Today I had some time to do a bit of prep for our holiday, this time in our caravan. Cooking was top of the list, I like to take some basic home cooked ready meals to save on cooking from scratch every day. We eat pretty much the same meals in the caravan as we do at home, even if we are going out for the day we will pack a simple picnic and take a flask.
3tubs of chilli and 3tubs of bolognaise and a tub of mince and veg. I will also cook the gammon the day before we go and slice it on the machine, pop it into bags, freeze it overnight and take that for the picnic rolls, if its flat packed it will sit on top of the tubs in the freezer compartment. I will probably take a meal ready cooked just to warm up for the first night, once we have arrived and got set up the last thing we want to do is cook.
The freezer compartment is a fairly decent size and there wont be any problem getting all those things in, I will probaby get a small tub of ice cream in too. In the fridge bit we take the usual items from home including sausges and bacon and whatever is ready in the salad garden. There are always supermarkets for re stocking when we need to.
The caravan gas cooker is nearly full size with 4 rings, a grill which is quite slow and a great oven so there isnt a problem with cooking facilities. Some of the modern caravans have a microwave fitted as standard but for us this would be a waste of space as we tend to use non commercial sites which don't have electric hook ups, we rely on gas and solar panel and a small gas bbq. When the oven is not in use we use it for storing our bread and eggs, it does keep cooler in there than in the cupboard, I have even put ice packs in there if its really hot! You have to utilise the space you have :-)
We are both looking forward to trundling off into the countryside or the seaside for a few weeks, our plan is....not to have a plan and just go where we fancy on the day. We have never had any trouble getting a pitch a short notice, with mobile phone and ipad on hand its so easy. The Caravanning and Camping Club have temporary holiday sites run by members for the members and for most of them you dont book you just turn up, they are mostly on school sites or farmers fields, we love them....they are friendly and cheap!! I can't wait to go!
What do you take with you on holiday if you are self catering or do you mostly eat out?
Back tomorrow
Take care
Karen
Thank you to all of you for commenting on my posts xxx
Grills in caravans are always sooooooo slow, I wonder why. When we went with three children and we all had toast it would take ages.
ReplyDeleteWe used to use Temp holiday sites too went on a good one where we could swim in a school pool, can't remember where- south downs somewhere.
Hope you have a really good time when you get away, do you avoid school holidays?
To be realistic..the grill is almost useless! Lol. We try and avoid the half term breaks and bank holidays but we do go away in August. The sites we use dont seem to attract too many families and what kids there are are usually well behaved.
DeleteLovely. The oven looks so cute. Have a grea time. X
ReplyDeleteThank you. I will try and enjoy myself, I think I will show hubby how to use the cooker first :-) xx
DeleteI like the sound of cheap! we were looking at caravans as at least we could get away and take the dogs with us.
ReplyDeleteStorage is storage and I love the way you make use of all you have lol
Its a great holiday, you do meet lovely like minded people. Hubby always says the accomodation stays the same but the view outside is constantly changing....very true. xx
DeleteThat's a fabulous cooker. Having the oven makes such a difference. I do admire how organised you are :) x
ReplyDeleteFran you will know all about utilising all the space, with living on a barge. Hope you are enjoying your time at home. x
DeleteThat sounds like a wonderful adventure. We tend to take breakfast things on holiday, like cereal bars or breakfast biscuits. It's quick and simple and doesn't take much space. It saves money by doing this instead of paying out for a huge meal that we don't end up finishing!
ReplyDeleteWe try and look at every trip as a new adventure and we both enjoy the simple living aspect. Our breakfasts are mostly cereals with just the occassional treat of a bacon sarnie, we never have a full english. x
DeleteYou're so organised! We're going self catering for a few days in Wales in August, but sadly we are very limited as to what we can take with us as we have to travel by train. We do tend to go out for a cheapy breakfast mid morning and then we don't eat again until evening time.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kim. I love going to Wales, we have been doing it for over 35 years, first of all in a flat and now in the caravan. Brunch and dinner sounds good to me. Enjoy your break, I hope the welsh weather is good to you. x
ReplyDeleteI do the same as you and freeze things to take with us. We do eat a lot of tinned things too when we are away as they don't take too long to heat up. We do have a microwave so usually on the first night I take cooked baked potatoes and just heat them up with a couple of fillings.
ReplyDeleteI hardly ever buy food when we are away as the campsite shops are usually quite expensive. We take it all with us.
It is definitely the only way we can holiday with all our dogs!
Hope you have a great time xx
The caravan and camping site across the road from us is always filling and emptying, it's a lovely little site, it's nice to see our neighbours so busy at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteOur cockerels calls to theirs every day, it sounds like they're yodelling in the hills :-)
Yes, we try to take foods from home if we self cater anywhere, it's quite easy to sit and plan a menu before you go and take just the right amount of food and saves an absolute fortune.