what do you cook on your DVC vacation?

[mousefan1972]

If I'm cooking, I'm not on vacation! Kudos to you that don't mind, or actually enjoy it. I am not one of those people. Doing laundry, however, doesn't bother me at all. I love having a 1 BR for the 4 of us and knowing that I can toss our gross, sweaty clothes in the washer before going out to the parks each day! Just shows that everyone loves DVC for different reasons.

 

[traceyg]

This is part of my TR. it's a little lengthy but it's ALL there:

I think I"ll start the journey off with the food... it kinda all started with the food. There were 9 of us and the baby- so there was enough food for a herd!

Two weeks ahead of time I bought all the non-perishables (plastic forks, paper plates, laundry detergent, soup, spaghetti sauce, ranch dressing, etc etc).

The day before we left I bought the somewhat perishables (tortillas, meat, etc) I froze all the meats and we have a cooler that will keep things for days on end. Everything was still frozen when we arrived.

The day we arrived I bought the fragile perishables (bread, eggs, etc)
All in all I spent about $400-$500 at the grocery stores total.

Our menu went like this:
Day 1 arrive at 4 pm, Dinner with Chef Mickey, put sausage in crockpot to cook overnight
Day 2
Breakfast-
Breakfast roll ups
I broke up the sausage, scrambled a dozen eggs and laid out paper plates, cheese and tortillas. Everyone got to wrap their own sausage rolls as they cycled through their showers and such.
Lunch-
Sandwiches
back to the room for a nap and a sandwich. I made the sandwiches and set them out on the dining room table for everyone to grab and relax.
Dinner-
Tacos and nachos
I put hamburger meat with taco seasoning in one crockpot and nacho cheese in another crockpot before we left that morning. It was ready and waiting when we returned. I put out paper plates, taco shells, tortillas, shredded cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and tortilla chips. Everyone got to make what they wanted.

Day 3-
Breakfast- Pigs in a blanket
My DH made them the night before and cooked them until they were lightly brown and still somewhat doughy. After they cooled I placed them in a gallon ziplock bag and put them in the frig. The next morning I placed them on the cookie sheet and finished cooking them. It worked out perfectly!
Lunch- leftovers and sandwiches (this will be the theme for every day from here on so I will leave it out from now on).
Dinner- Brisket, baked potatoes and green beans
I bought three medium sized preseasoned bags of trimmed brisket. I cut them down to size to fit in the two crockpots and cooked them all day. I also put potatoes in the crockpot and let them cook all day as well. That evening I placed the brisket on a plate, the potatoes on another plate and heated up the green beans on the stove. I laid out sour cream, grated cheese and the nachos cheese from the night before. Some of the kids had a loaded baked potato. Again- it was laid out and done so that everyone could easily make it the way they preferred.

Day 4-
Breakfast- Sausage biscuits
The sausage patties were already cooked so I just heated them in the microwave. I cooked two packages of biscuits. I cut the biscuits in half, added a slice of sandwich cheese on the biscuit and added the sausage patty. I then placed them on a plate on the table and let everyone help themself.
Dinner- Crockpot Lasagna, french bread and salad
I layered all the ingredients- spaghetti sauce, lasagna noodles, uncooked hamburger, noodles, sauce, ricotta cheese, noodles, sauce, shredded cheese. I worried for a moment that it would be greasy from not precooking the meat but it was fine. Everyone complimented on this meal. The salad was the lettuce and tomatoes leftover from the tacos. I brought some ranch dressing for it as well.

Day 5
Breakfast- Sausage roll ups again
Lunch- 50's Prime Time Diner... we had a blast!
Dinner- Creamy Chicken and potatoes, left over green beans
I used two crockpots. Each crockpot contained a bag of chicken breasts, a large can of cream of chicken soup, half of the remainder of the left over sour cream, 1/4 cup of lemon pepper seasoning, cup of milk, half a bag of red potatoes cut into fourths.

Day 6
Breakfast- scrambled eggs, biscuits, gravy (my husband cooked all of the eggs and what we didn't eat he placed in a baggie and put it in the frig)
Dinner- left overs

Day 7- Breakfast- left overs
Lunch- Earl of Sandwich on the way out

We had a crockpot going most of the time. I always use crockpot liners so it was as simple as throwing the bag away, wiping the bottom and lid and relining it.

