Stressed about self-catering. Recipe ideas please!

[Zampa]

Going away to France and have self-catering accommodation. We normally travel to All-Inclusive hotels with amazing buffets where everyone pleases themselves so I'm getting v anxious about feeding everyone something they like in the evenings (and eating out every night seems excessive).

Please can you help me with some dinner ideas for 3 children (fairly flexible but still kids), DH (vegetarian but I can cook him a big ratatouille and he'll eat that happily, all week), my Dad (no garlic, no vinegar, but quite cosmopolitan apart from that!) and me!

Spanish omelette? Steak (with a cauli one for DH)?

TIA

I agree re supermarkets for prepared stuff. If there is a market nearby u could use this too. Lovely salads, cheeses and cold meats for lunch. Take it in turns to cook.

Having done many years of self-catering, and dh used to go for complicated meals that we either ended up coming home early or eating far too late (tbf he almost always cooked them) we have standard easyfare now.

Day 1 is normally Pizza/garlic bread. Simple, easy and doesn't take long.
Then if we have an oven that can be set on timer or a day when we'll be reasonably early back, we do stuffed potatoes (baked potatoes in oven. Take potato out of skin, mix with chopped sausage, onion and grated cheese, put under grill if you have one). That's our most complicated meal now.

Bacon and eggs we have as a spare meal, because it will survive being taken home again, or we can have it for breakfast on the last couple of days. It's also useful for anyone to make their own meal if they don't like/fancy what is being cooked that evening.

Then we buy something like the following ready made
Pie
Lasagne
Quiche
Sweet and sour chicken
Chicken Kyivs/ chicken dippers with (often bought) chips

And we'll eat out one day.

They're easy meals without either a lot of washing up or prep time. Win all round.

Have you a nice sitting out area? It's still easier sorting something to eat outside with wine than going out to eat if you're in rural France.

In france we do a mix of eating out and cooking. Buying a French stick everyday and loads of cheeses and meats...we do simple pasta or risottos and also bbQ with the kids and exciting French crisps. Also the pastry's and cakes yum. I'm jealous we are going AI for the first time this year and I'm worried about authenticity.

Love French supermarkets...also look for their foodmarkets.
Sometimes we eat out at lunch then graze in the evenings with lovely wine as well.

We always alternate between eating out, getting takeaway and "cooking". The latter involves finding something lovely from the market or the local supermarket - could be quiche, or something to BBQ or seafood etc. With salad and bread and nice butter. To me it's part of the fun. Fussy kids? Make them simple pasta and crack on. Love a nice Hachis Parmentier au canard.

We eat out pretty much every day. Dinner or lunch, then the other meal is always baguette with stuff from fridge - cheese, hams, toms, sometimes tuna, maybe a melon, crisps, etc. all piled in the middle of the table. We get a takeaway once or twice too - rotisserie chicken mainly but sometimes pizza, takeaway paella if in that part of France.

Very simple, no work involved!

This is my suggestion: pretty quick, healthy, cheap, 1 pan, and can pair with a salad, some nice bread, cheese etc. Ingredients easy to find, although you may have to choose a different type of beans depending on availability. You can try different veg (e.g. courgettes and aubergines also work). Take the spices with you from home premixed in a small pot.

https://www.themediterraneandish.com/white-bean-shakshuka/

Meat eaters could have with some kind of meat on the side. My kids (3 and 6) happily eat this.

Yes, we're right on the river so can gaze at the water when we're not gazing into the bottom of a wine glass.

Much happier about the food situation now. Thanks again!

Recipetineats has an incredible crispy oven baked quesadillas recipe. Can be easily adapted for a vegetarian, quick to make, nutritious and relatively cheap too. A hot with kids. www.recipetineats.com/crispy-oven-baked-quesadillas/