Tad and I had the privilege of going to a church ministry conference last week (which was amazingly refreshing), and while we were there we attempted to eat all of our meals out of our hotel room (without a fridge or a microwave)!  I know I spent a lot of time preparing a shopping list and menu plan so that this would be doable, so I thought some of my readers that also enjoy real food, traveling, and frugality might enjoy hearing how this worked for us!

We packed our lunch for the first day:  pulled pork BBQ, roasted veggies, kale, and clementines

I packed some food items and brought them in a cooler (stored in GlassLock containers):
-bacon, cooked
-homemade pork sausage patties, cooked
-hard-boiled eggs
-roasted veggies (broccoli and cauliflower)
-sauteed peppers and onions

I brought a few other food items that didn’t need refrigeration:
-Real salt and rainbow peppercorns (I’m a little spoiled about my salt & pepper)
-homemade oil/vinegar salad dressing
-avocados
-bananas
-clementines
-cereal for Tad
-whole wheat orange cranberry bread
-pumpkin cranberry scones
-tea bags

Here are the “kitchen items” I packed:
-coolers (one medium-sized Playmate and one small lunch cooler)
-ice packs
-knife
-paper plates
-silverware
-napkins
-zip lock bags (large for ice, and small for “leftovers”)
-dish towel

We stopped at Trader Joe’s when we arrived in town and bought these items:
-2 trays of sushi (great price at TJ’s)
-2 wraps
-milk
-bananas
-hummus
-whole wheat crackers
-organic blue corn tortilla chips
-2 small Greek yogurts
-mixed salad greens
-2 Pink Lady apples
-a mixed veggie tray (jicama, carrots, tomatoes, and snap peas)
-white cheddar cheese
-dark chocolate
-a Lara bar

This is what our “kitchen” looked like in our hotel room

The cold packs kept our coolers cold for the first 24 hours, and after that we relied on Ziplock bags filled with ice from the hotel ice machine to keep our food cold.

Our first dinner was sushi (we got two kinds and split them so we each had 4 pieces of each kind – California rolls and brown rice tempura).

My breakfast was the same both days – a hard boiled egg, two strips of bacon, half an avocado with salt & pepper, and a banana.  I think one morning I drank milk.  Tad ate cereal (packed) with milk, as well as two strips of bacon.  We both drank coffee (provided by the hotel room).

Lunch the second day was the wraps we picked out at Trader Joe’s.  We ate those alongside fresh veggies, tortilla chips, hummus, white cheddar cheese, and Greek yogurt.

For dinner that evening we ate sausage patties, salad greens with oil/vinegar dressing, crackers, hummus, roasted veggies (broccoli/cauliflower), sauteed peppers/onions, and a Pink Lady apple.

Our final lunch (packed) was comprised of “leftovers” – salad greens, oil/vinegar dressing, veggies (carrots, snap peas, tomatoes, sauteed peppers/onions), bacon, whole wheat crackers, hummus, and a Pink Lady apple.

Tad and I both were grateful that we could eat this way for three reasons:
1) It was a LOT cheaper than eating out every meal!  (We spent $40 at TJ’s, plus brought some food from home, and brought some extra food home with us.  Seven meals out would have been at least $75, and that’s for the cheapest of the cheap restaurants.)
2) We got to spend time together eating meals together rather than waiting in long lines at busy restaurants.
3) We felt much better than if we had eaten 7 meals at a fast-food restaurant!  We weren’t tired or inattentive during the sessions (19!) and we could focus fully on what God wanted to teach us.

What are your favorite foods to pack while traveling?