Meal Planning for Holiday Trips

Our family just got back from a three day vacation with extended family in the mountains. Freakin' gorgeous! The mountains are truly breath taking and had me continually in awe of the Creator and His creation.

Before we went, I needed some smart meal planning for this trip. My mother in law had suggested we be prepared to eat out, but we just couldn't justify the expense especially when we had access to a full kitchen. Instead I made a meal plan, grocery shopped, and packed everything into coolers. I decided to prep all our meals before we left so that when we got there we could enjoy our outings and quickly throw dinner in the oven when we got home.

The day before we left I spent 2.5 hours preparing all our meals for three days, took a break, and then spent another 2 hours in the afternoon baking muffins for snacks and bread for breakfast. Here was my meal plan for our 3-day mountain vacation in a condo:

Saturday:
Lunch - Bombay Sloppy Joes with Spinach Salad
Supper - Beef and Bean Chimichangas with Salad

Sunday:
Breakfast - toast, eggs, yogurt, and strawberries
Lunch - Sandwiches, Hummus with Pitas, Veggies with Dip and Wildberry Muffins (this was our picnic on the mountain)
Supper - Italian Sausage Soup with Buns

Monday:

Breakfast - toast, eggs, yogurt, and strawberries

Lunch - Sandwiches and Leftover Chimichangas

I doubled all the recipes to feed 5 adults and 4 children and we had a ton of food! It was amazing to just quickly heat up the soup on the stove, or toss the tray of pre-made chimichangas in the oven, or heat up the sloppy joes and serve them up on buns. Everybody's bellies were happy, it took hardly any time at all, and the cost was about $20 per adult to eat like a king for three days! Much better (and cheaper) than fast food or expensive tourist restaurants.

My criteria when choosing recipes were to think about:
1) One pot (or one pan) meals
2) Inexpensive, yet tastes incredible
3) Things that would travel well and would be self-contained once we got there (ie: things that don't need a lot of condiments or add ons which would take up more room in the coolers)
4) Heat up easily

I definitely got that out of the meals I chose to make! I'll post them here with their pictures, along with a few more that I think would have also been good to pre-make and take with us:

Beef and Bean Chimichangas

I also made a batch of Taco Rice and used that in the filling to make the meat and beans stretch farther. I ended up with about 18 chimichangas which fed all of us for supper one night and lunch the next day with a few leftovers for the drive home.

Italian Sausage Soup

Make the soup and let it cool down, then pour into jars to travel to your destination. DO NOT add the spinach until right before you serve it.

Bombay Sloppy Joes

These are fantastic and everyone always raves. Easy enough to heat up and serve on buns.

Sweet Pork Tacos with Avocado Cream

If I could have found pork shoulder roast on sale I totally was going to bring this! On your prep day, you need only throw everything in the slow cooker and let it cook. Make the avocado cream fresh right before you serve it just by mashing with a fork instead of a food processor.

Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

Another dish where your slow cooker does all the work on prep day. This is a nice mild curry sure to please everyone's palettes.

Taco Soup

This is similar to a chili but I find chili to be so boring and predictable. This is a great one-pot meal that throws a little somethin' somethin' unexpected at you.

Meatball Subs

This is another easy hot sandwich that you need only heat up the meatballs and serve it up on some buns or sub rolls with cheese.

All of these dishes are great ideas for you if you are going away on holidays to a cabin or condo, whether in summer or the dead of winter. But don't forget about snacks! Those were some of the best things we had while we were hiking up the mountain to the waterfall or picnicking beside the lake.

Wildberry Muffins