Our plan is to eat a quick breakfast, RD the parks, leave noon to 1:00ish, eat a cooler lunch waiting for us in the van, take a break back at the resort, make a quick dinner, then head back to the parks for the evening.
Wait, wait, wait ...
why would you pack your lunch into a cooler (or tote it into the parks and store it in a locker), then go back to the resort for a break? With this plan, you're going to the trouble to haul food around, you're eating either in a parking lot (no thanks) or perched on a bench somewhere in the parks. Since you're going back to the resort to rest anyway, why not eat lunch back at your resort? You'll have cold drinks from your refrigerator, a table at which to sit, air conditioning, and a clean bathroom nearby. Depending upon when you plan to take the break, you may need to bring snacks for the kids, but that's considerably easier than packing in a whole lunch.
Things I do when I'm bringing food for the family to a condo-type kitchen:
- Bring a plastic bin of some sort that will fit well in the refrigerator. Keep all sandwich stuff in this bin so the kids can bring it to the table, and everything they need (except bread) is right there: Sandwich meat, cheese, mayo ... and we eat some oddities on our sandwiches; for example Peppadews, sprouts, hummus. Peanut butter and sprouts (especially large, crunchy sprouts) is a great combination. The bin just makes sandwiches easy and fast.
- Similarly, prepare another plastic bin of snacks-to-go ... so the kids can help themselves.
- Bring your crock pot ... and prepare your meals ahead of time in your own kitchen /store them in ziplocks so all you have to do is dump the bag into the crock pot. OR put your meals in baking bags (you know, some people bake turkeys in them), and when you're ready to cook, just poke holes in the bag and bake.
- Enchiladas are easy to make up ahead of time. Pack them in a throw-away aluminum pan, freeze them, and you have a ready-to-bake meal. Since they'd bake covered in foil, I don't think you'd even need to concern yourself with cleaning the oven as described above.
- Prepare sauces ahead of time so you can just brown some meat and pour in your prepared sauce -- actually, we do that all the time at home anyway. For example, we love Bourbon Chicken, and the sauce requires about a dozen ingredients (several of which we don't typically keep in the house on a regular basis) ... so we lay out ziplock bags and make up about a dozen sauce recipes at once ... makes a very fast dinner.
- Stir fry is healthy and quick ... if you do the chopping of vegetables at home and have a bag ready just to toss into the pan.
- If I buy fruit, it just sits in a bowl. If I cut up fruit, my kids devour a big bowl in 2-3 days.
- Do you ever make Mason Jar meals? We love them, and you can find lots of examples online. If you make a Mason Jar salad, put half a paper napkin in the top ... it'll absorb condensation, and the salad will stay good a week.
- If you're looking for a half-way point between cooking and eating out, consider picking up prepared items at the grocery store deli. Publix is good for this.
- Bring paper plates to cut down on your clean-up.
You could always get those individual drink mixes to add to water bottles. Although this might be considered a splurge to some--you could just drink water--I find it adds to the festive vacation feel, and also helps the kids to drink enough fluids while schlepping around the parks.
Everyone probably knows this, but no need to carry drinks around the park. You can ask for free ice water at any restaurant or even a cart.