We recently went out of town for a long weekend. Trying to eat real food at a restaurant is challenging plus we have a 2 year old. So for me I would rather eat at home or at least somewhere that my toddler can play so we all have an enjoyable evening. Our solution for this trip worked out great.
First we stopped at a grocery store. This one happened to be Sprouts. (It was next door to the beer store that was on the list to stop at.) I bought most of what we needed for the 3 breakfast’s, 3 lunch’s, and 2 dinner’s we would need for our stay. We did have to stop at one more grocery (this time Whole Foods). For pastured eggs and sushi for our dinner that night.
Second stop was Walmart for a inexpensive toaster over, a glass dish that fits inside, paper towels, paper plates, and plastic ware.
We spent $125 at the groceries, $37 at Walmart, and $2.50 for dish soap I had to get later. This gave us a total expense of $165.50.
So what did we get and how did we cook it?
All of our Breakfasts: eggs and Applegate sausage (Kerry Gold herb butter). I was surprised that scrambled eggs can be cooked in a toaster over quite successfully. Our hotel had paper cups with the coffee maker, other wise I would have needed to purchase these as well. I used the cup to scramble the eggs. I greased the dish with butter and cooked the sausage until done then added the eggs until cooked. Really only had to stir once. Most everything got cooked at 350 degrees
Lunch 1: Applegate Hotdogs with mixed veggies (Kerry Gold herb butter). I bought a frozen bag of organic mixed veggies and put in in the greased dish with the hot dogs. Then cooked until done.
Lunch 2: Wild Salmon with Broccoli (Kerry Gold herb butter). The broccoli was a little challenging to cut with a plastic knife, but it worked. I buttered the dish and added the chopped broccoli. While that was heating I fought with the package of salmon until I got it open and added it to the dish until done.
Lunch 3: We had Applegate salami with organic swiss cheese in the car on the way to the airport.
Dinner 1: was sushi.
Dinner 2: Bunless Burgers and potatoes (Kerry Gold herb butter). Cutting the potatoes was more challenging than the broccoli. A real knife would have been helpful, but again it was possible. And my toddler was happily playing with Dada. I cooked the potatoes just like very thing else, but with extra butter. When they were just about done I added the pre-made grass fed bison burger patties I found at the store. Two patties got put under the potatoes and one on top. Turns out it would have been better to have two on top and one on bottom as the top one was more burger like and the bottom ones more moist. We added Swiss cheese to the burgers.
Snacks included: 2 pints of blueberries, 1 bag of frozen peaches, cheese, rice crackers, freeze dried pineapple, and olives.
We did freeze our raw milk to take with us. This method worked great for us. We figured we spent a little less than what we would have had we eaten out instead. What have you done to eat Real Food while on Vacation?