"Nicer" Easy Meals for a Condo

[Julia M]

We have a villa at the Beach Club this summer. We are also planning on staying at my parents Marriott timeshare the week before.

I looked at doing the dining plan the week we are at the Beach Club, but the cost would be $1679!!! Honestly, we have enjoyed some DIsney restaurants, but I just don't feel they are worth that price anymore,

SO, my new plan is to shop when we arrive and have some nicer in room meals.

Does anyone have any favorites from Costco that would be nice for meals? I'd like to get appetizer type stuff and snacks, as well as meals.

I have a Costco card, but don't shop there much, so don't know what might be good.

Julia

 

[BellyBaby]

I'm all about quick, easy meals on holiday.

My favs are: refrigerated pasta and sauces, like tortellini

Caesar salad kits and a head of romaine, sometimes we buy Tyson's chicken strips and cut them up for Chicken Caesar salad for a meal in itself.

Foccia bread and some deli meats always yummy and filling, good to take to the parks, too!

We do spaghetti every trip, because it's 3 ingredients: pasta, sauce, and ground beef!

We pick up frozen family dinners, they're hit and miss. TGI Fridays has a fabulous spicy pork ravioli. And we buy cukes and fresh fruit for snacks. We slice the cukes for every meal, b/c it's so hard to get veggies in on holiday. Cukes are easy and very snack friendly.

I can't think of anymore off hand. We also order pizza one night too. And the rest we eat out or pick up fast food. It's still better than fast food every night for a week, tho. Why I love renting vacation homes!

 

[Justsyd2]

Will you have an oven? You can't go wrong with a Pork Tenderloin (only takes 45 minutes in the oven) with fresh veggies, salad, and bread, or Chicken Breasts with the same.

 

[dyna]

tacos, manwich use leftover buns to make garlic bread for spaghetti or for deli meat an sandwiches.

fish bakes really fast an is healthy serve with salad an mac an cheese or baked taters

boneless skinless chicken breast cook up quick many things can be done with those.

sausage eggs an pancakes or waffles a quick meal an not just for breakfast biscuits take a bit longer but not bad.

Crockpot meals if crock pot on hand chuck roast lb of baby carrots 4 good sized taters an onion can of cream of mushroom soup an you got dinner.....leftover roast I tear apart into tiny pieces put that in bottom of crockpot put the veggies and broth over the top an heat another night an serve as stew. Much better the 2nd night than the 1st.

 

[Topper]

Skillet Beef Stroganoff

5 cups sliced mushrooms (8oz)
1 large onion, sliced
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 beef steak 1.25 pounds, cut into 2-inch strips
8oz sour cream
Hot cooked noodles

In large skillet, saute mushrooms and onions in butter until tender.
Transfer to a bowl using a slotted spoon
Stir in water, tomato paste, salt and pepper...set aside

Place flour in large resealable plastic bag. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat. In the same skillet, brown beef in batches. Return all of the beef to the pan and top with mushroom mixture.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer to 1.5 hours or until beef is tender, stirring once. Remove from the heat and stir in sour cream. Serve with noodles.

 

[brymolmom]

If it was me - I'd get some of those foil baking pans at Costco and put together 2 - 4 different dishes on arrival day or other day that you have more time scheduled into the plan.

You can put some casseroles together and put them in the frig and just throw them in the oven the day you want them. If you stick with one type of main ingredient - you could put 4 different versions of it together pretty quickly on that first day.

Like:
Chicken parm
Chicken Divan
Chicken and bisquits
Chicken pieces to use for chicken tacos

 

[Kay1]

I agree with the idea of pasta (especially tortellini or ravioli) with a nice sauce. Last night we had tri-colored cheese tortellini with pesto sauce, both from Costco.

Costco also has SeaPak shrimp scampi which is wonderful served over angel hair pasta, and they have Phillips crab cakes which are fantastic served with the gourmet potato dishes sold in the refrigerated section.

They also have salad trays. The Caesar is really good, and, of course, they have a nice bakery, too.

Enjoy.

 

[englishteacha]

Not sure about Costco, but we like getting a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. Very yummy!

 

[ChrisinNJ]

Costco Has a nice prepared food department. I have not tried all the items but here are some recomendations for things I have tried & use regularly....BTW, in most stores I have been in, the prepared food section is at one end of the meat counter. It is usually meats, then rotiserie chicken, then prepared foods....

Here are some of the items I like:

Rotisserie chicken or pre-cooked ribs

not cheap but cheaper than a restaurant, stuffed tilapia (prepared food, usually 4 in a pack, but fresh & can be frozen so you can have it once in the beginning of the trip & once at the end) or stuffed salmon (3 pack fresh fish section).

plain (non stuffed) tilapia or salmon (frozen food individually vacuum packed) I love salmon poached which takes only minutes, then I make a dressing out of sour cream, dill, finely chopped cucumber & onion, and a sqeeze of lemon.... love the cold dressing on top of warm fish! Love it even more when the fish is on a bed of sauteed spinach leaves.....

