[Ceashels]

DH and I are now spending our evenings fixing up a rental property. This means that after a full day of work for him and a 4-6 hr physical workday for me, we are scraping wall paper, pulling up floors, painting, etc.

Currently the place does have electricity, but no gas or water until the plumbers rerun some piping.

I need some ideas for dinners that I can pack and go that are nutricious, contain veggies and meat, and are easy for travel. We don't have a microwave there so I will need to either keep it warm or we eat it at room temperature.

The less mess ..... the better.

I am thinking along the lines of individual casseroles (in small/mini loaf pans). I can heat a brick wrapped in foil and use it as a warming element in the travel box. I don't have much time during the afternoons this week so I need to keep it simple.

I have in my freezer/fridge:

hm sliced meatloaf
browned ground beef seasoned with mexican spices
browned sausage
hm meatballs
eggs
some cheese
thin sliced ham (DH gets ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch so I hate giving it too him 2x/day)

The rest of the pantry is fairly well stocked with the usual rice, legumes (dried), an occasional can of soup, linguini, orzo, pie crusts, some tomato sauces, etc.

Any other ideas? I'm sure we (and by we I mean ME!) will get tired of pasta pretty quick.

 

[PrairieRose]

I don't have a lot of ideas but one thing that I do quite often when I'm in a crunch for a quick meal is I eat an apple with wheat thins and peanut butter. It's filling and fairly nutritious and very easy....your dh might not be so keen to call that lunch however :lol: Later in the day I'll have a yogurt, which tides me over till supper.

 

[forHISglory]

We all have different ideas of what is acceptable for a meal, but my family was pretty flexible. We used to travel a lot, and carried all our meals with us. (couldn't afford to travel AND eat out! If you know what I mean...).

Anyway, I would make potato salad with bacon or keilbasa in it, and pasta salad with ham and cheese. I put these into large ziplock bags and put into the cooler. We ate a lot of sandwiches, also, along with cheese sticks and bagels. We toted along fresh fruit, usually apples, and sliced them up for every meal.

We also carried some plastic bowls and mugs and silverware. We purchased 3 water heaters (I don't know how else to describe them). They were about a buck apiece. They plug in, and have a coil at the other end with a clip that holds the coil to a mug or bowl. Fill the mug or bowl with water and in about a minute or so, the water is hot. With that in mind, we carried instant soup, instant coffee and cocoa, and instant oatmeal (and dried milk). We could have breakfast at the motel by just plugging in! This was before so many motels started offering breakfasts. We had sandwiches and salads for lunch, and hot soup and sandwich for supper.

So....... those are some ways we managed, and it was usually a lot of fun.

 

[forHISglory]

Forgot to add that the prepared salads usually only lasted 2-3 days. We stopped at grocery stores then and got lettuce (we carried salad dressing in the cooler) and tomatoes. We often carried with us boiled eggs and ham, and then could make a chef salad.

We often fried a chicken before we left and put it into a ziplock bag. We loved to eat cold fried chicken at our picnic stops.

 

[sunshine]

I have a small crockpot that I use the liners in while traveling (we cook in the car with an inverter).

Can you use a solar cooker where you'll be? google for them online to get directions to make/buy one.

A coffee pot for hot water, and you can do instant soups (again google for recipes - try recipes in a mug), ramen noodles, even frozen veggies when doused with water from a coffee maker will do.

 

[bagpipes00]

Or you could buy a campstove that uses propane to cook/heat on. My BF and I lived in a hotel for awhile (bad times) and that was all I had to cook on. I made Hamburger/Tuna Helper on it, pasta and sauce, etc.