Healthy meals - Hotel Edition
March 29, 2024 3:05 PM Subscribe
My apartment flooded and I need to live in a hotel for at least a month. There is a small kitchen, but it isn't well-stocked and has zero spices, oils, etc. I'd like to eat more than just pasta and red sauce this month. Give me your best no-recipe, somewhat healthy meal ideas, please!
Bonus points if the meals make enough to have a few leftovers to take for lunch.
I am not able to go back in my apartment until the repairs are done, so I want to avoid buying a bunch of spices that will ultimately be redundant and take up space once I'm back home.
Thanks!
Bonus points if the meals make enough to have a few leftovers to take for lunch.
I am not able to go back in my apartment until the repairs are done, so I want to avoid buying a bunch of spices that will ultimately be redundant and take up space once I'm back home.
Thanks!
Do you have a regular sized fridge or freezer?
posted by bluedaisy at 3:13 PM on March 29 [1 favorite]
posted by bluedaisy at 3:13 PM on March 29 [1 favorite]
You can make a lot of japanese style stuff with shoyu, sugar, sake, and mirin. In fact that's basically a teriyaki sauce to stir-fry salmon or chicken in. Cook some rice with it, presto, dinner and lunch the next day.
posted by ctmf at 3:14 PM on March 29 [3 favorites]
posted by ctmf at 3:14 PM on March 29 [3 favorites]
How reliable are you usually on spices,
... that should be "how reliant"
Absent any information, I'd say pick some cuisine you've never cooked from before and go all in on that this month.
posted by trig at 3:17 PM on March 29 [4 favorites]
... that should be "how reliant"
Absent any information, I'd say pick some cuisine you've never cooked from before and go all in on that this month.
posted by trig at 3:17 PM on March 29 [4 favorites]
ooh, trig is onto something with cooking from a cuisine you're unfamiliar with... Then you can take all the stuff you bought back to your apartment at the end of the month without worrying you'll have a bunch of redundant oils and spices and stuff.
If that sounds like too taxing a project for now (living out of a suitcase in a hotel for a month sounds annoying in other ways too!) I wonder if you can get some sort of meal kit (HelloFresh, Blue Apron, etc) delivered? You might need to get some of the basics, but IIRC they provide little packets of spices and such in the kits.
posted by btfreek at 3:47 PM on March 29 [7 favorites]
If that sounds like too taxing a project for now (living out of a suitcase in a hotel for a month sounds annoying in other ways too!) I wonder if you can get some sort of meal kit (HelloFresh, Blue Apron, etc) delivered? You might need to get some of the basics, but IIRC they provide little packets of spices and such in the kits.
posted by btfreek at 3:47 PM on March 29 [7 favorites]
Maesri curry paste tins are amazing -- flavorful mix of single-serving cans of curry paste. Together with canned coconut milk and veggies and protein, you can make Thai curries (green, panang, massaman, etc) without having to buy any other spices.
The simplest form of these recipes are essentially: open curry paste tin & coconut milk tin, dump them together, bring to boil, add veggies and protein, done!
posted by many more sunsets at 5:08 PM on March 29 [8 favorites]
The simplest form of these recipes are essentially: open curry paste tin & coconut milk tin, dump them together, bring to boil, add veggies and protein, done!
posted by many more sunsets at 5:08 PM on March 29 [8 favorites]
You could get by without spices by relying on semi prepared foods like meats or tofu that's pre marinated. I'm not sure what you like to eat, and what markets are near you, but for example, thinking of meals I'd make from ingredients at Trader Joe's:
- pita, falafel and/or kibbe, hummus, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, salad greens, feta, olives
- pre shredded slaw lightly cooked, some pre marinated tofu or meat cooked and served on top
posted by beyond_pink at 5:10 PM on March 29 [5 favorites]
- pita, falafel and/or kibbe, hummus, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, salad greens, feta, olives
- pre shredded slaw lightly cooked, some pre marinated tofu or meat cooked and served on top
posted by beyond_pink at 5:10 PM on March 29 [5 favorites]
If you can afford the pre-prepared options, I'd strongly second beyond_pink's approach and offer these suggestions.
