Meals in your room?

[MinnieJasmine&Pooh]

Last year we stayed in a 1br at OKW which was great to have a kitchen and have meals in our room. Next year we plan to stay in 1 room w/ our 3 dd's 3, 5,8. But I wonder what are some good ideas for eating meals in our room and not having to eat out every meal. The little ones are so tired from the parks it is hard to drag them out to eat sometimes especially at dinner time. What do you do? Order pizza? stock fruit and cheese in the fridge? Cereal? Thanks for any new ideas.

 

[hollyb]

Also sandwhiches would be good, lunchables, yogurt, peanuts.

 

[gardendame]

There was a really good thread about this quite a while back, but I cannot seem to find it. Maybe someone with better search skills can locate it and post the link here I can't remember if it was on the budget board, or on the resort board, but it was a very long thread, where people posted their in-room meals (without cooking, as that will cause a whole other debate).

Some things that come to mind are:

Granola bars
string cheese
cereal
milk
juice boxes
fruit
PB & J
canned or packaged tuna/chicken
instant oatmeal/soups using hot water from coffee pot
salad keeps well in a cooler or the fridge (can add the above tuna/chicken)
individual fruit cups/pudding cups
Gogurt
Bagels (my kids are hooked on bagel sandwiches lately - filling!)
carrot sticks and ranch dip

I'm sure there is more, but my brain is tired (long day) After a long day at the parks, a nice meal in the room before crashing would be a relaxing way to end a day.

 

[gardendame]

I found the link I was looking for! Now, I hope this works. I did a search for "cooking" on the "budget" board. I searched for "cooking" because I knew the discussion had come up about camping in the room. Here is the link! (I hope it works?)

meals you can make without cooking of any kind

ETA: Nope, didn't work

 

[MinnieJasmine&Pooh]

Thank you all. I will look for that thread.

 

[va32h]

I don't know where you are staying, but we have stayed at DoubleTree suites, where we had a microwave and fridge in our room.

In the microwave we were able to make all sorts of things, of course. Not just snacks, we made baked potatoes, mac & cheese, rice, soup w/mixes, & hot dogs. Frozen stuff doesn't really stay frozen in those little hotel fridges, so we didn't do alot of frozen stuff, but if you have your own car, one adult can go to the grocery store and pick up chicken nuggets or frozen dinners to be microwaved.

Or even better than frozen meals, grab a rotisserie chicken and potato salad from the grocery store deli.

Plus all the sandwich and salad ideas mentioned above. On any vacation, if we can get a room with a microwave and fridge, we eat at least a few meals in the room. Eating out can be stressful for families, night after night.

If you don't have a microwave, you'll probably have to stick to picnic type meals. But even then, some fresh deli meats, nice big rolls, fruit and cheese, will make a nice meal. We like to sit out on the balcony and people watch while we eat.

 

[travelitis]

We like to eat in the room some meals. There are so many things you can do with a microwave, and if you're driving, you can precook sloppy joe meat and reheat in the micro. I've tried a variety of things from sandwich fixings from our cooler to hot meals I pre-cooked and reheated. If you want some ideas for meals, e-mail me at kamaiia@aol.com and tell me what you have to work with.

 

[barkley]

if you will be doing dvc again and will have the luxury of an actual stove top and oven i'll pass on what's worked for us-

frozen family size lasagna (i leave it out of the fridge so it's defrosted when i get back, cuts the cooking time from 2 hours to 1),

frozen family size mac n cheese (same process),

boxes of chicken nuggets and corn dogs and bags of tator tots (tator tots work great as a side for meals, snack and can also be served with eggs for breakfast),

sloppy joes (i use manwich sauce cuz it does'nt call for having a can of tomato sauce in addition to the sloppy joe powdered mix),

(if your kids like soup) wyler's soup starter (we like the beef veggie even without adding beef)-it takes less than an hour on the stove top-just add water,

for breakfast-frozen waffles, microwavable pancakes, cereal (i splurge on the multi packs with the little boxes not as much wastage), for dh and i-eggs and microwave bacon (god bless whoever invented this).

i also make a grocery list with as many items that can serve "double duty" as possible (cheese slices-kids snack on them, i can do grilled cheese/microwave bacon-breakfast and blt's/jarred spagetti sauce-for quick pasta as well as for making mini pizza's on the left over sloppy joe burgar buns...).

i also stock the fridge with the drinks we usualy consume at home (diet coke for me, juice/milk for the kids, tons of water). now with the advent of those little foil 'drink straws" that make lemonaide, tea, koolaid...i would likely pack up these to take to use in the parks as well as in the room.

the only "extras" you need to remember are those condiments you can't do without (in our house catsup and ranch dressing), foil (to cover the cookie sheet with-speeds clean up) and a can of "pam" (yes, in making pasta you can spray this into the water in place of oil-it does work).

oooh-one last item-those packages of ready to bake cookies. we get those to have some evenings along with microwave popcorn/kettlecorn. the kids crash out with their "party food" and watch the disney channel while dh and i just relax.

 

[hollyb]

Never thought to pack tin foil. Also will have to buy some cookies to bake. Back to my list to add this new info.

 

[barkley]

just remembered-if they are pb&j fans (like my son) get "goober" (then it's one vs. 2 jars), if they like tuna-get the little lunch container packs (small can of tuna, mayo, relish and cracker packets)-saves on condiments to buy and the crackers can be used with soup, velveta cheese sauce in a jar-for cheese fries, nachos or over cooked macaroni for mac n cheese.

and one last one (can be used in sneaky ways)-a bag of those little premade frozen meatballs (you cook them on a cookie sheet in the oven). for those that like meatballs and spagetti use them that way, but once cooked they can also be sliced and put on bread for a "meatloaf sandwich", broken up with a touch of taco seasoning for a "burrito", covered in canned mushroom soup for "sweedish meatballs"....i've found they have very little italian seasoning such that you can use them for a variety of meals and snacks (i have one child that likes them covered in bbq sauce).

kraft sells boxes with 10 individual sized packages of salad dressing (they have italian, ranch and a couple of others), these are good for salads but they can also be good for cooking-we take the italian to use in place of olive oil and spices in some dishes. and speaking of spices, i bought a small travel pill case (the type with a bunch of small individual bottles) and filled each with spices i might need (but don't want to have to buy)-the dvc rooms usualy have salt and pepper, but garlic powder, cinnamon and stuff like that are staples for us. as for sugar-unless i plan on cooking something huge with it-i just grab a couple of packets each time we get coffee and toss them in my purse to use for cereal and stuff.

 

[hollyb]

My list keeps growing!!! By the time we leave I will need to buy nothing for our rental. SWEET!!!