We spent $50pp at Chef Mickey's and almost $300 for lunch at 50's PT. We didn't scrimp on snacks or drinks while we were in the parks. Since the baby was with us we had the stroller. Mom and Dad had ECV's. Every day we would load each with a few bottles of water. We bought a Coke here and there, some of those beloved Mickey head ice cream bars, some cupcakes, candy from Goofy's, funnel cakes and a host of other goodness. With the money we were saving on food I didn't mind splurging somewhat on snacks. (We had snacks in the room as well- but there's no comparison to a yummy ice cream bar!). I cannot imagine what our food bill would have been had we not cooked meals in the room.
Let me end by saying that I did not mind "cooking" as long as it was 20-30 minutes or less. Every day I would wake up and start the meals. Usually my husband or mom would come in and finish things up so I could get ready. As I was getting ready and being the last one in the shower by this point, it gave me the opportunity to collect towels and throw them in the washing machine. There was also a standing opportunity that if you needed something washed to put it on the washing machine lid. I would throw various things in with the towels. At night I would throw them in the dryer. We always had fresh towels. 30 minutes of my vacation every day for cooking and a load of laundry made for a well oiled machine.
Side note: We put bottled water, cokes, sprite and dp in the door of the frig to drink. Being Texans, we also make iced tea. Funny story: my husband prefers unsweet tea and the rest of us prefer REALLY sweet tea. There was only one tea pitcher though. I noticed that we didn't have a can opener so I knew I had to ask for Mousekeeping to deliver one. While I was on the phone I decided to ask and see if they could deliver yet a second tea pitcher. Always hospitable, of coarse they said yes. Mom answered the door when they came by and I could hear her laughing...turns out that they brought me a tea kettle! lol Not wanting to bug Mousekeeping I looked through the cabinets to see what if anything I could use to improvise. I found the blender. From then on we had a pitcher of unsweet tea and a blender of sweet! lol

 

[heathers4um]

Are you talking about stewed tomatoes? Garden grocer DOES carry them. I had to search but they are there!

Not the stewed tomatoes but the crushed. And I found those too after I posted last! I generally use the Pastene chunky style, not the Hunts they offer, but I will take any crushed and do the best I can.

 

[goofydad621]

one of my freinds here goes 1-2 a year and they usually get a cabin at Fort Widerness, I was laughing becasue I have never heard of doing this but he goes to this meat market that they love in Danvers Ma, and get the marinated steak tips, steaks etc. and put them in deep freeze and then pack them into a cooler and check it through and bring the meat they want with them. they said it is better quality and cheaper then buying it there.

Have not tried that myself but i know that they don;t usually get a care we ALWAYS do so we can shop off site.

this may work for some of you folks

goofydad621

 

[carissa1970]

We have rented points once and stayed in 1 bedroom at OKW loved so much we are waiting for our contract to close. We cooked almost daily during the trip in Sept 2011. First I need to say that I was a chef for 20 plus years and my parents owned restaurants while I was growing up so cooking is second nature to me and it does not seem like work. Having a kitchen is one of the reasons we wanted to own a DVC. So last time we went grocery shopping for our regular items, cereal, fruit, milk bread cheese PB and J, ham turkey etc for wraps, bought 2 of the pre-cooked rotisserie chickens and pulled the meat off, combined with BBQ sauce reheated it on low in oven for pulled chicken. Bought a fresh chicken pot pie. My wife made hot CC cookies one night what a treat. I think we ate the whole week for a family of three for under $100. Try that one eating out and we ate well every day. Here is a GREAT quick recipe that is very easy to make, brown 1lb of burger and drain the fat. Add one large can of baked beans, (we use bushes with bacon and onion adds good flavor) and 1 jar of Heinz chili sauce. mix and simmer for 10 minutes, great on rice or pasta, on tortilla chips for nachos re heats great.

another great meal, mix together 1 can of creamed corn and 1 box chicken stuffing mix, press into glass baking dish. lay boneless skinless chicken over top. in pan on stove melt 1/2 stick of butter or margarine. had 1/4 brown sugar and and honey mustard to taste mix well pour over chicken and back 35 minutes or until done one of my FAVORITE dinners.
I have tons of these kinds of things if anybody is interested.

Can't wait until January for our first official welcome home!

Dave Goofydad Dionne

I am interested! That sounds great! You should start a thread with recipes that are easy to do on vacation.

 

[carissa1970]

This year during Marathon Weekend at WDW my chef friend who lives in FL stopped by our room to cook a few meals to make sure we where properly fueled and ready for the race. I felt like I was on a Disney Cruise the food was so good.

Maybe he'd like to come cook for us?? Sounds great!

 

[carissa1970]

We will be staying at OKW soon, and I was sad to learn that the grills are charcoal. When we were at the Aulani, we grilled steaks and chicken, made pasta one night, and had leftovers the other nights. I don't think we will want to take the time with charcoal, so we only ordered breakfast and lunch items from Garden Grocer this time.

 

[OKWMom]

We usually do cinnamon rolls or Trader Joe's Almond croissants for breakfast, or cereal. Occasionally, I will make a hash brown quiche or an overnight French toast.

Lunches are normally tacos, bbq, chicken salad, shrimp salad or leftovers from dinners.

