In Villa Dinner Ideas

[OurDogCisco]

Are you flying and using ME (no rental car)?! That will make it harder. I find the stuff in the onsite stores WAY TOO expensive tho so I take whatever I can...but we fly so I try to pack LIGHT stuff! I pack our breakfasts to take with us (Honey Buns, Muffins, Pop Tarts, Doughnuts, cereal in those disposable cup things etc). I also pack snacks & crackers to take to the parks and those coffee filter pod things work awesome... We were just in a studio last summer so what I could prepare in the unit was more limited & we ate out everything except breakfast. I prefer not to cook on vacation - but so I would be looking for 1) QUICK and 2) EASY!!!

No, that won't make it harder. There are two grocery services that I know that deliver to your room. One is wegoshop.com and they will shop for you at any store of your choice. You just send them a list of things you need. The other site is called netgrocer.com and I think there is one called greengrocer (I can't remember off hand. These sites have everything from meet, milk, bread, frozen foods, fresh produce, meat, etc.. Just like a regular grocery store. The delivery fee is pretty reasonable too. Cheaper than renting a car or paying higher prices at Disney. I usually schedule for the groceries to be delivered the day we arrive because we tend not to go to the parks that day. Even if your room isn't ready, the bell hop will store the stuff in the refrigerator or freezer until your room is ready.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We make things like others have posted like spaghetti with jarred sauce and just add a salad. One time I had forgotten to get the bagged salad, so I went to the food-service at OKW to get a caesar salad and could only get it with the chicken. So we used the chicken the next night in our quesadillas (we were going to just do cheese but the chicken made a nice addition).

We also do soups and sandwiches because many days we'll have one meal out in the parks, so we don't need another full meal. So when you're thinking about what to make in-villa, consider what meals you might eat out. We tended to eat lunch out as it was a bit less expensive than eating a dinner.

When we stay in studios, we generally just make sandwiches.

 

[covereddish]

Are you a casserole fan??

We love Chicken Casserole. Most any or all of it you could bring from home (except the sour cream)

2 cans chicken (drained)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
about 5 oz. sour cream
a splash (maybe 1/4 cup) milk

Mix it all together! Layer bottom of dish with crumbled ritz crackers. Fill with mix, layer top wit Ritz Crackers and bake on 350 for about 10-15 minutes.

Super quick, easy, almost no mess!

Good Luck!

 

[nunzia]

These are all great ideas. I will be staying in studios mainly, so any quick ideas for that? How large is the freezer section of the little refrigerator? Will frozen pizza/tv dinners fit? Do the 2 main services deliver beer? How about DVC delivery?

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

Garden grocer will deliver beer/wine--you write it in on the bottom, under "special instructions".

The studios make room cooking a little trickier, what with just a microwave. You could consider buying the pre-cooked chicken, so that you could just throw it on salad greens. I also like the grill idea, but I don't think BCV has them (I'll have to check).

We used Garden grocer last year with no problems at all. We may try wegoshop next time, just because they'll shop at, say, Super Wal-Mart. That could come in handy if you want them to buy non-food items as well as groceries. I just think there might be more variety in selection--as I recall, garden grocer didn't have a ton of choices of, say, cookies or cereal (just to pick a couple). Next year, we're going for 12 days, with 4 kids who take their ceral very seriously, and it IS vacation, so it would be important to me to have the choices they're going to want.

Someone mentioned Rachael Ray's cookbooks--I believe she has an express lane cookbook, with recipes with very few ingredients. It would be worthwhile at least checking that book out of the library to see if there are a few appealing recipes. Personally, I would try them out on my family pre-trip, just to make sure everything goes well.

 

[ACDSNY]

Taco Salad is quick if you cook your beef or chicken in the morning and put it in the frig to cool while you're at the parks. When you get back add salad stuff and taco chips.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

bump.....

