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

[NewShoesForSpring]

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?

All of which are substantially cheaper than eating out!

And, for everybody that orders using that link, you get a free box too.

This is what we do - we’ll take some basics, it doesn’t take up much room. Not the full spice cupboard, but maybe 5-10 little pots? If it’s in the UK and we’re driving I’ll have a whole bag with bits and pieces, oil, a few condiments, silver foil, decent large baking tray / pot / knife in case the ones there are rubbish. Abroad we will likely plan a mix of eating out, and making food ourselves with ingredients bought from lovely markets. Will probably take some photos of recipes we’d like to try too. It’s a bit harder to manage than at home and sometimes we have to chuck something nice at the end - eg we’d bought some fish stock from fishmongers and there was unavoidably far more than we needed for the meal we were making, so it had to go down the sink which was a big shame. But worth it overall!

For uk holidays we order a grocery delivery which usually includes

breakfast stuff plus drinks and snacks
pizzas and garlic bread for first night
bbq stuff (burgers, salmon, rolls, corn, coleslaw, I might bring ketchup, oil, mayo)
pasta & pesto with sausages / halloumi, salad and garlic bread
Ingredients for chilli with jacket potatoes & cheese
Then add a takeaway chippy or curry one night plus a pub meal out… , and that covers us for a week.

And for us it's partly because eating out every meal doesn't feel like particularly good value for money, when we don't necessarily want a full restaurant meal three times a day. And partly because we really enjoy getting into the food scene of the place we're in outside of restaurants and having the option and flexibility to wander round the markets/delis/supermarkets and pick up whatever takes our fancy that day (and that is relatively easy to prep.)

We tend to be pretty active during the day on holiday so it suits us to breakfast at home, eat out at lunch and then have a lighter meal in the evening in a more relaxed way back in the villa/cottage/apartment and play cards/a board game/watch a film.

I think it depends if we're abroad or home, but generally always go SC. More so because I don't want to be tied to that hotels food!
Abroad, we'll almost always eat in for breakfast. We'll have snacky things, sandwiches, salad. We might buy bit from the supermarjet like a cooked chicken etc. in the UK, we'll take some nice ready meals - M&S shop enroute. If it's a cold weather trip, perhaps take a slow cooker with a chilli or slow cooked beef in.

Depending on where we're going and how we're getting there we often take a little box with herbs spices oils etc if we're driving there.

When we fly somewhere we just buy some or often the places we choose seem to have stuff like that. The last place we stayed in had a better stocked larder cupboard than I bother keeping at home.

Exactly. I am happy to stay in a hotel as a couple but with kids/teens self-catering is so much better.
I dread to think how much we would spend on cold drinks/ice lollies/snacks otherwise.
As you say, it''s not so much about SAVING money, it's more about not wasting money, which I hate doing.
As I said upthread, cooking something easy then shoving everything in the dishwasher is massively more appealing to me than having to regroup and get ready to go back out after a tiring day.

We used to get Simply Cook but found that the recipes were still quite involved, and it was hard to get options that the DCs would try (though they have improved in their tastes to maybe it's worth another try).

I think a lot of people on here would be a lot more content if they slummed it (by their standards) and actually had a holiday and realise that health is 70% luck and they need to relax about food.

Sorry, what are you talking about??

I think that poster means cheap convenience foods. Rather than M&S microwave meal a Asda savers frozen 99p cottage pie I guess.

Cooking multiple nights on a holiday isn’t really a holiday to me so we try to plan one meal of the day ’eating out’, so lunch or dinner, and then we just have bread, cheese, ham, other meats, salad, all that sort of stuff in that people can sort for themselves. Will happily do a barbecue if we have access, but neither DH or I want to cook proper meals.

If we are in the UK I might do a bit more but if we are abroad I am fully investing in the bread and cheese way of life.

Generally what I would eat t home.normally I would roast a chicken the first evening. Helps you get a feel for the stove, then you have lots for the following days.

Take good oil, decent s and p and a sharp knife ( or knife sharpener)

@Words yes always take your own knife. Holidays knife’s just don’t cut it.

@languedoc1 . You're right. Just brought back happy memories. I was thinking of UK sc.

Barbecue mostly. Buy some nice local meat or fish, make a salad, bingo. But I always take along ingredients for a simple pasta dish and something from the freezer for the first night (assuming not flying). By the time you're there it's defrosted and you have a tasty casserole or chili to reheat. It's also nice to go to local markets and see what they have - you might be inspired. Sometimes self catering places have tons of condiments and stuff previous people have left behind - otherwise you can just take a small jar (those mini jam pots are great) with your favourite spice in and a small olive oil. Flying is harder but we just go to supermarket on day 1 and buy small quantities. There's inevitably some waste but you can usually leave stuff behind and the owner or cleaner can have it.

Nobody has mentioned bringing teabags from home. I don’t really care what we eat so long as I’ve got a brew first thing.

You can get a long way on paprika crisps, a baguette and some tomatoes. Ice creams to top up.

We are a cooking-from-scratch household of extreme health food the rest of the year, but I can’t be doing with prep or clearing up in a tiny ill-equipped kitchen on hols.

Coffee and toast for breakfast,

All other meals were eaten out. We chose the holiday place solely on the number of decent restaurants in a 10 mile radius,

Breakfast - cereal, toast, fruit etc

Lunch- picky bits: bread, cheese, cooked meats, salad or pizza or nuggets etc

Dinner - I take a selection of sachets eg fajita mix, Maggi seasoning bags, Nando’s seasoning etc and just do these with chicken or veggies, salad and bread , or pasta pesto, pizza etc. Nothing special but v easy to prepare

Totally. Pack of good assam teabags or similar to get us up in the morning. After that I’ll go for coffee or whatever, but morning tea and afternoon tea options just need to be there in case of yellow Lipton doom.

Easy things steak/ pan fried salmon/ roast chicken and salad, lots of anti pasti bread meat, cheese and olives. Posh puddings thst come in little pots ( less washing up) pastries snd berries/fruit for breakfast. I bring the frozen ones defrost overnight then they puff up nicely.

Roast dinner, always - some kind of curry night usually with more than one type of curry and rice, homemade naan, bought in poppadoms but I make the chutneys and dips. Some kind of pasta night usually with a big lasagna and some other pasta dishes, salads and garlic bread. Fajitas, build your own burritos, roast ducks with hoi sin and pancakes, chow mein, pho, and so on. Crowd pleasers. Lunches - I make soups in bulk, make sausage rolls although I buy the puff pastry, cheese straws, seed breads with fritattas, salads and salsas, jacket potato bar with multiple toppings.

ObViously dessert is needed every day, so sticky toffee pudding, bread and butter pudding, pavlova, fruit salads, fruit crumbles, treacle sponge, profiteroles, the type of things everyone likes.

Just basic crowd pleaser to make sure everyone is fed and full

On UK holidays my parents take a kitchen knife, their salad keeper, clip-its, food bags, kitchen roll (doubles as napkins). Plus reuse the tuppaware type pots from their picnic on the way down and the meal on the first night.

On their holidays to Madeira, clip its, food bags for their coffee and tea bags (decaf)