9/1/2022 - Hotel Cookin'
- Sep 1, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 14, 2022
Hello and welcome back everyone! Buckle up because this is going to be a longer entry, jammed packed full of great information!
To piggyback off my previous blog, we're going to get right into how we cook, meal plan, and prep in our hotel room. If you haven't read my previous blog, you should! It will give you a detailed packing list of my essentials.
Let's start with the most important meal of the day, breakfast!
This is the best way to start my daughter's (pictured above) day fueled, nourished, and full of energy to get through her long days. No matter if we are at a competition or a convention, our breakfast stays pretty consistent.
**The following ideas are provided that we have at least a mini fridge in our room. I ALWAYS call and request one when I make my reservation, list it on our reservation, and then call the morning of check-in to confirm. It seems excessive, but there has only been one time I ended up not having a mini fridge in our room. I knew ahead of time and brought a cooler.
Our top go-to breakfasts are:
Kodiak Cake Protein Waffles, with peanut butter on it and a sliced-up banana on top, can serve with a side of berries
Protein Oatmeal with berries
Smoothy or shake
Beagles with Peanut butter and fruit
This is when having that cheap little travel toaster or blender bottle come in handy. We like to toast our beagles and obviously our waffles. The peanut butter provides a good source of protein for my daughter that sticks with her all the way through lunch.
If we have a microwave available, sometimes we will get Jimmydean microwaveable sausage (we like the turkey sausage links) and heat those up for breakfast.
Next up is lunch
Lunches will vary pretty drastically depending on if we are at a convention or a competition, and if we are at a competition, what her schedule looks like. Oftentimes, when we are at a competition, there isn't a perfect "lunch break". Let's start with convention lunches.
Convention lunches are great to plan because she actually (typically) gets an actual lunch break. It's short, but it's a scheduled break. Kamdyn packs her own lunch in the morning and often makes her own “Lunchables" in an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack. Most of the time the girls will eat lunch together and if she takes it with her, she doesn’t have to come to the room to get it. We use the salami/summer sausage that you get in the deli section at the grocery store (but you could always cut up your own), cheese slices, and crackers. Then we have either fruit and/or popcorn with it, instead of greasy potato chips. Very rarely do we do sandwiches, she's just not a big fan. Salads don't seem to provide her with enough energy to fuel herself for the second half of her day. She really needs that combination of protein and carbs.
We also pack snacks for her to grab in between classes. She will also take her big water bottle full of water and then a HINT water or protein water with her. Sometimes she will take a smoothy to drink on her way downstairs (as a second breakfast).
Her go-to snacks (which you will see repeated for our competition lunches):
Turkey bites
Protein Bars
Individual Almond packs
For Competitions, I pack a bag full of quick grab-and-go healthy snacks that can be grabbed and eaten quickly in between dances. She is not one who likes to eat full meals on competition days. It makes her feel bogged down. She relies more on protein-packed snacks that she can graze on throughout the day.
Her go-to's are:
Turkey bites
Cheese cubes
Cucumber (cleaned, sliced, and in a storage container)
Protein bars
Blackberries and strawberries for a sweet treat (cleaned/cut and in a storage container)
Popped popcorn (we like skinny pop)
Seaweed chips (her fav)
Pre-packed pickle slices
Plenty of Water
All of this is kept in the insulated side pocket on her glamor gear bag with ice packs or a large insulated lunch bag. We try to keep the food as mess-free, sticky-free, and stain-free as possible. She (and often times her friends) will literally just graze on all this all day long.
Ahh, dinner time!
If I've done my due diligence, dinner is already ready to go and I don't have to do anything. Crock pot to the rescue!
Ok, so for dinner, most of the time I will put it all together in the morning and just cook it low and slow all day. This way, when we are done for the evening and get up to our room, there is nothing to do except chow down.
Most of the time we cook in the room. If we do go out to eat, we will typically go out once, either with a group of dance families or as a celebration dinner.
Here are 2 of our go-to recipes:
Crockpot chicken rice and broccoli (or whatever veggie you want to use)
Place boneless skinless chicken breast in crockpot first thing in AM, turn on low, and season to liking (You can put like a spoon full of water in the bottom if you want, but not always necessary).
30 minutes before you decided to eat dinner, take the chicken out and either cut it into bite-size pieces or shred it (or you can leave it whole if you all want a whole piece of chicken)
Add a frozen veggie to the crock pot and cook/steam for about 20 minutes or until done.
Add uncle bens rice pouch to crock pock and cook for 10 minutes. Add back chicken, stir, and serve.
You can add shredded cheese or salsa or anything if you want, we like to keep ours simple.
Roast carrots and potatoes
Add beef roast, baby carrots, and small baby whole potatoes (cut in halves or quarters) to the crock pot first thing in AM with seasonings and a little beef broth.
Cook low and slow until dinner time.
Easy peasy. Chow time!
**Save beef and broth for beef and noodles (Below)
Beef and noodles (with leftover roast)
Use the brock pot to warm the leftover roast and broth
20 minutes before dinner time, remove the roast from the crock pot and shred
Add frozen egg noodles (or noodles of choice) to warmed broth in the crock pot. Cook until noodles are done (about 20 minutes), add left-over roast, and serve with left-over carrots or fruit as a side)
***Pinterest is a great place to look for recipe ideas.
Snacks
Home-made Protein Balls are a great snack or dessert. (Kamdyn makes her own)
Zucchini Chocolate peanut butter brownies are an easy make ahead healthy dessert/ sweet treat to have in the hotel.
Pre-poped popcorn or buy a big back of popcorn that is already popped (we like smart pop cheddar)
*** We even pack snacks for the drive instead of buying gas station snacks
I think we will leave this off here. I will continue to add recipes after I try them and make sure they are kid and hotel-approved. If you have any recipes to try, please feel free to share them. I'm always looking for new things to try.
Tune back in on 9/15 for my next entry and as always, make sure to comment, subscribe, and share!
-Rothrock Mom
Comments