What do you cook?

We will be cooking on vacation for the first time in March, and we have some simple meals we'll be making. We live about 2 1/2 hours away, so we'll be able to make some things in advance and take them with us to heat up. However, any of these meals could be put together by grabbing a few things at the grocery store without having to buy some "weird" ingredients you'll only use once and then toss out.

Here's a list of some of the meals we have in mind:

Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Crockpot Pot Roast
Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
Spinach, Ham and Feta Frittata
Skiers French Toast
Pizza
Chicken and Yellow Rice
Greek Salad

And, when I say easy, I mean it... :thumbsup2

Crockpot Pot Roast:

1 appropriately sized chuck roast
1 package of baby carrots
1 can beef broth
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 packet beefy onion soup mix
1 package egg noodles (or rice, mashed potatoes - whatever you like)

Place baby carrots into bottom of crockpot. Mix together beef broth and cream of mushroom soup and pour into crockpot. Place meat on top of carrots and sprinkle packet of beefy onion soup mix over it. Cook on low for 8-10 hours, depending on how long you'll be out for the day. When you get back, cook up some noodles, rice, etc. Remove the roast and "pull it" using two forks to separate out some of the fatty parts, if any remains. Toss the pulled meat back into the crockpot and give it a stir to mix it in with the gravy and carrots. Serve it all nice and happy together over the noodles/rice/whatever! :goodvibes
 
We like chicken fajitas--sliced chicken breast seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon pepper. Add onions and bell peppers. Then all the fixings and flour tortillas!

Pulled pork for sandwiches in the crockpot, pasta salad. Tacos, sloppy joes.
 
We will be cooking on vacation for the first time in March, and we have some simple meals we'll be making. We live about 2 1/2 hours away, so we'll be able to make some things in advance and take them with us to heat up. However, any of these meals could be put together by grabbing a few things at the grocery store without having to buy some "weird" ingredients you'll only use once and then toss out.

Here's a list of some of the meals we have in mind:

Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Crockpot Pot Roast
Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
Spinach, Ham and Feta Frittata
Skiers French Toast
Pizza
Chicken and Yellow Rice
Greek Salad

And, when I say easy, I mean it... :thumbsup2

Thanks for the recipe! would you mind posting the recipe for Skiers French Toast? I've never heard of that and my kids love French toast,

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We stayed in a condo for our WDW trip this past May and we kept things pretty simple and relaxed since we were in vacation mode :goodvibes We had breakfast in the condo almost everyday except for when we had our Chef Mickey's breakfast ADR and we typically had cold cereal, instant oatmeal, toasted waffles, yogurt, bananas, and boiled or scrambled eggs. We went to the Disney parks everyday of our trip (except on our Legoland day) and we ate counterservice meals in the parks lunch and one day had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe in AK. We kept dinners simple as well. We had a dinner ADR at 'Ohana one night, take out from Applebees one night, Publix rotisserie chicken with baked potatoes and veggies one night, and for dinners on other nights I made pretty simple stuff like spaghetti and salad, tacos with beans and rice, and grilled chicken breasts with rice and veggies.
 

Thanks for the recipe! would you mind posting the recipe for Skiers French Toast? I've never heard of that and my kids love French toast, Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Skiers French toast is a baked dish and is very good! The recipe can be found at allrecipes.com:
Recipe Details


Skiers' French Toast

8 Servings, Prep Time: , Cook Time:

Description

A baked French toast that makes it's own syrup. You prepare it the night before then bake it in the morning. Great for a crowd at breakfast like a sleepover party or before heading up to the slopes!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 (1 pound) loaf unsliced white bread, with crust trimmed
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions

Combine light corn syrup, butter and sugar in saucepan; simmer until syrup-like. Pour mixture over the bottom of a 9"x 13" pan.
Slice bread into 12-16 slices; place over the syrup. Layer as needed.
Beat together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and salt. Pour over bread. Cover with saran wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
Bake in a preheated oven 350 degree F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes.
Cut into squares. Invert and serve.
Nutritional Information

Servings Per Recipe: 8
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 444

Cholesterol: 166.4mg
Carbohydrates: 62.2g
Sodium: 614.4mg
Fat: 17.4g
Dietary Fiber: 1.4g
Protein: 9.9g
Sent from Allrecipescom Your Kitchen Inspiration" for the iPad




ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. © 2010 Allrecipescom



Jenny
Sent from my cool iPad 2
 
Our last two trips we stayed for 2 weeks and cooked a lot. We had breakfast in every day and had what we would normally have at home....cereal, bagels, fruit. Lunches we would keep it simple...we spent many lunches at the pool. We would make sandwiches or hot dogs with fruit. For dinner we got frozen pizzas, premade pasta bake, pork chops (grilled them), chicken breast (baked in the oven), bacon and eggs. I'm sure there were a couple of other things but right now I can't remember.

We also had....
cookies
chips
yogurt
carrots/celery and hummus
pancake mix and syrup
crackers & cheese
romaine hearts


I have found that buying condiments is a killer. You spend a lot of money of big containers of things that you won't use up. We bring anything that we can from home....ketchup, mustard etc. Our last trip we drove so we were able to bring a few things in a cooler.....butter, mayo, cheese, salad dressing.
 
Thanks for the recipe wuzzy!!! I see you got it from allrecipes (which I love), so I'll be sure to add it to my recipe box!

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I've cooked steak, a whole chicken, a roast beef. It's super easy. Just pop the roast beef or whole chicken with baked potatoes and voila dinner is ready. Just do not forget the salt!

