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

It suits a lot of people, I’m sure you’ll have a fab time! I just like to have a kitchen available so that we can eat what/when we want. My youngest is autistic so we have to be able to cater for him, and AI just didn’t work for us.

We took ready meal like family lasagne.
I made bolognese and curry and took.
Hot dogs pasta bake
Lunches sandwiches crisp fruit yoghurt

Not the healthiest but no one complained and nk stress.
Also things like pasta bake I took disposable trays to cook .. no scrubbing just bin

I completely understand, OP. Last year I did an online shop in advance (Carrefour) that we collected just after we'd got to the house. Massive amount of food, as we were four adults and four kids, for two weeks. I was really proud of myself! We ate most of it in about 4 days 😁

I also did a meal plan but this was really more of a list of easy main dishes with a mixture of side dishes - stuff like roast chicken with green salad, coleslaw and bread; tomato tarts with pasta salad; a boatload of cheese, charcuterie, grapes, apples etc.

Lunch for us is pretty much always picnics on the beach, and prepping that gets boring - I don't think there's any way round it really, unless you want to eat at cafes every day!

(One good thing about French supermarkets is they often have a traiteur section with, essentially, nice ready meals. I'd make the most of the same thing in the UK if poss, at farm shops.)

Also: It's a bit dickish to the OP's proposed holiday sounds depressing, or that she should go AI indtead, frankly.

We prefer self catering - I tend to do a food shop to be delivered when we arrive so not faffing with shopping whilst there. I tend to two or three meals that I've batch cooked previously and freeze so we get lovely meal but no work whilst we're there - for example recent short break I'd made and frozen a moussaka, a daal and spag bol sauce. So once there just a case of defrost, cook up rice/pasta, knock up quick salad and we were done. I find as long as there in freezer bags with some ice bags they don't tend to defrost enroute.

Keep it simple.

I only cook simple meals that I know the kids like.

Not much cleaning up, everyone fed.

If you eat out, eat out at lunch. Cheaper and you only need a light evening meal

Ah OK. We are both pretty easy in that respect. I'm nervous about checking whether our little bungalow has a kettle at least....I can't function w/o a cuppa in the morning.

Farm shops and farmers markets

We always self cater, home and abroad. We dont do any cooking to be honest, eat out most of the time but also a big fan of cheese and biscuits, olives, salady bits, snacks

You dont have to have full meals all the time.

We always go self-catering in the UK. It's a holiday because apart from breakfast (toast and coffee) we eat out for all meals. What you save on airfares you spend on grub.

Had a little SC weekend away recently and I thought next time, I’m bringing disposable plates! Makes life easier and no washing up - felt like we weee always cooking or cleaning so disposables will help get rid of that in the main!

Supermarket ready meals - those big bags of curries or Chinese food are just as tasty as takeaways and incredibly good value. Fish and chips one night. Easy pasta or gnocchi another night: pesto or a good ready made sauce and a bag of salad. You could even get paper/bamboo throwaway plates for no washing up.

Don't make lunch - buy rolls, ham, cheese, fruit, maybe some treats, and get people to make their own lunch. If they do it outside, picnic style, there's no washing up. Or buy sausage rolls or pasties, and an icecream - not the healthiest but if it's an occasional holiday treat and they are all running around or swimming etc, it won't hurt them.

For breakfast, keep it simple - cereal, yoghurt, fruit. Everyone clears up after themselves.

When DD was younger I used to make a lasagne and freeze it and bring it with us for the first night. A frozen/semi frozen lasagne always travels better.

We then used to eat very simple meals like pasta with pesto and salad, deli foods and other easy dishes that didn't require a lot of preparation or washing up and the odd meal out and takeaway.

Buy a cheap air fryer and take it with you some for around £30
As suggested Batch cook favourite dinners( bolognese, curry) and take a couple with you
One of my favourite quick cheap meals is pasta, bacon lardons, cheese, capers, olives( if liked) mushrooms( if liked) black pepper then tip in a pot of single cream
Delicious. I usually use Fusilli pasta

Oh and take your favourite utensils, the knives are usually blunt. Peelers useless etc etc

I think the best way to make it not feel like a holiday at all is to eat the same food you would at home. Order two or three Gousto meals or similar either to arrive there or just before you go take the box with you (it's chilled and will be fine for hours) and preferably get someone else to cook them.

