How Much Does it Take?

I knew we would be away from home for four nights.  As I worked in the kitchen last week, I began the prep for some of our meals.

I packed:

1 chicken casserole (using crockpot chicken from another meal, a can of mixed veggies, and a half box of stuffing)

1 meal of food storage hamburger helper (I pull this together from my various dried food cans)

1 meal of BBQ sandwiches (leftovers from last week's roast)

1 loaf of zucchini bread from the freezer

Chips, cookies, apples, sausage balls for snacking on

Soy milk, stevia, tea bags, and coffee

1 box of cereal just in case

3 cans of Southwestern veggie soup from food storage and crackers

I planned for one meal out.

When we arrived, I found a "better" kitchen than I had expected.  

With the two burners, a microwave, and the Instant Pot I brought from home, we ate well all week.

With a little planning, it doesn't take much to keep food costs down.

There was one thing I didn't plan well.

  I think it was an oversight on my part because at home I keep beverages made up and in the refrigerator.

The water here had a horrible chemical smell.

We ended up picking up some sodas and bottle waters.

Rather than spread out around the area and try to find a lower price store, we bought them near us.

We ended up spending $20 while on the road for our meal out and the drinks we needed for the week.

Not too bad!

So I learned a few things:

With a little advanced prep, it didn't take much time to pack our meals.

With a few appliances, we could have hot meals everyday.

I need to pack drink mixes for next time or allot in my mental plan for purchases.

This place has full sized refrigerators, and next time I may not have to bring dried meals.

Baking and freezing quick breads before travel works great to help keep the cooler cold.