Packing food and meal ideas

[luv2go2disney]

We are planning on trying to eat more meals in our room this time as we have a villa and it will be hot and we want a mid day break. We usually pack breakfast food and snacks. Can anyone give me some ideas of what to pack as far as food(we are flying) and maybe some quick and easy meal ideas. I don't want to spend all day cooking.

 

[LynnTH]

We are planning on trying to eat more meals in our room this time as we have a villa and it will be hot and we want a mid day break. We usually pack breakfast food and snacks. Can anyone give me some ideas of what to pack as far as food(we are flying) and maybe some quick and easy meal ideas. I don't want to spend all day cooking.

We are in a villa too. Most days we will be out at the parks and eating out but on the pool days I figured we could save a bit of money by eating in and by eating all of our breakfast in. I placed an order with wegoshop.com and they will deliver to the resort when we get there. I just ordered some basic things as I don't want to order too much either. I got:
Bread
Eggs
Ham/Turkey
Cheese
Brats
Cereal
Juice
Milk
Chips
Butter
Mac & Cheese
Diet Mt Dew
Case of Water
Case of Beer

Figured we could do Grilled Cheese Sandwiches or Turkey/Ham Sandwiches and Brats. Can do French Toast and Eggs for Breakfast. Will probably bring some other snacks packed in luggage. But, figured this will be easy stuff to make.

 

[luv2go2disney]

That sounds great! I was thinking of packing some spaghetti too and ordering a sauce from online grocer. I just dont want to be stuck with a bunch of leftover perishable food because then we wouldn't be saving money. We do have a few reservations but not like we usually do because my 2 oldest are now disney adults and we didn't want to have to pay that much for dining plan.

 

[Darcy03231]

I bought a cheap crock pot at Walmart and we did quite a few crockpot meals: Pulled pork, spaghetti sauce and meatballs (we had them for meatball subs one night and spaghetti and meatballs another night), chili, mexican chicken, beef stroganoff, etc.

On our first night there I also made a couple of casseroles in the disposable foil pans and put them in the freezer. I would take them out in the morning and let them defrost in the oven. Only took about half an hour to heat them up.

 

[Legendteri]

We also shared a villa when we went, however we drove to Disney and went shopping at Costco and Publix, so you will have to take that into consideration.

Anyways, we tried to keep it simple. We shared our villa with my sister's family so we took turns cooking ( if you could even call it that). One night I made pulled pork sandwiches with chips and maybe a potato salad. The pulled pork was already made when we bought it at Costco, I simply had to heat it up in the microwave for ten minutes. Another night we put a pizza in the oven ( also from Costco) and when my sister cooked, she threw stuff in the crockpot in the morning and when we came back we had Chicken Tortilla soup. Nothing too complicated. I think another night we made Turkey sandwiches and then our last night we ate at T-Rex at DTD. That was pretty much it.

 

[tigger51276]

Last trip I made 90% of our meals as we were in a villa. I had to do it on the cheap and I was surprised at how much easier it felt to me to make our meals then to buy them.
I did all simple meals really. I bought a couple of good thermoses that would hold enough food for the 3 of us and did:
Pasta w/sauce
Mac and Cheese
Cold fried chicken
Soups
Hot dogs w/chips or popcorn
Hamburger Helper meals
Chef boyardee
Cold cut sandwiches
Pizzas
Bagel sandwiches w/peanut butter-jelly-fluff
cereal
toast, eggs, pancakes
I just brought a good sized pkg of disposable containers and plastic bags for the sandwiches and hot dogs and such and had a small soft sided cooler and we would eat in the parks when the mood struck. Sometimes we'd split a french fry or something with our meal. We did do 3 table service meals and maybe 2 quick service meals while we were there. The meals I cooked never took more than like 20 mins and I'd do it as the kids were getting ready and while drinking my coffee in the morning.
This year I don't have a villa, just a studio, so soon I need to start planning out how I want to do our meals. I'm planning to bring a small crockpot and maybe an electric skillet (or my George Forman) to help with meals.
I love the idea of making some casseroles on day one and then just reheating them!