I know that when some folks go on vacation, part of the experience is eating out and having a break from any food prep responsibilities. For a number of reasons, we typically don’t consider that part of our vacation experience. It comes from a combination of the needs of avoiding wheat products, saving money, and using the time on other activities instead of being at restaurants. On one road trip to Nashville we made a grocery store stop instead of fast food and gave each kid a dollar amount to make their own choices (which was very interesting!). We might consider a meal out here or there like a dinner at a place recommended by the locals or a quick stop along the way, but generally if we’re not camping we’re staying somewhere that allows us the option of cooking for ourselves. However, when I say cooking, I do not mean quite what I mean when I’m home. Really I would like to eat like we eat at home, but spending a fraction of the time cooking!
I’m not a nutritionist or dietary expert, but I’m a creative mom who tries to feed my family a variety of types of foods and balance protein, carbs, and fats. For this particular trip, we were part of a group of seven people staying together at a cabin in northern Ontario, but my family made up the bulk of the guests. Because of this, I offered to take care of dinner main dishes in particular, but I also wanted to have plenty of breakfast and lunch options available for all. Another reason I wanted to offer to do dinners is that my kids feel their best when they avoid wheat products, and for those not used to cooking that way it can be overwhelming and potentially expensive if you don’t have an arsenal of recipes. While we’re not strictly gluten free, a week of gluten-eating would result in avoidable anxieties, irritability, and meltdowns. No one’s favorite way to spend vacation.
So, if you are looking for calorie counts, macros, and dietary advice this post is not for you, or you may need to do some more of your own research. If you’re looking for perfected recipes with measurements, this is not that post This is simply me creatively feeding seven people for a week to make sure everyone has the energy they need to do all the exciting things we have planned and hoping to give you ideas to do the same, to save money and time on your trip so that you can afford to have all the experiences you want to have.
It pains me to look through the gluten free “sections” of most grocery stores. Nothing is fresh, prices are exorbitant, and options are limited. Can someone please come up with a reasonable gluten free hamburger bun?! I have recently, however, discovered Trader Joe’s nice selection of gluten free bakery items. I’m not saying they’re cheap by any means, but at least it makes it more possible for me to give the kids a comparable alternative to the standard wheat items. My picks for this trip were the Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread, Gluten Free Almost Everything Bagels, Gluten Free English Muffins, and Gluten Free Hamburger Buns. These have all been winners with my kids and in this case it was worth it to pick up one of each. I completed the remainder of my grocery shopping for the trip at Aldi, which helped me stay on a reasonable budget.
My method of meal prepping for a vacation has evolved for a few reasons:
- I want to do the bulk of my grocery shopping at home in advance. I know where to find what I want and how much it will cost. I also don’t want to spend vacation time at the grocery store when I could be doing something fun. The exception would be buying local seafood, produce, etc. On this particular trip I knew we would be quite remote and getting to the grocery store would be a long trip.
- I do not want to transport raw meat in my cooler if I can help it. The last thing I want to do is make someone sick from cross contamination.
- I want vacation meals to be quick and easy, reasonably priced, and hearty since our trips are usually very active. They have to freeze and reheat well.
- I love to cook but I prefer not to follow recipes unless I’m baking. I like to get ideas from others but typically take it in a little different direction – which is what I hope you’ll do as well! The final steps to these recipes are simple and anyone on the trip can “make dinner”, so responsibilities can be shared – even with the kids! Because final steps involve few ingredients and dishes, cleaning up is easy. These meals would also be great for meal prep for a busy week at home.
On this particular trip we decided that I would take care of main dishes and a family member would do side dishes for the seven of us on the trip. This took the pressure off of others to keep main dishes gluten free, since that tends to be difficult and expensive for those who haven’t gotten some practice with it, and I didn’t want anyone else to have to cover the cost of feeding my very hungry boys for the week! I was confident I could create an reasonably priced, crowd pleasing set of meals. We kept sides easy once we were there and had baked potatoes, salads, and fresh or frozen vegetables alongside our main dishes.
