how many of you actually cook in kitchen?

[Paticake]

We usually cook breakfast most mornings. That's about it . A couple of times we have stuck a frozen pizza in at night. We have grilled a couple of times also. Next year when we take our grandkids for the first time (they'll be 2 and 8 months) I expect we will do more cooking. I was thinking we will cook breakfast each morning except the CP morning and probably dinner most nights. The guys can do the grilling and myself, DD and DDIL will share cooking.

 

[emmababy]

Depends on the trip............when it's just DH and I we do tend to eat out more...when it's all of us (6) we do a grocery run and eat most meals in our villa......on those trips we usually eat one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner out......the rest "at home". I also ship myself a package with any staples I need to make our meals.....things like rice, boxed goods (which I usually take out of the box and repack in a Ziploc to save space in my shipping box) any spices for meals I have planned (again premeasured and in a Ziploc), coffee, foil and plastic wrap (which I cut several large pieces of each and just fold both together alternating pieces so the plastic doesn't stick to itself). I don't make anything that takes a lot of time.......usually I precook and freeze the meats (ground meat for sloppy joes, tacos, chili...chicken for chicken cacciatore, or some type of casserole, premade meatballs) for the meals I have planned. I have a large Thermos insulated bag which keeps stuff frozen/cold for 18 hours which I use as my carryon and pack the frozen precooked stuff (no liquids) in plastic containers. It's usually 6.5 to 8 hrs, between drive/fly time, and everything is still frozen when we get there. This way my prep time for meals while on vacation is very minimal, just a small grocery run for all the fresh stuff and we're set for the week.

Great idea!!! I love that! Where did you get your cooler?

 

[emmababy]

The downside for us would be if we need say, 1 condiment for a meal, we have to buy a whole container and waste it. But, I think I like the freezing meals idea and taking as a carry on! I think we will do breakfast, take some snacks, sandwiches to the park. And then cook maybe 4 nights. That way we can enjoy some yummy snacks and some of our fav restaurants. I also think I will like not feeling the need to rush to an ADR every night!

 

[dianeschlicht]

The downside for us would be if we need say, 1 condiment for a meal, we have to buy a whole container and waste it. But, I think I like the freezing meals idea and taking as a carry on! I think we will do breakfast, take some snacks, sandwiches to the park. And then cook maybe 4 nights. That way we can enjoy some yummy snacks and some of our fav restaurants. I also think I will like not feeling the need to rush to an ADR every night!

That's a good idea, but the condiment thing is not much of an issue either. If it's ketchup you need, you can buy the small packets. We have found that most of the grocery stores in that area stock very small containers of those kinds of things too. We've never had to worry much about it.

 

[emmababy]

We would be using garden grocer, so they don't really offer smaller sizes.

 

[PutnamDS]

We have yet to make our first trip to our DVC (soon, though), so I am not an expert, but we plan to use the kitchen in our room. One of the things I did think about that could be a nuisance is the condiments because I really can't stand waste and throwing out leftover things would really bother me.

Here's a tip that I am going to try. I found an Internet business "Minimus" that sells the sealed one-serving sizes for everything. For our upcoming trip I ordered everything from mayo to laundry detergent in sealed single sizes. Most of the items have a pretty long shelf life, so left-over packets can go right in our Owner's Locker to be used a couple of months later.

I plan to order from Garden Grocer and am taking along a small crock pot and sandwich maker.

After our first trip, I'll let you know how this works out!

Deb

 

[lsutigerita]

I usually cook breakfast every morning. It saves us buying a meal in the park. For my trip this past April, I cooked an evening meal for the first time. I packed some crawfish tails and made an etouffee.

 

[emmababy]

We have yet to make our first trip to our DVC (soon, though), so I am not an expert, but we plan to use the kitchen in our room. One of the things I did think about that could be a nuisance is the condiments because I really can't stand waste and throwing out leftover things would really bother me.

Here's a tip that I am going to try. I found an Internet business "Minimus" that sells the sealed one-serving sizes for everything. For our upcoming trip I ordered everything from mayo to laundry detergent in sealed single sizes. Most of the items have a pretty long shelf life, so left-over packets can go right in our Owner's Locker to be used a couple of months later.

I plan to order from Garden Grocer and am taking along a small crock pot and sandwich maker.

After our first trip, I'll let you know how this works out!

Deb

I'll have to check them out!