Anonymous wrote:I'm generally against spending time cooking at the beach

Me too. We hire a personal chef. They do breakfast, have a picnic lunch packed for us to bring, and then do apps/cocktails and dinner.

Anonymous wrote:Bunch a bacon.
Sooooo much bacon. 6 packs every day but not for someone else's kids

I love you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bunch a bacon.
Sooooo much bacon. 6 packs every day but not for someone else's kids

My mother-in-law made way too much bacon for our beach trip and on the last day, she brought it to the beach and no joke. It was so freaking good to have the protein on the beach that was easy for kids to hold and just chow.

Never in 1 million years would I make bacon for a beach but…

BLT’s at the beach. Yum!

We eat breakfast and lunch in or order burgers and eat dinner out.

Anonymous wrote:“we are going to a beach house! There will be 30 of us! Each family group will be cooking meals rotating who cooks. Bring a bunch of coolers/shop/plan meals and get ready to do more work on vacation then you do normally-it’s gonna be great!”

Honestly I would decline this so fast. I’d rather stay home. Also I never understand beach vacations that last more than 2 days. The beach is really boring. Yes it’s relaxing but it gets old really quickly. I grew up on a shore and had access to many beaches all within a 10 minute drive so maybe it just doesn’t have the same appeal to me as others. But I cannot imagine spending an entire week or more just for the beach.

So did I, and I love spending a week at the beach every summer (I’d spend all summer there if I could). I hate living so far from the beach here in DC.

So I think you just aren’t a beach lover, which is fine!

Anonymous wrote:I’m so glad my grandma cooked her regular repertoire when we visited the beach

She was probably perpetually exhausted. But who cares right? glad you enjoyed it!

“we are going to a beach house! There will be 30 of us! Each family group will be cooking meals rotating who cooks. Bring a bunch of coolers/shop/plan meals and get ready to do more work on vacation then you do normally-it’s gonna be great!”

Honestly I would decline this so fast. I’d rather stay home. Also I never understand beach vacations that last more than 2 days. The beach is really boring. Yes it’s relaxing but it gets old really quickly. I grew up on a shore and had access to many beaches all within a 10 minute drive so maybe it just doesn’t have the same appeal to me as others. But I cannot imagine spending an entire week or more just for the beach.

I’m so glad my grandma cooked her regular repertoire when we visited the beach

Different strokes/different folks.

I’m in the camp of mainly eating in (assuming we have an air bnb or house rental). I hate fighting for reservations, the crowds and noise, etc that are in every U.S. summer beach destination I have been to.

Breakfast and lunch require zero thought - cereal, bagels, yogurt, fruit, deli sandwiches, chips, watermelon.

Dinner is kept simple- most of the time, involves grilling and this is when I have no qualms about buying the packages of premarinated chicken, kebobs, etc. Like others said, we also like using local seafood, farm stands veggies, etc.- tomato/peach/mozzerella salad is a staple side.

Unlike at home, at the beach my whole family gathers in the kitchen as dinner is being made and often the kids help or at least keep us company, so it’s pretty fun especially with a chilled glass of rose in hand.

And a couple of nights we’ll eat out but honestly enjoy these nights the least.

Anonymous wrote:If you don't want to cook, you order out. There's no magic meal that is both NOT cooking and NOT prepared food.

We got with a group of 16 and take turns cooking. Every family unit takes a night to cook (5 nights). On arrival night we do pizza and the last night is normally pulling everything out of the fridge and making what you can.

But that works for us. If it doesn't work for you, use the internet and start ordering food from nearby restaurants.

We do the same, and it works great for us. On my family’s night we usually grill flank steak and veggies and serve with roasted potatoes (hub or I handle the grill, other one roasts the potatoes, kids make a salad).

It’s been awhile but I went on one of these family trips. We all had different ground floor condos on a beach. was mystified why the first stop after landing in Hawaii was to Costco. I had never gone to Costco on any vacation let alone an only 10 day vacation. SIL informed me that we would all be switching off cooking meals. There were about 30 people.