We usually eat all breakfasts and some lunches in room(DVC at BLT and BW so we are super close...and a few dinners if we aren't planning park days. Or sometimes we get take out. We also love Qdoba and it's right down the street from lake buena vista dr. Just take a left and it's at the first set of lights

Further down is a nice Winn Dixie I like to shop at too.
 
I took my crockpot with me ;) Worked great and plan to do it again. I planned just a couple of bigger meals, and re-heated those for left-overs the other nights.

Turkey Breast in Crockpot
Buy a Honeysuckle or similar turkey breast
-take a bag of 3-4 bullion cubes, salt and maybe some dried onion, I fixed mine in a plastic baggy at home so I didn't have to take everything.

Fill crockpot 2/3 w/ water, add seasoning and leave on all day.

For sides I do mashed potatoes (instant will do, the turkey has gravy with it), I took real ones as my fam is picky. I made a bunch and re-heated thru the week. Or you can just to mac and cheese instead if you don't have the time for real potatoes. Baked potatoes in the microwave would also be good, but it would take a while to do all of them.

Salad, corn on the cob (quick in the microwave) and a roll (frozen, Mrs Shuberts).

We had that meal 2x that week. We also ate the turkey on sandwiches and I like just turkey and cheese and crackers for a great small meal or snack.

My second meal was tacos, just brown the meat and add the veggies. Quick, easy and the kids will all eat it.


For breakfast we do eggs, toast, cereal, yogurt and fruit. I also have peanut butter and jelly for the kids to eat whenever.


My grocery list was:

Hamberger meat (for tacos)
Turkey Breast (made this the first day so we had lots of left-overs)
Tomato
lettuce
bananas
carrots
broccoli
grapes
strawberries
cheese
butter
milk
yogurt
corn on cob (3 meals worth)
potatoes
bread (several loaves)
peanut butter
jelly
cereal
granola bars
dried apples
Gatorade
tortillas
frozen rolls (2 bags)
eggs
other packed snack packs to take into the park
mints :)
Ice cream sandwiches
bottled water
cookie dough
Miracle whip
mustard



We ate out 1x or less per day, a family of 7, and all of my meals took minimal prep. We would definitely do bergers on the grill if we had time! Bonnet creek had a great place to do them, and we plan to if we go back there next year. I would do bergers and hot dogs enough for 2 meals.
 
We very rarely cook while on holiday as my husband does all the cooking at home, he definitely doesn't want to while we are away. Saying that we do stock up on bagels and cereal for breakfast. We buy lots of ham, turkey cheese etc and take bagels to the parks for lunch if not having a sit down meal. Really cant stand most of the quick service meals. We will get my son a hot dog or burger. We also buy the big Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes from Target along with ice cream and have them as a dessert after we get back from a restaurant in the evening. They also have lovely fruit platters at Publix.
This year my brothers family came to so we cooked more than usual and had burgers and sausages on the BBQ at Bonnet Creek but ate in the room, delicious. I also cooked all the children pasta and tomato sauce a couple of times which funnily enough they seemed to like more than the $250 meal we had at Tusker House (my was that awful).
 
Here are some of the meals we have had in years past. The menu varies depending on which family members join us and what parks we are planning.

Taco soup with chips
garlic and herb chicken with buttered noodles and veggie
breaded chicken and veggie (sometimes put on sandwiches)
pizza from WalMart to bake
Italian seasoned chicken with stuffing and veggie
sloppy joes, fries and veggie
hamburgers, chips and veggie
tacos
breakfast burritos
spaghetti
salad with leftover chicken in it
sandwiches
grilled cheese
 
I am interested in some good (yet simple) ideas too. We will be doing our first two-week trip in August 2014, so there's no way we'll be eating out every meal for two weeks. Our stomachs can only handle so much restaurant food :sick: .

We're flying, though, so no cooking and bringing anything with us. No crock pot in the villa, either, that I know of. We will have access to an outdoor grill, though.

My kids and I went for 15 nights August 2012 (they were 15 and 13 at the time), and the only sit down meal we ate out at was a Macaroni Grill in Kissimmee (and it was really, really good!).

It was a very inexpensive trip, and I was trying to keep our costs down since it was kind of a "bonus" end of summer vacation (and my husband stayed home). I brought seasonings, sweetener for my coffee, and some other things in a suitcase.

We used the grill a bit, I think I made marinated chicken, bratwurst, maybe burgers I think. I mostly did our shopping at Walmart and Target, then picked up little things at a CVS (it was right outside the condo so convenient). My kids like things like frozen chicken strips and fries, so add a frozen veggie and it's a simple meal. We don't eat hot breakfast often, but refrigerated biscuit (Pillsbury type), Jimmy Dean precooked sausage, eggs all super quick and easy. Definitely we do more FROZEN convenient stuff on vacation then we do at home! I let go of worry about the healthy, but still cooking in the condo is usually more healthy than eating out! I try to buy fruit too - apples, bananas, whatever looks good.

I think two weeks is ideal in Orlando! We spent some days just chilling in the condo and relaxing. I was surprised too, some evenings were cooler than I had anticipated, so my daughter and I picked up hoodies at Target and Walmart (both on clearance racks)!

It does help to plan out a bit for meals, so if you know you'll need a small amount of some seasoning you can bring it. Or, if you have a lot of some snacks at home to bring them (I used to use a lot of coupons, so had tons of cereals and crackers, cookies, etc... so figured I'd bring what I thought we'd use there).
 


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