What Do You Cook in Your Villa?

[momoflizandains]

Great ideas! Keep them coming. I am building my menus for the week.

 

[54fab5]

When we travel we usually have our three kids and one or two more, so we always have food in the villa.

Notice I said "have food", not cook. Especially in the summer, we have found that the hot weather really suppresses our desire for a cooked meal, and definitely suppresses my resolve to provide one.

I always have food available that I don't have to be responsible for preparing. Things like fruit, vegetables to be eaten raw with/without dip, cheese sticks, bread, hard-boiled eggs by the dozen, and lunch meats. And always, P&J. I also find microwave popcorn and an assortment of snacks/candy really saves money at the gift-shop.

Occasionally I will prepare a casserole at home, or marinate meat at home, freeze it, and bring it down in a cooler so I can pop it in, but over time, I have found that we just don't want to spend our time creating great meals. Hot dogs and hamburgers are what kids want anyway, so why go to all that trouble when they would really rather have you in the pool with them.

 

[TeresaNJ]

We don't usually cook anything but an occasional breakfast, such as eggs, bacon, etc. My DH found a very easy recipe though that we've been making at home, that we love, that we may do as a quick meal/snack on our next Disney trip. Here is the recipe:

Take two large soft flour tortillas, spray the outer 1" edge of the first tortilla with olive oil or butter flavored cooking spray, or you can use your lightly oiled or buttered fingers. Spread shredded cheese on the tortilla staying away from your 1" border, then lightly press the second tortilla on top, especially around the edges. Lightly spray with cooking spray any flat pan, and then cook tortilla layer for a minute or two, just to crisp the bottom. Place tortilla layer on a baking sheet, such as a cookie sheet, or even just heavy duty foil, then top with shredded mozzarella, pizza sauce, and other toppings of your choice. For variation, use taco cheeses and salsa, etc. The possibilities are endless. Bake for approximately 4-5 minutes at 400. You only need a small amount of cheese between the two layers; it is more to keep the two tortillas together, to give more stability to your "pizza". When done, cut into wedges.

Our stove top pan can only grill one tortilla pizza at a time, so after we grill several of them, then we pop around three or four at a time into the oven with their respective toppings. We recently tried a ham and pineapple topping, but I wasn't too crazy about that. So far my favorite has been the Mexican pizza, topped with sour cream, and the Margarita pizza with basil leaves, mozzarella, and a little olive oil on top, no sauce.

 

[connorlevismom]

We cook a lot in our villa. We make:

Breakfast:
Frozen pancakes or waffels
Eggs and bacon
cereal
muffins
bagels

Lunch:
turkey and cheese sandwiches
Mac and chese
jelly sandwiches
hot dogs
corn dogs

Dinner:
Pasta
Frozen Pizza
Tacos
Hamburgers

Those are just a few of the things we make. We like to go back to rest in the afternoons so mostly eat lunch at the villa and most of the time dinner as well. We very rarely go out for breakfast as we don't get moving early enough to make the effort.

Kristine

 

[MagikMom]

We found that you can save a lot of money even if you just eat breakfast in the villa. I plan ahead of time and arrange a delivery with WEGOSHOP.
For breakfast we have: eggs, toast, bacon, cereal in the little individual boxes, bananas
We usually don't eat lunch especially if we have a good breakfast. The kids might get a snack at the parks.
Dinner: we like to eat out a lot of the time for dinner but we usually go to Disney for a minumum of 10 days so eating out every night would not be cheap. I make sauce and meatballs. Can have meatball sandwiches or pasta to switch it up a bit. Grilled cheese sandwiches, My son loves campbels chicken noodle soup so we make sure we get at least 4 cans of that.
Misc for snacking as we usually eat an early dinner: lot's of fruit, Popcorn and Doritos, icecream, popscicles.

 

[Debi]

I have to say, I am officially spoiled by 1BR's and having a full kitchen. Breakfast is usually easy (cereal, frozen waffles, fruit salad, etc.), lunch is in the park, and dinner is also simple. So far, I've only done frozen pizzas and spaghetti for dinner, but I'm looking for other suggestions. Some great suggestions so far - keep 'em coming!

