Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Vacation Cooking!

Happy Kitchen Tip Tuesday from beautiful Sunriver, located in Central Oregon. We vacation here on a regular basis...well, at least once a year, twice if we count our youth group senior retreat. 
My kitchen tip for today is regarding vacation cooking....since we're vacationing this week. One thing we've found that comes in handy when vacationing is to stay in homes where we aren't forced to eat out all the time, or eat the hotels less than healthy food. I can control what we eat and ultimately save lots of money.
This year we were on a tighter budget. Often times we plan our vacation right at a pay period and stay for almost two weeks so we just use the grocery money for those two weeks...works great! This time however it fell in between pay periods and so I only had a certain number to work with, knowing I still needed to shop when I got home. 
* I planned our meals frugally with meals that were yummy, healthy and not expensive to make. Meals that we could use for lunches the next day.
* I also cut back on buying the number of snacks that I purchased. I went with less to see if we could do it. It's been no problem. I bought a bag of popcorn and we've eaten a lot of that as well as some crackers with hummus and salsa.
* It's best to plan meals that can be made quickly so you're not necessarily spending all day in the kitchen. Sometimes that's fun though! We love grilling, so staying in a home with a grill is important.
*If I'm vacationing in a spot where I know the grocery stores are more expensive I shop ahead of time or research where the best places to shop will be. 
*It's also nice to stay in a well stocked home where maybe all your spices and oils are already there. Otherwise I bring those things from home.
*Whenever possible prepare some things ahead of time. Mixes, etc...one year I brought from home, only the ingredients that I knew I'd need for what I wanted to make. A few times when I was able to bring a large cooler I made things like spaghetti sauce and taco meat ahead of time. 
*Make things that are special: sometimes we do biscuits and gravy, make homemade ice cream, etc..things that we just do everytime we vacation. 
Now granted, if money's not an issue I splurge more, but this year it has worked great with a tighter budget. 
With Joy UNquenchable,

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