Mini Break Meal Plan

I have recently been talking to some girlfriends about what to cook on a mini break. You know when you are going away for a week? Or a long weekend? It’s easy to worry about what you are going to eat without just ordering takeaway all week leading to potential feral behaviour and bad habits. Perhaps you’re staying somewhere with kitchen facilities but don’t want to spend the whole time cooking? There are ways to make this work, by adapting what you are eating and making enough leftovers to see your kids through the few days of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks.

I went away for 7 nights over Christmas, Harry was around 18 months, I made the following meals by adapting what we were eating… all these meals used similar ingredients or offcuts of what we were eating so nothing was wasted, and they all take 15-30mins or less, and can be eaten the next day/serves cold/rotated during the week.

Sample 7 Day Menu Plan 

I would create a “tasting plate” of raw/steamed veggies, fruit, and one of the finger foods below:

• Pita pizzas (So fast, versatile and can have cold for lunch the next day)
• Real fish fingers (fish filets dipped in egg then breadcrumbs)
• Vegetable chips (sweet pot, and pot, touch of oil in the oven for 20 mins)
• Vegetable/tuna or salmon patties (mashed vege, tin of tuna – egg/crumbed optional)
• Pasta (you can make any adaption of this pasta using what you have available)
• Spag bol  (we were all eating it and I adapted a mini version for him)
• Sausage on sticks – (mince,herbs,onion blended and put on a paddle pop stick then fried on bbq)

If your children are younger you can just make these sorts of things and “mash” or turn into mushy finger foods by crumbing or rolling into balls.

Making simple home cooked meals like these on holidays is often better than over doing the take-away option. By keeping most meals healthy and simple the kids are more likely to behave and sleep as they would at home, keeping the holiday a much more enjoyable experience for everyone involved.