Easy food for self-catering holidays

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Planning a UK self-catering holiday for half term and as usual I’m struggling with food ideas. Self-catering is our preference although we’ll probably eat out once. We usually eat easy things like burgers and pizza, but they’re not very exciting! Please give me some inspiration. What do you like to cook when you’re away from home?

When my family go away, we often prep most things at home so they only need heating on the night. Curries, tagine, lasagne, etc all travel, freeze and reheat well.

I‘m not organised enough to bring pre-made meals and don’t want to buy a million ingredients so I tend to rely on jars/sachets of sauces for holidays. Spice Taylor make excellent curry sauces. There’s a time and a place for ready meals / Cook frozen meals etc and self catering is definitely it

I don't take pre made food as we usually start off early and can't get into the accommodation till 4. I'll make quick one pots using brought sauces, ie pasta bake, chilli, curry with nice bread and salad on the side.

Order a gousto or Hello fresh box for a few days - all the bits come with it and helps with inspiration

Falafel mix www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/alfez-falafel-mix/515812-72901-72902 and couscous www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/ainsley-harriott-spice-sensation-cous-cous-100g-7431997-p-44
Tinned curry and microwave rice
Pesto pasta
Pasta with a jar of tomato sauce and tuna
Fish cakes, wedges and peas
Stir fry with straight-to-wok noodles, pre-prepared veg and a jar of stir fry sauce

Pasta with prawns, garlic, chilli and corriander
Steak, wedges and garlic tender stem broccoli
Tuna steaks with green beans and roasted veg
Butterflied Tandoori chicken breasts (just buy a paste) with flatbreads and salad.
Sausage, sweet potatoes, pepper and onion tray bake.
Haloumi and veg fajitas (buy salsa, guacamole and sour cream to save faff).

All tasty and either v quick cook or just leave to do its thing in the oven.

If you buy a tandoori paste, take a thing of mixed dry herbs and buy a fajita spice mix, then every thing else can be bought fresh when you shop for the week so you don't require a massive cupboard of store cupboard stuff.

Pre prepped roast chicken
Large supermarket pizza with salad

Chorizo, courgette and fried gnocchi

• Fry 1cm chunks of chorizo in a pan (no extra oil)
• Add 1cm halved and sliced courgette
• Boil the gnocchi for a couple of mins until they float to top of pan
• The. add gnocchi to chorizo pan and fry until crispy.
• Stir in a couple of spoons of pesto and add Parmesan to serve.

Cheap, filling, easy and minimal washing up!

These are great ideas, thank you!

I love cooking but when we're at self catering, I'm 100% not interested in anything more than the bare minimum. I might make a bolognaise one night as it's easy and everyone will eat it. The rest of the time it's pizza/burgers/hot dogs largely - or if the weather is okay and there's space, we'll BBQ and I'll make a decent salad or whatever.

If we were away for longer and needed to up our game, I'd probably stick with pasta or wrap-based dishes for convenience. So spaghetti and and meatballs, tomato/chorizo sauce with pasta or fajita style wraps with chicken/steak/halloumi.

This is what we used to do. I often used to mke a lasagne for the first night and freeze it, then take it in an insulated cool bag. Frozen lasgne travels much better then a chilled one.

We would have things like pasta with pesto and salad, stir fries, bought pizzas, deli style meals, stuff in wraps etc.