How do you use your Villa kitchen

[jamie&Greg]

I’m curious how many people use the kitchen in the DVC villas and how you use it? Our plan is usually to schedule a couple ADR’s and do the rest in the room, especially breakfast!! I love having the kitchen!! Especially with a young child! What do you usually do? How many meals do you cook? And what are your fast and easy recipes for dinner?

 

[Sabor]

We usually use it for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

 

[grizzlymd]

We love using the kitchen for breakfast. The kids can get up and make their own breakfasts while mom and dad sleep in.

 

[Muushka]

We always use it for breakfast. And a few dinners and lunches. We buy chicken strips (the fajita style), crunchy bread, salad makings, frozen pizza, crackers and cheese.
Oh yeah, and a good bottle of wine!

 

[edk35]

We use the toaster for bagels, microwave for popcorn, coffee maker and the fridge to hold drinks and snacks. We don't really cook. We do a grocery run before arriving but mostly for quick breakfast items, drinks/water and snacks. Maybe ONE DAY when it is just dh and myself...and we do a long trip and we might do a little cooking. Who knows

 

[figmentfan0724]

we cooked in our villa for the first time this past trip, we made breakfasts and snacks, mozz stix and pizza rolls!

 

[acejka]

We use it the same way we use our kitchen at home...

We do our own thing for all 3 meals each day. Both of us enjoy cooking, and eating in the peace and quiet of the villa.

We take a cooler in the back of our car with ice and the lunch on it and take a short break out of the parks, or eat the sandwiches while park hopping on the drive to another park.

Sometimes we will grab a CS meal in epcot, we love the fish and chips... other than that we aren't too big on anything else offered at the parks.

 

[DonnaL]

We also use it mostly for breakfast and snacks, although if we're there for an entire week I usually do cook dinner about twice. I've done many quick things for dinner (I try to keep prep under 1/2 hour). If I'm planning on cooking I take an insulated Thermos soft side cooler (about 12 X 10 X 9) which keeps food cold for up to 24 hours as my carryon. I may take precooked/deboned and frozen chicken for chicken cacciatore, fajitas, or chicken strips, or sometimes I'll take meatballs I've premade and frozen, or ground meat precooked and frozen to use in tacos, sloppy joes. Then I just premeasure and Ziploc any spices or additional dry ingredients (rice, pasta, etc.) I need for recipes and pack those in the cooler also (make sure nothing liquid).
Then, we get to Orlando we can zip through the grocery for just the breakfast items, snacks and the fresh (or liquid) ingredients we need for dinner meals in about 20 minutes (it really helps to have a list made ahead of time) Our travel time to airport, check-in, and flying is usually about 7 hours total, sometimes a bit more and I've found everything has still been frozen when we get there. I just put in the frig to thaw and when I need it within a few days it's ready to prepare.

 

[allshookup]

My DD loves KK donuts & we can't get them here so we buy plenty of those. DH & DS love onion bagels with melted cheese on top (I might have half) so I throw them under the broiler & we have fresh fruit, juice & coffee for breakfast. We usually buy premade wings or nuggets & I'll heat up those if we're hanging around the resort or if the kids get hungry late at night, along with some premade pasta salad or some chips. I also buy a couple of cans of Campbells chicken noodle soup, because DS (11) wasn't feeling good once at WDW so I went down to the store & bought a can & heated it up & now he HAS to have some when we're at WDW. (At home I usually make Liptons.)

Other than that, we fill the fridge with water, soda, beer & Mike's Lemonades.

If you don't mind cooking, you could try a couple of quick & easy meals I do at home: Heat up a couple cans of Swanson's Chicken a' la King (I sometimes add pieces of pre-roasted chic) & then pour over baked Pepperidge Farm Pastry Shells (find them in the Freezer Section) or some steak browned & then cut up & simmered in brown or onion gravy & also poured over the pastry shells, with a side of veggies or a salad.

 

[jpeka65844]

Have never used the stove but the full size fridge is nice. We usually stock it with Coke, water, juice and leftovers from Roaring Fork.

We used the toaster quite a bit, as well as the microwave. I also like the real plates, bowls, and cups.

Someday, after we've been everywhere and done everything, we'll start renting a car, shopping off property and cooking more in the room. Right now, we want to be in the parks!

 

[iloveokw]

This last trip (xmas week with big crowds) I cooked the most I ever have.

We almost always do breakfast - eat out on a non park day. Cereal, toast and or bagels.

