As I noted in my post of this month’s menu, we will be taking a short trip this month. We’ll be staying in a suite-style hotel, so we will have a full kitchen in our room. This means we will be able to prepare many of our meals in the hotel room.
I’m working on our meal plan now. Drawing on my previous experience cooking in hotel rooms of this type, I’ve compiled a list of possibilities to share with you. Some of these ideas do require access to a full kitchen. However, if you are (or will be) staying in a hotel with nothing more than a simple fridge and microwave, you’ll still find this useful because many of these meals can be prepared with this limited setup.
Breakfasts
The hotel where we are staying provides breakfast, so we will likely take advantage of this. However, breakfast is undoubtedly the easiest meal to prepare in a hotel room. The options are plentiful.
- Cold or hot breakfast cereals
- Precut fruits (e.g., cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple), portable fruits (e.g., apples, oranges, bananas), or fruit cups
- Scrambled eggs or egg omelets with a few fillings
- Pancakes (you can use pancake mix for convenience) with syrup
- Granola or protein bars
- Muffin cups
- French toast with syrup
- Breakfast meats (e.g., ham, sausage, bacon)
- Frozen breakfast sandwiches
- Frozen hashbrowns
- Hardboiled eggs
- Yogurt cups
Light meals
We typically eat lighter meals for lunch, but these can be consumed whenever it works for you. In addition to being light, these allow us to eat and get back to exploring without delay because they are easy to prepare and consume.
- Sandwiches
- Deli meats and cheese (if you travel often, it might be helpful to invest in single serve packets of condiments like mayonnaise)
- Grilled cheese
- Peanut butter and jelly
- Chicken or tuna salad with crackers or on bread (you can easily make these with few ingredients, but you can also buy premade chicken and tuna salad for convenience)
- A simple charcuterie tray
- Premade salads (from the deli or produce department)
- Frozen, fully cooked chicken strips, nuggets, or wings
- Hummus with fresh veggies and pretzels
- Mini pizzas (place pizza sauce, shredded cheese, and sliced pepperoni on bagels, English muffins, or naan bread and heat briefly in the oven or microwave)
Pair any of the above with veggie sticks or some fruit and you’ll have a quick and tasty meal.
Fuller meals
We typically eat fuller meals for dinner. However, as I noted above, you can eat these types of meals whenever it works for you. As with the previous examples, these meals utilize convenient ingredients, but they do take a bit longer to prepare.
- Spaghetti with meat sauce (for convenience, heat frozen meatballs, add a jar of sauce, and serve over cooked spaghetti)
- Fettuccine Alfredo (for convenience, heat frozen chicken strips, add a jar of sauce, and serve over cooked fettuccine)
- Chicken Caesar salad (or chicken over any bagged salad mix)
- Quesadillas
- Frozen family-sized entrees (such as lasagna, chicken and rice, or enchiladas)
- Stir fry (check the produce section for kits that contain chopped veggies and sauce, then add your preferred protein and serve over rice)
- Meatball sub sandwiches
- Easy one-pot chicken and rice
- Chilis or soups (for convenience, you can heat canned varieties, but many can be made from scratch easily because they only use a few ingredients)
- Baked potatoes (cook in the oven or microwave, then top with simple toppings such as broccoli and cheese)
- Burritos (for convenience, stick with simple fillings such as beans and cheese)
You may find it useful to grab a rotisserie chicken or two from the store. You can pair these with a couple of sides for a nice meal, or you can shred the chicken and use it in several of the meals listed above (e.g., in pasta, on salad, in quesadillas, in stir fry).
Additionally, consider getting fresh or frozen veggies in steamable bags. Pop one of these in the microwave for a few minutes and you’ll have broccoli to go alongside your spaghetti, green beans to go alongside your chicken and rice, etc.
Final thoughts
We’re excited to leave for our trip! I’m about to put together a grocery list so I know what to get when we head to the grocery store near our hotel. Then, I’m going to use my packing list to get our bags ready.
Have you prepared meals in a hotel room before? If so, what were your favorite meals to make?
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