If you self cater on holidays - what sort of meals do you make?

Depends where we are and the facilities. UK we've done BBQs, picky teas, elements of ready made things like fresh pasta and a sauce, we made pork burritos once in a lodge in Cumbria.

Abroad we've done everything from just really light stuff like salads, breads, dips to BBQs and in Sicily we had a great time raiding the supermarket to do fresh pasta dishes. One of the best dishes was simply chicken, fresh red pesto, fresh pasta, cherry tomatoes and salad.

Nothing particularly complicated ever, but especially abroad we like to take advantage of the fresh produce you can't get in the UK. I think one year in Greece, we lived on pitta bread, tzatziki, salad, feta, extra virgin live oil and things like anchovies 😂 there's worse things we could be eating!

Well we do all of our exploring during the day. We are going to Norway next month and expect to walk 12-15 miles a day. After that, an early night. Horses for courses

Really really easy ones.

Microwave jacket potatoes, frozen pizzas, potato salad, ham, coleslaw, bagged salad, chicken legs (all the precooked stuff from the supermarket), microwavable pulled pork and rolls, beans on toast, filled tortellini and ready made sauce, garlic bread, bacon sandwiches.

Yes, it is.
We love cooking and spending time cooking on hols is a lovely part of it for us
Eating out in a restaurant every night is absolutely not my idea of fun.
And throwing a pizza in? I wouldnt do that here, i hate the things.
People like to do different things on hols, cooking local food from the local market and fresh fish from the catch is one of them.

I would love to sail around the Caribbean or anywhere like that but I have been sea sick on the Mersey Ferry before now.

Certainly not £150 per meal.

Last time we ate out on holiday it was around £70-£80 and that was only that price because now exh had alcohol and meat which usually accounted for around 50% of the bill

Similar prices when we went to Spain We would go to Tapas bars and pasta restaurants etc Myself and dc are vegetarian/vegan

I think if it was dc and myself (dc are adults) we would have spent around £40 per night

Easy stuff, very simple, eg tin of tomatoes, jar of tuna, pasta. A whole fish/ prawns/ sausages on the barbecue with salad. Stir fry with miso ( which I take with me) Melon with whatever the local ham is, dips with bread. A frozen pizza or in Greece a spinach pie.

I always say we should cook that simply at home but we never do!

Oh lunches, we will have lots of picky bits but also hard boil eggs and have tons of tuna on hand. We always have cooked breakfast on holiday 😂

We make a "bag" of staples we bring with us - olive oil, garlic granules, butter eg. And of course cleaning utensils etc.

We usually pick up more indulgent foods - this week we've been away and had chicken breast in sweet chilli, burgers, pork belly. We keep it quite simple as in it's either bbq or meat and veg meals rather than ambitious like lasagne!

We usually have one bbq when we are away, and one chinese take away (our bi annual!)

Presumably by not having multiple children with allergies.

We explore. Perhaps not in the same way as NewShoesForSpring though. Perhaps not in the same way as most people.

How much are you all spending eating out on holidays?!! Our kids have allergies so we generally have to find a fairly expensive pub etc to cater properly. Eating out easily costs £150 per meal these days and we just can't afford it more than once or twice on holiday.

@Katypp

the typical holiday day she describes does sound really nice though

if you don’t need to be back home in the evenings for very small children, why wouldn’t you want to go and explore??

Dh used to rarely cook - and he likes cooking so he used to plan the most complicated stuff.
Roast and 2 veg one meal
Pie from scratch
Lasagne from scratch
etc

Only thing was that he wanted me to cook half, and we'd spend half the afternoon cooking, and a certain amount of the evening washing up. We were normally missing an ingredient he'd forgotten because we'd normally have it in stock, but a holiday place wouldn't, and there were never enough/the right dishes plus the knives made cutting harder. It was stressful.

So I managed to convert him and we normally have something along the lines of:

1. Ready made lasagne
2. Pizza, possibly with garlic bread
3. Fish and chips (at least the chips bought)
4. A meal out
5. Quiche and salad
6. Stuffed potatoes (only meal with any cooking needed)

A lovely easy option is to have a selection of cooked meats, salami etc, nice breads, jars of roasted peppers and artichokes, olives, nice cheese, and sliced tomatoes with onion and balsamic. Dead easy and lovely with nice glass of red😋

Or make your own pizza with white bread mix for the base and easy toppings

Why do loads of cooking on holiday🤷‍♀️

@SheSpeaks

omg, firstly those meals you describe are not ‘basics’ and secondly do you get to do anything else on holiday other than cooking?! Holidays are for exploring not being stuck in the kitchen cooking a roast! Pare it back - throw some frozen pizza into the oven and relax, it’s your holiday too you know!

For me, being on holiday is exploring a different place and spending time with my family. I don't mind cooking while I'm there. I enjoy going to French supermarkets!

To be honest, I'd prefer to have a holiday from cooking when I'm home and stressed with school, work etc. On holiday I don't find it a chore.

It makes no difference to me. My husband cooks. Seven days a week at home and most days on self catering holidays. He likes cooking.

Breakfast - cereal, croissants, fruit

Lunch - Packed lunch/pasta and pesto

Evening meal - stir fry, wraps, salads and eat out several times.

My friend takes her slow cooker. It's chilli, curry etc. for her family

On holiday and you cook, you do that 7 days a week, that is definitely not a holiday

Just easy stuff tbh! SC in France, Italy, Greece we have done a mixture of eating out plus bread, cheeses, meats, crisps, fruit, yoghurt etc. for the other meal and then if cooking in, pizza, burgers, BBQs, sausages, roast veg, pasta dishes, salads, etc. Even SC in the UK I wouldn't bother with anything labour intensive.

This feels weirdly like a “my holidays are superior to your holidays” post from the OP (though I agree @SheSpeaks’a sounds madly OTT).

We mainly holiday in the UK, self catering cottages in the middle of nowhere. So often there isn’t really much eating out choice.

But DH isn’t really into food and DD has always been quite fussy, and both are veggie (though DD not so much these days) so it’s been easier to cook in, but I keep it pretty simple - fresh pasta sauces, JPs, pizza. We eat out more at lunchtime while we’re out and about, and might hit the pub a couple of times in a week.

See this is what I think it’s going to be like (“always berries”). In reality it’s sometimes a chippy and a bag of Haribo 😂

We usually go self catering abroad but rarely actually cook. We’ll get cereal/pastries/bread and fruit in for breakfast. Get a simple lunch from snack bar or similar then out for dinner in the evenings.

We self cater in France every year. Lunch is baguette with ham, cheese pate etc and salad. If we are going out we take this as a picnic. Dinner is usually something that will go in the oven- pizza, quiche, lasagne, or something easy like fajitas. We do burgers and sausages or hot dogs. Both my DC are autistic and have their own requirements about food so self-catering works much better for us. We prefer to spend money on having nice, private accommodation than eating out as that is more important for our family.