This past trip we had bbq pork sandwiches (premade in a tub from Winn Dixie) 2 times at the pool with chips, bought a rotissiere chicken that we ate one night and made the leftovers into chicken salad, bought a veggie tray that lasted most of the trip and was healthier than chips at every meal. Stouffers lasagna with bread and salad and then had the leftovers one evening. Box of mac and cheese from home was great one night when we had a big lunch. During lent I always throw in a can of tuna. Didn't do it this trip but in the past I've made taco meat and bought a box of hard and soft shells (+the fixings) and had the hard shell tacos in the room and the soft ones at the pool.

Always buy 2 pkg ready to bake cookies and bake them. Have to have ice cream. Make ice tea and coffee for breakfast.

We still ate out at least one meal a day, but it was a treat and we didn't settle for junk food. We have our favorite places to eat. A couple of them offsite.

We used to eat out more, but we are lucky to go more than once a year and been there done that.

 

[disneynutz]

Please take a minute to post your vote.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2061649

 

[robandkelly13]

We do the dining plan and don't really cook. But we love having the kitchen to keep snacks and quick breakfast items. We may do some cooking in the future as DD gets older. She's 3 now and we feel that all of the character dining really makes the trips for her and us too!

 

[mouse]

Out last trip was just the 2 of us in a one bedroom villa at OKW. Our grocery list (at Walmart Supercenter) was: muffins, yogurt, cut up fruit(watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydo), OJ, bottled water, a bag of frozen cocktail shrimp, cocktail sauce, Stouffer's lasagna, a prepackaged caesar salad, and two bottles of wine. This was enough for 4 breakfasts, 1 dinner, and 2 very pleasant evenings on the patio drinking wine and having shrimp cocktail. We make coffee in the villa, and then put what's leftover in the pot in the fridge to be microwaved the next morning. We request another coffee pack on towel day (equals 4 days of "free" coffee). When the kids and grandkids travel with us, we eat all breakfasts in the villa (except for perhaps a character or princess breakfast). It is just a more relaxing and pleasant start to the day. Other than that, popcorn, juice boxes, crackers, pretzels, water,etc. In the past, we have been guilty of being over zealous about eating meals in the villa. We purchased groceries with good intentions, but found that when meal time came, we prefered to eat out.

 

[photobob]

There's a kitchen in the villas?

Just kidding. We usually do small stuff. Snack bfast poptarts, granola bars. We usually have sandwich stuff and this past trip we took suddenly salad pasta mixes. No real cooking. We usally have a big TS meal for lunch and small meals or snacks for bfast and dinner.

 

[brandylouwho]

We love having a real, full breakfast in the room. Then we may cook a few lunches and often we cook dinner in the room. But we don't particularly healthy or make things that take much prep (this is vacation after all) . We make things like kraft mac & cheese, sandwiches, pizza, spaghetti w/ sauce from a jar.

side note:With as much milk & apple juice as my kids drink, I think the fridge alone saves us hundreds per trip .

 

[bookwormde]

The kitchen is one of the biggest reasons we joined DVC. With one child with a limited diet it was a must, but in general for us it makes the whole vacation much more relaxing, to be able to eat when we want. As you might guess we are not big restaurant people (we go to 3 or 4 meals out in 10-12 days). We just keep it simple, no elaborate productions (and boy does it save a lot of money, all of the “upgrade” costs from a regular CRO room).



bookwormde

 

[DisneyWalker44]

There is some sort of magic box in the kitchen that keeps beer cold.

 

[marvali]

For us, it just depends on the trip and what our plans are. This past trip at New Year's we spent a lot of time in the parks and since the stay was so short, we didn't bother to do much in the room, except a couple of things we brought from home DW wanted, and dinner the final night.

This summer when we return, we plan to take it a little more slowly and will spend more time at the resort. We will probably have about 4 or 5 ADRs while we are there for 8 nights, a CS here and there, and then a number of meals in the villa. This will probably be mostly breakfast items and sandwich fixings, but probably at least a couple of dinners. We plan to take the crock pot and do things like spaghetti sauce that slow cooks all day and is ready for dinner, or maybe even some of those crock pot dinners that are quick and easy. We usually get stuff for salads, fruit and things like that for a lighter meal or snacking.

 

[PSC]

There is some sort of magic box in the kitchen that keeps beer cold.

Thats about the extent of our kitchen use as well. Maybe some day we'll use the kitchen for something other than another place to stand while we mix a drink.