Suggestions for cooking in a hotel?

[Michael_in_TX]

Later this year I will be going on a week-long personal trip to west Texas. I'm not sure exactly where I'll be staying, but it'll be at a Super 8 or Quality Inn level of place. (Definitely not fancy.) The room will have a mini-fridge and microwave.

I'd like to keep my food costs down and not eat out every day, whether it be at a restaurant or fast food. I'd also like to eat something other than sandwiches.

Anyone have experience cooking in such a hotel? Things to do and not do? (Obviously, I am not bringing anything with a flame!) Bringing a small induction burner and pot is a possibility.

One thing I keep stumbling on is the cleaning up after cooking. These rooms really aren't set up for that.

[acorgihouse]

I've found that it is pretty easy to manage a week, if you have a vehicle and there is a decent supermarket close by. I tend to stop at a market, once I've scoped the room and facilities, and although it isn't what I would do at home (optimally, anyway) you can get decent salads and soups in the deli section. A larger market with a good sized deli (large supermarket, or a WalMart or Target nearby) will often also have fresh pasta and jarred sauces that can be heated in microwave (same with soup). There are also prepackaged things like mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, stuff like that, if you have any interest in that kind of thing. I try to avoid one time use disposables, but in this situation some paper plates will limit the dishwashing.

I've tried cooking (non-microwave) and it isn't great, primarily due to the dishwashing you mentioned. I'm interested to hear if anyone else has good ideas about this.

[Jerod Broussard]

texastweeter

[Oak Smoke]

Why not precooked your favorite bbq and freeze it in small vacuum sealed packets? It’ll warm up fine in the microwave just go for warm not hot and it will taste fine. Several places market small microwaveable vegetables packets. Paper plates and everything goes in the trash after you eat. The only thing else is ramen noodles and you can do better than that.

[Michael_in_TX]

That is a *brilliant* idea!!

[texastweeter]

See below. Dont forget pasta, right e, soup, taters, lots of options.

[LA Pork Butt]

Michael_in_TX That was going to be my suggestion. Vacuum seal you meals and bring microwaveable containers that can heat the food up. Also, detergent etc for clean up. Maybe paper plates and paper towels.

[Mosca]

Lol I do.

Make bacon. Lots of it.

[Michael_in_TX]

LOL I was so trying not to mention that!!!

[SheilaAnn]

Oh dang it!! You beat me to it!! 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

[WI Bubba]

Just make sure the whole hotel knows you made bacon. If the whole place doesn't smell like bacon you did it wrong.

[TripleB]

I’m on the same page as Oak Smoke. Except, between now and when you go, I would make meals for eating at home and vacuum seal those you can microwave. Like enchiladas, tamale pie, bbq, chicken Florentine, spaghetti, etc. you can make microwaveable rice, water for instant noodles and oatmeal.You can microwave scrambled eggs. Lots of things.

[HawkerXP]

Quite a few hotels have grills.

As you know, anything can be cooked on a grill.

Just remember to bring a roll of foil, tongs and your instant read thermometer.

[dpearce]

Don't forget a good grill scraper! A couple we've used really should've been sandblasted after whatever they had cooked on it before us.

[58limited]

Good ideas already mentioned above. Many grocery stores sell hot food by the deli section as well for decent prices. Our local grocery store, Market basket, has really good fried chicken as well as a lot of other hot things.

An induction burner and pot is good for soups and other things, wash them in the bath tub or shower. Bring or buy some dish soap and a scrub brush or sponge. Be sure not to set off the smoke alarm - no frying in other words.

[Panhead John]

Donw Not only did the smoke alarms go off in all of the hotel, it also alerted the local Fire Department. When the alarms went off, suspect #1 😂 went to the front desk to inform them as to why they went off and it was no big deal. The front desk told the fire department no need to come out. After about 30 minutes the front desk was finally able to shut off the alarms. We’ve since been informed that Amazing Ribs is no longer welcome at their hotel….😂

[Mosca]

No need to redact. I raise my hand and claim the fire alarm! In fact, I told the story first hand in the after-action report.

