What food do you bring when going on vacation?

Executive Member Joined: Feb 12 2007 Posts: 299

We are planning to go away for a few days and there is no kosher food there. We are driving so we can take pretty much anything with us. I need some good ideas for what to bring along for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We will have a fridge in our hotel room.
Thanks

Active Poster Joined: Aug 31 2011 Posts: 96

Find out if the hotel you are staying in has a continental breakfast. If yes, very often they will have kosher cold cereal, whole fruit and even bagels with a hechsher. For lunch we take string cheese, yogurt/leben, prepared tuna in a container, bread and rolls, supper deli, if you have a george forman grill you can bring that with food to grill.

will you have access to a microwave?
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Really Awesome Mom!

Gold Member Joined: Dec 26 2007 Posts: 1354

If you live in Brooklyn, Schick's sells frozen meals that have to be microwaved - they're very good. Mendelsohns's and Tuv Taam both sell frozen meals like pastas, blintzes.

peanut butter and rice cakes
yogurt drinks (the ones with secure recloseable covers), hard eggs and string cheese
vacuum packed cold cuts with rolls and ketchup
pop-top cans of tuna and small squirt bottle of mayo

fruits and vegetables if you won't get to them locally

(I like to freeze individual portions of raw preseasoned protein, and bring that along with a mini travel size George Foreman for fresh suppers. Think burgers. Grilled chicken. With buns of course. You can also bring 5 minute rice if you will have access to boiling water. Use the hotel coffee maker to get boiling water. Place rice in plastic bowl. Add appropriate amount of boiling water. Cover bowl with plastic plate (6" plates fit perfectly over 12 oz. bowls to form a seal that works for this). Let sit 10 minutes. Fluff. Salt.)

don't forget a good real knife, salt, and papergoods including plates, bowls, napkins, cups, cutlery

Gold Member Joined: Jan 16 2012 Posts: 1659

Platinum Member Joined: Aug 17 2011 Posts: 6012

I freeze the milk before traveling so it stays fresher for the journey.

There are also meals I think from Mealmart which which have self heating packages. I also bring individual instant noodle soup - the kind you just add water.

I also bring my crockpot and hotplate.

Most importantly, will you have an access to fridge, freezer, microwave, hob?
Do you have an option of bringing small grills or portable hob?
Will you have access to packaged/ready-to-eat kosher items (cereals, crackers etc)?

If you have an access to fridge/freezer and microwave/hob, you can pretty much prepare the same thing
you make at home. (That�s what we do on self-catering holiday). Bring 1 pot and 1 frying pan, basic cooking utencils (knife, ladle, spatula, cutting board, can opener) and use disposables for eating. I personally find it easier to stick to either meaty or milky (we usually do milky and fish only as it�s much easier to find kosher fish and we usually have milky b�fast). Omelettes, pasta, soup, stir-fry, pretty much normal things.

If you have only access to microwave, you�ll be a bit challenged but perfectly doable if you can cook
beforehand, freeze and use the microwave for heating. Cook/freeze pasta, casseroles, soup, grilled fish/meat, meatballs, etc.

If there�s no access to microwave, just a small hotel-room fridge, you�ll be more limited. Cheese or cold cuts, smoked salmon, hard boiled eggs, ready-to-eat soy products and tinned fish for protein. Tinned veggies, fresh fruits/veggies, and rolls/crackers/pita for starches.
Stock up on fruits and vegetables (the ones that don�t require cooking, eg carrots, cukes, tomatoes) locally. For a few/several days it�s perfectly doable.

Gold Member Joined: Sep 07 2011 Posts: 1011

If you can get a small one burner to plug in u can bring that along w/ 1-2 pots and cook some pasta, rice, canned beans, etc.
also, things like cutlets travel well, and can be eaten at room temp if you can't heat them up.
I once flew w/ my crock pot but it got really mangled on the way home- not sure how, but if you're driving it should be fine.

Executive Member Joined: Sep 14 2009 Posts: 459

Pomegranate will vacuum pack anything from their takeout dept. Chicken cutlets are great & don't have to be heated up. Delish!

Executive Member Joined: Apr 29 2008 Posts: 324

Last year we took the self-heating meals made by La Briute. We ordered them from kosher.com. There are both fleshig ones and milchig ones. My kids absolutely loved watching them steam. They taste pretty good considering they are in a shelf stable box. We used those for our dinners.

For lunch, we take sliced cheese, tofurkey, and tortilla wraps. PB and J is always good, too.

For breakfast, string cheese and almonds. Are you going somewhere where you can buy fruit, or will you be in a very remote spot?

You will need a cooler for the cheese and the tofurkey.

Executive Member Joined: Aug 09 2011 Posts: 308

we did cereal and milk for breakfast,
lunch-grilled cheese sandwiches, frozen potato knishes, tuna/pb sandwiches
supper- tradional soup, cold cuts, canned corn, baby corn..
BBQ on disposable grill with frozen marinated chicken cutlets, franks, burgers,
every day different supper on a grill

Executive Member Joined: Oct 19 2010 Posts: 256

You can take Yitzys frozen pancake batter and cook it in a sandwich maker. Don't forget the syrup Very Happy

Makes for a more filling breakfast than cereal and milk.

Active Poster Joined: Oct 02 2011 Posts: 42

Will you have a microwave oven?
We had ready dinners from our local Meal Mart vacuum packed in double wrap(that took care of kashrus concern). Just popped the trays into the microwave oven and had delicious supper in a few.

Senior Member Joined: Jun 28 2012 Posts: 123

We always bring along our toaster oven. It doesn't take up alot of room and then we can make grilled cheese, frozen pizza, pizza bagels & more.