We had a wonderful time on our beach vacation. It would be have been great to eat at a restaurant for every meal to avoid the dishes and effort. However, that is totally unrealistic.
Number 1: We couldn’t afford it.
Number 2: Eating at a restaurant with a toddler just isn’t as relaxing as it should be. 🙂
I told myself that I was going to be super organized for this vacation and have meals ready to go weeks in advance. That didn’t happen. I literally decided on a meal plan two days before vacation and shopped for & prepared the food the day before we left. Amazingly, it wasn’t that hard.
What We (2 adults & 1 toddler) Ate on Vacation
Day One:
- Breakfast: cereal at home
- Lunch: clean-out-the-fridge leftovers at home & then we hit the road!
- Supper: ravioli lasagna, garlic bread & mixed veggies
Day Two:
- Breakfast: I made one pan of baked oatmeal that we ate the whole week with milk and brown sugar. I also brought along cereal.
- Lunch: sloppy joes, carrots & chips – I cheated. My mom actually made the sloppy joes and had stuck them in my freezer.
- Supper: honey mustard baked chicken over rice and green beans
Day Three:
- Breakfast: baked oatmeal/cereal
- Lunch: leftovers
- Supper: restaurant – I was sadly disappointed in my food and don’t even want to share the picture I took. Yes, it was that bad. Boo.
Day Four:
- Breakfast: restaurant – This food was much better than the place we went to for supper. So good that I completely forgot to take a picture first.
- Lunch: Since we had a large breakfast, we had a snacky type lunch. I ate chips & salsa.
- Supper: chicken fried rice – This was the only meal that I didn’t prepare ahead of time. It was still really fast and easy.
Day Five:
- Breakfast: baked oatmeal/cereal
- Lunch: clean-out-the-fridge leftovers – It wasn’t very exciting, but it got the job done and then we started our drive home.
- Supper: pizza – I was proud of myself to plan ahead for that awful moment when we got home hungry and realized we had nothing in the house to eat. We picked up a pizza on our way home.
I’m so glad I took the time to meal plan and do some food prep before my vacation (even if it was just the day before). Our meals were relaxed and affordable.
Disclosure: We did eat fruit on this vacation. Honest! For some reason it just never made it in the pictures!
For more vacation meal planning inspiration, check out what we ate on vacation in 2013.
How do you handle meals while on vacation?
This post is being linked to Organizing Junkie’s Menu Planning Monday.
Sounds great! I am TOTALLY with you on the the vacation meals with money and kids! Why fork over the money to wrestle your kids in public?
I’ve prepped our meals the last few vacations we took… LOVED it!!! I actually prep our dinners every week on Sunday, so it was kind of par for the course, ha!
Renee, I should get into the habit of doing weekly meal prep, but that just hasn’t been happening. 🙁
Not sure if you saw this but I wrote a cottage edition Menu Plan Monday post back in July! Take a look here:
http://www.manager-to-mom.com/2011/07/menu-plan-monday-cottage-edition.html
Definitely helps to plan ahead while on vacay!
I just looked at your post and that menu sounds awesome! I want to go on vacation with you next time! 🙂
Hello, I am dropping by from the link up party for Relevant today.
I like this post about frugality on vacation. Great blog.
So nice to meet you.
-Amanda
Thanks for stopping by, Amanda! I look forward to meeting you in October.
Ravoli lasagna sounds really delicious. I will have to make this some night for my family.
Jackie, it is so good and SUPER easy! I hope you like it.
On your vacation meal planning post, you listed chicken fried rice for day 4 supper. Would you please post the recipe. It sound great!!
We eat a lot of rice since we are Gluten Free. Thanks
Thanks for the post suggestion, Brenda. I’ll have to do that!
Do you happen to have the More with Less cookbook? That is where I found the recipe.
Brenda, I have good news for you! I’ve added my homemade chicken fried rice recipe to my blog. You can find it here: https://simplyrebekah.com/2014/04/07/homemade-chicken-fried-rice/
Your comment has been in the back of my mind for months and I wanted to be sure I got it to you. Sorry it took me so long.
This is FANTASTIC idea. I love love love it. makes it way more relaxing. You inspire me