I have almost gotten the dinner making down to a science. I try to do simple dishes and, like another poster said, I pre measure my spices and bag them at home to bring down with me. I pack my own aluminum foil and have brought a frozen baked ziti with me. I have made hamburger steaks with Bob Evans mashed potatoes; shepherd's pie; death chicken (basically chicken and rice baked with bacon); chicken bog; French onion pork chops; sautéed shrimp; and the like. Just very simple dinners with few ingredients to be purchased and wasted.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

We will be staying at OKW soon, and I was sad to learn that the grills are charcoal. /]

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I grilled a superb marinated london broil on the SSR charcoal grills last week! Bought a little bag of pre-treated charcoal, lit it and 30-45 minutes later we were ready! We swam in the quiet pool while the coals heated through! We've done the same at OKW many times, it really doesn't take that long, if you incorporate a family swim and cocktails or appetizers by the pool!

 

[lucyem]

Hamburgers, spaghetti, eggs, english muffins. Basic things that do not need any special equipment. Once i made no knead bread cooked in a dutch oven. I brought everything i needed premeasured in my dutch oven. That was yummy.

Ina studio we tend to eat out more and rely a lot on reheated leftovers.

 

[franandaj]

I love cooking (occasionally) on vacation. I fancy myself to be a pretty good cook and enjoy eating my own food as a break from the overly huge and calorie laden meals that are served at most restaurants. Plus as many people here have pointed out it saves money! Also my spouse suffers from Rhuematoid Arthritis and once you hit that proverbial wall, a nap is inevitable. Therefore we go back to the room. I don't really enjoy navigating the buses and transportation system solo to go back to the parks so I take the down time to cook us a nice home cooked meal and perhaps relax in the Jacuzzi tub, or just enjoy the ambience of the Villa.

We always get a 1 bedroom and have sworn off studios for good so the kitchen is there even on our trips to DL (where we are locals), so I plan for meals in the Villa often. The following are all excerpts from my TRs where I made these things in the Villas, not so ambitious, like everyone says, you want to keep it simple, but I'm also kind of foodie, so I want things that taste pretty good!

Now these pictures are from my last WDW TR. As we were walking out the door to the airport I literally chucked a 3-4 lb standing Rib Roast (vacuum sealed and bagged 2x) into one of our suitcases from the freezer. See we always buy our meat in bulk around the holidays when it is on sale and have a separate freezer to store it. I had "extra" Rib Roasts that had gone uncounted in the previous year, so I thought this was a perfect use for one of those that had gone under the radar. For some reason this caused quite a bit of commotion on my TR. I didn't think it was that big a deal, but the readers seemed to be very concerned with a) would it thaw in time b) would I be able to keep it at a safe temperature c) how did I intend to cook it and deal with it since we are only two people! I think I covered it quite well.

We spent two nights at Universal where it had time thaw in the fridge there and checked into Kidani on day three, where I prepared the traditional standing rib roast.

After about two hours, the baked potato was ready and the roast seemed to have reached medium rare.

So I woke Fran from her nap and dinner was served. Her plate….notice that she can’t wait to dig in!

Our toppings/seasonings

And my plate with all the accoutrements.

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Then I took the same roast and turned it into another dinner two nights later. Now I'm sure most of you don't hang out on the Community Board, but over there we have "What's for Dinner Thread" which is why I have such good documentation of our meals. I always post my Disney meals (and some from home) on the "What's for Dinner" Thread because it's FUN! so you'll have to indulge me in these next few photos!

In true “What’s for Dinner thread” style I documented my ingredients. Cut meat into bite sized pieces

And my cooking process. Saute the onions and mushrooms on very low heat covered for about 20-30 minutes. I always do it for 30 minutes as they are not substantially wilted after 20.

At this point I halted the cooking process. Since neither of us were hungry enough to eat, it was less than 15 minutes away from freshly cooked stroganoff. We each had left half a potato half from our dinner the other night, so if we had been hungry enough, I had prepared us each a potato skin with bacon (from the breakfast) and some grated cheddar. Those did not end up getting heated later this night and they followed us to BLT.

I had planned to serve this with potato skins and green beans, but I was too tired and lazy. Back to the cooking process, if you remember I had sautéed the onions and mushrooms until they were wilted. Then you cook the beef.

This is a mixture of ground mustard seed, sugar and a little (too much) water.

Return the mushrooms and onions back to the pan.

Add the mustard mixture

Some sour cream

And mix

Voila! Beef Stroganoff!

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Then two nights later I turned this into an completely different dish.

Once everything was unpacked I started on dinner. Tonight’s meal was Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches a total comfort meal, but there was going to be a twist. There always needs to be mashed potatoes and gravy, but when we were at the store Fran got creative. I was going to buy a bag of frozen corn, but she saw a package of frozen “Creamed corn”. Now on the old Fogies thread we have this joke about “Canned Creamed Corn”, truthfully I will not eat “tinned” vegetables (as PIO calls them). Only Tomatoes, anything else out of a can I find has a nasty taste. Back to the Creamed Corn, I had never tried this delicacy. Surprisingly enough it was really tasty! I have scoured the grocery stores in Southern California looking for frozen Creamed Corn, but alas, it appears to be a Southern or Floridian thing (you know all the retirees down there )

Here was our dinner that night, served family style.

