So I’m out of town working and staying in a hotel for the next two months. It’s nice; got a little desk and dorm-style fridge, etc. They gave me dishes, silverware, and a hot plate, but the problem is there’s no freezer. My culinary skills are somewhat, uh, lacking, and normally I would buy some chicken breasts or burger meat or something, freeze it all and defrost one in the morning.
But what can I do without a freezer? I bought bread and lunch meat and soups and whatnot, but this boy from Oklahoma needs meat for dinner. Do they sell cheap freezers at Walmart or something? That might be worth the money in the long run…
You know that once you cook meat, it stores in the fridge for at least several days without a problem. So if you bought a pound of ground, and cooked up four quarter pounders, you could refrigerate three of them and warm one up for the next three days. What I used to do was make a skillet full of fried potatoes, onions and sausage (or ground beef), which reheats very nicely, and can also work for a breakfast hash with a fried egg on top.
See, it’s this kind of forward thinking that separates the humans from the animals. I looked up how long I could keep raw chicken, etc. in the fridge, and it was like “One day, sucka”. But of course, yes, cook the thing first and it buys you some time. I’ll pick up some foil or Saran wrap and call it a plan. Cooking party in room 231!
Any meat and pasta dish is exceptionally re-heatable.
Cook up some chili one day, eat it with crackers. Cook macaroni the next day and add it to the chili. Chili is often better the next day.
How often will you be able to shop?
As long as the fridge is cooling sufficiently you can keep meat products a couple of days. Get some big Ziploc bags and repackage it.
I’d ask hotel management if they can arrange for a freezer to be in your room, in addition to the refrigerator. (Or perhaps switch to an extended stay hotel; many have a regular stove instead of a hot plate and a full-sized refrigerator.)
Back before in-room refrigerators were common in hotel rooms, friends of my parents would claim that they needed one for medication storage. They were usually able to get one, usually for free, from the hotel. (They actually used the refrigerator for food storage.)
When I was traveling a lot for work*, I used to start the week by baking up a turkey breast. Then I’d get some bread and veg and I was set for the week. Boiling up some eggs for the week is also helpful. If you don’t have an oven the grocery stores often have turkey and chickens already baked.
My experience has been that the Homewood/Marriott/Embassy suites are larger, more comfortable, and often cheaper than the other hotels.
Another idea; visit the prepared foods section of a local supermarket. They often have a bunch of meat- and veg-based dishes that are already cooked. Not the cheapest way to eat, but there will be some variety.
Well, chicken, yeah, you probably don’t want to leave it there for more than a couple days. One day is a bit too conservative, though, IMHO (I know what the USDA says.). You can usually get a few days out of it (around 2-3, in my experience), unless you’re buying discount meat on the verge of expiry. Beef and pork you can push to five days. Then you want to throw it in the freezer ASAP, but you can still get at least a day out of it. That said, the suggestion to cook it first is a fine one and one I would follow in your situation. (Particularly because it’s just so convenient. Cook up a bunch of meat and eat it for the next few days.)
A cheap freezer runs 100-150 bucks but you could live without it.
If you are looking to eat healthy, you need five servings of vegetables a day. Pick the ones you like most; canned ones are fine.
If you like onions, peppers, tomatoes, etc. chop a weeks worth in one sitting. Use them for morning omelettes, healthy snacks in plastic bags, in salad and added to dinner with steak, chicken or sausage. Also get some canned corn and mashed potato, plus any other veggies you would eat.
Healthy snacks — small bags of almonds, hummus and crackers, protein bars, small rice or chocolate puddings, low sugar gelatin, yogurt.
Chicken breast for sandwiches and stir fries. With little cooking skill add sauce to make curries, Thai dishes, chicken with black bean sauce…
Steak! Pan fried is best anyway, fry some onions and peppers. Mustard or HP sauce.
Sorry. While editing, I put these sentences out of order. The “throw in the freezer ASAP” part is supposed to follow the first sentence about discount meat (like the manager’s specials stickers you see on meat that has a “sell by” date of today or tomorrow.
