We always make fish tacos one night, and ground turkey tacos another night (some of the toppings can be reused).

We grill hot dogs and hamburgers and keep it simple with store bought macaroni salad and watermelon.

BBQ chicken in a crock pot, and heat canned baked beans, buy cornbread and cole slaw (or use leftover coleslaw from the fish tacos).

Sheet pan chicken fajitas

Flank steak on the grill with grilled veggies

Sheet pan seafood bake - shrimp, sausage coins, baby potatoes, little pieces of corn on the cob - super easy and you stagger what you add to the tray to account for different cooking times. I love seafood boil in a pot, too (and some seafood places sell it for you to boil at home).

We usually make lobster one night - it is our special meal.

Sorry dcum but we also always have a baked pasta night- ziti or lasagna. We being it frozen from home, it is often our first night dinner with bagged salad and garlic bread (it thaws on the drive down and keeps everything else in the cooler cold).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baked ziti with spinach, salad and garlic bread is simple to make.

I’ve never understood this. Unless you are buying premade or preassembled, baked pastas are a pain. You have to use a pot to boil the pasta, which you then have to wash. And at this point it’s been 15 mins of getting the water to boil and another 10 of cooling the pasta. Then you have to preheat the oven, assemble everything, mix it in a huge pot or bowl (which tou have to wash), and then wait around another HOUR while it bakes. It’s hot, it takes a lot of time, it creates a lot of garbage… and then you have to make salad and make garlic bread!

I think people make it at home and freeze it and take it. Then it helps keep the cooler cold with other food. We did something similar once but realized cooking something for an hour in the summer sucked. It’s good for winter getaawys

Right. And you'll never convince them that it's just not a very good dish either. Pass.

We just got back from beach vacation. There was no grill, this was our menu. It was super easy. I loved that we could stay at the beach all day and then have truly easy dinners. In a different world, we’d eat out more, but between the cost and dealing with kids, this menu was great.

Night 1: take and bake pizza and bagged salad kit
Night 2: sheet pan Turkey kielbasa with peppers, broccoli and mini potatoes
Night 3: frozen meatballs in crockpot for meatball subs with bagged salad kit
Night 4: BBQ pulled pork in crockpot with coleslaw
Night 5: husband and I went out to dinner, kids had quesadillas and leftover pulled pork before we left (our oldest can “babysit”
Night 6: Tik Tok baked Boursin cheese and tomato pasta

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baked ziti with spinach, salad and garlic bread is simple to make.

I’ve never understood this. Unless you are buying premade or preassembled, baked pastas are a pain. You have to use a pot to boil the pasta, which you then have to wash. And at this point it’s been 15 mins of getting the water to boil and another 10 of cooling the pasta. Then you have to preheat the oven, assemble everything, mix it in a huge pot or bowl (which tou have to wash), and then wait around another HOUR while it bakes. It’s hot, it takes a lot of time, it creates a lot of garbage… and then you have to make salad and make garlic bread!

1. You can basically rinse a pot you just boiled pasta in - you're not scrubbing. It's 30 seconds.
2. Who cools the pasta? I've never heard of that.
3. You start preheating the oven when you put the pasta in the water.
4. Assembling everything takes less than five minutes.
5. Washing the bowl you assembled everything in takes 30 seconds, max.
6. Your oven temp is too low if you're waiting an hour for baking to complete.
7. You make the salad while the baked ziti is baking.
8. Garlic bread goes in the oven next to the ziti - it takes less than five minutes to put together.

NO ONE wants a hot baked pasta dish at the beach.

lol - I had pasta minimum once a week growing up. Sundays are when we break out the giant sauce pot!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baked ziti with spinach, salad and garlic bread is simple to make.

I’ve never understood this. Unless you are buying premade or preassembled, baked pastas are a pain. You have to use a pot to boil the pasta, which you then have to wash. And at this point it’s been 15 mins of getting the water to boil and another 10 of cooling the pasta. Then you have to preheat the oven, assemble everything, mix it in a huge pot or bowl (which tou have to wash), and then wait around another HOUR while it bakes. It’s hot, it takes a lot of time, it creates a lot of garbage… and then you have to make salad and make garlic bread!

1. You can basically rinse a pot you just boiled pasta in - you're not scrubbing. It's 30 seconds.
2. Who cools the pasta? I've never heard of that.
3. You start preheating the oven when you put the pasta in the water.
4. Assembling everything takes less than five minutes.
5. Washing the bowl you assembled everything in takes 30 seconds, max.
6. Your oven temp is too low if you're waiting an hour for baking to complete.
7. You make the salad while the baked ziti is baking.
8. Garlic bread goes in the oven next to the ziti - it takes less than five minutes to put together.

NO ONE wants a hot baked pasta dish at the beach.

My family asks for meatloaf at the beach. I don’t eat it, but they all do. With local corn on the cob. Not sure how it became a tradition, but there you go.

Sloppy joes/fries and tortellini from the refrigerated section

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baked ziti with spinach, salad and garlic bread is simple to make.

I’ve never understood this. Unless you are buying premade or preassembled, baked pastas are a pain. You have to use a pot to boil the pasta, which you then have to wash. And at this point it’s been 15 mins of getting the water to boil and another 10 of cooling the pasta. Then you have to preheat the oven, assemble everything, mix it in a huge pot or bowl (which tou have to wash), and then wait around another HOUR while it bakes. It’s hot, it takes a lot of time, it creates a lot of garbage… and then you have to make salad and make garlic bread!

I think people make it at home and freeze it and take it. Then it helps keep the cooler cold with other food. We did something similar once but realized cooking something for an hour in the summer sucked. It’s good for winter getaawys

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baked ziti with spinach, salad and garlic bread is simple to make.

I’ve never understood this. Unless you are buying premade or preassembled, baked pastas are a pain. You have to use a pot to boil the pasta, which you then have to wash. And at this point it’s been 15 mins of getting the water to boil and another 10 of cooling the pasta. Then you have to preheat the oven, assemble everything, mix it in a huge pot or bowl (which tou have to wash), and then wait around another HOUR while it bakes. It’s hot, it takes a lot of time, it creates a lot of garbage… and then you have to make salad and make garlic bread!

For the baked ziti crowd, you will never convince them baked ziti isn’t the answer for everything. Also, they will go ballistic if you suggest baked ziti isn’t easy and amazing. Best to leave the baked ziti posters alone.

I usually make pizza dough or focaccia dough a couple of days before and bring that - then buy lots of local veggies and fruit for light dinners -after being in the heat all day, nobody eats a big dinner; quick veggie tacos or fajitas; baked potato/sweet potato bar; omelets for dinner; quick veggie pasta with orzo or some other small pasta; lots of pickles, olives, tuna in olive oil -and then one really nice dinner out on our last night.