Whats your favorite meal to make at "Home"??

[JoEllen]

Here's an easy recipe for the DVC kitchen that is really good in hot weather.

Tortellini Salad

1 bag frozen cheese tortellini
Chopped black olives
any chopped vegetable you want to add (broccali, red peppers etc)
chopped pre-cooked sweet sausage
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
bottle of Kraft Ceaser/Parmesan salad dressing

Boil tortellini and drain. Toss with Kraft dressing (not whole bottle, just to taste!) and add rest of the ingredients. Let set for at least an hour. You'll then need to add abit more Kraft dressing.

Enjoy!

JoEllen

 

[TwingleMum]

Thanks for all the great suggestions.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Holy, Moly! Cook on vacation???
We never even cook when we are NOT on vacation!

We use the fridge, coffee maker, and possibly the micro.

 

[CarolynK]

Like another poster said, we planned what we'd have for dinner on the nights in our room and shopped accordingly at Publix (I sorted the list by category and my husband & I split the list in half to make shopping quicker. This worked out great, even with two kids in tow).
We bought two loaves of fresh french bread (yum); the leftover bread gets toasted and buttered for an accompaniment to pasta with red sauce. We also bought romaine and a bottle of caesar dressing, plus parmesan cheese, to go along with the pasta.

I have never made anything more complicated than pasta in our room. I think it's mainly because it's simple, and considering what we eat the rest of the nights in restaurants at WDW, it is LIGHT!

 

[lurontravel]

We make a hamburger helper type of meal for dinner most often, and occassionally will buy a frozen turkey that goes freezer to oven to table in about 3-4 hrs. (I think), and have asalad, canned or frozen veggies, potatoes (baked, baked sweet, etc.), and bread, and gravy. For breakfast, usually eggs and bacon or sausage and toast, french toast, and cereal (hot or cold). We have 2 little ones, so cooking in is a good option for us quite often.

 

[SamR]

With 10, 7, and 3-year old children, a sit-down meal at a WDW restaurant (especially after a long day at the parks) can sometimes be a less than relaxing experience for us. One of the motivations for our DVC purchase was to be able to have a kitchen and dining area so that we could prepare meals in our room. Yes, it saves money, but even better we find that it just makes for a more relaxing end to our day...We put a DVD on, and the kids pile up to watch that while we prepare dinner.

We typically eat lunches in the parks (mostly counter service, although we also enjoy a more relaxing sit-down lunch at places like the Plaza in the MK), and one character meal (often breakfast at Ohana's), but most of our meals are in the room. Typical choices include:

Breakfast: Cereal, cheese toast, scrambled eggs, buscuits

Lunch: Ham & cheese sandwiches, grilled cheese, PB&J (3-year old's choice), Easy Mac (10-year old's favorite)

Supper: Spaghetti w/garlic bread, chicken strips/salad/side dish dujour, mexican casserole, pizza (Pizza Hut or Giordano's),...

The beauty of something like the casserole is that it makes enough for two suppers, making for a low-effort dinner on the second night. We also have had really good experiences ordering pizza from both Pizza Hut and Giordano's.

I'll echo another poster's comment that the meal preparation is also simplified by good advance planning. We plan our menus out before the trip (I'm a chronic Disney planner ), bring non-perishable items with us, and have an organized grocery list for large items and perishables. I also pre-measure spices and dry ingredients into little containers or ziploc bags, making prep for items like the casserole quicker (and preventing the need to buy or haul spices, boxes of rice, etc.).

 

[dianeschlicht]

Occationally, when we have a large group of guests with us in the GV, we will make one main meal a day. We have had each family group plan a meal and let the rest of teh group know what time and what the menu is for that meal. Then everyone lets them know if they will be in attendance or not.

Our favorites have been lasagne, pork chops under the broiler, and baked potato bar. All of these take minutes to prepare and the lasagne can be putin the oven with the timer set, so it is ready when you arrive. We have fed a group of 12 with VERY little prep time.

BTW, the stoves are electric, and be sure to check your kitchen utensils agains the list in the cupboard door on arriving at the villa, so you can call housekeeping if anything is missing. It is awful to start a meal and THEN discover you need a mixer, or can opener or some such thing that is missing.

 

[cgcw]

Originally posted by KarenB
Fresh, steamed blue crab caught right off the pier (in Hilton Head Island) by our DSs!!!!

Just curious, but how many of them do you need to make a meal??

At HH, we always take our crock pot. We buy either a boneless pork roast or sirloin roast. Put it on in the morning, toss potatoes and carrots on top. By the time we return it's ready and waiting for us. Our kids enjoy frozen pizza too.

We don't usually cook at WDW.

 

[CK1]

Crock pots are great... take an eye of round (or two) and put it in crock with 1 can french onion soup, 1 can beef broth, and 1 can beer. Set it to low and let 'er go for about 8 hrs. Cut / shred the meat. Serve with crusty french rolls, thinly sliced american cheese, and maybe a salad or cold fruit... oh yum. Makes a great french dip.

We also enjoy spaghetti, baked ham (another easy one to do in a crock that can be eaten off for the next day's lunch!) with mac-n-cheese, or super salads (buy the salads in a bag, buy the Louis Rich chicken strips, use some of that left over ham , and toss in whatever else floats yer boat... Tacos are always fun, too, to make the night after the big salads (lots of lettuce / cheese shreds, olives, tomatoes, etc left over!)