The tilapia goes from freezer to table in 30 minutes, lay frozen fish on a pan, drizzle with a little oil or butter, add herbs & backe 30 mins at 400 degrees, perfect every time!

Costco has good salads that are big enough to share, including grilled chicken cesar.

Shrimp cocktail platter or sandwich wrap platter w/ a veggie dip platter is good for lunch or dinner.

They have a nice variety pack of hot mexican appetizers, mini tacos, flautas & something else, I forget what, in the frozen food section. They have guacamole & seven layer dip near the prepared foods.

Their frozen ravioli is good, they also have some nice fresh varieties as well.

The biggest problem w/costco is that everything is in larger packs, so plan & choose carefully or you will end up with a lot left over at the end of your trip.

 

[swilshire]

We have a villa at the Beach Club this summer. We are also planning on staying at my parents Marriott timeshare the week before.

Too bad the weeks aren't reversed. We did the dining plan for four days a few years ago before moving to a timeshare. We had lots of credits left on the last day, so got carry out meals and snacks to finish them off. We had great leftovers for days.

We like Stouffers frozen lasagna. We always have a pot of chili (quick to make if you use canned beans). We typically bake some chicken with potatoes.

Sheila

 

[CherylA]

I like the frozen chicken potstickers from Costco, we also like the perdue bourbon chicken (boneless pieces). There rotisserie chickens are a good value. Many of the costcos also have hot preparred ribs.

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

I agree with the pork tenderloin, and have these to add:

a good steak with the usual trimmings, decadent dessert

this is a really good and EASY shrimp scampi recipe - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Shrimp-Scampi-Bake/Detail.aspx I did not use Dijon mustard as I didn't have any, still delicious

this is also a really good recipe for turkey breast -http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Teriyaki-Turkey-Breast/Detail.aspx any leftovers could be used for sandwiches

 

[minniebeth]

We love Costco for getting things for meals on vacations! You can find a lot of nice things there for quick, easy, nice put together meals. A lot of great ideas have already been mentioned, but one thing we like to do is just have an appetizer/dessert and wine meal. We do lots of appetizers and then one or two desserts. Costco has a great selection of both. They have great spinach dip, crackers and cheeses, hummus, veggies, chips, etc. Nice sliced cold cuts too, and you can even find some hors' doeurves in the frozen section to pop in the oven.
They sometimes have some really fun desserts too!

 

[mcgypsy]

We love their Chicken Cordon Bleu frozen chicken breasts stuffed
with ham and cheese. Steam a little broccoli and some flavored rice
and it's a great meal in 40 minutes.

One of our other favorite quick meals is shrimp scampi. You buy the
frozen shrimp that are already cooked. Heat them in a skillet with
butter, white wine, lemon juice and garlic until done. Boil some pasta
to toss in the sauce with the shrimp and serve. Throw in a little
salad and you have dinner in the time it takes to boil the pasta!

 

[4Seasons]

If you like salmon they have a fantastic marinated salmon packaged in individual portions (6 to a box). Great with a baked potato and salad.

I love Costco!

 

[ckey]

Costco has some delicious tortilla-crusted tilapia that is so easy and good. Also, you can't get much easier than steak & baked potato & salad & bread. And if you wanted to fancy it up a little more, sautee some onions & mushrooms. Yum!

 

[curious3069]

We threw together a quick pasta salad on our last vacation that was quick and easy, with something on the grill & some good bread was a great light meal on a hot day.

1 pkg pasta-any shape
chopped veggies-think we used carrots, a small onion, green pepper, cucumber
a brick of mozarella, cut in cubes
Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinagrette


Totally easy, you can buy just what you need at the store (ie, a few carrots, 1 cucumber, etc), have a couple of people chopping and it only takes as long as pasta cooks!

 

[bobbiwoz]

We like Stouffers frozen lasagna....

Sheila

We do too! With a salad, it was a great meal when we stayed at BLT in January.

 

[branv]

I just tasted a sample today of Costco's shrimp salad (like PP said, it's with the prepared items near the fresh meats/rotisserie). It was quite good. I've also enjoyed their chicken salad and chicken greek pasta salad, which they make using their rotisserie chickens. Two thumbs up

Actually, now that I think about it, they also use that same chicken to sometimes offer chicken noodle soup and chicken pot pie. The pot pie is GINORMOUS (seriously, like "40 and 20 blackbirds" big), but if you're feeding a lot of people, or willing to eat leftovers forever and ever, it might work for you.

Their stuffed/pinwheel flanksteaks are yummy, just one feeds both DH and I. And their flautas are the bomb

 

[ChrisinNJ]

Their stuffed/pinwheel flanksteaks are yummy, just one feeds both DH and I.

I never tried the pinwheel flanksteaks. DO you prepare them on the grill or in the oven/broiler? I will have to try them soon!