Preparing food for a long weekend in Pontins!

code-a-holic · 2 July 2006 at 8:40AM

I have searched the forum for a thread about preparing food for holidays in advance but with no luck. Can anyone remember what the thread was called?
If not - any genious suggestions on feeding a family 5 OS on our Free holiday!
Will have a microwave and cooker, but want to make meals ahead - not much of a holiday if im cooking all day!

annie-c · 2 July 2006 at 9:23AM

How long are you going for?

Best to make as much use of the fridge/freezer compartment as possible, so do a couple of dishes that you can take, eg a casserole or 2 ready made in the slow cooker to store in the fridge and heat up while you are there, and a couple that you can keep in the freezer compartment for later on. Chilli and Bolognese sauce store well in ziplock bags that you can cram more easily into the freezer. Take dried rice and pasta to cook on the day you eat them.

Cheese, ham, pickes and more 'robust' salad veg like peppers, cucumber, carrots, celery will last well in the fridge - and you could make your own dips to take with you - hummous will last 3-4 days in the fridge.

code-a-holic · 2 July 2006 at 9:41AM

Travelling for 5 hrs and arriving fri afternoon. Then leaving on Monday, same drive back.
So need to preopare picnics for the travelling time too.
One concern i had was that the freezer would be too small to put in a box of a frozen meal - ziplock bag is a great idea!

annie-c · 2 July 2006 at 9:43AM

If you make it the day before travelling and store it unfrozen (take the ziplock in a box while travelling!), then you can literally mould the ziplock bags to fit the shape of the icebox.

annie-c · 2 July 2006 at 9:46AM

Additional (prob obvious!) coolbox tip: buy half a dozen 500ml bottles of mineral water and freeze to use as icepacks in your picnic bag box for the journey. Once defrosted they can be drunk and re-used for water/squash over the weekend. Cost of bottled water/drinks onsite will be horrendous! Also take multipacks of coke etc if needed - usually can get them on BOGOFF before you go and stock up your own fridge..

Pooky · 2 July 2006 at 10:45AM

From my experience, not all the fridges have a freezer section - well not at Camber sands anyway. We learnt that it's easier to take things like a bolognaise sauce frozen from home and it will happily sit and defrost in the fridge for a few days.

I did a huge cook up yesterday to freeze down for our weekend there next weekend, I've got a tomato and vegetable pasta sauce, made some h/m burgers and a chicken, cheese and pasta bake that's all ready in a cassarole dish to go straight in the oven when it's defrosted.

I've got loads of water bottles that I will freeze down for the journey, no point taking up room in the cold bag with freezer packs when the bottles will come in handy.

Just remember to pack things like, sauces, salt, pepper, a bin bag, tea-towel, washing up liquid etc.

Hope you have a lovely holiday :j

code-a-holic · 2 July 2006 at 3:06PM

Good tips there! Last time we went on a weekend like this we spent a fortune on food and drinks out - not going to make the same mistake this time!

recovering_spendaholic · 2 July 2006 at 6:10PM

Have you got a George Foreman grill? I use mine all the time and it is great for taking away because you can use it to grill meat, bacon etc and also to make toasted sandwiches - what I do is take those part-cooked baguettes and you can split them and fill them raw and then cook them on the George. sorry if you haven't got one and this is no help!

Pink. · 2 July 2006 at 7:37PM

Hi code-a-holic,

These older threads might give you some more ideas:

Help please with my s/c holiday

Self Catering Holiday - How can I do it on the cheap

Self Catering Holiday

Pink

cheekymole · 2 July 2006 at 7:40PM

We take packets of pasta (the ready flavoured ones) with salad and bread also soups etc

code-a-holic · 2 July 2006 at 8:51PM

Pink winged - you are an angel! Thank you.
I knew i had read the threads but everything i searched brought nothing!
Stock the printer with paper now to save all these handy tips!

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Preparing food for a long weekend in Pontins!

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