You certainly can’t keep you unopened milk in the fridge while you’re gone on vacation. If you’re leaving by plane, give your perishables to a neighbor. If you’re traveling by car, pack whatever perishables you’re currently using in a cooler. Our cooler usually has our current milk jug, the eggs, the sour cream, the yogurt tub, the butter, and the half-cut watermelon. You can pack those little miniature cereal boxes that make their own bowl and use those as snacks on your trip. (Only if your kids don’t fight over the Coco Puffs, because there’s only one of those in that variety pack. And usually the kid who gets the CoCo Puffs won’t finish his bowl/box, because the coco is a tad too strong for little kid’s palettes. Yet, they never remember this, and insist it’s their turn to have the Coco Puffs. The nice part is, during the squabble, I can quietly sneak off with the Fruit Loops undetected.)
If there is a fridge at your destination, simply move the perishables from the cooler to your next fridge. Because the last thing you need when you’re unpacking clothes, is to have to run out to the store for food.
In much the same way that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Ma did, I spend the few days ahead of the trip making batches and batches of provisions with the sole purpose of avoiding a trip to Wal Mart for as long as humanly possible. Some of these “batches” include hummus, and black bean dip frozen into serving-sized portions. I also make Snickerdoodle and chocolate chip cookie dough, cooked chicken breasts that I’ve frozen for salads, lemon syrup, and of course, paint cans.
I admit the problem with all this prep is that by the time you’re done, nobody needs a vacation quite like the cook.
But, of course I have my beans… Soon, I’ll be updating the success of the fort, Cowboys and Indians and stuff like that.
Great advice and great pics!
Love the colors in the first photo. Well done!