Everyday Systems

In a few weeks I'll be taking my 10 year old on a short mother/daughter vacation to the beach. It will be just her and me. I've booked a hotel room right on the Ocean City boardwalk so we will be within walking distance of plenty of restaurants, boardwalk food stalls, treat shops and cafes. My vacation falls on a Monday through Thursday window. I would like to stick with plain old Vanilla NoS, despite the fact that I'll be technically "vacationing". I plan on just have an S treat on the boardwalk at least once, something I really want - the sort of treat you can't just whip up at home on any random weekend, and therefore, deservedly special.

What I'm looking for is vacation compatible meal suggestions. We will eat meals out a few times for sure, but I would like to not have to eat out for every single meal. The hotel room has a mini fridge. I'm trying to think of items I could grab at the grocery store and convert into simple NoS meals, despite limited cold storage and lack of cooking facilities. I keep coming up with things like granola bars and crackers and cheese - things that seem snacky, and not like good well rounded meal ideas.

Anyone have any creative suggestions for meals a la NoS in a hotel room? Sandwiches are the one good thing I'm coming up with. I'm pretty lousy at culinary creativity. What would you guys do for satisfying meals under these circumstances? If I eat out for every meal it will end up just being too much food one way or the other (not to mention very expensive).

You could try some bagged salad, or even the salad kits. Sandwiches with fruit and/or veggies, and maybe some chips. If you're by a grocery store with a deli, maybe a rotisserie chicken and some sides, like potato salad or cole slaw.

I love all of the previous poster's ideas...

You could also do planned leftovers by ordering a meal and taking 1/2 home for the next night. Two meals for the price of one!! Might not work if you don't like eating cold leftovers...

We also buy cereal and milk for cheap breakfasts when we travel. You can always pack 2 plastic bowls and spoons if you don't to waste money buying them.

How lovely to be vacationing just you and your daughter!

I would make sandwiches and salads.

But you don't have to eat badly or eat too much whilst eating out. You could make wise choices. I love eating out and it doesn't always mean overeating or making junk choices.

Save some of that rotisserie chicken to throw into your salad the next day.

Just returned from vacation myself and followed No S. Mine was a bit different than yours because it fell on a Friday - Monday. So I had two N days and two S days. For the N days I used the following techniques: 1) Realized that the food I wanted probably wasn't very good. i.e., Ice cream is ice cream. Just because it's on vacation doesn't mean it's any better than what you get back home. There are exceptions, obviously, if it's a place that's just out of this world. I was able to save the out-of-this-world places for Saturday. 2) Eating too much of a good thing, in my experience, makes it less good. Cramming it all in just because it's vacation is not going to be fulfilling and I will leave feeling even more gross. 3) If it's non-perishable, like chocolate shop sweets or a cupcake, I brought a cooler, put it in the cooler for the ride home and then put it in the freezer at home. I can have it next weekend.

Eating out did not present a problem for me. I was able to have single servings of non-sweet foods without overdoing it. I would suggest eating at "lighter" places for 2 meals a day and having 1 large meal a day. It's possible to eat out and not treat every meal as a Last Supper. I noticed that I eat a lot fewer vegetables while on vacation. I gravitated towards the heavier foods on the menu and had to steer myself away from those. Eat a lot of salads and fruit. Of course no non-sweet food is off limits, though. I feel better when I eat a variety of things.

We just got back from vacation.

We have good success meal-wise on vacation with the following strategies:

1. I bring some food from home for the first day or two. If we have heating, I like to bring a mexican bean dip and chips. If not, pasta salad works well. If you and your daughter like pb, bring that--it works well on crackers, bread, and as a dip for carrot sticks. (Hummus and ranch dressing both work well as a dip for veggies, too). I usually pack things that might get expensive if bought in little, bitty containers (nuts especially). I don't want to have to go bargain hunting on vacation, but neither do I want to pay an arm and a leg for a handful of fresh nuts or wedge of cheese or carrot sticks....

2. We also only eat out once/day mainly because eating out too often makes us feel over-stuffed.

3. For breakfast, we rely on yogurt (fruited or otherwise), muesli/granola type cereal, and bananas or other seasonal fruit like peaches and berries. Another favorite is to get good fresh bread from a bakery (we live in Europe so that is both easy and affordable). Fresh bread with butter and jam accompanied by hot coffee, milk, or hot chocolate sustains plenty of people the world over.

4. For the other meal, we eat mezze style--light, cool foods like hummus, cheeses we don't normally get (brie, cheddar, feta), sliced deli meats (usually thinly sliced sausage, salami, proscuitto because that is what is available here),flavored cream cheese, etc., + buy bagged salad mixes and dressing (or I bring my homemade dressing in the cooler), add the fresh bread of the day (or crackers), some more fresh fruit, and call it good. If you want to get fancy, add roasted red peppers or olives or a good deli-type salad (potato, coleslaw, gourmet) from a salad bar. We usually don't get fancy!

So, it might be brie, bread, pears, almonds, wine one day; cheddar, apple, walnuts, salad, bread another day; hummus, pita chips, feta, olives, grapes a third day. The thinly sliced meats would be on their own plate for the family to help themselves....

I think the key to a delightful mezze meal is to treat it as a meal: arrange everything artfully on a (throwaway) plate and then sit down and enjoy it.

HTH,

Thanks - great tips from everyone! I'm loving the rotisserie chicken idea because with a few key ingredients I can turn that into salads and sandwiches so easily.

And hummus... yum.. I think that's dense enough to count for a meal all on its own with some pita bread and veggies.