Monday, September 10, 2012

What We Eat for Dinner the Night Before Vacation

Tonight as I was making a very typical dinner for our family, I realized that we eat some variation of this meal just about every night before we're heading out on vacation. And I thought I'd share, in case you too often find yourself staring into a nearly empty fridge with nothing but a few staples and some produce that will go bad before you return home.

Or am I the only one who faces that each and every time we're leaving on vacation?

So here's my big fancy recipe. Get a notebook, you're going to want to write this down. Kidding.

First, I saute whatever vegetables we have on hand. This almost always includes an onion, and tonight I also had a yellow squash. (I've used all kinds of stuff in this. It's been a great way to use whatever remains at the end of the week before I pick up our next CSA box.)



Once they're nice and brown and soft, add eggs. Then scramble them all up together.

Yup. Scrambled eggs. Sometimes called brinner. I clearly do not have a future as a food blogger.

But I thought it was worth sharing for a lot of reasons. If you're like me, the night before a vacation typically involves frantically packing, bathing kids, doing laundry, trying to organize the house a bit, filling the car up with gas, and any other umpteenth chore on your list. Dinner is something I usually think about at 5:30 as my husband is walking in the door and the Arrows are getting really cranky.

So here's why this meal rules:

1) It goes well with anything else you might have lying around about to go bad or stale. Toast. Fruit. Yogurt. Tonight I made it with these yummy potatoes from the Pioneer Woman (also super easy), some leftover zucchini bread I made over the weekend, and an avocado. Sometimes we've added the remains of taco night fixings for a little Mexican flavor. And add whatever cheese you have left in the deli bin too!


2) It's a one dish wonder. Clean up a little frying pan and you're ready to move on to your other pre-vacation tasks.
3) You don't have to leave the house. Going out to dinner and keeping my little boys happy at a restaurant is the last thing I want to do when I know I'll be doing that night after night when we're traveling.
4) It's relatively healthy. We don't always eat balanced meals when we're on the road, especially Big Arrow, so I like to get one last serving of protein and veggies in.
5) We all like it. Big Arrow is ridiculously picky, and this is one of the few meals that we all eat the same thing. Even Little Arrow is starting to get in on the action of this meal.



(Don't you wish you had someone to cut up your food into itty bitty pieces... ah, to be a baby!)

So what do you eat the night before you go on vacation? I'd love some other ideas!

This post is a part of Travel Tips Tuesday at Walkingon Travels and Suitcases and Sippy Cups. (Speaking of Suitcases and Sippy Cups, I met them last week when they rolled through Indiana on their big road trip! Check it out here.)

I'm also linking up with Wanderfood Wednesday at Wanderlust and Lipstick. I bet you'll find posts about food far more exotic and delicious than scrambled eggs over there this week.

3 comments:

  1. Great idea Nicole! Thanks for sharing as we are getting ready to vacation on Wednesday! Rene:)

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  2. Wait, I'm only supposed to do this the night before a vacation? I think I do this at least once a week! :-) Great tip though. And thanks for supporting Travel Tips Tuesday!!!

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  3. Love it - I'm taking off for the weekend, so everything that would go bad in my absence got cooked.

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