If you're driving and have room for a cooler, you should consider meal prepping! It's one of my family's favorite things to do to make our Florida vacations hassle free.
The kitchen at Papaya Place is fully stocked with everything you need to cook meals. That said, since we are on vacation, we don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. We've figured out the best way to handle that is to prepare and freeze our meals ahead of time.
Here are some of our favorites:
Pasta - We make our own homemade sauce. So, we prepare it and freeze it in either freezer bags or flat storage containers that will pack well in the cooler. There's a crock pot at the condo, so we also pack some crock pot liners for easy cleanup. We put the frozen sauce on low in the morning before we head out to parks and by the time we come home, it's piping hot. All we need to do at that point is boil water for the pasta!
Tacos - One of my grandsons' favorite meals! We make ours with ground turkey or chicken, our favorite taco seasoning and add the corn and black beans right into the meat. It freezes BEAUTIFULLY in gallon size freezer bags. Turn them on their sides and flatten them out when you stick them in the freezer, and they'll pack well with minimum space. We discovered that letting them thaw in the fridge works best, then microwave the serving sizes we needed from there.
"Unstuffed" Green Peppers - We have a tried-and-true stuffed green pepper recipe that we love. Years ago, when we used to camp with my family, my mom discovered that instead of stuffing the peppers, she could chop up the peppers and just mix it all together (casserole-like). They too freeze beautifully either in gallon freezer bags, or flat-bottomed storage containers. We've also figured out that it's best to let them thaw and microwave whatever portions you need.
Chili - Enough said. We all have a favorite chili recipe. It's another great one to put in the crockpot while frozen (always with a liner because nobody wants to scrub a crockpot) and let it cook on low all day so it's ready when you come home.
One of the reasons this works so well for us is that my grandkids are still young and we don't stay until park close. We are currently rope-droppers and only make it until around dinner time. So, if you have littles, this may be the answer for you. A huge money AND time saver.
All my best!
Happy Vacation Planning!
Louise
