Saturday, November 26, 2016

Expensive groceries & a menu plan

I forget how expensive some groceries can be in Hawaii. Our budget was $250 for the week (all meals, minus one lunch & dinner out). We have spent just under $300. I do get two free continental breakfasts each day with my hotel status, which includes coffee, yogurt, and a bagel. We've been using those to fill in gaps & for snacks. Having a detailed shopping list & menu in advance of heading out meant we could bring spices & other non-perishables with us, to reduce our expenses.

Here's what we're eating while we're on vacation:

Wednesday (travel day):
Breakfast at home (San Francisco)
Lunch on the plane (free)
Dinner: take & bake Costco pizza + salad

Thursday (Thanksgiving!):
Breakfast: Eggs, fruit & bagels
Lunch: Leftover pepperoni pizza (kids) + fruit & vegetables. Adults had ham & cheese sandwiches
Dinner: Wine, grilled burgers & salad
Dessert: Pie (out)

Friday:
Breakfast: Eggs, fruit & bagels
Lunch: Mac & cheese + dino nuggets (kids). Adults had ham & cheese sandwiches
Dinner: Wine, leftover burgers, & pasta

Saturday:
Breakfast: Eggs, fruit & bagels
Lunch: Lunch out
Dinner: Grilled chicken & salad. And, wine. ;-)

Sunday:
Breakfast: Eggs, fruit & bagels
Lunch: Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, fruit & yogurt
Dinner: Dinner out

Monday:
Breakfast: Eggs, fruit & bagels
Lunch: Mac & cheese + dino nuggets (kids). Adults will have grilled chicken sandwiches.
Dinner: Turn the grilled chicken & make pasta with it. Plus salad, and beer. We will probably be out of wine at that point. ;-)

Tuesday (travel day):
Breakfast: Eggs, fruit & bagels
Lunch: make sandwiches, chips & fruit for the plane
Dinner: if there are enough leftovers, otherwise, buy something at the airport.

And, that's it for us! As you can see, we make easy meals when we travel. What about you? Do you bring your own food when you go on vacation with a kitchen?  

5 comments:

  1. I saw dino nuggets made an appearances :) Yum

    That menu looks great! It's pretty great that you have planned out your meals even for a week of travel. I REALLY need to get more in the habit of meal planning. It's a very wise thing to do. Great plan!

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    1. But of course, with the dino nuggets. ;-) A huge kid favorite.

      Thanks - it makes my life so much easier to have a menu plan. I can't imagine getting off of the plane, heading to Costco (it was the day before Thanksgiving, no less, and a MADHOUSE) & not knowing what I was buying. I had a menu plan & a list, and it was still a bit scarring. ;-)

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  2. We do! We often bring all our breakfast foods with the expectation that we'll buy some of our lunch foods and eat out for half our dinners. When I travel, it's about sampling the local cuisine so I can't entirely skip it but it's a great way to feel like I know a place. And we will occasionally make friends with the restaurant proprietors too, since we really like finding small local hole in the wall places.

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    1. I can't recall - is your child an adventurous eater? We have one who will try a lot. The other just won't. When we're not with the kids, we eat pretty much every meal out & explore lots of local places. With the kids, it's less enjoyable & quite frankly, more difficult. Not to mention lots more expensive.

      We did hit up Monkeypod Kitchen, which was great. Live Hawaiian music (the boys were enthralled), great local cooking, but a broad enough menu to appeal to all. And, a great beer menu. Hit the mark for all of us. :-)

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    2. Generally ze will try everything at least once, and sometimes ten times, before ze is willing to actually eat it. For a toddler, I'm calling that adventurous enough :D

      Eating out with kids at this age, palate aside, just isn't that fun since there's too much minding the children time and not enough enjoying the food and relaxing time. I forgot to say on your other post - we LOVE Mama's Fish House! We've eaten there once and I still think of it.

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