I can get as worked up as the next person about how a vacation isn’t really a vacation if mama still has to cook.
But I also see our vacation budget and get worked up over how I’d rather get away and have to cook than stay home and cook anyway.
We especially love the totally free getaway we have in my parents’ lakehouse, and try to go there at least once a year. I’ve developed a basic meal strategy that allows me to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible while I’m supposed to be vacationing, and also feed my family.
Things to Consider About Vacation Meal Planning (Or . . . What’s Important to Dana When Meal Planning for a Vacation Rental)
I struggle with the whole “using/following a recipe” thing on any day of the year, so on vacation I don’t even try. These ideas are all ideas. Not recipes. The goal is to throw “this” and “that” into a crockpot or onto the stove and have dinner done with little effort and minimal mess.
Pre-cooked-at-home meats are key. I generally stay away from bringing raw meats on a trip because they require much more effort, attention and time when cooking, but also because they can be messy in the cooler. No matter how much I trust their packaging, I don’t want my bag of grated cheese sitting next to raw chicken for hours in the ice chest.
I also just feel better about already-cooked meats being in the ice chest for longer than I’m willing to leave raw meats in there. If we make an unplanned stop along our way, I’m not worried about our food being in the cooler for an extra hour.
I like to bring things that work well in the slow cooker OR on the stove. I can’t guarantee I’ll remember to start the crock pot before leaving for whatever fun thing we’re going to do that day.
We grab a good-sized bag of salad and some other veggies that either cook fast or don’t need to be cooked so we can add them to every meal.
It’s worth packing a crockpot if the place where you’re staying doesn’t have one.
Our Favorite Easy Meals for a Vacation When I Have to Cook
- Chili pie
Pre-cooked ground beef (still frozen) goes into the crockpot with a packet of chili seasoning and some other canned goods. (FYI, a jar of spaghetti sauce works if you forget the tomato sauce . . . ) Serve over corn chips and sprinkle with cheese. This is great to leave in the crock pot all day or quick to make on the stove.
2. Frozen meatballs in spaghetti sauce
The “name” of this “meal” pretty much tells you everything you need to know. Throw homemade or store bought frozen meatballs into the crock pot with a large jar of spaghetti sauce. All day on low or four hours on high, and you have a meal at dinnertime. Making the pasta is the only other thing to do, or just eat it without pasta like we do.
You could also get some sub rolls and shredded mozzarella for meatball subs.
3. Smoked sausage in barbecue sauce
Sometimes we cut up large sausage links and sometimes we use the mini smoked sausages like it’s a party. It’s a vacation, which is basically a party.
4. Some version of lasagna
There’s two hour crockpot lasagna (recipe here) and skillet lasagna (recipe here). Those two recipes use the same ingredients so you can decide at the last minute which works best for your day. We’re also a big fan (when it isn’t so crazy hot we’re avoiding the oven) of getting a frozen lasagna from the store. Everyone loves them and they’re basically zero work. Just pay attention to how long they take to cook to see if they’ll work within your day.
5. Pizza
I buy the pre-made pizza crusts at Costco or Aldi. They don’t have to be refrigerated and come with small packets of pizza sauce. We bring pepperoni, black olives, and shredded mozzarella for a super-easy, always-successful meal. This isn’t a crockpot recipe, obviously, but it’s a fun activity making fun food and cooks quickly in the oven. It’s also nice that the only ingredient in the meal that has to be kept cool while traveling is the mozzarella.
6. Sausage and Potatoes
You can do this in the crock pot or in the oven. In the crock pot, just mix a package of frozen hashbrowns with sliced smoked sausage and cook on high for four hours. In the oven, dump the frozen hashbrowns on the bottom of the cookie sheet (use one with an edge so any juices are caught and don’t run into the oven) and cover with slices of smoked sausage. Cook at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. My family loves this. I use the extra wide foil to cover the cookie sheet, and this means there is NO cleanup. So yay for that.
These are our go to meals for vacations-with-a-kitchen. There are so many other options depending on what you already have in your freezer, but these are the easiest for us. Many of my super-fast-and-easy recipes would also work, as would some of my freezer meals.
What are your favorite meals to make on vacation?
--Nony
We love sausage pieces (or little smokies) in a melted BBQ sauce/grape jelly mixture (1:1 ratio of sauce to jelly). It can be put in a crockpot or cooked on the stove. We like to serve it with rice. Delicious! Thanks for the other ideas! We are going to have to try the one with hash browns and sausage.