I think travelling on your own with 3 young DC is always going to be hard in this respect, because they can't do much themselves but fast forwards 5 or so years and you'll be one of 5 people capable of cooking simple meals and washing up so you'll be able to self cater with much less effort for you as you won't be doing it 80% of the time.

But for the time being, eat out as much as you can afford to - lunch is usually cheaper than dinner and make sure you do some pre-planning to find good value options rather than walk into the first place you find and end up paying over £100 for mediocre food for everyone.

If you're visiting attractions, perhaps get a lunch deal each from a supermarket or convenience store before you go in. Everyone can choose their own and it will likely be less than half the cost of the on site options and saves you making 5 lots of sandwiches etc.

Also easy, food from supermarkets - takeaway style meal deals for example, also eggs/beans/cheese on toast, hot dogs, ready cooked chicken, bagged salad and nice chips/waffle fries etc. Look up places like Greggs, Pret, Wasabi etc on Too Good to Go if you can be flexible and adapt what you get to share around everyone.

Are you saying my kids have only ever had one holiday, because we actively choose to self cater??

Breakfast is cereal they don't usually get (basically chocolate junk), one meal out (or takeaway) a day, and one meal that is simple: bread, nice sandwiches fillings, salad. Topped up with treaty stuff like crisps, chocolate biscuits, berries, icecreams etc. Minimal prep and minimal washing up for either meal.

I agree with others - do a food shop to arrive at your destination (one of the perks of UK self catering) and get easier or more holiday-y food. We once ended up with a Sainsbury’s shop which was almost entirely pizzas and exotic fruit, with milk, eggs and cereal thrown in. Not winning awards for parenting but everyone was happy and well fed.

🙄

We always self cater - much prefer it to a hotel. We love our holidays and certainly don’t find them joyless.

I'd get an online delivery. And batch cook into foil containers so that there's no washing up.

And buy some decent/strong disposable plates.

Meal plan it to death so that there's no thinking.

One thing we always do when self catering, and I know it’s a lazy option and people may moan about the wastage, but we always take paper plates with us, I don’t mind cooking so much but I absolutely hate washing up on holiday, hate it at home but we have a dishwasher and it’s just one thing which makes it feel less like being at home

Presuming you're on a budget (so takeaway or "Cook" meals would be an expensive option), I'd batch cook and freeze some meals to take with you. Lasagne, marinated chicken to go with a salad, pasta sauce, etc. I'd discount anything that takes longer than 10-15 minutes to prep and serve. You could top up with pizzas etc.

If you'll be having lunch out (e.g. picnics) remember to pack your usual Tupperware/cool bag etc. to facilitate (easy to forget when thinking about food at base)!

We do lots of self catering. In the UK, I’ll bulk cook a few meals that we’re having anyway like a chicken curry, bolognese, meatballs, paneer and spinach curry and freeze them in some large freezer containers, put them in a large insulated food bag and put in the fridge as soon as we get there. We’ll take some uncooked rice and pasta with us.
Then other meals are things like supermarket pizza, baked potatoes, fajitas, stir fry and burgers that we’ll buy in the area when we do a shop. And we’ll get food out a couple of times.
Lunches are wraps or sandwiches and the kids can do their own if you put the ingredients out.
We usually include eggs in breakfast to keep kids full.

Meal plan before you go so you don’t have to think about it when you’re there. Either shop on the way (click and collect) or arrange a delivery if that’s a possibility.

We were self catering in the UK last week and do most years- we really enjoy it.
Tend to do either lunch or dinner out each day and cook the other in the cottage. We bring things like tinned items with us and only go to a supermarket for things we can’t get elsewhere- special dietary items for instance, otherwise we shop in farm shops or local butchers etc- things we can’t afford to do at home. For dinners simple meals we like, use the slow cooker if there is one, cook together to make it more enjoyable. Then for lunches we take a picnic which is a novelty as we don’t have them often at home- sometimes we will make simple sandwiches then take crisps/fruit/cake then requires little prep or we will take ready prepped things from a local shop like sausage rolls that feel like a treat and don’t require any prep.

I think you’re projecting a bit there.