Need ideas for meals that you can prepare when you’re in a kitchen that might have limited cookware, limited seasonings, etc. - we’re at an Air BnB house which is pretty well equipped, but whenever I do meal planning at home, I know I’ve got such-and-such gadget, or this-and-that seasoning (and if I don’t, I pick some up at the grocery, and have it for the future).
Sort of a broad category - but we’ve promised to feed the parents and 2 guests later this week. If all else fails, I can do some burgers on the electric grill (if it works… I have not yet tried it).
In such situations, we’ve done pastas with various jarred sauces, adding stuff to them such as bacon or meatballs or prosciutto, etc. Soups from the local market deli. Fresh bread with butter from the local market, salad fixings, convenience desserts from the bakery section.
Yep, this, and fresh fruit that doesn’t need any prep - berries, grapes, cherries, apples, citrus, etc.
Rotisserie chicken from the local grocery. Baked potatoes if you have an oven. Roasted potato chunks and carrots if you do. Simple sauteed vegetables like green beans or snap peas - oil or butter, s&p and maybe a little lemon juice. Lots of vegs can also be roasted if you have a sheet pan, oven-proof skillet, pie pan or or even just a few sheets of foil you can crimp together.
If you like fish, salmon or flounder can be baked or pan fried with s&p with oil or butter, and a little lemon.
Lemon juice makes a lot of things better, so having one on hand is always a good idea.
Our usual motel/picnic hot meal is instant ramen noodles with fresh veggies, egg, and chunks of pre-cooked sausage boiled over a camp stove (actually a butane stove for hotpot but close enough).
Fantastic idea - and disposawares come in pretty much any cooking vessel format one could wish.
One of my go to meals with access to an oven is what mrAru calls keilbasa bake - one or more links of keilbasa [or italian sausage, or bratwurst, it is flexible] a bag of baby carrots, a bag of baby potatoes, a heart of celery cut into baby carrot sized lengths, and a bag of pearl onions [when bought fresh sometimes called boiling onions] and a bulb of garlic [or jar of already peeled garlic cloves] all dumped into a ‘lasagna tin/cake tin’ a healthy drizzle of olive oil, a few grinds of pepper, I tend to use Italian Herb blend a lot - and stir it all around til everything is coated. Pop in the oven at about 400 F til done. It is also really great done in a crock pot. It can also be done stovetop if you have a 4 qt/1 gallon pot handy [I chuck in chicken broth for wet cooking - not enough to be stew but to be a braise.]
Do it yourself tacos/burritos - taco seasoning, ground beef, skillet [or you could do it with canned lentils, just drain and rinse] chopped lettuce, tomatoes, grated cheese, chopped onions, jarred salsa and nacho cheese [glues the loose veggies together and keeps them in the shell] can of refried beans. Hard and soft corn shells, flour shells as wrap.
And there is nothing wrong with a classic slider/dog, macaroni salad, cut fruit for dessert - mac salad is easy - boil up macaroni elbows or shells, fine dice celery, cucumbers, carrots, onions, mix all with mayo, some celery seed, ground pepper, maybe relish and have the usual condiments for hotdogs and burgers available - sliced tomato, sliced onion, lettuce, kraft singles cheese, relish, catsup, mustard. You can also buy premade salads.
I usually start with the intersectionality of diet. What can’t you eat, what CAN you eat. Any other diet needs or wants. Can people eat meat? Do some people NEED meat and others can’t abide it?
Get to the place first, test the stove, see what pots are there.
Then do all your menu planning
Pasta = boil + collander = probably safe to plan for
Salad = don’t need electricity = safe for non working stoves
Bags of chips = if all else fails
Beer, wine, juice, seltzer, vodka, ice, fresh lemon slices = if ALL else fails
See who is paying for what. Them’s as pays the piper, calls the tune.
This isn’t a full answer, it’s just my own starting point based on experience
Just did this (again). Stopped at a Walmart in rural Ontario, got the basics, and proceeded to our cabin in the Bruce Peninsula. I don’t cook the same as I’d cook at home; I keep things simple. Instead of making a pasta sauce, I’ll buy it it in jar. Steak is a given, because it’s awesome and delicious. A simple vegetable like corn still attached to its cob is easy.
The trick, though, is the what’s needed. I always assume there’s salt and pepper. So far, there’s always been. I never assume there’s oil, plus, I want to use my own peanut oil instead of some stupid Canadian trademarked rapeseed oil. I try not to cook anything that needs a lot of herbs and spices, so no butter chicken, no fattoush salad.
Overall, it’s more expensive than cooking at home, but cheaper than restaurants, and compared to the prices of AirBnB these days (especially in Canada), it’s still practical and delicious.
Loads of good, simple ideas, thanks! The “cooking for others” plan has changed (the parents would prefer takeout barbecue) but for just the two of us the rest of the week, I got chili fixings the first day (some prepackaged seasoning mix, some ground beef, some canned beans, some canned tomatoes) and that’s covered the rest of the meals. But we’ll be doing this sort of thing more and more often as time goes by.
The current place also has a grill - just an electric one, but we bought some frozen hamburger patties and I made those for lunch today.
My mother used to bring stuff from home, when going on a family vacation where we rented an apartment. Like, a pot of homemade spaghetti sauce etc.