[Panhead John]

Anyone who has not got distracted from cooking something on the stove, raise your hand…. If someone does raise their hand…just means they don’t cook.

[texastweeter]

Bring taters an bbq tater fixing to go on top. Vac bag things like pulled pork, chops, grilled chicken, pretty much anything you can heat up with a hot tub time machine. Then bring a big plastic bowl that will fit in microwave. I also have a microwave veggie steamer. And instant microwave rice. Het water in the big plastic bowl and drop in the thawed but cold protein, then either blast a tater or rice in the microwave followed by steaming veggies. Add a condiment (i put in little dollar sized hotsauce bottles) and make a meal. Also most soups you make on stove can be made in microwave. Do most of the chopping at home, bring paper plates, paper towels and one set of eating untinsils and you should be good.

[texastweeter]

I have also considered bringing one of the small instant pots.

[Oak Smoke]

Adam has it hailed down. You can eat as well if not better than at home.

[Andrrr]

The homemade precooked food option is a good one, but maybe see if you can borrow someone's single burner Blackstone? I know more than a couple families that have been stuck for long weekends at hotels for their kid's tournaments and they all said having a Blackstone was a great way to avoid having to go out to eat for everything.

[shify]

I’d rather eat Cup Noodles 3x a day than have to deal cleaning kitchen appliances and utensils in a hotel bathroom, so I’d stick to easily microwaveable meals or vacuum sealed items like bbq you can reheat in the coffee pot (or bring a container and a sous vide stick). With a cooler and some hotel supplied ice, can keep it frozen or chilled all week.

Burritos are easy to make and reheat well (I always have homemade bean and cheese burritos in my freezer).

I like the idea of a loaded tater. Can nuke the tater and bring a small vac bag of pulled pork and some cheese. Swap out the tater with tortilla chips and you can have loaded nachos. buy or bring a burger bun and some foil and you can use the iron to toast it for some pulled pork sandwiches.

Pasta can be cooked with the coffee pot and you can bring some sauce

worst comes to worst, some cheese, some salami and some crackers and you have charcuterie (wine is optional!)

[SheilaAnn]

To piggy back on the deli comments above, I see lots of grab-n-go meals these days. Also, see if a market has a salad bar. We have Sprouts here and they have $5 sushi on wednesdays. Yeah, it’s mostly California or spicy tuna cut rolls, but it is filling. Another grocery by us does a pretty decent fried chicken. I can stretch out an 8-piece into 3 meals.

[RonB]

What I would do is portion food in vac seal bags. Freezing would not be necessary, but a bit safer.Take the induction cooker and a pot big enough to heat your meals in hot water. Buy some disposable plates and plasticware. Heat your meals in hot water in the pot, dump the vac bag onto a paper plate and eat with the plasticware. No cleanup necessary as long as the vac bags don't rupture while heating.

Edit to add that a pot of hot water would be a bit safer than using the microwave.

[Michael_in_TX]

The pre-cooked, vac-seal "meal prep" idea seems to be the way to go!

I was so focused on preparing the food there that that totally eluded me. That way I'm not actually prepping or "cooking" anything, just need a way to heat things up. And no mess, effectively, too. I can really work around this.

It's a very small town (Sonora, Texas), but it's not that small; people do live there, so there has to be a grocery store of some type. Not on the level of HEB by any means, but as I wouldn't know what is there, I'd probably bring 99% of what I would plan to eat.

[Jerod Broussard]

Hunting out the whazoo out there!

[Oak Smoke]

Looks like Millers country market has the only deli.

[WI Bubba]

When I worked on the road I always had a small single burner Coleman propane grill that would travel with me. I could make darn near anything that wasn't baked. I did all my cooking out in the parking lot since even if it's just a hotplate, hotels get twitchy about cooking in your room. Dishes were done in the bathtub.