 

[DonnaL]

I do the same as another poster above.......only I send a package ahead of us.....of any spices and dry goods I need for a meal. I simply premeasure everything (spices, rice, instant potatoes, etc.) and put everything in appropiate sized labeled Ziplocs. I FedEx a box addressed to me c/o whatever resort we're at with enough stuff for several meals I plan to cook, along with coffee, sugar, napkins, paper plates, etc. I send it out to arrive the day before we get there. Then, I also precook and debone chicken and ground beef, and make meatballs/sauce at home and freeze everything in Glad/Ziploc containers. I have a Thermos insulated bag (the size of a small carryon) which will keep stuff frozen/cold up to 24 hours. I pack my containers (remember nothing that could possibly liquify) in my bag and I've got my carryon. We drive 2 hours to PHL, arrive at airport about 2 hours before flight and it's a 2 hour flight, plus maybe another hour by the time we get to the resort, and everything is still frozen when I get there. I simply put it in the fridge and let it defrost and our dinner is basically done since the meat is precooked and just needs to be added to whatever I'm making (chicken cacciatore or garlic chicken over rice, chicken soup made with Wyler's mix, meatball sandwiches, ground beef for tacos, sloppy joes or casseroles). You could even prebake and freeze a meatloaf or roast beef. This has worked great for us (we travel with six of us most of the time) for several years now. I make my grocery list for Winn Dixie or Publix before we leave home based on what my menu is and only need to get fresh items or canned items (since my package becomes too heavy if I put a lot of cans in).

 

[rigsby25]

You are so organized DonnaL!!!! Can we come over for dinner?

 

[DonnaL]

Sure, rigsby25, we'll be at VWL 1/4 thru 1/11......come on over............there are only three of us this visit so we've got room!!!

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

Wow! All hail DonnaL!

I've always been curious, though--how much does it cost to ship a package Fedex? I've never actually done it, but it seems like it would be more expensive than getting groceries delivered. Do you have access to "business rates" or something similar that makes it a reasonable option? Have you ever been hassled at the airport?

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Wow DonnaL.....now this is something for like the Oprah show or the View!! Rachel Ray's got nothin on you!! You could have a show like " 30 minute meals from My State to Yours!" I'm writing this all down!

 

[DonnaL]

My cost to ship the FedEx package usually runs about $15-$16 and weighs about 20 lbs (that's why I don't ship any cans). You're right about the cost being about the same as a delivery charge......however, in our case, we always have a rental car to make a grocery run ourselves and not have a delivery charge and most of the stuff I send are staples I already have on my pantry shelves(I always buy stuff like that on sale or B1G1 and usually have an ample stock) so why buy them at a higher cost in the grocery there. However, I do check the grocery ads right before I take my box to FedEx to see if there is anything I've got packed that I can purchase there and save on a bit of shipping. It usually works out since from PA I only need a 3 day ground shipping time and the grocery ad is usually online in time for me to see what's on sale that week. And, no, I've never had a problem with the TSA at the airport.......the key is to make sure you have nothing frozen which could liquify.......that's why I just precook/freeze the meat portions of the meal and not the entire meal (with sauces, etc). I used to also take frozen spaghetti sauce with my meatballs, but, have stopped doing so for this reason. I just take the meatballs out of my sauce and freeze separately. It really makes preparation in your villa a snap.......basically just assembling everything and popping it in the oven or stovetop as the case may be. We can be sitting down to a really good homecooked comfort food meal in about 30/40 minutes.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

bump....

 

[BWV Dreamin]

bump....

 

[cobbler]

Like others have said we do spaghetti, frozen lasagna, pizza rolls for the kids and soup for us, sandwiches and things of that nature.

We actually like to cook in the villa as it can get a bit expensive to eat out all 3 meals. Plus after a while it is a little bit nicer to be unstructured in eating out and we tend to get a bit tired of it as well.

I do like all the great ideas other have given.

 

[DonnaL]

My cost to ship the FedEx package usually runs about $15-$16 and weighs about 20 lbs (that's why I don't ship any cans). You're right about the cost being about the same as a delivery charge......however, in our case, we always have a rental car to make a grocery run ourselves and not have a delivery charge and most of the stuff I send are staples I already have on my pantry shelves(I always buy stuff like that on sale or B1G1 and usually have an ample stock) so why buy them at a higher cost in the grocery there. However, I do check the grocery ads right before I take my box to FedEx to see if there is anything I've got packed that I can purchase there and save on a bit of shipping. It usually works out since from PA I only need a 3 day ground shipping time and the grocery ad is usually online in time for me to see what's on sale that week. And, no, I've never had a problem with the TSA at the airport.......the key is to make sure you have nothing frozen which could liquify.......that's why I just precook/freeze the meat portions of the meal and not the entire meal (with sauces, etc). I used to also take frozen spaghetti sauce with my meatballs, but, have stopped doing so for this reason. I just take the meatballs out of my sauce and freeze separately. It really makes preparation in your villa a snap.......basically just assembling everything and popping it in the oven or stovetop as the case may be. We can be sitting down to a really good homecooked comfort food meal in about 30/40 minutes. For above poster who asked if I have access to FedEx business rates.....no I don't and have also used UPS in the past, however, the last few times FedEx rates were lower. You can access both UPS and FedEx rates on their respective websites. Simply go to shipping a package and answer the questions about package size, weight, (I weigh mine on my bathroom scale to get an estimate) etc. and you can pretty well estimate your cost and transit time (I use FedEx ground). However, for our trip in January I'll be sending very little because it's only DH, myself and our 18 year old and we've decided to try DDP for this trip.....just made ADR's this afternoon for Artist Point, Narcoosee's, and Yachtsman so we have one more table service left and a bunch of counter services and snacks. Got great times for all three ADR's .......between 6 and 6:30 for all three .....on 1/6, 1/8 and 1/10 ......we plan to watch Wishes from Narcoosee's terrace on the 8th......with dessert, of course!!!

