Not eating out every night

[Nicki G]

We didnt eat out everynight last year as was just too much for little ones. My youngest fell asleep waiting on her meal one night and so we just got them to box it and took it away with us. Portions for children are huge in a lot of places so sharing a meal or asking them to box it is no issue. We ate in most nights and cooked pasta, rice (using boxes of flavoured rices for ease), fish, pizza etc, basically anything which required the least amount of effort but tasted ok My youngest was terribly fussy last year and I ended up buying a bag of chicken dippers in breadcrumbs which she'd eat with veg/salad - she must have eaten them 5 nights in a row but I didnt care so long as she was eating

[Guest]

Originally Posted by BevS97

We ate at Olive Garden one evening and brought away meals for the following evening.

We particularly save on breakfast. Just having bagels, cereal etc in makes a big difference.

I also like to have cold cuts in so we can make a sandwich. Sometimes you don’t need a big meal but you want to be able to eat something.

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Agree with this - Olive Garden double meal deal is a good option.

Cold cuts, bread and tomatoes for a lunch snack.

We always grab a bag of ice-pops and stick them in the freezer as a good cool down option.

Most years we end up having a night in with baked potatoes of some description as a lighter main (and despite requests, try to have it cheese free, because otherwise every meal seems to have it on !)

Absolutely kids can share meals or flex options. Loads of places do kids eat free (often on a tuesday) - so if you fancy something special see whether they have a free kids night. We went to posher restaurants on those nights, not just for the free food, but also safe in the knowledge that they were likely to have more kids in that night and we woudn't feel out of place.

I do agree however that groceries can be more expensive than you might think; given there are so many moderately priced places to eat you may find that eating out isnt much more expensive. Of course expense is not the only reason to eat at home.

You will be hard pressed to find a restaurant that doesn't serve chicken tenders - so think will be OK choices wise.

[novocastrian]

as some one has already mentioned give them chicken nuggets and chips and you have what you fancy... its a holiday make life as easy as...

fwiw we bought a cooked chicken, salad bread etc a couple of nights and ate in along with take away pizzas/fries

[wanye]

we eat mostly steak. you can get huge good quality ones from walmart for less than $10 each, also do (fresh made) burritos/tacos, with a few backups of stuff like frozen pizza, lasagne, chicken tenders, chips and pizza rolls for quick easy meals.

we tend to eat one main meal in the villa every day. usually either a big cooked breakfast, or an evening meal. we usually have at least 2-3 nights where a nice steak and "champagne" (or cooking wine as i call it) are consumed. usually a lazy night by the pool (or tv)

hth

[amandajane10]

My 2 boys are autistic. We had a couple of meals out but basically one of them ate fries, chicken nuggets and fish fingers and the odd mash and beans. I took all his snacks with us and a box of cereal. The other son isnt so bad. We had pizza, salads, pulled pork sandwiches, For all spends it worked out about $100 a day for 2a 2c. We ate out 2 nights, and 1 breakfast.

[ROBBOTOO]

We'll buy the huge pizzas at Walmart or the cooked chicken in Publix. Add frozen fries, onion rings, coleslaw, salad etc.

Fajitas with rice.

Burger night.

Hot dogs.

We walk miles there so happy to do simple easy dinners for a couple of weeks.

We also have most breakfasts in, cereal/toast etc. Maybe an odd treat out.

Lunch in the villa is usually rolls, cold meat etc.

For any meals out we always look for vouchers/offers.

[TC Devon]

Thank you everyone for your replies. Mummy guilt is high when your children are so fussy. So it’s nice to know that other children have the chicken nugget diet. 😀
I’m pretty certain we got the kids eat free card with our tickets. I need to hunt that out.

Can I ask how the Olive Garden meals (get one free) are re heated the next day. Is it just zapping it in the microwave. Do they taste ok?

[BevS97]

Yes. They were just in the microwave and they were very good.
The only issue I noted in my trip report was that we could only heat one at a time so we didn’t all eat together.

[Gryff]

We are lucky if we eat out 2/3times the whole time we are at the villa we tend to BBQ have simple meals such as salmon green beans baked potatoes
Publix Winne Dixie and Walmart all have hot food counters for take out food
Popcorn Chicken is more like chicken nuggets it's usually chicken tenders in resturants which are more like goujons
We buy subs from public and have one between us with fruit crisps
Etc
We always share a starter and I've been know to only have a starter and coffee they really are more accomadating than here
Just to say bread is very sweet so that might be an issue we buy Kaiser Rolls or Italian Chicago style bread from the bakery counter
We find it the closest to ours
Squash we paid $4:95 for a small bottle in march when we ran out

[Sandra & co]

We don’t cook but might have breakfast in or a takeaway, you can get a meal to share. I once made my kids share a steak meal in Bahama Breeze, dd was 5 and ds was 11 and they still talk about it now. They can’t believe I made them share but we had starters and pud too so it was enough! Restaurants like Denny’s are cheap and have lots of nice choices, we have have a mixture of cheap and expensive meals. Sometimes we just have a McDonald’s burger or kfc or a subway depending how we feel x