crock pot vacation :)

**luckbethislady** · 07-09-2009, 04:55 PM

Hey everybody!

So I have been doing really great with being super frugal...even my husband is on board and excited about it...but recently a wrench was thrown into my frugal plan (albeit a wonderful wrench) when I found out I was pregnant with our second child...maybe I was bit too frugal with my bc (went to free clinic and had free iud put in, supposed to be good for five years but was good for only 13 months lol ) anyway...we had a family vacation planned...free hotel rooms at a hyatt...free tickets to the theme park and only going to treat ourselves to dinner...now though....we've decided that with a new baby on the way even money we spent on dinner could be better used, so i'm packing my crockpot...but all the food I take needs to be easily put into a cooler and the recipes need to be quick...any ideas? i went to the recipe section but couldn't find anything really great....so I though I would have better luck here...thanks a bunch...

**Contrary Housewife** · 07-09-2009, 05:26 PM

I don't usually associate "quick" with crockpot cooking. Does the hotel have microwaves in the rooms? You might be better off taking something like chili or stew that you can just heat up in your room, rather than try to cook something. That's what DH and I will be doing on our trip next month.

The only thing I know you can do quickly is fondue, you just have to melt the cheese and wine....

There's a lot more recipes here, some may be more to your taste: http://www.foodnetwork.com/search/de...earchType=site

**peanut** · 07-09-2009, 07:39 PM

Hmm...I'm assuming you plan to start the crockpot before you leave for the day and then have food ready when you get home. If so, you might want to make sure the housekeeping staff doesn't come in to clean your room...and unplug the crockpot!

Just tossing in 4 chicken breasts with a can of salsa and a can of tomatoes will give you a chicken taco filling for when you get back in the evening. Just throw in a soft tortilla wrap instead of a hard taco shell. Hard shells are too messy for hotel rooms!

Or a pork roast with BBQ sauce will give you some pull apart BBQ pork to have on a sub bun.

**Ceashels** · 07-09-2009, 07:39 PM

How many days is your trip?

After a day at a theme park, I'm thinking you would want something quick and portable without too much mess to clean up and no left overs to worry about.

Cooking in the crockpot will draw quite a bit of attention that might not be welcomed at the Hyatt. You may want to call the hotel or check the website to see what they have in the room already... coffee pot, microwave, ask if they have those things available at the vending machine/ice machine area or if they can be "rented" to your room and what the fee would be.

Taking foods that can be heated or toasted in a lean mean grillin' machine might be a lot easier. I would consider taking picnic type foods that can be stored in a cooler without much cooking.

If you have a grillin' machine or similar, you can toast up garlic bread (previously made and frozen) and serve it with a cold pasta salad loaded with veggies, some ham or salami and cheese.

You could premake french toast, freeze it and put it in a grilling machine with some sliced ham/turkey and cheese for a makeshift Monte Cristo.

Premade meat salads that can be made into sandwiches or stuffed into hollowed out tomatoes would be easy to put together too.

Hot dogs or brats can be quickly cooked on a little grill, can be transported frozen and don't require much clean up.

Congratulations on the addition to your family!

**jantana** · 07-09-2009, 08:02 PM

We had to evacuate in 2005 for Hurricane Ike. We had 8 foster kids with us plus our three grown kids/spouses/children. We were in 3 rooms. We had to pay for everything out of our pocket til FEMA kicked in....anyway--
I brought lots of food, to feed all of us on 1 meal at a burger place was $60. So I brought a electric skillet with us, to cut down cost and to have a least one hot meal during the day. It was great at first, but then I kept blowing the breaker out in my room

, many times I would have to wait til the next day for the maintenance man to come in and fix it. So you may want to consider that. I had the skillet in a plug by itself with nothing else running but maybe the TV and air. Good luck. I agree with the microwave it may be your best bet. Enjoy!!!!!