FOr a 10 day stay, we will eat all but one or 2 b'fasts in (those Hungry Jack just-add-water pancake mixes are great!). We usually eat a light lunch (tortilla wraps, snacks, or stuff we pick up in parks like a turkey leg, etc.) about 80% of the time. We then eat 4 out of 10 dinners in... the other 6 dinners are PS somewhere. We like the balance of dining in / dining out. Personally, after all day at TL, I don't think my kids could MOVE to even attempt a PS anywhere! It is great letting them veg out at the villa, while we adults can sip a cold one and relax...

 

[jmminarik]

I'm the odd one in this bunch...I enjoy cooking on vacation. Of course, we're on the run most of the time so home meals are often 'quickie' type things that many people who do cook at DVC are mentioning. I like being able to make big omelettes, slowly cook bacon or sausage, saute garlic and onions and make my own tomato sauce, roast something, etc. etc.

Of course, we're also not particularly enamored of Disney dining. We have much better restaurants in Philadelphia and we eat out often enough that eating out isn't in and of itself a special occasion.

Our opinions may change once we have kids, but probably not. I don't have any time now...I can't fathom what it will be like once we have a munchkin of our own.

Finally, I doubt most short term rental facilities would have anything other than an electric range. It can be done, but its still much harder to blow up the place with electric than with gas.

-Joe

 

[TwingleMum]

Thanks for all the great replies. One of the reasons I like alot of people with very young children bought DVC was to save some $$ by cooking our own meals in a real kitchen and being able to do laundry in the villa. You can't believe the laundry two 8 month old twins generate. Yikes. Also with 3 hopefully 4 children the "regular" hotel rooms at Disney weren't a good fit. Even the deluxes where we usually stayed . Also young kids can get cranky. I know you might not have seen any cranky kids at Disney but they're there. So I think being able to wind everybody down and feed them, bath them and bed them in our own villa will be a godsend. I'll certainly have some good ideas thanks to this thread.

 

[chirona]

I didn't know there was a Publix by wdw? Where is it located at?

 

[grimgrinnin]

What's my favorite thing to make for a meal while 'home'?

Priority Seating!



grim

 

[TDC Nala]

Pop Tarts and Diet Coke...(I don't have kids, and I stay in studios.)

 

[wordzylady]

We also take a crock pot with us and make roast with gravy for one supper meal -- just throw the stuff in before leaving in the morning and it's ready when we are at night. We eat breakfast most every morning in -- Sam Club's muffins usually. We plan a couple meals out for supper and usually a couple for lunch and eat the rest in. We try to start out with a meal plan but it usually gets altered and we just try to go with the flow of vacation. We hit Sams when we get there and fill our villa with snacks and easy grab things.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

We also have had really good experiences ordering pizza from both Pizza Hut and Giordano's.

My husband and son ate at Giodano's in July (I was busy pin trading ) and they said it was really, really, really good and that it definitely takes 3-4 people to finish off one of their pizzas. We will definitely be giving this a try in the near future.

 

[SamR]

My husband and son ate at Giodano's ... it definitely takes 3-4 people to finish off one of their pizzas.

Yes! A couple of slices of their stuffed pizza "stuffed" me! (And I have a pretty big appetite.)

Their thin crust pizza isn't bad either. I've been known to order one of each, a stuffed one for my wife and myself, and a thin crust one for the kids (which they prefer). As a bonus we then have leftovers to heat up in the oven (or what some refer to as the "decoration" next to the refrigerator) the next day!

If you want to look over their menu beforehand, you can view it at Giordano's web site.

Enjoy!

 

[Disney Doll]

How we cook in the villa depends on the people we have with us.

If it's DH and I alone, we ususlly do an easy breakfast thing(yogurt,fruit,English muffines,sometimes a breakfast sandwich). If we have people travellign with us, DH will usually do a breakfast sandwich type thing every morning.

We never have lunch in the room, as we are usually at a park or near the pool, so we buy or just "graze". We've never done supper in the room, although I wouldn't be adverse to it, as long as it was a fairly easy dish. DH does all the cooking,however, and he tends to go a little overboard at times. I don't know how much he'd enjoy a bowl of pasta with a jar of sauce over it...he goes the "make your own sauce" route at home.

Once when there was a big group of us at WDW(17 I think), we ordered pizza in for dinner, which was fun.

 

[SamR]

I didn't know there was a Publix by wdw? Where is it located at?

Chirona, I don't think anyone ever answered this question, so I will jump in. There are several Publix stores in the WDW area. Which one works best for you probably depends on where you are staying at WDW. Since we are usually at the BCV, we find it most convenient to go to one on 192:

• Get on World Drive and take it to 192
• Go west on 192
• Right after you get through the main part of the "sprawl", Publix will be on the right.

If you are more on the Hotel Plaza end of the World, I am told that you can get to another one by:

• Going out through the Hotel Plaza.
• Turn right at the Crossroads shopping center entrance (that is, at the light at the end of the Hotel Plaza).
• Go under I-4 and turn left on Vineland.
• Go past the outlets...Publix will be on the left where Vineland curves to meet International Drive.

There are at least a couple of others within reasonable driving distance of WDW, but those are two of the more convenient choices.

Happy Shopping!

 

[chirona]

Sam, thank you I stay at okw so I will go to the one by hotel plaza
when I return I can't wait.