 

[sskem96]

We made a big breakfast each day (eggs and toast, pancakes, or french toast), ate lunch in the parks, and had dinner in the room. Some things I made for dinner were tortellini, frozen pizza, lunchmeat sandwiches, and BBQ. Anything with as little prep work as possible! We also kept things like apples and grapes in the fridge for snacks. It was much cheaper for us to rent a car and go buy what we wanted at Walmart than to pay grocery service prices or eat counter service all week.

 

[BlakeNJ]

We almost always eat breakfast in the room or on the go. Lunch is in the park most days.

Dinner has been a tradition of tacos/fajitas. I am going to try and buy ready made taco meat and the seasoned chicken strips mentioned above.

I have also made a meatloaf. I know my kids will eat this meal--veggies too.

We usually travel 6-7 nights and eating in the room two nights saves our family of 5 almost $200.

On our most recent trip, we stayed at the Beach Club Villas. I ran over to the Boardwalk, picked up a pizza on the Boardwalk, grabbed a salad from Hurricane Hannas on my way back (very large--enough for 4 side salads). Meal cost around $35 but well worth my sanilty of not eating out with tired kids after a long pool day!

 

[MamaCrush]

We are hoping to go to the World three times this year, and the only way we can make that work is if I agree to do some cooking-- it also helps justify in my mind our DVC membership. Our next trip will be the first time I break my long-standing rule of no cooking, cleaning etc.

My kids are picky eaters so I plan to pre-make items at home that I know they like and take them down frozen. For example, they love my homemade chicken pot pie, so I plan on freezing the filling, taking down refrigerated pie crusts then I'm good to go. I plan to splurge and buy the microwave ready hot dogs in the buns to take for one of our meals. Spaghetti sauce is a given, and my kids also like alfredo pasta with chicken and broccoli. As a wise previous poster noted, I'm planning to defrost/reheat rather than cook! We'll grab ice cream or other treat after dinner in one of the parks or on the Boardwalk.

 

[Brancaneve]

Sandwhiches are great along with some chips and fruit. We also bought cans of soup(Progresso is good) and heated it up in the microwave. No cooking required with those and easy cleanup.

 

[momoflizandains]

Keep the great ideas coming, please!

 

[MarieA]

I don't cook anything. When I'm on vacation I want someone to serve me. It's the only time I get a break.

 

[gonesaleing]

My husband cooks every day at home so when we are on vacation, it's my turn. We eat all our meals in... yes, every single meal. We ship down non-perishable foods and then make a stop at Albertsons on our way from the airport. First night's dinner is always pizza and salad. I buy those 'meal in a bag' from McCormick and will make either chicken/veggies or meat loaf. Another night it might be skillet lasagne, oven baked chicken or pork chops. I always make a salad and a side dish with our dinners. One or two are usually leftovers.
We have pancakes/french toast/eggs/waffles for breakfast and lunch is sandwiches or mac and cheese. We pack food and bring it into the parks some days also.
Ever since my kids were babies, we have always vacationed this way. I would much rather do things at my own pace, when I want to, instead of stressing about reservations and lines and such. The other upside is that for a $140 trip to Albertsons and the items that I ship down from my pantry, I can feed my family of 4 for the week. This is how I justify spending the money to stay on property at a villa (we aren't DVC members.)

 

[photobob]

My husband cooks every day at home so when we are on vacation, it's my turn. We eat all our meals in... yes, every single meal. We ship down non-perishable foods and then make a stop at Albertsons on our way from the airport. First night's dinner is always pizza and salad. I buy those 'meal in a bag' from McCormick and will make either chicken/veggies or meat loaf. Another night it might be skillet lasagne, oven baked chicken or pork chops. I always make a salad and a side dish with our dinners. One or two are usually leftovers.
We have pancakes/french toast/eggs/waffles for breakfast and lunch is sandwiches or mac and cheese. We pack food and bring it into the parks some days also.
Ever since my kids were babies, we have always vacationed this way. I would much rather do things at my own pace, when I want to, instead of stressing about reservations and lines and such. The other upside is that for a $140 trip to Albertsons and the items that I ship down from my pantry, I can feed my family of 4 for the week. This is how I justify spending the money to stay on property at a villa (we aren't DVC members.)