Fabulous post! I would like to add a meal that you can have even without a kitchen!: rotisserie chicken, fancy bakery bread, butter, and microwave-steamed veggies. It’s my go-to if I don’t have time to cook, and a great option to take a last-minute meal to a friend. Grab some cheese and condiments while you’re already at at the grocery store and you can make awesome chicken sandwiches the next day for a free lunch! I guess you’d have to make sure and pack or buy a sharp knife to make that easier, but hotels can usually provide plates and silverware if needed. Larger groups would need 2 chickens, but still cheaper than a restaurant!
I found your blog a few weeks ago and immediately bought your book. Thank you for letting me know I’m not alone. I can’t thank you enough. I’m surrounded by these other moms with perfect households and although that is my desire, I realize it’s never going to happen. 🙁
But I’m going to keep listening to the podcast, slowly clean up my mess, and focus on the things I’m good at.
Thank you, again!
It’s been less than a year since I discovered Dana’s books at the library. I know that I have an advantage because we are retired, but we live on 5 acres which keeps us busy with outside work, are active at church, BSF, do our best to walk and/or bike daily, and volunteer at the local state park regularly. All this to say that my house is ready for someone to walk in the door 90% of the time now. A friend (who hadn’t been over since Covid) stopped by last week and her first comment was, “Wow, you’ve been cleaning!” No, actually–I had just been doing the dailies semi-regularly and gotten rid of a number of things we didn’t need.
Building those new habits one at a time is all it took for this old dog to learn some great new tricks–just do it regularly once you start a habit! No massive projects allowed!!
We used to spend a week at a lake every year when the kids were growing up. I made several main meals ahead and transported them frozen — meat loaf, spaghetti sauce, a favorite chicken dish…and planned hamburgers and hotdogs one night each. I kept my cooking list, packing lists and shopping list from year to year. In this instance, at least, I was pretty organized!
I’m currently living with my daughter’s family of five. I think I’ll try the sausage and potato recipe here at home!
One of my favorite quick crock pot recipes that does not require refrigeration for anything except cheese is chicken tortilla soup. I use canned chicken, but precooked chicken would work well here too. Can of corn, can of beans, can of rotel, can of diced tomatoes, 2 cans chicken broth. Spices: cumin, garlic, and chili powder. Serve with sliced strips of corn tortillas, or crushed corn chips and cheese. It only needs to heat, so about 2.5 hours in the crock pot on high is usually enough. Now I use my Instant Pot and it takes 30 mintes!
I do something very similar but frozen chicken works fine cooked all day!
These are great ideas. Thank you! Sometimes I’ll make a lasagna ahead and freeze it, then just bring it along and thaw and bake when we’re ready for it. Another idea is to pick up rotisserie chicken, bagged salad, and bread at a grocery store.
I try to do some sort of freezer cooking prior to a vacation, so most everything is cooked and ready and needs reheating only, or a quick assembling. I went away last week for a visit with my cousin, sister, and my two kiddos. I had cooked chicken with beans and corn and onions and salsa and mexican spices, frozen in a qt baggie. I also had pre-made enchilada sauce, so I rolled up enchiladas and baked them. Sometimes I am lazy…..and make it more of a caserole….layering the sauce, tortillas, meat, and cheese like one would layer a lasagna! Or we could’ve had chicken tacos, quesasillas, or used the meat for nachos. Easy-peasy! I had a pre-assembled, frozen meatloaf (thaw and cook), and pre-made/frozen mashed potatoes (thaw, add milk, microwave). I opened 2 cans of green beans, added onions, bacon fat, s&p, and a touch of vinegar….and let them cook. They were the “hardest” part of the meal. I can’t remember the other frozen meal….but they just made the vacation FEEL like a vacation! (I’d spent the few weeks prior making sure that hubby had small meals frozen, too, so he didn’t have to eat sandwiches the whole time we were gone, lol! It wasn’t hard….when we had leftovers, I put them into containers for him.)
For CAMPing, I love taking pre cooked chicken and a couple onions and green peppers, and making quesadillas! So yummy and easy….and oh, the campsite smells amazing! Lol!
Great ideas! Thanks!
I make an enchilada casserole, too! I also make waffles and pancakes ahead of time and take them frozen, as well as, a baked ziti. The rest of the time, we grill steaks, sausage, and anything that grills up quickly. Thank you for the post and additional ideas.
