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

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Just curious about this.

When dc were small we always stayed in apartments on city breaks / holidays so we had more space in the evenings when they'd gone to bed. Plus we could use the fridge for milk / juice / water / wine / beer

We'd stock up on cereal & bread for toast for them & fruit & snacks etc but I never really did much actual cooking

We'd eat out or if dc had eaten enough one of us would go to pick up a lovely takeout when they were asleep.

As they got older we'd all go out for dinner.

I've found fully self catering hard as whikr it's easy to pick up fish or veg etc in market / supermarket there's none of the other ingredients you need to season/ make a dish & if I'm away for a week I'm def not buying olive oils / spices etc

If you self cater, what sort of things do you make?

When self catering we tend to bbq, fajitas, pasta meals and the rest eat out for main meals or possibly order in.

Breakfast is a fry up and snacks is snacks we would normally have or again grab something while out.

Never bring frozen food with us. I have been known to take my pizza stones and food mixer though for fresh pizzas 😅

UK restaurant prices also make it prohibitively expensive to eat out every night on a holiday for us. With children that eat off an adult menu it’s likely to be at least £100 a night. Abroad we can find more reasonably priced options to eat out so will do so more frequently.

we are staying in the uk for our holidays this year and I’ve already researched local butchers, bakery options and farm shops to get great local ingredients to cook with.

if we were going away as a couple we’d eat our more in the evening but still being conscious of health and wealth not every night.

We only eat breakfast at our self-catering accommodation and the odd lunch. I have never cooked a meal and to be honest most self-catering facilities are a kitchenette and not really suitable for cooking a full meal. It's different if it's a Airbnb or similar as usually you'd have full cooking facilities, like at home. My opinion is that I cook at home, I'm not doing it on holiday, as it's my break too. Obviously for financial reasons, I know some people have to cook, whilst on holiday. If I had to cook, it would be simple rice and pasta dishes.

Rarely cook evening meals but if I do it’s going to be a kit meal eg the ones with meat, veg and stir fry sauce all in a pack, Lidl does one, or a caeser salad kit plus steak assuming we had spread in the apartment. The better self catering places I’ve stayed at had oil, some herbs and spices etc provided in the past but haven’t seen that since covid (not that I self cater much)

Depends where we go.
In the uk I stock up my freezer with simple batch cooked meals like curry/casserole/pasta sauce and take it with us (holiday cottages with freezer) so all I have to do is heat it/cook pasta. With casserole I’d just have with a crusty baguette.
Abroad we don’t tend to eat main meals in the villa so I’d just stock up on salad stuff/cheeses etc for lunches and have fruit/yogurt/toast for breakfast. We’ve had the odd BBQ or simple pasta dish when abroad.
I have taken packet spice/seasoning mixes abroad with me to add to chicken.

I think this every time I read threads about food. People suggesting lists of meals my kids won’t touch 😂

I plan my self catering trips around the availability of suitable takeaway food. Son is autistic and has quite restricted eating habits and it’s my holiday too so I don’t want to be cooking too much. A disposable BBQ one night and pasta and jarred sauce are a backup.

If you really want to self-cater, you could take a selection of sauce/casserole mixes and just buy fresh stuff there, they're dead easy and quite good.

Stuff in the slow cooker (Bolognese pasta, sausage casserole, steak casserole etc)
Toasties are a MUST, Pizza, chilli and rice.
Everything we would normally have at home ad well as occasionally a take out chippy and some papa johns thrown in.

Pasta and jar of tomato sauce, plus red peppers, chorizo

Chicken fajitas (use a sachet of fajita spice and buy wraps, peppers, onions, fresh salsa)

Hard boiled egg/cheese/ham/tuna or mackeral with various salads - add new potatoes or nice crusty bread or couscous (sachet of Mediterranean couscous very tasty)

BBQs with salad

noodles with stir fry sauce and veg (if I can be bothered)

nice pizzas and salad

We don’t make a big effort but we do buy a small bottle of olive oil and a bottle of balsamic vinegar and some nice cheese and baguettes - often dh and I just have that and some salad every day for a week!