Now that is some serious vacation cooking!

We generally cook light meals in the villa. Last year we had toasted sandwiches, boxed pasta salad that we doctored up a bit and snack bfast foods. We always take plenty of snacks for between meal munchies and take some to the parks with us as well.

We drive so we take everything we need except bread. We also take bottled water, sodas and beer. We normally eat lunch out at a TS restaurant. We do enjoy eating out we try to limit it to one meal per day to curb costs somewhat. We do occasionally have an evening cs meal in addition to the lunch. We still tour the parks in a manner that would not be conducive to eating all meals in the room, particularly lunch.

 

[Debi]

These are some great suggestions! Keep 'em coming.

 

[jmminarik]

We've cooked most of the 'normal' stuff we cook at home. Or I should say 'I'. Unlike many, I look forward to cooking on vacation since work doesn't give me the chance to cook as much as I'd like. Recently we've been doing more crock pot meals, which we'll probably start doing at Home assuming I can find the crock to my mothers crock pot....these new ones just seem to heat too much, even on low.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

If you are driving in, and own/use a crock pot, it's a time saver/cost saver. Frozen meatballs and sauce for spaghetti/meatball or meatball subs. Mexican seasoning w/ a roast you can shred or ground beef for tacos, burritos or taco salads. Go to your nearest grocery store and buy steaks, chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers and grill out, most DVC's have grill areas. Grill extra chicken to add to a ceasar salad for lunch or dinner. Publix/Winn Dixie have excellent rotiserrie chickens that you can pair with salads and fresh vegies. Shrimp fried in a pan with butter and garlic, add pasta or rice.

We eat out a few times on vacation but in truth my kids prefer to eat at the villa to get more pool time!

P.S. since you are driving, bring along a few of your home seasonings rather than having to buy all new, like Montreal Steak seasoning, Taco/Italian seasoning, salt/pepper, garlic salt, lemmon pepper etc. Don't forget coffe filters, if you drink coffee.

What!! Are you kidding? Sounds like you are either there for a really long stay, or you really spend alot of time cooking, and eating, being in the villa.

 

[Longhairbear]

Now that the GVC will be opening in late Sept, we are already planning to book a 2 bedroom for ourselves and culinary friends sometime near Thanksgiving, and have a huge turkey dinner cooked in our DVC. It will be a blast, each couple making favorite side dishes, and then walking out the door straight into the park.

 

[TINKERIFIC]

I try and do as much prep at home and take things down frozen in a cooler. This way I am not really cooking; I am defrosting and reheating

We have a 23 hr drive to WDW. We fill the cooler with ice the morning we leave and add more ice when we stop for the night. Everything makes it to WDW FROZEN SOLID

I hope this helps

I was debating about precooking as much as possible at home, freezing and bringing it with us as well. We have a 18 hour drive. I thought it would be a disaster. Now I know it wont. Thanx!! I want to save money by eating in our villa as much as possible, but I DO NOT want to spend my entire vacation cooking. Looks like now I will just be defrosting and reheating!!! Easy enough. Although we will be eating at TUSKER HOUSE BREAKFAST and one other TS. I love Disney food, but it gets old after about the 3rd day. It seems like the same stuff everywhere you go and it is so expensive.

 

[Cruelladeville]

Normally, I don't cook on our trips, but, like everyone else, I had to make some concessions if I want more than one trip in a year. Our breakfasts are cereal, fruit, juice, coffee, bagels--we only eat out once per trip. Lunch is usually at the parks. For dinner, we do eggs, tuna, tater tots, and fruit; tacos;chicken salads; whole chickens already cooked from the market; mac and cheese and hot dogs; spaghetti and meatballs; sandwiches. Then toward the end of the trip, we go to restaurants that serve large meals(like Capitol Grill, yum!), and bring home enough food for a dinner of left-overs. All the markets also have the microwave meals from Hormel(meatloaf, turkey,roast beef, etc) and mashed potatoes from Yoders, gravy in a jar, frozen vegetables, and rolls that can be made in about 8 minutes.