Crock Pot Cooking on Vacation

When we're on vacation, one of the biggest aspects for us is finding great local places to eat.  However, when you add two kids to the mix, sometimes a simple dinner out can be exhausting.  Getting everyone back to the hotel room at a reasonable time, showered, dressed, then just sitting through the average wait time to get into a restaurant as well as just waiting to get food to get to the table.

Our solution isn't the most popular with many families that are on vacation (because, hello!?  Don't I cook enough at home?)

Well, when we were packing for our vacation, we tossed our trusty crock pot in the car.  Back when we were just a family of three, we spent nearly 6 months together in a hotel room in Oklahoma (Air Force training) so we got pretty creative with a crock pot!

Our favorite crock pot meal that is super easy for a hotel is our "Chipotle Chicken Meal":

Another family favorite that we ate on another night of our vacation is our Easiest Ever Beef Sandwiches.  We ate this all too easy meal after dragging ourselves back to the hotel after 8 hours in the great outdoors visiting Cumberland Island.  It was so nice to come "home" to a hot and ready meal instead of having to drag everyone back out to look for food.

Here are my must-have tips when you decide to bring a crock pot on vacation!

• Pack a can opener!
• A small cutting board and knife are usually fairly valuable
• Ask for paper plates and plasticware at the front desk
• Zip Loc containers are great for any extras, plus, if you need to throw any away, it's not a huge loss
• Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners are invaluable for crockpot easy clean up!

One last gem of a tip: unless you want the hotel front desk to think you're a drunk, pack a wine opener with a beer bottle opener, as well!  So then, only the hotel cleaning crew will know your secret ;)

Obviously hotel cooking is easiest when you have access to a mini fridge & a microwave, but it's not impossible.  Cook only as much as your family can eat for one meal.  Find your local grocery store and become it's friend!

Have you ever cooked on the road?  Do you have any other money, time, or sanity saving tips while on vacation?  What's your favorite simple crock pot recipe?

Janice

Update: I should be back later today with a sneak peak on what we've been working on (and why this post was late!)  It's so worth it!