Heading to wdw June next year from aus and will have an offsite condo. Looking forward to doing a USA grocery shop and wondering what some classic meals are you like to prepare when you’re on holidays? Want to try some new things! (We’ll dine out too so restaurant recs also welcome.
I tend to stick with simple meals while we are on vacation. Things that take little prep, can feed a lot of people, & can be cooked in the crock pot. Pork BBQ (pork loin & BBQ sauce in crock pot for 8 hours), chicken & Italian dressing (crock pot for hours), things like that so I don’t have to spend a lot of time prepping, can set it in the morning and it’s ready to go when we get back. For breakfast we like egg sandwiches, pancakes, and french toast.
I always have to do Crystal Palace on our first morning, and Chef Mickeys on our last morning. cry both times.
We are from the UK and love going to Walmart or similar, over here we love TGI Fridays and you can buy some of the stuff from Walmart.
I will be honest I tend to do snacky things, when we holiday in the UK we go self catering and I tend to cook every meal because of the costs, but when we go to WDW we eat out nearly every meal.
If you haven’t been to Scifi diner that’s a good one to go to for the experience.
Hope this helps,
Thanks @Armadillo_Alert and @Ajmills
Will check out those restaurant recs too. Yes we usually dine out when away, and I for one could do it every night, a break from cooking is always welcome! However this trip will be in the USA for a month (19 nights in Orlando) so we’ll need to do some home meals too.
Those crock pot meals sound delicious!
We go for slow cooker as well: drumsticks coated ina little flour and herbs come out like ied chicken after 8 hours. Ziti, two jars of sauce and a bag fo shredded cheeses becomes crunchy baked ziti. Easy to buy at the store on vacation, no lefovers to deal with.
thanks @AFERoss sounds good! so do most of the condos have a crockpot/slow cooker etc in the kitchen?
I know that wouldn’t be a standard inclusion here. Looking at Wyndham Bonnet Creek in particular.
For me, cooking and vacation do not belong in the same sentence. Dining out is a major aspect of any vacation (visiting relatives does not qualify as a “vacation”) for me, so cooking and doing dishes on vacation just doesn’t register in my mind. A substantial food budget is always part of my planning, and if I can’t aford it, I wait until I can. For my upcoming 7 day trip, the food budget for DW and I is actually larger than our hotel and tickets combined…
Since you’re talking slow cooker here’s one of my favorites. We usually double the sesame oil and vinegar and leave out the onions and bell peppers lol.
It is not standard to find a crock pot in your room, however, they are very inexpensive and you could easily pick one up for the duration of your stay. Because you’ll be so tired in the evenings it’s a great choice so that dinner is ready and waiting for you when you get home.
Also there is a world market a few miles away in Winter Garden in case you want some things from home. Things like HP sauce or certain brands of tea.
I’m usually the same @bswan26 7-14 days away - line up the restaurants and I’m there! This trip we are away for a month - I just don’t think its feasible for us to eat out every day for that amount of time. Enjoy yours be sure to pass on your fave recs.
Thanks @Outer1 yum!
Spaghetti with meat sauce is soooo easy to make & we all love it. It was dinner tonight, as a matter of fact.
Rotisserie chickens are awesome - most supermarkets seem to have them these days. We also love grilled cheese & tomatoes with tomato soup.
When we stayed off site with a kitchen, I did a lot of simple stuff. Boxed macaroni and cheese, eggs, pasta, sandwiches, cereal. My kids love cereal so had no problem having it for dinner. I also got a lot of snacks - yogurt, fresh fruit, granola bars, cheese. Check and see if you have a grill. A lot of houses that we have rented have grills which make cooking very easy. Burgers, hotdogs, sausage, steak, veggies!
thanks @Iheartepcot and @Lucinderella Ok great. Our kids love Rotisserie chicken (called BBQ Chicken here) so that is an easy one. I think a grill is what we call a Barbeque? Does anyone know if Wyndham Bonnet Creek has these?
I think you are right that grill = barbeque.
Another thought I had for you on food - get a couple of bags of prewashed salad mix and some simple salad fixings. After all the theme park and restaurant food, you will be craving some fresh greens. And tacos are an easy and fun meal!
I don’t cook on vacation other than open a pop tart wrapper. Its not vacation to me if I have to cook.
Kraftfoods.com is a good website for recipes with common ingredients and things that are available in pretty much every grocery story in US. Maybe browse those and make a list. they also have a one bag 5 dinners section where you use up all your ingredients in the bag during the week.