Remote holiday cottage - no proper cooking facilities! Tips?

[TipsyAndTommy]

So this is possibly something I should have checked sooner, but here we are!! Leave on Sunday.

So we have a toaster, kettle, microwave and fire pit. 4 nights, 2 adults 2 kids.

Will possibly venture out to a restaurant one night, but about 30 mins drive each way and we wanted to avoid driving etc hence the remoteness, but also assumed full kitchen.

It'll be an adventure I suppose, but any tips beyond beans and toast welcome!

I cant believe people are suggesting packet or pot noodles!!!

Buy an air fryer and take it with you! Also very useful as home so not a waste.

Order a big Remoska from Amazon and send it back when the holiday is over? Great for baked spuds, reheating ready meals ,Spanish omelettes, roasted veg lots of things you could take with you..

Get a camping stove! DP's been without a kitchen for a few weeks and managed with a camping stove and microwave in his spare room.

What's your plan for the daytime? If you're going to be nearer civilisation either have a meal out then at lunch or buy nice ready meals each day that you can microwave. I don't blame you for assuming it would have a proper kitchen - very strange that it doesn't!

Would also agree with a PP suggestion of disposable BBQ - we tried to cook on a firepit recently and it was pretty unpredictable.

Definitely buy an air fryer. You’ll use it at home afterwards as well.

Either a George Forman grill or a camp stove will open up a load if options.

That’s rather naughty advice. Amazon is a shop to buy goods, not hiring goods.

When you are in the town, I'd get a take-away- chinese, Indian etc for dinner and any leftovers go in the fridge for breakast.

A camping stove

A electric frypan

Take an old frying pan for the firepit and see what you can cook on it. If no good, use those throw away BBQ's.

I’m assuming that the lack of cooker and proper fridge is because it’s off-grid, maybe relying on solar, which will only support what’s already there, so no point taking extra electrical stuff.

I reckon she'll want to keep it...

Potatoes in foil for the fire pit
Take hot water for a pot noodle. Then snack snack snack.

olives, salamis, cheese board, nice bread and dips. Wine! Perfect dinner in my house!
I’d live on this quite happily. Also I’d enjoy the not cooking tbh. Don’t stress over it and enjoy the reason you’re going there..for the remote living.

I live remotely and cooking is last on my priorities. The great outdoors comes first.

Have a great time

I’ve done a full holiday with nothing but a fire pit and never felt deprived on food. It was camping though so it was expected. It’s easy to do hamburgers, hotdogs, baked potatoes, pancakes, scrambled eggs and all sorts of things over a fire. If you have a grate, some decent rocks, and a frying pan you are good to go.

another easy thing is to freeze meals and pack them into an icebox. Soups and stews are especially easy to do over the fire. We did a lasagna once. Just put it in a disposable foil pan and make a lid with several layers of aluminum foil.

I would eat breakfast at the cottage everyday, eat lunch "on the go" and buy dinner everyday to take home with you so you don't overfill the fridge.

Couscous with veg and some nice bread and butter, or microwave rice.
French bread with cheese, meat, olives and those mini tapas things etc.
Jacket potatoes can be done in the microwave, so can toppings like beans, tuna etc - you can buy them ready cooked too so they'll only take ten minutes.
Kids could have microwave pizza and chips as a "treat" depending on their ages.

There's loads you can do with that equipment, you'll just need to plan in advance if there isn't a proper fridge. I'd also buy long-life milk that can sit in a cupboard as those mini fridges often don't keep things properly cold and you don't want lumpy milk in your tea

I’d not be keen on this for more than a couple of days but I’m known for taking bags of cooking equipment and recipes on holiday. If you do batch cook a couple of big stews and freeze them they should last a good few days if very well insulated (cool box ideally, then you can use for other bits if the fridge is tiny - we have one that plugs in to the car so when we drive it actively cools it). Otherwise I’d go baked potatoes/beans/tuna mayo nice crusty bread with tinned soup, hot dogs in rolls - and loads of nibbles.

There are also lots of supermarket meal kits (pho / laksa / thai curry / fajita) type kits that could be nice with meat and veg cooked on the firepit / a bbq.

How did this happen? I'd expect this to be very clearly highlighted in the details for the accommodation.

Will you be able to cook meat, baked potatoes etc in the fire pit? Do they provide instructions on how to do it for the unfamiliar?

I'd do a combination of eating out, take away picked up on the way back from days out if possible, microwaving batch cooking, ready meals or scrambled eggs beans and toast plus the fire pit if you can get it to work.

Or can you take a portable BBQ? Ask around to borrow one if you don't already have one?

Slow cooker and a lot of salads. Sandwich toaster?

Waitrose do lovely Indian / ready meals …..
id just buy those save the hassle and use the microwave ….
fun stuff for the kids on the fire pit but at least you have a safe /back up option of food 👍

Take toaster pockets so you can do cheese toasties, I always bulk mine out with mushrooms, onion, tomato etc

To all the posters saying that this or order that, they are already there, for just two nights if I've read the OP correctly.

DH and I would happily live on sandwiches or toast plus some nice salad. I've never really felt the need to have a cooked meal every day.

The location sounds great. I'd rather spend time exploring than faffing about with food.

A camping stove with little gas bottle is the way to go. Just 2 rings but that's enough. Pasta on one ring spag bol on the other. Jacket potato started in microwave then in foil on fire pit to finish. Baked beans on top heated on ring. Take a little fry pan and can cook sausages and eggs. Omelette with grated cheese. Lots of fruit and cereals us cheese and crackers. Cake for desert. You can do it.

What BBQ tools are there? Is it literally just a hole in the ground or is there a grill or hanging tripod?

We literally cook about 3 dinners a week on our fire pit. There’s so much you can do. Even if no equipment, you can get some simple metal skewers to do chicken kebabs, sausages, hot dogs. If you have a grill to go over, the options are endless. We do whole chickens on ourselves. Anything you can do in the oven you can do over a fire pit. Jack potatoes wrapped in foil sitting in coals are also good.

if the weather isn’t great one night, ready meals in microwave and cheese/cold meats with hummus and bread/crackers.

How old are your dc? This is completely doable if you release your inner Girl Guide/Scout !
If the dc are old enough to join in you can make the outdoor cooking half the adventure! From simple stuff like sausages on sticks and s'mores, baked potatoes cooked in the coals to full dinners. do you have a frying pan you don't mind getting wrecked? You can use it as a griddle and cook anything that way, or if you have a dutch oven you can do stews and bakes.

I'm quite envious tbh!

Thanks so much everyone for all your great suggestions! We will make it work!

We wanted to do something different that the kids would love - and it was a step up from camping in my eyes- so we are just going to fully embrace it and make the most of it.

We're remote, but there's great walks and wildlife and lots of biking tracks (the main pull for us for the kids) and a river. They will have a blast and will not care what we eat. They will be dirty, tired and happy. So I just need to get into that mindset too and enjoy their enjoyment (while eating crisps!!)
If the worst comes to it we will take it in turns to do an hour round trip for takeaway.

We have a break in the sun later in the summer, so I might have to keep that in mind over the 4 days.

Thanks for all the great suggestions when I was mildly panicked last night