Easy Meal Ideas

[Heluvsme]

I also thought chili might be a good idea, it's easily warmed up, can be eaten with corn chips or hot dogs or put on tacos, multi-purpose!!

 

[momof2gr8kids]

We like toasted English Muffins for breakfast with a piece of ham and cheese in between. Can eat that on the run with a piece of fruit!

You can get one of those hams you cut up and also use for a supper - cook some Uncle Ben's rice or those packaged scalloped potatoes. Bagged salads. Can add other veggies to it.

Deli chicken with potato wedges. Those mini potatoes in a bag are easy to cook - just boil for 10 min. and toss with butter. Can use leftovers as pan fries if you make a big breaky one morn.

Top a bagged salad with chicken.

I second the other person that said if you are driving, premake some stuff and freeze it. Like S&S meatballs, chicken, steak w/gravy, etc. Will stay frozen if packaged together in a cooler, and easy to thaw and cook up a simple side.

Bring spices and coffee from home. Home made muffins can pack easily too!

 

[robinb]

I have signed up for the Winn-Dixie loyalty card to make sure I get the sale prices, even though we do not have a Winn-Dixie at home.

We shopped at Winn-Dixie on our last trip and we just asked to use a store card .

 

[sjanus]

We like to do raviolis (we like Meat but harder to find) with Hunts Traditional Spaghetti Sauce; Ham Barbecues with potato chips, pickles, and green beans is another favorite meal of ours. Chili over noodles is very easy and you can eat left over. We buy the bags of lettuce, and some vegetables, and make a big salad we eat for several days (with dressings on the side of course). If there is a freezer we always have Digiorno's frozen pizza on hand.

Sandy

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

We always hit up Costco when we get there. I did more "cooking" our first DVC villa trip but not since then. Now we do more frozen/refrigerated ready-to-bake type meals. We also eat differently than we do at home. It IS vacation, after all.

Pizzas
Costco has a great chicken pasta alfredo in their refrigerated section. Add a bagged salad.
We have also taken some refrigerated or frozen precooked chicken fajita type chicken and added that to bagged caesar salad.
Costco has some frozen angus cheeseburgers that are pretty good.
Frozen pot stickers are a great lunch or snack.
Macaroni & cheese (something we don't normally have at home, boxed mac & cheese, but it IS vacation!)
spaghetti & jarred sauce, again, bagged salad and loaf of garlic bread. This would be about the extent of my "cooking" on vacation.
BLT's (could even use precooked bacon)... again, about the extent of my "cooking" on vacation.
Frozen lasagna

Breakfasts are easy: Muffins, bagels & cream cheese, frozen breakfast sandwiches, could even do a big batch of breakfast burritos - crumbled sausage, scrambled eggs & cheese on tortillas. I prefer to TRY to have more protein in the mornings, so we will try to include stuff like this in addition to our muffins and bagels. We actually pick up a big thing of bagels and cream cheese from Panera on arrival also.

I will also second the comment about not buying too much. We have done this before. We drive so we can take SOME leftovers home, but since we do our drive home in two legs, we can't really take home refrigerated or frozen stuff.

We always have a villa (DVC). This trip in June we are actually doing half of our stay at OKW and half in a condo at Windsor Hills. So we always have a kitchen. I'm all about doing meals, snacks, etc in the villa/condo as much as possible to save money. But I also don't want to do a lot of "work" on vacation. So do pre-packaged/frozen/easy stuff. Also get a case of bottled water, soda if you drink it, wine, beer, snacks, etc. If going during warmer times, get snacks to take into the parks that won't melt (no chocolate, etc.)

 

[wdwmom0f3]

We will be staying at Bonnet Creek for te very first tine this Thanksgiving. Can't wait! I am planning on doinga few in the room meals, but not to many.

We normally have breakfast in the room. We will plan to have lunch in the parks everyday, Afternoon snacks in the room. We will be doing a few table service meals too at our favorite places, but that's just two or three nights.

I plan to cook, or have DH do it, a few nights too. They will be very simple meals. Looking now for ideas and trying new things that I have found on Pintrest. It's been fun!

I'm sure we will order pizza one night, maybe Mexican too. We love it!! We may even grab a quick meal from Chick fil A. This momma is not crazy about cooking while on vacation, can ya tell? I like having the option though.

 

[Anya22]

I plan to make Salsa Chicken one night during our upcoming trip.

Top boneless chicken breasts with salsa, shredded cheese and black olives and bake at 350 degrees for an hour. Serve over brown rice. Easy!

 

[Legendteri]

We are also staying off site and have never been to Orlando before so you will have to take my advice with a grain of salt.

Anyways, we are staying as three families in a three bedroom villa. The villa has a full kitchen and we plan on using it some, but not all the time. I know myself well enough that I know we will not be eating dinner at home every night. Breakfasts we will be having at the villa and at first I had grand plans of having a breakfast casserole in the crockpot waiting for us when we wake up. Now I think that might be too ambitious, but who knows.

I think our breakfasts will be more simple, like cinnamon toast or waffles ( of course in the mickey shape thanks to my handy dandy mickey sandwich cutter), microwavable bacon or sausage patties, yogurt, english muffins and maybe some fresh fruit.

Lunches we plan on eating at the parks.

For dinner we plan on going out to eat or simply getting a few easy to make items like pizzas or sandwich platters at Costco. They have great take and bake pizzas and you really do get a whole lot for a good price. I am also considering getting rotisserie chicken ( also great at Costco) or maybe another dinner item at their deli like meatloaf with mashed potatoes or steak. I suppose it depends on our mood and if we think we will get sick of pizza and sandwiches.

 

[crusoe2]

We've found that buying just the right amount of food is tricky. First time we bought too much and had a bunch of stuff to throw out. Next time I had to take time out from playing in the parks to make a second grocery run cause we were running out of stuff.

One tip I have - think about items that can be multipurpose. For instance, a bagged salad can be used to make a side salad to go with something like spaghetti. Or you can add a bit of it to a sandwich, wrap, or pita pocket. Later in the week, you can toss in leftover odds and ends for a big chef salad - the last couple slices of sandwich or deli meat, a couple leftover chicken nuggets, an egg or two boiled and sliced, a bit of cheese, etc. It uses up the last bits of stuff so there's less to deal with at the end of the trip.

Snacks are what we always seem to run low on so on our next trip, I plan to go lighter on ingredients for meals and a bit heavier on snack items. Especially non-perishable stuff that we can munch on during the road trip home.

 

[willowsnn3]

We grab a bag of frozen burritos, microwave for 5 minutes, then throw in a pan w/enchilada sauce and cheese, & heat in the oven.

This is one of our fav recipes at home, lol. But we stir up a can of chili (with or without bean) in the enchilada sauce.