Self Catering, food to pack in case suggestions please

[RockingRosebud]

Off to Minorca in July as the Euro is strong, thought I'd take quite a lot of food with us so I need your help for what to take (needs to be as light and as healthy as poss).

So far I have

Cereals variety packs
Marmite in Tupperware
Fruit Winders
spray cooking oil
Pringles (won't get crushed)

To be honest I wouldn't bother taking much, except for stuff you feel the kids couldn't live without like Marmite, also stuff you use all the time like salt and pepper, a spare loo roll, washing up liquid, but that's about it. However I always treat holidays as an adventure to try local food and to introduce the kids to new stuff. I wish I could give you more brilliant ideas, sorry, I shouldn't have bothered posting here as I can't help

And tea bags!!

I really wouldn't bother either. There will be big supermarkets over there with very similar things and also interesting and different things and I have never found food expensive. I have self catered in Greece and various bits of France and have never had a moment's problem with food - local brands have always seemed pretty cheap to me. They eat cereal all over the world and cooking oil is also a world staple. I'm sure the people of Minorca aren't particularly wealthy!

Cereals, marmite and spray cooking oil, definately. You can buy many cereals in Spain, but not all, and some will have been imported from Gibraltar at preposterous rates.

But remember that, even though the Euro is high, the cost of living is still relatively low here - meat, most fruit (especially oranges! ), veg, rice & pasta and wine are still generally cheaper than in the UK. Well, the tourist supermarkets may be more expensive, but not excruciatingly so.

Saying that, you might also like to bring:

• bottle of squash if you drink it. The Spanish ones are weird and the British imported ones expensive.

• teabags (extremely expensive)

• might also be an idea to bring (or read before you come) a Spanish cook-book. All ingredients for Spanish recipes are cheap - other ingredients may be expensive (eg. saffron for paella is cheap. you will be very lucky to find dried ginger and if you do it will be expensive).

have a good holiday

ps, Aloha is right, cooking oil is v cheap. But I've never seen that spray stuff here.

Depends what sort of cooking you want to do. I usually take a small quantity of dried herbs and my pepper grinder, plus some packet (dry) sauces which hardly take up any space (although check what you need to add - sometimes they need a lot of extra ingredients e.g. vinegar - I just take ones that need water or milk plus meat and veg which we buy out there).

HTH, and have a great time!

I always take teabags (hate those Lipton ones on dangly strings), mixed herbs and salt & pepper. The only other thing I try to do is have an emergency meal packed in case of delays/no shops nearby/too tired to go out once you get there, such as a pack of spaghetti with a sauce mix or jar of pesto

I shall definitely be packing loads of Weetabix when we head off to France in July - when we went a couple of years ago the local supermarket didn't stock it and we had to go quite a long way out to find a big hypermarket that did, as ds refused anything else and still needs his 2xweetabix fix every morning.

I'm taking a samll selection of all Lotties fav snacks when i go to S.France on Sunday. Favourite cereal so she gets a good start, then when she doesn't eat lunch i won't feel so stressed. Taking marmite and those little organic museli bars that she loves, so I can shove something down her if she refuses the food in the retaurant we happen to be in.

Second the squash, weetabix, teabag suggestions - they seem to be a British thing - used to have to take large bottles of Robinsons whenever we visited our friends in Germany. I second Crunchie's thoughts that visiting a different country is a good opportunity for you and the kids to sample new foods. Saying that though we did take some curry pastes with us to France last year - only because we all liked them.

Just seen badjelly's post - my dh is a Customs officer and he always insists that anything we take are in their original packaging i.e. herbs, spices, washing powder etc.

we're a customs officers delight - I always travel with large quantities of non bio washing powder helpfully repackaged in little plastic bags. hmmm on reflection maybe not such a good idea?

bisto
packet soup ( onion if you want less caloriiiiies)

I first had pringles - style crisps in spain an embarassing 20 years ago. My point being that you'll find them out there. Happy hols

morocco - I always used to until dh pointed out that they could be picked out when your case is scanned and that you could end up being delayed for ages while customs unpack you case for you. Always now take small boxes. I always wonder why companies don't do small travel packs during holiday period. The NCT sale freebies would be ideal to take on holiday.

where are you going? RR

Oow, didn't think I'd had any replies to this. Thanks very much ladies.

The reason for taking the stuff with us is not having to pay extortionate prices for it when we get there. No doubt the Pringles will be £2 a box and the kids will be whinging and I'll be standing there saying "I'm not paying £2 for Pringles!".

Have started a list now. Thanks.