| Main dish | Items needed | How to prep | Final steps |
| Pasta with meat sauce | Pasta of choice (We used Banza – gluten free and very filling) Ready made pasta sauce of your choice – 2 jars ground beef, pork, whatever you prefer – I used around 3.75 lbs uncooked | Cook meat, season lightly. Add sauce, cook together for flavor. Add herbs and spices to taste. Cool quickly, transfer to freezer bags and freeze flat | Allow meat sauce to thaw just enough to get out of the bag and break up, then heat until hot in a slow cooker, skillet, large pan, etc. Prepare pasta according to package directions. Combine before serving if desired. |
| BBQ chicken sandwiches | -Chicken thighs or your preferred cut -Favorite BBQ sauce -Buns | Season chicken as desired (will be covered with sauce later). Bake until tender. Shred with forks or cut up. Transfer to freezer bag and freeze flat. | Allow chicken to thaw just enough to get out of the bag, then add BBQ sauce and heat until hot using your method of choice. Serve with buns if desired. |
| Simplest sloppy joes | -Ground beef -Ketchup -Yellow mustard -Brown sugar | Cook ground beef, drain. Add ½ – ¾ c ketchup for each pound of ground beef, more if needed to create a nice sauce. Add mustard and brown sugar to taste and continue cooking for a few minutes to allow flavors to combine. Start with a tablespoon or two of each per lb. Salt and pepper to taste. Cool quickly, transfer to freezer bags and freeze flat. | Allow to thaw just enough to get out of the bag, then heat until hot in a slow cooker or skillet. Serve with buns, or over a starch such as rice or baked potatoes. |
| Tex-Mex chicken bake | -Chicken thighs or your preferred cut (but dark meat is less likely to overcook) -Seasonings for chicken: salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, extra to add to final prep -1 can each of black beans, sweet corn, tomatoes with green chilies -Cheddar cheese -Sour cream if desired (but we use Greek yogurt) -Flour and/or corn tortillas -Hot sauce if desired | Sprinkle seasonings lightly over both sides of chicken, and bake until you reach a safe cooking temp at 400℉. I cook dark meat chicken to 180℉. Shred with forks or cut upTransfer to freezer bag and freeze flat | Thaw chicken slightly then place in baking pan such as a 9×13” glass dish, alternatively you can throw it all in the slow cookerRinse and drain beans and corn and pour evenly over chicken. Spread tomatoes with chilis over chicken. Add additional taco seasonings to taste. Bake until hot at 375℉ or in slow cooker until bubblyTop with cheddar cheese and bake for 5 more minutes to meltServe over rice or shred and serve with tortillas as you would tacos – topping possibilities are endless really, but I keep it pretty simple on vacation |
As I began to cook around 1:30 pm my strategy was to combine protein prep as much as possible. I needed cooked ground beef for 2 meals to feed seven people, so I purchased 3 packs of 90/10 ground beef sirloin totaling about 7.5 lbs to split between the two “recipes” (using this term loosely). That’s a little over ½. pound of meat per person per meal, but I anticipated that we would have leftovers that could be eaten for a snack or lunch the next day (we did have a little). That’s about $45 for two meals on ground beef alone – but still less expensive, higher quality and more filling than eating out. Somehow even a fast food meal seems to cost the 4 of us nearly that much or more these days.
I broke up the raw ground beef a little with a knife then transferred it to my 9 qt pot to cook all at once. I waited to season it until after it was browned. While it started cooking, I preheated the oven to 400℉ and began to prep the chicken thighs. Again I was cooking protein for two recipes at once, this time using my two largest sheet pans (thanks Aldi!).
For the two chicken recipes I used 3 packs of boneless skinless chicken thighs totaling about 8.5 lbs, costing around $23. I used chicken thighs because it’s what my kids prefer, but it’s also cheaper per pound than chicken breast and harder to overcook. I seasoned the chicken before cooking right on the sheet trays. I gave both batches of chicken a dusting of salt, pepper, and garlic powder on both sides, then to one pan I also added around tablespoon each of cumin and chili powder for the Tex-Mex recipe. After seasoning the chicken I placed it in the oven to cook for 20 minutes at 400℉ on convection roast, aiming for an internal temp of 180℉ (personal preference for food safety) and rotating the two pans halfway through. Without convection or if your chicken was extremely cold to begin with it would likely take a little longer to reach that temperature.
By this point it had been around 25 minutes and the ground beef which I had been stirring occasionally was cooked through. I drained off 2 cups of liquid and separated a little over half of the meat into my 14” skillet for the sloppy joes. I lightly salted each batch of meat (can adjust later) and added the ketchup, yellow mustard, and brown sugar to the skillet, then the two jars of pasta sauce to the pot. I skimmed the fat from the broth I drained from the beef, then divided it fairly evenly between the two pans as they cooked to add to the sauces for richness. I allowed those to simmer for another 30 minutes or so, then tasted and adjusted seasonings as needed.
As the beef simmered, the chicken reached the desired temperature. I allowed it to cool slightly and then began to shred the chicken for the BBQ sandwiches. I left the Tex-Mex chicken in large pieces, but you may want to shred or cut up this batch as well. After allowing everything to cool, I transferred each recipe to a gallon freezer bag (the pasta sauce took two) and labeled the bags with the contents and date. I froze the bags completely flat on sheet pans in our chest freezer for more efficient packing in the cooler.
Short side story…upon returning home from a lovely children’s theater production of Les Misérables that evening we found that our fridge had stopped working, and the contents were practically warm at that point. Cue panic mode. By that point it was after 11 pm and we were supposed to be sleeping so we could take off on our long drive around 4:30 the next morning, but instead we were doing a complete fridge and freezer clean out and trying to salvage what we could. Since the prepared meals were frozen by then, I packed the cooler at that time so that there was more space in the chest freezer for items from the fridge that we could freeze and save. I think we may have finally gone to bed around 2:30…needless to say, our prepped meals ended up in the cooler longer than we planned, yet they remained pretty well frozen until our arrival at the cabin 36 hours later (we traveled over two days). I used a frozen gallon jug of water – something we always keep on hand – instead of ice cubes and that really helped keep things cold.
All of the meals were a hit with the crowd at the cabin. It was so nice to be able to provide the main dishes for four of our dinners, while still having the majority of the time to enjoy each others company while fishing, paddle boarding, hiking, and exploring rather than doing food prep and long clean up tasks. The final steps of the recipes were so simple that anyone who was home could heat things up without needing much instruction. We were fortunate to be staying in a cabin with a thoroughly stocked kitchen, but these meals could be heated in whatever ways you had available – slow cooker, skillet, oven, etc. If needed, you could even cook and freeze pasta or rice beforehand. Clean up usually involved just a few basic items and therefore was done quickly, too.
I hope you find these ideas as helpful as I did. As far as our cabin was from both grocery stores and restaurants (and with our dietary restrictions), we had to have a well thought out plan for meals. I’d love to hear from others who prep travel meals as well – what are your favorite meals to prep and freeze?
Happy exploring!
Emily