Bestyears, I am very impressed with how organized your are.
We had a weekend house for over twenty years and i never brought food with me. But, our town was only a ten minute drive to a supermarket.
Looking forward to seeing everyone's suggestions.

Lasagna
Soup
Sandwich fixings - everybody can make their own
Some sort of stew
Any casseroles you normally make
Enchiladas - just put cheese on and heat

I think there should be one day in the vacation that is Cook's Day Off. Whoever usually does all the meal planning, shopping, cooking and clean up in the family gets an entire day, 24 hours, where s/he does not shop or cook or clean up. The rest of the family does all the food-related chores for the day.

Because otherwise, self-catering vacations can turn into *more* work for the cook--having to use odd utensils, not having the right size pot or pan, shopping ahead of time, lugging all the food to the rental, remembering all the little things you need like spices and salt and garlic that you take for granted at home, needing to shop for fresh stuff in a strange store--it's work.

But to answer the question.

For breakfast, muffins freeze well. Or quick breads.

For dinner, vegetarian chili. Vegetarian spaghetti sauce. Vegetarian lasagna. Vegetarian curry.

I think tacos are a great vacation food. If you want to do ahead you could prepare taco meat (I use ground turkey) and freeze (although vegetarian tacos are great). Then take vegetarian refried beans (I like the black beans) bags of pregrated cheese, bagged lettuce or cabbage if you don't want to have to chop, salsa, sour cream, etc and you're all set. You could do another dinner that the teens all seem to love which uses the same type of ingredients (or vegetarian chili) poured into individual Frito bags, eaten right from the bags. Minimal clean up!

Another idea, that is fun and easy with teens are grilled pizzas. Everyone can make their own, you can bring frozen pizza dough, pre-grated cheese if you want, pesto, tomato paste, etc. and all the favorite toppings. I roll out the dough flour tortilla size, put on the oiled grill for just long enough to cook the bottom, flip it over and quickly add the ingredients to the top. Cook a few more minutes, to melt the cheese and cook the crust. Yum!

I also make vegetarian spring rolls and no one seems to miss the meat. You could make peanut sauce ahead to take with. Everyone seems to love, love, love them and they are cool, refreshing and fun to make. You can get the whole crew in on the making. No workie, no eatie in my book.

I don't have a real recipe, but this one is close to what I make

Here is a link that might be useful: Spring rolls

This post was edited by olychick on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 13:15

If the teens are boys, bring extra of everything.

Thank you all -I'm getting some excellent ideas... I have a few family-favorite muffins recipes, so I'll make and freeze some of those ahead. The taco suggestion made me think of fajitas! I think I'll marinate the meat ahead and then we can throw it on the grill. Pizza on the grill is a great idea -AND we've never done it, which makes it even more appealing. And best idea of all.......drumroll..... "Cooks Day Off!"

Just made this salad last night. I threw in whatever veggies we had around the house. It would also be nice with grilled chicken or shrimp (my oldest DD is a veggie, but eats seafood and fish). Everyone loved it and it was very easy. You might want to make up the dressing before you leave.

Also, my gang love grilled veggie sandwiches with goat cheese and chutney (but any cheese will do).

Here is a link that might be useful: noodle salad