interesting topic
I've moved this to General Holiday Enquiries where you should get more ideas

Hi Mazza11, I have never used SC accommodation, so cannot be sure, but guess that there must be a large saucepan provided. That being so, why don't you consider taking a selection of the many packet sauce and casserole mixes. It is easy enough to get fresh meat and fish and the lovely fresh vegetables are to die for. Just pop the choice in a pan and it will cook itself. A chunk of fresh bread and your away. Fresh fruit to follow and the meal is sorted! (Well, I would be anyway!) Enjoy our holiday - Jenny x

Hi there! My partner and I always go self catering as we love to eat out.
Salads are something quick and easy but we have found that a lot of places don't have seasoning or basic things like washing up liquid or dish cloths. There are usually t towels though! We take small bags with salt and pepper in. Also a little bottle of fairy and a sponge scourer. We have never struggled for pots and pans but you can always ask for anything you consider missing.

My advice is, though, don't spend too long agonising over meals or you might as well stay at home! Packet rice or pasta and buy a cooked chicken or meats. Try to find a good local supermarket and go for frozen

It depends if you have microwave oven, if you do, take a plastic pan and storage containers with lids suitable for micro. I usually go to the pound shop then throw away before coming home. Buy groceries from local supermarkets or markets its amazing what you can make with 2 rings and a micro.One year my friend took nearly all her food for a week but that was before the strict luggage allowances CBG

hi i was just going to start a new thread about what kind of food people take on holiday with them, then i saw your thread. anyway we dont normally take anything with us (me and my boyfriend) always go self catering or bb, but as the euro is low this year i am thinking of taking a few things, we normally do have lunch in a few times we like to sit on the balcony with it and we would normally do a shop on the first day for food and snacks, but think ill try to take a few things this year and just buy the things we couldnt take when there.
as we are bed and breakfast we wont have any cooking facilities only a fridge so i am thinkijg of getting one of those baby goerge formans to take as a few different things can be cooked on here and it will come in handy if we miss breakfast anytime lol. i thought we could cook things like tosties-cheese and onion, beans, ham etc bacon, sausage, chicken if we really wanted to but i dont think we will mushrooms maybe panninis etc.
i am tihnking of taking pot noodels, healthy living snack pots, maybe bacon as its different over there, tea and coffe, sweetners, not sure about cereal (i love special k crunchy nut!) anything lightweight really and spill/burst proof.

has anyone got any ideas?

oh we may have to take sum plastic plates/ glasses etc too

Mazza we have cooked things like bacon and eggs before when self catering for breakfast and toast, noodles, i supose you could cook pasta quite easiliy and have a nice salad with it or if you have a microwave jacket potatoes with whatever you want with them.

Thanks for replys, some good ideas, never thought about taking plastic containers but i will get some now. We do have a microwave in apartment and it got me thinking about those microwave dishes for making poached eggs etc, i think you can get quite a few different ones now. Pot noodles are quite bulky to take so im taking super noodles (not that i eat them) but the kids like them for some reason. You could take some cuppa soups, you can get some quite nice ones now or those packets of pasta mug shots, they would be handy if you just have a kettle. Also I think i will take some herbs and flavourings and do what jennyfrank said. If we eat out all the time the kids tend to get sick of eating the same things all the time, like me they are not very adventurous with food. Im making a list because i will forget so more ideas please!!!
mazza

I am going to take a few things with me this year, but will be keeping it simple. Bag of pasta and some Dolmio 'Stir in' sauces (the sweet pepper one is highly recommended), some packet soups/noodles. We tend to eat in for breakfast and lunch but intend to eat out for our evening meal most nights. Might look out for a takeaway when there that does cooked chicken and will do jacket potato (microwave) and some salad and fresh bread.

Keep the ideas coming quickly as I only have 3 days to go

You can use tomato or Mushroom cup a soups for sauce add a tin of tuna and cook some pasta some nice bread and thats lunch sorted, cheese & onion, cheese and tomato or ham and cheese toasties you could take those toaster pockets of just cook them in the frying pan like the French make croque monsiuer you can usually find cooked chickens most places and sometimes cooked potatoes too, good luck

brill ideas
but one big problem
the extra weight of all the food
be careful if your case is overweight it will cost you more than the food is worth

Other than doing the mandatory "bacon butties" we never cook now when we go away (although we always go SC)

But when our boys were younger, we did have a few meals in the apartment of an evening.

We always just bought food at the local supermarket.

Do you children like chicken? pork? sausage?

That's the sort of stuff we used to buy - lovely and fresh, and cook with potatoes and salad or fresh veg.
We always found that the fresh meat was really cheap - much better value than here at home.
(Although I used to take my own gravy granules - we are very fussy about our gravy are us Northerners! )

Why not take some cheap throwaway BBQ's?
They aren't heavy to take and you could use them on your balcony/patio.
(We used to do that too - and just buy the sausages and burgers in the local supermarket - they weren't dear,
and the kids loved it!)

nicJW- I totally agree, I love the sweet pepper stir in!! I'd recommend doing hot dogs too, if the kids like them, quick and easy to make!

this is a very good topic, im also looking for cheapish ways to enjoy our hols... dont mind eating out every night, the less im spending on food, the more i can spend on day trips etc....

The Schwartz sachets of things like Black Bean Sauce or Sweet and Sour etc. are very handy, or anything similar, as they take up very little space and make a nice change.

We always go s/c and we always take our own breakfast cereal, and when we are there in any country always buy quick noodles the local sausages, we have scrambled eggs. We also eat a lot of pre packed cold meat and salads but in most countries wash ur salad in bottled water have fun

Get hold of a copy of 'Cooking in a Bedsitter' by Katherine Whitehorn - it's about to be re-issued! Aimed at students and the like, it's packed with lots of ideas for food that

a) Only needs basic cooking facilities - including a section devoted to meals that only need the use of a single gas ring! (This makes it great for campers too!)

b) Doesn't take long to cook - or else can be left to cook extremely slowly while getting on with something else more enjoyable.

c) Is low cost,

d) And filling!

e) Doesn't require a stock of all the 'extras' we have stashed in the kitchen cupboards at home.

My copy from own student days is pretty dog-eared now but over the years the ideas and basic principles in it have stood me in good stead on many a SC holiday, hostelling and camping trip where I need to get nutritious food down kids in a hurry.

SM

I take a few packets of easy stuff, like rice, pasta, etc. Being a veggie abroad isn't easy!

The only thing I cook is cheese omelettes when we go self catering,quick and simple,we have these for brunch and dine out in the evenings.

Hi,

The only thing we make in our apartment is cups of tea & coffee ....... Or pour out drinks....!!

It's only hubby & I so we eat out. Probably would be different if we still had little ones, but they are all grown up now so it's our 'spoil ourselves time' !

Deb.

In my experience, whenever we have been self catering, the cooking utensils are few and far between so we always ate out. Hopefully this will have improved as it has been over 10 years and we are trying self catering again next year.