What foods do you bring/make for a week at the beach?

[Anonymous]

We will eat out a few times, but for budget and health reasons we will prepare food at the beach house most of the time. Breakfasts are easy, lunches are easy-- dinners are more complicated. 4 of us. Kids decent eaters. Don't want to buy food there that we won't feel like bringing back if we don't use all of it. I would bring a lot of stuff in a cooler except we aim to arrive after a 3 hour drive around 10am and can't check in until 3.

Any and all ideas would be great!

[Anonymous]

Just buy food there. Definitely perishables like milk and eggs.

Just to keep things simple you could prepare something like lasagna or pulled pork in advance and freeze it. Then thaw it out there.

Is there a grill at the house? We do an easy burgers/hot dogs/grilled vegetables night.

Taco night?

I used to stress about food planning at the beach, but it's not worth it. Just do something easy so no one starves. No need for fine dining.

[Anonymous]

Yes there's a grill there. Taco night is a good idea.

Good point about not stressing, I tend to do that!

[Anonymous]

I think you're totally over thinking this and getting yourself stressed. Just buy groceries there and if there are things you must bring (b/c of health or allergies or something) then bring that in a cooler with ice. We always just buy groceries so we're not eating out 3x/day at the beach. I would love to eat all meals out but it's not as healthy and it's hard sometimes with younger kids. Even though I have to cook certain meals, I don't mind. Whatever we don't use up, we usually chuck but that's just how it goes.

[Anonymous]

Glad you're not loading a cooler. It was no fun. Mom with a dish of something balancing on her lap during the drive. Like it was so important. Everything planned. Didn't feel like vacation ~ enough

[Anonymous]

Tacos
Spaghetti
Grilled chicken and veggies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glad you're not loading a cooler. It was no fun. Mom with a dish of something balancing on her lap during the drive. Like it was so important. Everything planned. Didn't feel like vacation ~ enough

Ugh, that doesn't sound fun. I know a family like that but they do it because they really like to be in routine. So much so that they rent the same exact beach house the same exact week every year.

[Anonymous]

I like to get a big local fish one night and grill or broil it. The following night we do fish tacos with the leftovers.
Obviously, burgers and dogs at least one night, with leftovers for lunch the next day.

I agree you shop for the week once you get there. Packing a cooler is needless hassle, except for any specialty needs you may have (food for baby/allergic child, medicine, specialty condiments you just can't live without).

[Anonymous]

We got back from the beach last weekend and here was our menu for dinner while we were there:

Chicken Taco's with Mexican rice
Burgers with corn on the cob (great sweet corn down there) and homemade fries
Pasta (homemade but not necessary, just a tradition)
Pizza (order out)
Nice restaurant
Crab with salad
Fish (from fishing excursion, flounder) with green beans and potatoes

We had zero leftovers and saved pizza for the last night. We brought some snacks for DD for until we could check in, but otherwise purchased everything down there. Brought back PBJ materials, that's it.

[Anonymous]

We usually do cereal/bagels whatnot for breakfast, subs for lunch and either go out or graze for dinner
I get:
Carrots
Bell peppers
Cucumbers
Hummus
Tuna
Crackers
Fruit
String cheese
Pickles

This can be lunch or dinner, it balances out the grotto and Fried chicken for us

[Anonymous]

We bring a frozen dish (like lasagna) from home for the first night, so that we don't have to rush out to shop when we arrive - it defrosts as we drive down to the beach. We typically shop the next morning and buy easy grill items like burgers, hot dogs, chicken, marinade to eat for dinner each night - we buy the good local veggies at the farm stands and often have corn on the cob or tomato, basil, mozarella salads as side. We also buy some premade pasta and potato salads at the grocery store to have as sides. We eat out a couple of nights, too, but actually love the nights we eat in best - we have wine and cheese on the outside upper deck and catch the cool breeze, take a walk on the beach after dinner and play board games as it gets dark.

[Anonymous]

We always take a honey baked ham with some prepared sides for the first night. Grocery stores are ridiculously mobbed on Saturday and Sunday, so we take enough to get by those two days. The ham is great for dinner (ham sandwiches) and then serves as lunch for the next few days.

[Anonymous]

We eat in about half of our nights at the beach. We try to keep things fairly simple, but we also want to enjoy something different than our standard weeknight, rush to get dinner on the table fare.

We usually do steaks the first night (we do bring those down in a cooler), usually with parmesan orzo and a simple salad. We typically do peel and eat local shrimp one night with corn on the cob and sliced tomatoes. We make a pasta dish with local scallops one night--basically just pasta, diced fresh tomatoes, olive oil, basil, garlic, and sautéed scallops. Most of what we buy is perishable or we will eat all of it (like the pasta). A few basic things we'll take with us, like a small bottle of olive oil.

[Anonymous]

We eat in at the beach 5 of 7 nights. I know you said NO to a cooler, but a decent one should keep the food cool for the day, especially if it starts of frozen. I bring a cooler packed with frozen chili, taco meat, soup, ham, and pork BBQ. Those things make great quick meals. Also one night we have breakfast -- eggs of some sort, potatoes, etc.

[Anonymous]

Just spend some money instead of penny picking,.......take out, restaurants..