Help - holiday meals!

[Hannah1972]

We are looking at booking our summer holiday - 10 days eurocamp in France. I am already not looking g forward to it because of the food situation. I eat meat but my husband and 2 boys don’t. That’s problem 1. Problem 2 is that we will not have an oven, just a microwave and hob. I struggle with what to cook at the best of times to make sure they are eating ok. We went to a similar park last year and ended up eating pasta and pizza the whole time. Husband and boys are fine with that but I’m not.

Im already searching online for possible recipes and will be for the next 8 months! Fed up already. Does anyone have any suitable recipes they can share to save my sanity? The boys don’t eat mushrooms, eggs or tomatoes although in a sauce is ok. Sigh.

Burritos. Use the pouches of refried beans, pouch of microwave rice (Mexican) flavour, tin of chilli, (veg, and a meat one for you), mash an avocado.

Stir fry: stir fry the veg, microwave rice pouches

Greek night: when Lidl have Greek week buy tins of the large beans, and aubergines. Have with flat breads and fried halloumi

Veggie burgers and salad

Ask your DH to come up with 5 suggestions.

I think I'd just let it go and do the pasta/pizza combo for others, and focus on what YOU would like. Lovely cheeses, baguettes, ratatouille, the list is endless in France and the supermarkets are fantastic. Look after your needs first, as it looks like you will be doing the catering for everyone.

It's ten days not a lifetime, so give them whatever works, it won't kill them and it's a holiday after all, not a health farm! Treat yourself separately. That's what I'd do.

It's your holiday aswell. But others may have more imaginative ideas for you!

Wil you have a bbq?

Good point. We will have a bbq but they tend to be a bit grubby. Definitely worth bearing it in mind though.

The rice pouches are a great idea!

I know what you are saying but I do want to get some veg down them. Happy for pizza and pasta don’t get me wrong but not just 10 days worth. Neither boys drink enough water (despite my constant reminders/nagging and one tends to get really constipated. Last year I brought some bags of frozen veg to add to the pasta and sauce but it was rank. Half way through eating it we realised the pale floaty bits in it were ham, doh.

Are you taking a car? There are loads of good supermarkets in France- why buy grotty frozen veg when the shops are packed with quality ingredients?
Most of them sell vegetarian stuff: our local supermarket sells veggie burgers, hummus, falafels, very nice cheese and spinach quiche.
Eat what you normally eat!

To make things easier you could pack a tiered steamer pan to cook several things on one ring and an extra frying pan (so you have pan for veggies and a pan for meat).
If you have room in your car, pack an air fryer/multi cooker (check the electric availability though!)
Campsites also usually have takeout chips for sale in the evenings.

The French are great at frozen nice think, parsley potatoes for example. Do you have the budget to heat out, even every other day.

We did Eurocamp for many years and I have never spent much time cooking. I would say we split it between eating out, getting takeaways - most sites have something, and preparing something simple - salad, meat on BBQ, maybe new potatoes, french shops will also have veggie alternatives. Grill aubergines / courgettes / peaches etc on the BBQ. To be fair, I never stressed about food on holiday when dd was younger, if she had chips and ice cream every day, then she did. I would try to make sure she had some fruit. Maybe get a bottle of nice "sirop" to mix with the water to encourage fluid intake - they have a million flavours.

What would you normally cook at home?
Tell us your menu for the last week and let's see what we can come up with.

If you are the meat eater- would you be happy eating vegetarian for some/ most of the meals?
Do the vegetables eat most vegetables and pulses?

Fried/BBQ meat/burgers/sausages with lots of different salads and crusty bread.

Either do what you have at home or just have pizza and pasta, whats wrong with that?

Or eat out, where they will presumably choose pizza and pasta!

Its a holiday isnt it, not an endurance test

How old are the boys? I presume DH is capable of cooking the odd meal as well? I would definitely put h in charge at least a few days, and the boys if old enough. At least for their own food - you might enjoy a rotisserie chicken with fresh crusty baguette and salad one night, and leftover chicken in a nice sauce the next night as an easy option.

Is it a camp with BBQ facilities (open pits, places to put disposable bbqs, etc?) that you could do veggie kebabs or similar for them and something nice for you?

Will there be any decent French supermarkets nearby that you can get nice but easy things to do, maybe plan on going the day/day after you arrive and midway through the week.

What do you eat at home? How much can that be adapted? Can you do halloumi slices for them while you have a fried piece of meat, all served with fresh salad?

Can you get takeaways easily or eat out relatively cheaply in that location?

If the bbq tends to be grotty, can you bring a new scrubby pad to clean it when you arrive, and as you need to during the week? Throw in the bin as you leave.

Of all the countries in the world, the one I would worry least about food-wise is France!
Eurocamp mobile homes usually have quite a decent BBQ and you can barbecue veggies too. The fresh produce and veg/salad is of high quality and vast range. Aubergine/cauli steaks barbecue particularly well, corn cobs, charred lettuces.
If you feel you want to go equipped to make pasta sauces then you could take some jars of pesto, olive oil, some tomato purée, even tinned ratatouille though all of these are easily found in a supermarket.
The deli counters will have quite an array of slaws and prepared salads and rice/pasta salads.

It's 10 days. I recently had a blood test and mistakenly thought that if I ate healthily for a few days before I could influence the result. The nurse told me that the body almost 'records' what your diet has been like for the last three months so in the big scheme of things, going a bit off piste for 10 days won't harm overall health.

Take or buy foil to use on the barbecues.

Fajitas. Just add meat to yours
Pizza
Chilli ... Just add meat to yours
All the things you do at home ...

Croissants and fresh fruit for breakfast.
Bread, cheese, salad (and cured meats) for lunch.
Eat out in the evenings.

Is a pretty typical menu for us on holidays.

Umm, sweet potato and spinach curry, black bean chilli, root vegetable stew, broccoli and cauliflower pesto pasta, pizza for them and steak for me on Friday. It’s all very wintery. I’m happy to eat veggie most of the time.

My husbands favourite Simpsons quote is ‘you don’t make friends with salad’ 😀

What would you eat in summer normally

We’ve booked a week at eurocamp in France in summer.
We are just going to have plenty of BBQs and simple meals like pasta and fajitas. Probably go out for dinner one of the nights too.

We used to love eurocamps when I was a kid,

Breakfast - croissants fresh baked from the onsite shop, yoghurt or cereal.

Lunch - fresh baked baguette bought that day with sliced tomatoes, cheese, ham, lettuce, packet of crisps, fruit

Dinner - often a stone baked pizza from the onsite pizzeria, we loved watching them go in the oven and come out bubbling 2 mins later. When we ate at the tent it would be bbq.

Are you driving over? Can you take a george foreman type grill with you or an air fryer?

Who on earth takes bloody steamers and frying pans and air fryers and grills on holiday with them???!!!!

Honestly some of the posts on this thread