Spag Bol
Buy a rotisserie chicken and make sides
Mixed grill
Omelette

These were when we were skiing. There was just a stove and microwave, no oven

I do a menu before we leave. Usually then get a delivery from one of the Supermarkets near the accommodation ( most of them deliver one way or the other), the day after arrival, for most of the food stuffs. Some nights we will eat out of course - but we drive down to the accommodation, so like someone else said, I take some stuff from home with me - like spices and olive oil etc - and if I need something I didn't take with me, then I'll buy some locally and take it home again!

The same stuff I make at home. If SC in the UK I bring bags of ingredients from home. If we are abroad I end up having to buy what we need to make bolognese ort burgers or other "normal" food. My DD as ASD and won't eat new things. No point telling me she needs to try them or she will eat if she gets hungry enough - she won't, we've tried it!. So DP and I eat out or eat exotic and I cook the same old stuff for DD. Luckily she likes steak and potatoes so that's almost ubiquetous.

Yes this! DC have now grown out of children's menus so it costs a fortune to eat out. Even a quick coffee stop comes in at around £25 because DH always orders a cake and then everyone else wants one.

Because we're usually away for between 3 weeks and a couple of months and driving to where we're staying I take loads of ingredients to make simple meals and buy meat, fish and veg at the supermarket or market. In the UK I usually take some ready meals from Waitrose, M&S or Cook.
If we're flying and self catering it's mainly meat or fish with salads plus we'll eat out more.

Oh I feel your pain @Hedonism and @FurForksSake on the teens/preteens eating off the adult menu!
We went to Bella Italia at the weekend because they had a £5 pasta offer but then everyone wanted drinks and ice creams and it was just as expensive as full main meals and the (larger sized because they do two sizes) children's menu.

This is genius

Filled pasta and a sauce (tin of sweetcorn to throw in too), garlic bread

A (nice) packet mash, tinned veg and some gravy granules to go with a pie or pasty bought whilst out & about

Probably pizza one night.

Beans on toast one evening usually if we've had a big lunch out.

No faff meals.

Yeah, DS2 has just aged out of the children's menu and it's devastating. (Especially in France, which has great formules enfants). His teenage brother has been eating more than me for some time 🙄.

Spent 4 days in an AirBnB in Rome while we were Interrailing. From the nearby supermarket I bought: pasta, flour, massive bag of peppers, eggs, bread, mozzarella and parmesan, tomatoes, cucumbers, tinned tomatoes and a small bottle of olive oil. From this we managed to make pasta with tomato and pepper sauce x2, tomato and pepper frittata with bruschetta on the side, and pancakes with tomato and pepper sauce with cheese and salad on the side. Plus breakfasts, and sandwiches for lunch.

I was pretty proud that the only things left over when we left were a small amount of olive oil, half a bag of flour, and some of those bloody peppers (it was a BIG bag).

Luckily we all really like tomatoes and peppers 😆

Reading this, I'm not surprised a lot of posters think holidays equal 'same shit, different place'. Although I used to take a pre prepped chicken curry camping and have that the first night. I've also done a pasta/mince/garlic bread combo on another night.

I would imagine that most of us are self catering because we can't afford to eat out all the time, and the choice is either cook or don't go on holiday.

We are off for 2 weeks self-catering on the Costa del Sol this weekend. We will be eating out some nights. There are a couple of large supermarkets close by and who doesn't love a foreign supermarket?

On nights we are eating in, it will be quick and easy meals. Pizzas to shove in the oven. Ready cooked fish/chicken, bread and salad. Pasta and sauce. Barbeque.

We always self cater to save money I will do a couple of meals in advance EG chili and rice which I will take frozen, then we will probably have a jar of chicken korma instead of making it fresh, sausages and mash, I usually make quite a few cakes to take as well. I do tend to stay in airbnbs now rather than camping which is a whole different self catering ball game

BBQ/eat out, rinse and repeat.
Always bacon sandwiches for breakfast.

Main meal out each day.
Breakfast - fruit, croissants, chocolate cereal.
Other meal - bread, salad, cold meat, cheese, nice snacky bits. Icecream or sweet stuff from the bakery.
Basically, minimal preparation, cooking, or washing up!

Or because the DCs are too small to take out to eat late (but too big to sleep in the buggy), or too conservative in their tastes to try highly variable restaurant menus (though mine are luckily now big enough to stay up late, and will eat burger and chips or spaghetti if nothing else appeals).