It's time to start planning summer vacations. If your family is like mine, your two biggest concerns while eating out are the cost and the nutritient value of food prepared outside of your home.
Last year, we took the kids on a road trip to Florida for a conference that Alan and I needed to attend. While our company paid for our expenses to travel, it didn't pay for the children. Our budget hadn't prepared for a family vacation in Florida, either. However, we had an incredible opportunity to take our children to a great vacation destination with part of the cost being paid by the business trip. We needed to find a way to control our costs so that we could splurge a little on Disney World and Universal Studios.
We spend money on food regardless of whether it was at home or in Florida, so clearly, here was an opportunity to avoid the costs associated with eating out. It worked so well, that I'm beginning to plan our trip this year with the same goals in mind.
Here's what I did:
I packed a few cooking supplies to get us through until we arrived at our destination. Since 5 of us were riding in a 5 passenger car, space was limited. I took a cooler and two recyclable grocery bags full of food that needed little to no refrigeration. When we arrived at our final destination, I found the nearest grocery store and loaded up for the next three days at the hotel.
What I packed:
- A ricecooker/slow cooker. Presto makes a great one that you can buy at walmart for $20.00
- A hotplate, if you already have one then great, but if you travel often you should think about investing in one.
- A small iron skillet
- A few cooking utensils, some paper plates and bowls, plastic cutlery
- Peanut butter sandwiches
- Turkey cheese sandwiches
- Reduced fat pringles
- Capri sun coolers (flavored waters in pouches take up less space)
- String cheese (doesn't have to be kept super cold)
- Apples, oranges, pears
- Rice noodles
- canned bean sprouts
- fresh broccoli crowns
- baby carrots
- TVP (textured vegetable protein, you could use canned chicken if you preferred)
- Oreo 100 calorie packs (my kids like a treat after dinner and these were easy to pack)
- Packets of soy sauce
- Zip lock bag with a little cornstarch
- Not Chick'n cube (bouillon from health food store that I love to use)
- Small amount of dawn dish soap
- Zip lock baggies (loose, the box wouldn't fit)
- Small scrubber
Meals
- Day One Breakfast on the road - Peanut butter sandwiches, fruit, waters
- Day One Lunch at a park on our route - Turkey cheese sandwiches, pringles, fruit
- Snacks - baby carrots, leftover pringles, fruit
- Stir Fry - First hotel night. I cooked the broccoli, bean sprouts, baby carrots leftover, and tvp. I used the small coffee pot in the room to make the broth. I added a little cornstarch and poured over the cooked vegatables. I served the stir fry over the packaged rice noodles. Since I packed the dawn, cleanup was pretty easy. Once the hot plate cooled down, everything was packed bag in the bags for the morning.
- Day Two Breakfast - The hotel included a free continental breakfast. We stay away from the sugar since it will make everyone miserable within 2 hours. We focused on oatmeal and milk or eggs. We always balance carbohydrate with protein so that we don't have sugar spikes or feel hungry again soon.
- Day Two Lunch - Taco bell burritos. This was part of the plan. We knew there were Taco Bells on the route. You can buy 5 fresco burritos for under $7.00. For the two "men" with us that wasn't quite enough calories, so we supplemented with string cheese and fruit.
- Day Two Dinner - This is the night we arrived. It was also one of the days on the plan to splurge since I knew we would be tired. We ate at a sushi restaurant but we had rules. Water to drink, if the portions were going to be huge, then split something with someone. It was a very nice dinner in a nice atmosphere.
- Day Three Breakfast - Instant oatmeal and milk
- Day Three Lunch - Turkey sandwiches with tomatoes and lettuce (by now I had been to the grocery store)
- Day Three Dinner - Lentils and Rice cooked in the slow cooker all day. This was wonderful and there were no leftovers. I used a package of Knorr vegetable soup mix for seasoning. It's a bit high in sodium, so adjust what you're eating the rest of the day.
- Day Four Breakfast - Boiled eggs that I cooked in the slow cooker. Our room had a tiny refrigerator so we were able to keep a few things there. We didn't have to mess with the cooler. I also heated water in the slow cooker for instant grits or instant oatmeal.
- Day Four Lunch - At Disney World. This was part of the trip budget
- Day Four Dinner - At Disney World
- Day Five Breakfast - The same as day four
- Day Five Lunch - Tuna sandwiches and chips
- Day Five Dinner - At Universal Studios
- Day Six Breakfast - Peanut butter granola bars, V8 juice, milk as we headed out early towards home.
- Days Six and Seven were travel days so I repeated Days One and Two.
- By Day Seven dinner we were in our own home
If this is your first time attempting to "cook" while travelling, here are a few tips.
I keep extra grocery sacks for cleanup since there is no garbage disposal in the room. The last thing I want is the hotel to have a reason to complain so we are very responsible in the cleanup leaving no trace of last night's dinner in the cans for the maids to deal with. We do leave the trash all tied up neatly in bags. I wipe out the sinks after doing the dishes.
Take advantage of every "free" resource the hotel offers, but be careful about the offering. I don't care if junk food is free. I wouldn't consider it a benefit.
Take a small spray bottle of febreze with you. If you cook something like broccoli, the smell may bother you in such a small space.
I took a lot of inspiration from this article in Yoga Journal. I hope to post an even more inspiring menu from this summer's trips. Namaste :-)
