Most people, before embarking on a trip, think about what they need to pack. My mind always goes straight to what I’m going to eat. (I’m Filipina. It’s only natural.) Okay, so maybe more than a few other people think about foodie destinations to hit on their vacations, too, but kitchen-ready, budget-conscious me likes to take it a step further and think up multiple-day menus of dishes I can cook and enjoy while away.

Obviously, I don’t try to cook every single meal while on vacation–that would just deprive us of so many of the benefits of travel. However, cooking while away does make a difference in how much you end up spending on that vacation (which, let’s face it, tends to hit us pretty hard in the aftermath), and is an enjoyable and unique challenge in itself.

I spent most of last week with my partner, Dave, and a few members of his family in Santa Fe, New Mexico as part of the wedding anniversary celebration Dave’s brother and his wife share with us every year. Knowing we’d be staying at a timeshare with at least a basic stove (no oven though, which I didn’t find out until we got there) and fridge, I was able to come up with a short list of breakfast ideas I could attempt to execute using the tools we had and the groceries we could get (it’s Santa Fe, so we could get pretty much anything–but I’ve definitely had to deal with way less on previous trips):

Day 1: Bacon & Pancakes

Day 2: Skillet Veggies & Potatoes with Sausage

Day 3: Ham Omelette & French Toast

Day 4: Oatmeal & Raisin Bran Muffins

All of these were pretty simple, classic, and very extensible to feed as few or as many people as we needed. I also planned to make sure we always had a side of fruit, which would depend on what we could find at our destination.

So, how to put the plan in action? Well, actually, here’s a great example of not having your initial plans work out and being flexible enough to re-adjust. We arrived at our timeshare in the evening and were so exhausted from the flight (we had some delays) that we totally skipped out on my planned grocery trip. So, our first morning there, we went ahead and enjoyed some local cuisine with breakfast at a restaurant called Tia Sophia’s.

Freshly fueled, we then headed to the grocery store to get our food supplies for the week. Realizing that we wanted to spend even more time exploring and less trying to figure out what and where to eat, I opted to shop for some lunch and dinner meals as well. In went some salmon and chicken thighs (and some wine and beer, of course). All told, we spent about $240, which ended up covering the cost of about 7 meals/snacks (with beverages) for five people. Not bad!

Finally I got to put my meal planning into action. Day 1’s lunch was Prosciutto-wrapped Cantaloupe, Salame & Turkey sandwiches, and an Avocado & Tomato salad. We came home that night to quick and easy Pan-Fried Salmon Fillets (we had grabbed some pre-seasoned ones so we didn’t have to worry about that) with a side of Sautéed Zucchini & Mushrooms.

Planning ahead once more, I decided to get started marinating the chicken thighs after dinner for next night’s dinner. I don’t always have a complete set of sauces and spices when I travel, so I was completely fine with just punching up a pre-made Teriyaki & Sesame Oil marinade with some freshly chopped garlic. At home I would usually just grab a lemon from the backyard and add some juice as well. I left the whole thing in the fridge, ready at a moment’s notice for grilling.

We had our Bacon & Pancake breakfast on Day 2, which grew a little bit as we decided to add omelets with sautéed leftover vegetables (the zucchini & mushrooms from the night before), mixed in with some fresh onion, tomatoes, and red bell peppers. Whew. Yup, that’s traveling and eating with Filipinos and Italians!

For lunch, we made use of some leftovers from an enchilada platter (they come with SO many flour tortillas) and re-purposed them into burritos:

I had to improvise once again for dinner that night, as I mentioned that we didn’t have access to an oven at the timeshare. I had planned on making baked potatoes to go with the chicken, but instead just course-corrected and made mashed potatoes! Super easy–just boil with skin and all for an hour, peel, then mix with some milk, butter and a sprinkling of spices and herbs (no fresh ones from my garden this time, but dried herbs are perfectly acceptable when traveling).

I handled the potatoes as well as steamed some green beans (gotta have some green!) while the menfolk were at work barbecuing the chicken. As I often try to not let too much go to waste, I ended up re-purposing the marinade into a gravy by simmering and reducing it with some caramelized onions (just sautéed until soft in butter and olive oil).

There was quite the surplus of mashed potatoes the next day, but no problem! We made little potato pancakes with them for breakfast, along with a hearty scramble of eggs and sautéed sausage meat.

We attempted to burn off our hefty breakfast with a day at Puye Cliff, which is an incredible historical site–a New Mexico version of Petra. Pops (Dave’s dad) is 89 years young and was the most ready out of all of us to get on with the climbing!

On our last day, we kept breakfast pretty simple (well, okay, as simple as eaters like us are able to) with oatmeal, leftover omelet with avocado slices, and some fresh fruit. We definitely cleaned out the fridge and made use of all our leftovers, all while having fun cooking while away and still getting to enjoy the local cuisine and fun activities.

Wow, that was quite the food ramble. Thanks for letting me share :-) Do you have any tips for cooking or saving on food when you’re traveling? I’d love to hear about it in the Comments below!