 

[BWV Dreamin]

My cost to ship the FedEx package usually runs about $15-$16 and weighs about 20 lbs (that's why I don't ship any cans). You're right about the cost being about the same as a delivery charge......however, in our case, we always have a rental car to make a grocery run ourselves and not have a delivery charge and most of the stuff I send are staples I already have on my pantry shelves(I always buy stuff like that on sale or B1G1 and usually have an ample stock) so why buy them at a higher cost in the grocery there. However, I do check the grocery ads right before I take my box to FedEx to see if there is anything I've got packed that I can purchase there and save on a bit of shipping. It usually works out since from PA I only need a 3 day ground shipping time and the grocery ad is usually online in time for me to see what's on sale that week. And, no, I've never had a problem with the TSA at the airport.......the key is to make sure you have nothing frozen which could liquify.......that's why I just precook/freeze the meat portions of the meal and not the entire meal (with sauces, etc). I used to also take frozen spaghetti sauce with my meatballs, but, have stopped doing so for this reason. I just take the meatballs out of my sauce and freeze separately. It really makes preparation in your villa a snap.......basically just assembling everything and popping it in the oven or stovetop as the case may be. We can be sitting down to a really good homecooked comfort food meal in about 30/40 minutes. For above poster who asked if I have access to FedEx business rates.....no I don't and have also used UPS in the past, however, the last few times FedEx rates were lower. You can access both UPS and FedEx rates on their respective websites. Simply go to shipping a package and answer the questions about package size, weight, (I weigh mine on my bathroom scale to get an estimate) etc. and you can pretty well estimate your cost and transit time (I use FedEx ground). However, for our trip in January I'll be sending very little because it's only DH, myself and our 18 year old and we've decided to try DDP for this trip.....just made ADR's this afternoon for Artist Point, Narcoosee's, and Yachtsman so we have one more table service left and a bunch of counter services and snacks. Got great times for all three ADR's .......between 6 and 6:30 for all three .....on 1/6, 1/8 and 1/10 ......we plan to watch Wishes from Narcoosee's terrace on the 8th......with dessert, of course!!!

Even the Queen of Villa dining needs a break every now and then!! Give us a restaraunt review after your trip....I've never eaten at any of those restaraunts, would love to hear about them. Doesn't Rachel Ray also do a show on Eating on a Dime on the travel network?

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

I probably wouldn't bother shipping stuff, since we fly down and do ME and won't have a car. So, we'll be ordering groceries. Also, since we'll have a 2 and 5yo, we need the carry-on space for other things (change of clothes, toys, stuffed animals...). However, since we'll be paying for 6 tickets, we'll get 6 suitcases, and distribute nonperishable among them--again, probably not cans, too heavy. But certainly stuff like rice or Bisquick. And it'll give us room on the way home for souvenirs.

Although, I must say, the idea of a cooler of frozens does sound tempting. If I sling that over one shoulder and the diaper bag over the other, or better yet, get DH to carry one...

 

[glindamood]

I can't beleive all the years that we rented a car and went to the store and then returned the car (we never had one any longer than 24 hours). WeGoShop's delivery fee is much less than the rentals we used to use and it gives me a day to relax before hitting the parks.

Spagetti, tuna & noodles, burgers, LoMein (the frozen, bagged that you add chicken to), a hamberger casserole (rice, tomatoes, Velveeta (I need my arteries??)), eggs for breakfast with either sausage or bacon, just simple and fast. I don't like cooking on vacation but my kids know their way around the kitchen so we all took turns either cooking or cleaning up and they are my best memories.