Roast a large chicken (or 2), or turkey on first day. Can travel frozen keeping other stuff cold. Use white meat for sandwiches or salad, or if dry make chicken salad with mayo) use dark meat, carcass and pan drippings for soup (will cook longer) Crock pot works for this. My kids have ramen noodles with homemade broth, so we just jar the broth instead of making a large batch of soup. Great for those who get a cold after traveling.
I would fix each one of these, they look fantastic. But one person in my family can no longer eat anything acidic, like tomatoes. The one with sausage, though, is going in my recipe book. Thank you!!!
We have a 2 burner camp stove and a large cast iron skillet that’s so well seasoned it’s non stick. For camping or vacation, I’ve made all these below:
-Breakfast burritos with keilbasa sausage and veggies
-Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, omelets
-Pancakes with bananas, strawberries or blueberries. Forgot the syrup once and just put extra sugar on top and flipped a few times and browned it to make it a sweet crispy crust.
-Hamburger or tuna helper with veggies
-Sausage with home fried potatoes and bell peppers
-Chicken curry, potatoes and carrots using Japanese Curry cubes or cans of ArroyD Thai curry
-Zataran box mix chicken and sausage jambalaya or gumbo with frozen okra
-Skillet corn bread (bottom got burnt, so be careful)
-Skillet brownies, Skillet chocolate chip cookies
-Used store bought Greek pita bread and pasta sauce for pizzas or zatar and feta cheese pitas
I also love instant mashed potatoes, gravy from a jar or mix, and frozen meatballs heated through.
Love the idea of sausage and potatoes! Being from Wisconsin though, I’d add some shredded cheddar cheese on top.
Jiffy mixes, in the small blue and white boxes. Great for quick breakfasts and snacks. We also buy the mini boxes of cereal. The kids love them and they are the only time I buy them.
Great list!
One of our easiest meals is “Alfredo Balls.” You basically dump frozen meatball into a casserole dish, cover in Alfredo sauce, and sprinkle with grated Parmesan and/or mozzarella. Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly and hot. Sometimes we cook noodles, but most of the time we just eat this with a salad. A great low carb meal…and yummy!!!
we started bringing a crockpot with us and a decent frying pan! we like to do roast potatoes and carrots. toss it in the morning, ready to go whenever we get home. we also have things for breakfast, eggs, toast, muffins,etc. the more trips we take the more food we buy before we go!
Thank you Dana! We eat some of these already and will happily eat all the others, too. I also appreciate the meals mentioned in the comments — thank you, everyone! Genius ideas for camping meals since we use the Dutch oven whenever there’s not a fire burn ban, or the propane stove and a regular pot. Cynthia — yep, those tiny “cereal cups” are big treats for overnights with Grandma and Grandpa (that’s us!) 🙂
Baked French Toast 😋!
We had a family reunion several years ago & rented a lake house.
Each of us took turns with our spouse making a meal.
I picked up some day old French bread 🥖, soaked it all day in the fridge in a mixture of eggs, milk & cinnamon, poured into a large casserole dotted with butter & sprinkled with brown sugar. Baked it & it didn’t even need syrup. All of my sister in laws were asking for the recipe & I laughed 😅cuz I told them just like I told you. It was just kinda thrown together ❤& it was a huge success!
Another thing I did this last month that is so stinking simple was a Baked family sized pancake ! This is how this happened: I had promised my kids I would make pancakes for dinner one night that week. However, every night I was too tired.
Saturday night rolled around & I was reminded of my promise! The mere idea of standing at the stove flipping pancakes for 5 did not appeal to me at the end of a busy day/week but..I had promised so I made the pancake mix that only requires water. Reaching down for my frying pan, I saw my huge sheet pan, basically a monster size cookie sheet with small edges. I grabbed it & poured the batter in & sprinkled with some pecans. You could use chocolate chips or butterscotch ones or whatever yumminess you have on hand! I think I Baked it for 30min at 350° while I relaxed with my feet up. The kids asked me when I was going to make supper & I said I was. The timer went off & I drizzled butter pecan syrup on & cut in squares. Both hubby & kids said I should do it like that every time!
Another quick meal is to put canned biscuits in a waffle machine top with pizza sauce,toppings & cheese & top with more biscuits 😋or you can even use bread or actual waffles