How to make self catering feel like a holiday?

[bumchic]

To squeeze in two holidays this year we went away self catering at half term and will do the same in August but I found myself seething the whole time at still having to produce lunch and dinner every day. We had two lunches in cafes and two dinners in restaurants but the rest of the time was shopping and cooking. These are U.K. breaks so there’s no cheap plentiful local seafood or produce etc and just a trip round a different branch of our usual supermarket with a slightly different layout for a bit of exoticism.

Anyone any tips? Don’t want to spend our August hol feeling annoyed

slowcooker dump bags?
freeze a load, and then take them (and your slow cooker) with you

Meal plan your favourites..
Take the necessary shopping with you. Take turns cooking..
Take a bag of treats also.
And vow not to step into supermarket during the holiday.

Charlie Bigham ready meals, fish & chips, Chinese, steak from the butcher, posh deli stuff that I'd never bother getting at home. We often go away to cottages around the country and these sort of things are our staples.

Edited to add - even UK breaks can be a chance to go to the sort of nicer butchers and grocers that you wouldn't go to at home.

Cook frozen meals are as good as ready meals get IMO

Last one we did I let the kids choose a few things we wouldn't normally do.
So we had pancakes for dinner one night. Sausages for breakfast one morning.

I also do more eof the convenience food so getting ready sliced cheese, fancier muesli bars, ready made salad.

We usually do self catering, due to cost and 3 young kids who can be fussy eaters / all want to eat at different times.

Of all the things that can stress me out on holidays with young kids, having to cook and wash up isn’t really one of them.

I find it easier / less stressful than picking a restaurant everyone is happy with, at least someone not eating, and leaving feeling like we’ve just chucked money down the drain.

If it’s in the UK I tend to arrange a supermarket delivery to arrive just after we do.

I get easy stuff that I know people will eat. Lots of snacky things so people can eat as and when. Lots of nice breakfast stuff, so a few different cereals, Greek yoghurt, lots of fruit, lots of nice pastries.

Tiger bread and some nice soup for lunch. You can get tje nice chilled ones as opposed to canned.

we then have a few dinners out, but for dinners at home just oven pizzas, bolognese (sometimes take my own from home and just reheat), cold meat / salami etc, nice salad stuff.

A lot of places we stay have dishwashers, so cleaning up isn’t a problem.

Depends on your budget but when ours were younger I got a couple of meals from Dishpatch delivered for dinners, and then lunches were "picky bits" from the fancy local farm shop or deli, or the kids could make sandwiches for themselves.

One holiday we bought a load of frozen cornish pasties from a local farm shop that had the frozen section in the back and we had a couple of pasty lunches on days out or at the beach - bake in the morning, wrap in foil and bring along with a flask of tea or coffee.

Once the kids were older, we made them each responsible for one night of cooking and washing up (so each time, whoever cooked ALSO washed up because otherwise neat people like me(!) washed up as I went and left little to no washing up for them, but DH and the kids who would use every pan in the place would expect me to wash it all up). So between our family of 4, we'd each cook and wash up just one night, and then 2 nights eating out, which covered the week. I'd also go take a bath when I wasn't the one cooking so they couldn't constantly ask me for help which really meant taking over.

They also had to plan their meal and give me a shopping list, I wasn't doing that planning for them.

PS also, always bring your own knives to self catering! Makes it all so much easier.

Maximum convenience so anything you can put in the oven - fish / breaded chicken / chips / pizza / ready meals… anything that’s roughly 15 mins to cook in one oven - no pans to be washed!

Look at where you’re going and plan your activities for the day - mixture of wet weather and sunny weather options.

once you have a schedule then think about one meal in and one meal out. Do free activities

so sunny day at Stately home - picnic and then pub supper
day at museum- sandwiches and takeaway fish and chips
or day on the beach - sandwiches and then fish and chips and icecream
day out shopping at outlet - nice lunch (go for an offer) and eat in - like someone suggested a dump slow cooker meal if your organised or a shop lasagne or pizza or something if your not.
buffet supper and hot chocolate for a movie night.
on Sunday do for a roast lunch at a pub

packed lunches/picnic can be holiday things and takeaways are cheaper than restaurants- and can be treat. lazy day with lie in do cooked breakfast brunch in a cafe or make / buy pancakes

If you have a plan- it limits waste even if you change the day you do things. Because of weather.

do one shop and if you get online deliveries then order to arrive when you do. Plan meals you know you and kids like.

Easy things like prepackaged pizza (as opposed to takeaway or homemade), heat up meals likes fish fingers/sausages and chips, one pot food you’ve prepared at home (eg lasagne). Then “special bits” like at Christmas, smoked salmon, cook from frozen pastries, cheese board etc. Champagne.

I meal plan easy meals, relax nutritional standards, get plenty of snacks and get everyone to commit to a food schedule, then get a supermarket shop delivered on arrival.

When we do U.K. self catering I get around it by doing things I wouldn’t do at home. Or more so eating things.

so lots of picky snacks bits that are not the usual healthy balanced diet.

Evening meals that can be done in oven or air fryer. Quick and easy and freezer to plate via the electronic device rather than cooking from scratch.

Thats the only way it feel different and less of a chore than at home!

And I always get somewhere with a dishwasher - we don’t have one of those at home. That’s a real treat

Lunch time we always just get a load of nice picky / party food type bits so feels like a treat

We go easy teas such as pizza, nachos, burgers etc that we wouldn’t normally have every night but also I did think a Gousto delivery might work quite well to take the thinking and shopping out of it!

We always self cater and it never doesn’t feel like a holiday. However my DH does half the cooking, we eat out for quite a few meals and we eat lots of salad, cold meats, antipasti etc so there isn’t actually that much work involved. Why are you doing all the work?

Hello Fresh or Gousto if you don't already use them?

We nearly always self cater. We just have easy, relaxed meals, some ready meals like Cook, a pizza night, snacks, pasta, a couple of meals out. As PP said, things a bit more special than at home, but still familiar for the fussy eaters. We both don't mind cooking though.

It sounds utterly joyless

Self-catering only works if you share the cooking/shopping/clearing up. Otherwise it's the same drudge in a smaller, less-equipped kitchen and no holiday at all. Next year, back to normal op.

Lunch was often a picnic and dinner was in a restaurant.

Breakfast was the same at home, toast, jam, cereals

If we ate out for lunch we had the picnic items for dinner.

I may have put some pesto pasta on but that's the extend of cooking.

Make a curry, spag Bol and lasagne before you go- that’s 3 evening meals sorted, frozen pizza etc for other nights or have a make your own pizza night. Fish and chips/Chinese other nights. Sandwiches/fruit/crisps/cakes for lunches. Shop before you go if in uk

Can your husband help? I think that’s your issue tbh!!!

We always self cater - cant afford anything else. Sainsbury’s or Ocado (depending on where in the country) delivers 2 hours after we arrive and has All The Treats.

everyone gets told to help tidy up.

charlie Bighams/pizza/ salady and wrap type meals figure quite highly.

always take my favourite sharp knife and peeler.

And even if it’s a caravan holiday (it usually is) I want a dishwasher.

Yeah, I’d be pretty fucked off if I was expected to do all the work.

Farm shops are your friend. Almost as exciting as French supermarkets (but not quite). Google the ones near your holiday place and see which day the fish van comes with the big prawns.