Fast & Easy Vacation Meal Planning

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.