When you're traveling with a teenage boy - the food costs can get ridiculous. So we make sure we have good snack food for him (and his idea of a snack is a pizza - whole thing, or a box of chicken fingers, or a baked potato with cheese, or an egg sandwich...). He can come back from the parks and cook what he wants rather than spending a ton of money on not so good room service. It's great - won't go to Disney any other way - and it spoils us for any other travel we do.
That's our scoop!
PS - no, he's not huge, and he doesn't play football - the calories all go into his running (cross country and track) - amazing how much his body can burn through in a day!

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Hi all! New DVC'er here and we'll be traveling in March on our brand spankin new incentive points at SSR! My question is-- since I really don't want to cook much dinner after a long day in the parks-- how do other folks use the kitchen during their trips? For example, any easy dinners that won't stress me out having to cook?? After all, it's my vacation too! It's a no brainer that we'll do our breakfasts in the room, but I'm not sure what to think about the other meals.

What's worked for you??? Thanks!!

Spaghetti is accepted by all and easy to make.

 

[AuntMinnie12]

We're a big fan of Stouffer's family sized frozen lasagna with veggies or salad and garlic bread. Really easy and inexpensive!

 

[jpolak]

We make coffee, and use the fridge. That's pretty much the extent we use the kitchen. We buy things that we can grab and go with in the morning. Fruit, granola bars, things like that.

 

[Renysmom]

Has anyone who drives to WDW ever take a crockpot? I do lots of freezer cooking and many of the meals can then be put in a crockpot. Since they provide an oven I am assuming it's okay to bring one?

 

[MamaCrush]

I'm lovin' these responses!!! I'm getting some great ideas... please keep them coming!

 

[CraftyMouse]

Has anyone who drives to WDW ever take a crockpot? I do lots of freezer cooking and many of the meals can then be put in a crockpot. Since they provide an oven I am assuming it's okay to bring one?

We do! We make chicken & dumplings, pot roast and other things. We also bring our quesadilla maker and our Mickey waffle iron with us.

As for meals, we always do spaghetti/salad/garlic bread. It is a DVC tradition for us and it wouldn't seem right if we didn't make it. On our first night there we usually have prepared fried chicken pieces from Publix, along with a salad and veggies. We go grocery shopping in the late afternoon that day so the chicken is hot and fresh when we get back to the villa. Then we have the leftover pieces for lunch on another day. We also will make Hamburger Helper from time to time. For lunches we do sandwiches and/or quesadillas (we sometimes use the leftover chicken for these, as well).

This year we'll be arriving just after Christmas so I'm going to bag up the dry ingredients for some of our favorite cookies and make them in the villa. Nothing will say "Home" more than our favorite homemade holiday cookies!

 

[Yen Sid]

I hate to cook on vacation too but last trip money was a littler tighter so I cooked a few meals in the room, we always do the breakfast with characters because breakfast most important meal of day and the cheapest, in the room I made simple things like hamburgers and spaghetti. next trip I will be cooking more dinners because it was cheaper and a nice little break in the day from the heat and such.

 

[fletch1027]

We have come up with some easy ideas where my wife will prepare dinners ahead of time and freeze it in a freezer bag. Things like alfredo & veg for pasta primavera, chili, sweedish meatballs, etc.

We then pack the freezer meal in the cooler, bring it down and put it in the DVC room freezer. Move it to the fridge the night before, then for dinner, just heat and eat and add a salad, boil some pasta, or something like that and it is done! also, those frozen microwave steamer bags of frozen veggies are great as well. It is as easy as a frozen dinner without all of the sodium and preservatives.

Hi all! New DVC'er here and we'll be traveling in March on our brand spankin new incentive points at SSR! My question is-- since I really don't want to cook much dinner after a long day in the parks-- how do other folks use the kitchen during their trips? For example, any easy dinners that won't stress me out having to cook?? After all, it's my vacation too! It's a no brainer that we'll do our breakfasts in the room, but I'm not sure what to think about the other meals.

What's worked for you??? Thanks!!

 

[goterps1986]

Just curious-we are going with our niece's and nephew's on this trip and I was asked if we could make PB&J sandwiches at the place and take them in the parks with our backpack? I have taken water in before but that's about it. What are the restrictions when they look at your bag? Thanks!

 

[hakepb]

Just curious-we are going with our niece's and nephew's on this trip and I was asked if we could make PB&J sandwiches at the place and take them in the parks with our backpack? I have taken water in before but that's about it. What are the restrictions when they look at your bag? Thanks!

Per mousesavers, you're fine:
Disney used to have a policy "requesting" that guests did not bring outside food and drink into the theme parks, but this was completely unenforced. Now it has changed its policy, and guests are allowed to bring food items, such as snacks or foods that do not require heating, into any Walt Disney World theme park. It is also completely fine to bring in bottled water or soft drinks.

One note of caution: avoid bringing in anything highly perishable, such as cold cuts. It would be easy to end up with food poisoning!

Also, you absolutely will NOT be allowed to bring in the following: hard-sided coolers, large coolers, glass containers, or alcoholic beverages. Also, you cannot bring any type of straws (even the little ones attached to juice boxes) into Animal Kingdom.