Breakfast
1. Krusteez pancake mix, quick, easy , fast. Serve with syrup and sliced fruit.
2. Muffins, danishes, bagels, cream cheese. For cream cheese, I got a big tub and divided it into small Tupperware containers , mixed with strawberry jam fr one, minced cucumber, carrot another, etc. lox.
3. Bacon coated with maple syrup and cooked in the oven
4. Scrambled eggs served with options like salsa, bacon bits, ham, cheese, diced green peppers, diced onion

For dinner usually grilling
1. Did the NYT chicken shawarma on the grill, served with naan and basmati rice, yogurt sauce, salad
2. Did a veggie grill. Got a Costco sized bag of asparagus, mushrooms , red peppers , and zucchini, threw each into a separate zip lock with minced garlic, salt, and olive oil. Threw carrots into a zip lock with honey and salt.

Not grilling
1. Southwest chicken salad. Lettuce mix, carrots, corn, tortilla strips, etc mix salsa and ranch dressing, just bare chicken pieces cooked in the oven, cilantro on the side.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so much easier than everyone makes it out to be.

One person is the designated Costco instacarter. They should be the organizer or older sister of the group. They figure out what everyone needs and they do one big delivery order that gets 90% of what the group will need. They usually already know allergies and specific needs. This is paid for by how the house is broken up.

Someone cuts up a ton of fruit for fruit salad for the kids/whoever wants it and stashes it in the fridge on the first and third day.

Men cook and clean breakfast. They get the assignment but can execute however they see fit.

Lunch is on your own sandwiches or leftovers or whatever from the Costco haul.

Each family unit is responsible for one dinner. From Costco supplies or their own groceries or takeout or whatever.

This is not vacation nor is it fun

There is no way I’d do this ever

Is this what everyone does that has a big share house? This sounds absolutely terrible. What beach even has Costco? Do you bring all this stuff in your car? My car is packed to the gills. There’s no room for a cooler.

What “gang?” The gang can feed themselves. I’m on vacation.

cooking for an large group is always awful and time consuming. The only thing I would attempt to cook for a large group is tacos. And that’s basically because it’s the same amount of work for doing a small group-you are just buying and cooking more meat and buying larger amount of the toppings. And it literally takes 10 minutes. Other than that I would be buying costco prepared foods/catering trays/frozen stauffers family meals etc…

Think about when you have a very large group coming over for a holiday/party etc…Are you really cooking for that large of a group? I mean even Thanksgiving-people are bringing things and helping. And that’s one day-not a week or so at the beach with a large group.

Also for that large of a group I would be using paper plates/plastic cutlery/paper or plastic cups exclusively for the entire time. My family of 5 requires 2 dishwasher cycles a day (2 teens and 1 tween). I’m not really willing to load/unload a dishwasher more often that that.

Some of you are willing to do an awful amount of work on “vacation”.

literally the most relaxing part of vacation for me is not cooking. I get having sandwich stuff for lunches etc…and maybe some frozen waffles etc…for breakfast but nobody should be cooking on “vacation”. It’s honestly more stressful to cook somewhere else that you don’t have your regular cooking supplies.

Anonymous wrote:This is so much easier than everyone makes it out to be.

One person is the designated Costco instacarter. They should be the organizer or older sister of the group. They figure out what everyone needs and they do one big delivery order that gets 90% of what the group will need. They usually already know allergies and specific needs. This is paid for by how the house is broken up.

Someone cuts up a ton of fruit for fruit salad for the kids/whoever wants it and stashes it in the fridge on the first and third day.

Men cook and clean breakfast. They get the assignment but can execute however they see fit.

Lunch is on your own sandwiches or leftovers or whatever from the Costco haul.

Each family unit is responsible for one dinner. From Costco supplies or their own groceries or takeout or whatever.

This is not vacation nor is it fun

There is no way I’d do this ever