Hotel Cooking

[AZmom2grls]

Hello! I'm new here, have been hiding in the shadows for a while gathering info, and have a question.

My family (2 adults, 2 kids) is heading to DL in about a month. I'm trying to do this whole thing on a budget. One thing I want to do is bring food with us to prepare in the hotel so we won't have to spend a fortune on meals and maybe hit a couple character meals instead.

I wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions on what kinds of food you prepare while in the hotel. Obviously sandwiches and such but what else?

Thanks!

 

[avalon451]

Where are you staying? If you room has a microwave (many of them do) then of course your choices will be pretty broad.
We ate breakfast in our room every day. We had groceries delivered, including cereal-to-go in cups (so we didn't need to pack bowls), apples and bananas, yogurt, juice and milk. Also Clif bars (which were good for stuffing in hip packs-- easy to enjoy while standing in line for a ride at the park).

 

[AZmom2grls]

We're staying at the Ramada Maingate for 6 nights. We'll have a fridge and a microwave. I'm not overly worried about breakfast as they have the continental breakfast here and I'm hoping to do 2 character breakfasts.

We'll be driving from AZ and may bring many things with us. I've never tried grocery delivery before.

 

[VegasMike21]

it all depends on wether or not your gonna have a stove or just a fridge and microwave. if your gonna have a stove then you can just make about anything. last year when we stayed at the towneplace suites some of our meals included tacos, spaghetti, grilled cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese, you know things along those lines. if you just have a microwave and fridge your probably gonna be looking and cold sandwiches, hot pockets, tv dinners, things along those lines.

 

[avalon451]

We're staying at the Ramada Maingate for 6 nights. We'll have a fridge and a microwave. I'm not overly worried about breakfast as they have the continental breakfast here and I'm hoping to do 2 character breakfasts.

We'll be driving from AZ and may bring many things with us. I've never tried grocery delivery before.

Ah, you're driving, so you can stop and get groceries. There's lots of decent microwavable stuff now. My kids recently discovered that they really like Marie Callendar's chicken pot pies. You can get gourmet soups to go from the grocery (I love Safeway's soups-- guess it's Vons down there--), pair it with a loaf of fresh french bread and a bag of salad for a very nice, easy and satisfying dinner.

I'm sure the fellow DISers have lots of other good ideas.

 

[ironpig70]

quick google search


http://www.goodnuke.com/recipes/index.htm


http://www.nancyskitchen.com/microwave_recipes.htm

http://family.go.com/food/article-219261-microwave-recipes-t/?CMP=KNC-YahSSPFamily


just some sites i found theres a ton of them and books also.

 

[pixiewings71]

We've done Easy Mac, Annie Chung Teriyaki bowls, sandwiches, salads, premade enchiladas that we just heated up....there are so many choices if you have a microwave.

 

[AZmom2grls]

Thanks for the ideas! I don't want to spend a ton eating out so this really helps! Thanks!

 

[lindsnlogansmom]

We did the albertsons.com grovery delivery twice while there in February. It was fantastic! We plan on doing it this trip also. They charge a small delivery fee but I believe I had a coupon last time and it was only 5.00. The hotel kept it cold for us until we arrived back from the park and then brought it up to our room. We only had snack stuff, muffins, milk, sodas etc. and ate in Downtown Disney and the parks the rest of the time. I have to say that the amount of money we spent on food while there still shocks me. We weren't being thrifty but everything is absolutely outrageous. The first afternoon we at ate Tortilla Joe's in DD with 3 adults and 2 children. No alcohol. It was 175.00. I only had two tacos, no rice and beans. We are going to be more careful this time.

 

[pixiewings71]

Torilla Joe's is really pricey and not very good. For less you could probably have done Rancho Del Zacaro in DL and got the same amount or more food!
Rancho is good too, we eat there at least once every trip.

 

[hlbtimes2]

The first afternoon we at ate Tortilla Joe's in DD with 3 adults and 2 children. No alcohol. It was 175.00. I only had two tacos, no rice and beans.

Just so a new person doesnt get freaked out by that- that is not a normal price for a meal in or around the park! We feed our family of 4 for about $100 a day. That is usually two meals and a snack or two. I'm not sure what lindslogans ate to run up that big of a bill for 5 people. The most expensive thing on the menu is under $25. If you go to the taqueria you can eat for under $10 per person.

 

[bumbershoot]

Just so a new person doesnt get freaked out by that- that is not a normal price for a meal in or around the park! We feed our family of 4 for about $100 a day. That is usually two meals and a snack or two.

Yep. I generously budget us with a $100 giftcard per day for food AND souvenirs, and routinely come in well under that amount, for 3 of us. It's going to be even lower this time as I'm bringing every single souvenir we have bought, to remind DS (and us!) of what we have and how little else we "need" in terms of souvies.

We also share meals and walk away full and happy, and in January I discovered the beauty of the good kid's meals (penne pasta at Plaza, bean/cheese burrito at Rancho) for an adult...

We only bring snacks and sometimes water, oh, and actually dessert, as I like having the list of ingredients from the cakes and such at Safeway, rather than the ingredient-list-free things at DLR. We bring natural granola bars as our main snack...

 

[50sjayne]

Yeah I'm interested in ideas too. we usually bring a lot of sandwich stuff, but I'm looking for different ideas. I'm thinking gourmet hamburger patties we can just heat up, make them at home and then freeze them,bagels and hummus for breakfast and rice milk. Lots of fruit, corn chips and various spreads (I'm a Tostito addict)--smoked salmon and cream cheese, krab spread, spinach dip, that sort of thing. We'll probably go to the closest Albertsons and pick up a nacho tray, something like that. I still want to do the Hometown buffet thing- go there for lunch a few times and it would probably be our meal for the day. The only place I would want to eat at Disneyland is whitewater snacks to see if there's any kitties around lol.