What can I cook when we go on our self catering holiday.

[pepsi]

We are off to the seaside for a week next month, self catering this time. I have a 4 year old ds and a 2 year old dd. when we come home at the end of the day I need something quick and healthy to cook and that doesnt involve lots of washing up and fancy kitchen utensils as I dont know what will be available. Neither eat any salad, got pasta with tomato sauce on the list, made a lovely one yesterday from Annabel Karmels book. Last year I did Tuna, pasta and sweetcorn all mixed up one night too. I guess theres always fish fingers as well.

You could take a plain pizza base with you and top with whatever ingrediants your kids like, ham, pineapple, mushrooms etc one night. That's an easy one to bung in the oven and you know the topping is quality because you've done it yourself!!

Do you have any time to cook before you go? We went to CentreParcs last month and took a lasagne (with veg in it as well as mince), fish pie and a chicken casserole frozen in a cool bag. Then we just defrosted them and slammed them in the oven when we needed them. Saved a load of eating out money and I didn't feel I'd been slaving in the kichen on my holiday.

Otherwise - good quick meals:

• Bought quiche with peas/sweetcorn
• Noodles (the 3 min cook kind) stir fried with a bit of veg and strips of chicken.
• Scrambled eggs on toast (I put frozen veg in with the egg mixture and it cooks perfectly as the egg cooks)
• Eggy bread with fruit

Hope you have a lovely holiday!

pasta, cheese sauce and bacon gratin?

Thanks for the ideas, never thought of pizzas, we make them at home so I know they like them. I only cook one evening meal so has to suit hubby and myself too. I only wish I could be organised enough to make, freeze and take with us. Its hard when you are on holiday because you never know who your day is going to pan out and what time you will get back in. We ate out once in an italian last year and they were so tired after a long day it was a bit of a nightmare. Keep em coming.

My sympathies - I've just come back from 2 weeks self-catering in France which, although lovely, I also found knackering since I was virtually catering for 2 meals a day for 6 people (my dad & au pair came too!).

My kids are the same age as yours, so here are some of the things we had....

• Bolognaise
• pasta/ tuna/ tomato (or cheese) bake
• very mild chilli
• Coq au vin + rice
• kedgeree (fish, egg, onion, rice, mushrooms)
• omlettes/ scrmabled egg + veg/ beans etc
• pizza
• roast chicken + stuff

Hope this helps!

Is there a microwave where you're staying? How about m/wave jacket potatoes with a ready made curry/chilli or just cheese and baked beans?

How about doing a BBQ one night - get one of those disposable things and shove a few new potatoes in a pan?

bacon sadnwhiches!

We also do self-catering most of the time, barbecues are easy and sometimes are supplied at sc places (check before you go), alteratively you can buy a small folding barbecue (or disposable ones) to take with you. Another easy option is chuck-it-all-together-in-a-pan pasta, I usually do this if it rains

Any fresh fish available in this place? How about fried fish, boiled new pots and frozen peas? Ditto with chops. Other standbies for us are sausages fried, cut up and mixed into tomato sauce, with pasta; pasta carbonara and ratatouille (if you have a bit of time to spare while it all cooks down to a soft mixture).

Mo2......how did you find the time to do all this cooking on your hols. Although we shall only be in sunny Swanage I dont expect we will get back to the flat until 5.00 each night, I know I wont want to get straight into the kitchen. Somme of you Mums out there are truly amazing. Fish is a good idea though, esp wrapped in foil, I prefer it that way to fried or grilled and its more forgiving if you forget to take it out of the oven.

This isn't a suggestion about food, but I always pop in a few kitchen utensils e.g. good knife, peeler, corkscrew (!) etc. just in case. There's usually something vital missing from the kitchen and I hate having to make do with crummy utensils.

dont know if this is usefull, heres an extract from my camping list- ie suitable for 2 burner stove, very little effort/ the top 4 are for the tiny cool box, the rest are long life, in tins, and usually served with tinned veg & either pasta/ rice/ noodles, dont laugh but works well for up to 4/5 days ..then come home with a veggie craving
cheese /Bacon/ frankfurters/ Ham

Cereal/ weatabix / sq?s
Bread

Tuna/ chpd toms/ pasta
Tin curry / rice
Chunky chick/ Pasta
Chick/ Jar sauce
Noodles
Meatballs/ rice
Ravioli/ Tom soup/ bread

Carrots/ green beans
Sweetcorn/ peas
Peaches / Rice pud

Long life puds
Meringue nests

Crisps
Biccies/ digestive
Cakes/ swiss roll
Dried apricots

Tomato sauce
Salt/ pepper
oil