And my plate all decked out.

I made this for myself for dinner and Franpassed on dinner. I watched the fireworks again, but didn’t take any pictures this time.

After that I headed to the tub and then bed, only one day left!

I can't find my pictures of it, but one trip we were there for a D23 event and knowing how those went, I spent the Friday night prior to the event cooking all our meals. We had baked chicken, stuffing and gravy Friday night, Meatloaf (which I set on the delay bake timer at lunch so it would be ready when we came back to the room) and served it with instant mashed potatoes and frozen green beans Saturday. Sunday we had spaghetti. I made the sauce on Friday night and only had to heat up the water to boil the pasta on Sunday and we ate the rest of the frozen green beans.

When we stay at VGC in California I will often prepare a meatloaf or bring kielbasa to make in the room with some sort of pasta and salad. We live local so we can bring stuff instead of having to order via a service like at WDW. I also have a "spice kit" which I had long before DVC. It's a plastic hardware store item with itty bitty baggies with my most common spices, oregano, garlic powder, chili, a pepper grinder, soy sauce and a many other things. We stay at efficiency hotels when traveling and find this very useful so that I can make us homestyle meals without too much hassle and expense.

 

[happyann79]

I only cook breakfast. I love eating at all the great restaurants!

 

[stargazertechie]

Well, we're pretty simple folks. Coupled with the fact that we're in a studio.

We're having milk, cheese, lunchmeat, and bread delivered from GardenGrocer. We've packed cereals, snack foods, pop tarts, miracle whip, and fruit butters.


Breakfasts will be cereals, toasts, and poptarts.

Lunches will be sandwiches (lunchmeats and peanut butter)

Dinners will be TS reservations.

 

[lovesthebeach]

We will be staying at OKW soon, and I was sad to learn that the grills are charcoal. When we were at the Aulani, we grilled steaks and chicken, made pasta one night, and had leftovers the other nights. I don't think we will want to take the time with charcoal, so we only ordered breakfast and lunch items from Garden Grocer this time.
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Are the grills at Aulani gas?

 

[carissa1970]

Are the grills at Aulani gas?

Yes, they are. Very nice set up. There were a lot of people grilling, all the tools provided at the grills.

 

[lovesthebeach]

Thanks!!

 

[twinsouvenirs]

resurrecting this thread because I found it in a search for meal ideas... I'm at the 60 day window for our February trip which means meal & grocery planning time!!!

Love the many great ideas--my idea list last trip included:
• Cereal
• Pesto Chicken Pasta
• Lunch meat /sandwiches
• tuna salad sandwiches
• French Bread Pizza
• Pancakes
• Bacon & eggs
• Lasagna (stouffers, not gonna lie)
• Pesto salmon w/ instant rice
• Soup & Salad
• Tacos
• Taco salad
• Steak salad
• Corn on the cob
• Loaded Baked Potatoes
• Shrimp boil
• mini pies (fruit in prepared crust w/sugar)
• Chicken enchilada pasta
• steak & potatoes
• Shrimp & shellfish steamed on grill
• chicken & roasted veggies
• Cheesy chicken wrap ups (pastry dough)
• Chili
• green beans/broccoli
• cucumber/chicken salad on romaine
• apple cake (apples + boxed cake mix)
• ice cream
• cookie dough
• make into ice cream sandwiches
• banana splits
• kabobs
• french toast
• lemon salmon
• baked cinnamon apple chips
• Orange Julius


The ideas on here are great! I love the recipes and that roast for a week idea is great. Now I've added chili, and cinnamon rolls

 

[Splashboat]

Franandaj - you're my hero! Wow. I will be checking out the What's for dinner thread next. We thought we did pretty well because we made BLTs, English muffin pizzas and Mickey pancakes (which I was pretty proud of until now).

 

[heynowirv]

We are the poster childs for a very old Henney Youngman joke (and if you remember him, you are also old). Q: What does your wife make for dinner? A: Reservations. I have on occassion done breakfast things such as eggs and bacon or even omelettes but even then we are usually just doing cereal, pop tarts, and yoqurt. I once cooked some steaks with vegetables and on another occassion, hamburgers. That is about it after 16 years as a member.

"Take My Wife ,Please", "I had a cousin who's a diamond cutter,he's a grounds keeper at ebbett's field"... Yea I loved Henny youngman.

But we generally make breakfast things, and pack sandwiches and fruit and such for lunch.
Enjoy!

 

[ludari]

I'm getting hungry.