Grocery/Meal ideas?

[disneynovic]

Hi everyone,

We have rented a house for Nov 15-22, and I'm looking for some ideas on quick meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Although I figure we will be eating out atleast once a day, there will be times when we will be back at the house, needing to refuel. There will be six of us, including 2 teenagers (AKA bottomless pits!) and a 7 year old. We'll have a fully equipped kitchen and BBQ, but I am having a heard time starting a grocery list. I'm even having trouble deciding what snacks I should be looking for. BTW, we will be driving, and don't want to spend too much time wandering around a grocery store.

Tell me what you bring/buy/pack, so I can get some ideas.

Thanks so much,
Deb

 

[crl]

We always schedule out our meals and grocery list before hand and then have the meals posted on the fridge so everyone in our traveling party knows what to expect. (We usually bring family members along to share our 3 bedroom condo.) We do spaghetti and meatballs and buy the frozen meatballs since they don't need to be defrosted first. We'll also grab lunch meat for quick sandwiches on the run. We buy ground beef and cook it up right away then use it for taco soup sometime during the week. (Taco soup requires taco seasoning packet, ground beef, corn, beans, spaghetti sauce and nacho chips.) We usually grab some chicken to grill or pan fry and add a veggie and fries. Hamburgs and fries are always an easy meal. Hope that gets you started.

 

[HeatherC]

You could order some groceries to arrive when you do through www.wegoshop.com or www.gardengrocer.com.

We always stay offsite and do a food run when we get there.

This is what we usually get:

Frozen waffles
Bagels
Cream Cheese
Lots of fresh fruit
Some good cheese
Bagged salads
Perdue Shortcuts Chicken - to put on salad or make chicken salad sandwiches.
Rotisserie Chicken
Couple loaves of nice bread
Cereal
Ground beef
Pasta
Premade salads like potato or macaroni salad.
Tacos
London Broil - we'll throw it on the grill and just slice it up and serve it the next day if we want. Sometimes I cook two...one for dinner and one for lunch or dinner later in the week.
Peanut Butter - good for sandwiches or on bagels.
Applesauce
Cut up veggies with a bottle of salad dressing.
Microwave popcorn
Bag of potatoes - can do a microwaved baked potato for lunch or dinner and put cheese or something on top. Good with the london broils too.
Eggs - scrambled, hard boiled, egg salad, etc.
Bacon - with eggs or for BLT's.


With these items, I can have breakfast lunch or dinner on the table in under 2 minutes....literally. Breakfast will be waffles and fruit or cereal and fruit. Lunch or dinner can be healthy and quick. We can have a salad topped with cheese and chicken. Rotisserie chicken sliced up with some cheese and bread or fruit. A bacon egg and cheese sandwich. That type of thing.

Hope this helps!!! Have an awesome trip! We'll be doing the same thing in February!

 

[southernbelle5672]

I always like to eat granola bars or milk and cereal bars for breakfast. I don't know if that would fill up your kids or not!! But they are also good just to have for a snack to take into the parks.

 

[sherry7]

Subscribing

 

[leebee]

I like to do minimal cooking so advance planning is a must! For breakfast, we have what we have at home- cereal, fruit, toast or english muffins or rolls of some kind when DH is with us. If it's just me and DD, we get rolls of some kind (she likes snowflake rolls or dinner rolls) and yogurt, and juice boxes/pouches, as this can be eaten in the car driving to the park (thereby maximizing sleeping time!).

For dinners we have done chicken "parmesean", where I put chicken pieces in a pan, spinkle with garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and dump on a jar of spaghetti sauce. Pasta and a bag of salad, maybe bread/rolls, to round out the meal. following this theme, you can buy buy frozen stuffed shells, ravioli, and manicotti. Tacos work well also. Quick to prepare and easy, both essential after a day in a park. We are also fans of the hot dog/hamburger on the grill, with prepurchased potato or macaroni salad and fruit. One of the things we often do is buy veggie trays, which gives us a variety of munchy-veggies that need no prep time. Eat them with dressing for dip, throw them on a pile of lettuce for salad. I try to keep fresh fruit on hand as we will snack on that at any time, although we don't take it inot a park as it gets bruised and nasty in the backpack all day. I have a small cooler (collapsable, so I can pack it in my suitcase) that we fill with an ice pack, small drinks, and some munchies like grapes, pea pods, celery sticks, etc., daily. This stays in the car while we are in the parks but provides a nice rest-snack while we are park hopping or driving back to the condo.

I usually try to bring spices from home (which is Maine, so we are flying to FL). I can get most of my dried spices for 88 cents a jar/bottle at Ocean State Job Lots, so if I decide to leave them behind in FL (to make more space in the suitcase for souvies!) it's not a big financial loss. Or you could just bring ziplock baggies of spices. I usually take some garlic powder, salt and pepper (picnic shakers), oregano, cumin, chili powder.

