Taking food (already prepared dishes) on vacation

[seekingsimplicity]

What types of make-ahead dishes do you like to make and take with you on vacation when/if you have a kitchen and plan to eat meals in your place for a large part of the time?

Since I don't really like to spend a lot of time on vacation cooking in someone else's kitchen and don't want to eat out every meal I would like to make some things ahead and take them since I have time before we leave.

I was thinking a breakfast casserole, pasta salad, potato salad,egg salad (?) but after that I am stumped.

It seems like stuff you can grab and go will be handy and also stuff that works when not everyone is eating at the same time during the day. (My 3 teens sleep late). We usually always eat dinner together but sometimes during the day we are all doing different things.

Thank you for your help!

[ctg492]

I do not eat meat, but remember Walking Tacos on the kids 4H trips. I thought that was pretty neat. The contents are pre-cooked and put in zip lock bags, taking out what is needed to make each Taco. No mess to clean up on the vacation. I think pretty much anything could be put in place of the Taco mix.

[Rosemary]

I feel really crummy when I don't have enough produce in my diet. I like to prep veggies ahead of time and pack a cooler full. I'll also take some cooked legumes, fruit, and nuts so I can add them to salads. For breakfast, homemade granola, fruit, and nuts.

[Blackdog Lin]

Okay, I'm thinking of (remembering the times of) feeding 3 hungry teens, trying to stay out of restaurants/fast-food places. Putting myself in the situation, I'd:

- make a container of egg salad, and have loaf of bread. Brunch/lunch days one or two.
- make a container of tuna salad, and have loaf of bread. Brunch/lunch days one or two.
- hamburger buns and cheese slices. With these, I could make toasted tuna melts for dinner, served with chips, to use up any tuna salad not eaten.
- either a large ziplock of prepared veggies (and a bottle of ranch dressing), or easily-portable fruit, like apples/bananas, depending on what the family prefers. To go with lunch/brunch, and leftovers go to dinner.
- take my spaghetti casserole, frozen in the ice chest. It would end up thawed, but could be eaten night one or two. There's bread around somewhere to make garlic toast.
- a large ziplock of cooked ground beef. Depending on what I could pick up at local groceries, there's a wealth of dinners that could be imagined, depending on how the day has gone/how much energy I have/ how much time I have..... sloppy joes, tacos, goulash, nachos, burritos, spaghetti, biscuits-n-gravy.

I am wishing you a wonderful vacation. Even if you have to take three teenagers with you.....

[smarch]

We are leaving for vacation on Saturday and will be gone a week. I made and froze two different dishes to take along. I make these two every year from request from my family- Beef Barley Soup and Barbeque Pork for sandwiches. Last year I made Crockpot Black Bean Chicken while on vacation. It is so easy to make that I didn't mind making it there. You basically open up cans and dump in crockpot and throw some chicken on top- thawed or frozen. I did that in the morning, and then I just left it cook all day while we went out. Everyone loves it and I plan to do that again this year. Another quick thing I did on vacation was open some cans of tuna and mix up some mayonnaise with it. That was lunch the one day. Lunch can also be leftovers. I try to have some veggies to snack on or eat with a sandwich. We usually buy some Nissan noodle soups to have for lunch. Oh, I also made Honey Granola Bars to take along. Tomorrow I plan to make Breakfast Bars and Soft Molasses Cookies to take. We are a family of five and two extra people are coming along (friends of our children). My mother-in-law and her husband are down in that area right now and we will be visiting with them too. They have a bunch of hamburgers in their freezer they want to use up. So one night we will be eating burgers with them.