Proving that a self catering holiday can be relaxing for all!

We've been on holiday to The Isle of Lewis in The Outer Hebrides, and what a long journey home we had - setting off at 9a.m to arrive home at 10:50 pm!

Waiting for the ferry!

As usual we self catered and I had it planned like a military operation - lol!

It was my holiday too and the last thing I wanted was to feel I was stuck in the kitchen making endless meals. To prevent this I've found that a little forward planning can make a self catering holiday fun and relaxing for everyone including the usual chief cook and bottle washer.

First off I make a list of all the meals we'll need while we are away including breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals. I always plan for one evening to be a take-away and another to be a treat meal out. 

Armed with my list of meals I then menu plan, keeping things simple. Now if you read this blog regularly you will know that my usual way of cooking is from scratch, but on holiday I make an exception. For example a curry planned for one evening, but using good quality jars of curry sauce where the only prep is slicing up and frying off some chicken breasts before adding the sauce and using those pre prepared packs of microwave rice and long life naan breads.  

I do this well ahead of time and then write a list of all the non perishables I will need. These are then bought over several weeks or even months and packed away ready to take with us. I take with me a separate list of perishables to buy in a single shop once I get to our holiday destination. 

This may seem like a lot of work but it is all done ahead of the holiday, I also do a bit at a time so it doesn't feel at all onerous, in fact, I really rather enjoy this pre planning stage. Once on holiday, apart from an initial quick shop, I don't need to worry or think about meals. The preparation for the meals is minimal never taking more than 15 easy minutes of my time.

Do you go self catering? If you do, how do you plan?

I've reproduced this year's lists below to give you some idea of how I plan.

Pre buy Essentials Tea Bags Coffee Sugar Salt Pepper Tomato Ketchup Butter (Stored in fridge till we go then in cool bag) Squash Spray Oil LL Milk Breakfasts Jam (Honey and marmalade!) Cereal Packed Lunches Canned Tuna Canned Meats  Cheese Part baked bread (LL Vac Packed) Main Meals Curry & Rice with Naan Breads Jar Curry Sauce Packet Rice LL Naan Bread Pesto Pasta with Chorizio Jar Pesto Wholewheat pasta Chorizio Tortillas and taco's Tortilla kit (mix, wraps, salsa) Tacos Chinese Packet Egg Fried Rice Blue dragon sauce sachets Pizza Pizza bases Tomato pasta sauce for topping Sunday Dinner Gravy Processed peas

Buy When There Essentials Milk Bread Additional Butter Breakfasts Bacon Black Pudding Square Sausage Tomatoes Orange Juice Packed Lunches Crisps Main Meals Bagged salad Garlic bread Mince (for tacos) Chicken (for fajitas, curry & Chinese) Sour cream Onions Grated cheddar Grated Mozarella Chinese stir fry veg Prawn Crackers Prepared potatoes for Sunday Prepared Veg for Sunday Cooked Chicken (Sunday Dinner and Packed Lunches) Pre cooked Yorkshires Yogurts Snacks Peppers