Then there is the all-time "we are on vacation" treat: double stuffed mint oreos. We ONLY buy these when we are on vaca, so they are extra special! Other snacks we keep on hand, for late-night snacking, are microwave popcorn (from home), triscuits, cheese, pretzels. We are not big on sweets and traditional junk food, so this is an easy category for me- not much in it. Oh yes, another vaca tradition is the pint of Ben&Jerry's Chunky Monkey- to be eaten directly from the carton on the first night!!

 

[santa's surpriz]

I usually get a honey baked ham and some sides. It works out great, fast and easy. Plus you can make sandwiches and fry it up for breakfast if you wanted. I do not have a large party like yours, so I am able to get away with a smaller one that I can take on the plane. I believe that the Honey Baked Ham Co does mail order as well.

 

[PaMom001]

Breakfast
Bagels
Breakfast Sandwiches(homemade)
Cereal Boxes
Cereal & toast
Cinnamon Rolls
Donuts
Eggs, homefries
Eggs, toast, sausage/ham
French toast, sausage/ham
Jimmie Dean Breakfast Sandwiches
Jimmie Dean Skillet Breakfast Bowls
Pancakes
Waffles

Dinners
Cheesesteaks
Chicken (bake whole, then make soup, make night before)
Chicken Fingers
Chicken Meal (boxed)
Chicken Parmesan & Spaghetti
Chicken Patty sandwiches
Chicken with Soup Sauce & Noodles
Chicken/Tuna/Ham Salad Sandwiches
Chili
Fajitas
Fish
Grilled Cheese & Soup
Ham
Hamburgers
Hot Dogs
Kielbasa
Lasagna (frozen)
Mac & cheese
Manwich
Meatball Subs
Meatloaf
Pierogies
Pizza
Pork chops
Quesadillas
Ravioli
Ravioli Lasagna
Roast with Potatoes
Sausage & Potatoes
Sausage Subs
Shrimp and Pasta
Soup & Sandwiches/Subs
Spaghetti with or without Meatballs/Sausage
Stew
Stromboli
Stuffed shells
Tacos
Turkey

 

[PaMom001]

I also have packing lists for anyone who wants them.

 

[sherry7]

I don't think this was posted before, but what about the pre-cooked bacon that you nuke for a few seconds?

Also, my family likes boiled eggs, and it's easy to boil a couple of dozen...enough to last the whole week.

 

[happymommy]

When we go to a condo elsewhere (Hawaii) we also do a lot of cooking (more simple things), well, actually one of the group is an awsome cook and he's in charge.

We found in Hawaii that for a week's worth of food for 6 people, we do very well making an initial trip to the local Costco. We get fresh salad makings, fruit (usually one kind, like apples, as you get a large bag!), some meat or fish for grilling during the week (simple fish on the grill is great!), milk, eggs, precooked bacon (you may get a large package, but for about $8 if you can't eat it all, it's still cheaper than two orders in a food court), bread, you get the idea.

Definitely I would also bring some simple spices that you like, as well as maybe a tiny container of cooking oil, things like that. And make a list of at least the most dishes.

Depending on your time of year, you could find out if the condo has a crockpot to borrow. You mentioned teenagers (bottomless pits) and maybe they would like a roast? You could toss it in first thing in the morning, and come back to it (would smell nice!). If it's a really hot time of the year, this may not be appealing, but in cool months, we like that. Oh, just noticed it's soon, so maybe you'd like that?

I don't know if there is a Costco type store nearby, but if you are there with 6 people for a week, it can really be a good deal.

 

[stahshee]

our last trip we planned our food before we left NY

On our next trip I plan to make more food in the house.


we did
Bake potato, frozen steak and gravy meal, and salad
spagetti and meatballs, salad

we also had lunch meat for each day
breakfast was in the house each meal.

 

[momejay]

Our last condo had a programable oven we would shove chicken, meatloaf or a roast & baked taters in in the morning & come back from the parks to basically a cooked meal. I just had to make a veggie or maybe salad.
Only trouble I had was the maid came one of the days & dumped out my hot dogs mac & cheese & washed the pan. I was so disappointed. The next day when we came home they had replaced the hotdogs, cheese & pasta.
My teens eat a bunch too. I buy a ton of carrots, celery sticks, & fruit. I also get a bag of pre-made salad or I buy salad stuff & force the kids to make a huge one on the first night so we can nibble on it for a while.
For breakfast we eat fruit, & maybe an egg & cheese or sausage sandwhich.
I always get a jar of peanut butter, jelly & loaf of bread. (maybe lunchmeat & cheese)
Make sure you have ketchup, if you have a ketchup addict like me! I bring my own spices in a baggie & plan ahead a bit. I bring dried soup mix or broth for leftovers.
Have fun!