- Bagged salad kits with your preferred quick-cooking protein on top
- Stir-fry kit with a jarred sauce and your preferred quick-cooking protein on top
- If you have an oven, hoisin cauliflower (just cauli florets slathered in hoisin and roasted) is way better than it has any right to be - serve with just about anything but I'm partial to marinated tofu and blanched green beans
- Whatever hot sandwich filler you like (e.g. fake chicken cutlets for me) on a roll with pickles and your preferred sauce from a jar, plus a bunch of snacky vegetables like baby carrots, tiny cucumbers, cherry tomatoes on the side since knives in hotels are always terrible
- Definitely mezze platters with all the tiny vegetables above
- The occasional 'healthy' tv dinner and/or frozen burritos. I've had options I've enjoyed from Amy's, Impossible, and Sweet Earth if you're looking for veg options.
posted by snaw at 5:37 PM on March 29 [2 favorites]
- Bagged salad kits with your preferred quick-cooking protein on top
- Stir-fry kit with a jarred sauce and your preferred quick-cooking protein on top
- If you have an oven, hoisin cauliflower (just cauli florets slathered in hoisin and roasted) is way better than it has any right to be - serve with just about anything but I'm partial to marinated tofu and blanched green beans
- Whatever hot sandwich filler you like (e.g. fake chicken cutlets for me) on a roll with pickles and your preferred sauce from a jar, plus a bunch of snacky vegetables like baby carrots, tiny cucumbers, cherry tomatoes on the side since knives in hotels are always terrible
- Definitely mezze platters with all the tiny vegetables above
- The occasional 'healthy' tv dinner and/or frozen burritos. I've had options I've enjoyed from Amy's, Impossible, and Sweet Earth if you're looking for veg options.
posted by snaw at 5:37 PM on March 29 [2 favorites]
If you tend to use dry spices, maybe use more marinades and sauces this month. You can stick to cuisines and many ingredients you're used to, and fill out the flavor by buying one sauce instead of 5+ individual spices.
I make a hearty Instant Pot dish with pre-marinated shwarma chicken from Trader Joe's, which I add to a pouch of spiced/sauced chickpeas, and then veggies, and rice or noodles. Huzzah.
I also believe you can add almost any meat to a salad kit and have lunch or dinner. Side of carbs optional.
And you can put almost any sauce on chicken, rice, and veggies in a tortilla. Sometimes everyone in my family picks a different sauce. Go to town.
Hope this is helpful. It's making me hungry! :)
posted by nadise at 6:18 PM on March 29
I make a hearty Instant Pot dish with pre-marinated shwarma chicken from Trader Joe's, which I add to a pouch of spiced/sauced chickpeas, and then veggies, and rice or noodles. Huzzah.
I also believe you can add almost any meat to a salad kit and have lunch or dinner. Side of carbs optional.
And you can put almost any sauce on chicken, rice, and veggies in a tortilla. Sometimes everyone in my family picks a different sauce. Go to town.
Hope this is helpful. It's making me hungry! :)
posted by nadise at 6:18 PM on March 29
Easy healthy meals in a rice cooker with a steamer basket are my tiny kitchen go tos. Rice on bottom veggie and protein on top. Fish works great for this but chicken works well to. Add a veggie of your choice. I prefer fresh green beans or broccoli. Buttter, lemon pepper on the fish works well, but really you can season with whatever makes the most sense for you.
I also steam some frozen store bought tamales this way
In general I tend to stream the things for however long it takes to cook the rice. I tend to cook about two cups of rice at a time which is too much but it hasn't failed me with the food being cooked through.
Feeling fancy cut up an onion and sautee it in the rice pot prior to adding rice and water.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:38 PM on March 29
I also steam some frozen store bought tamales this way
In general I tend to stream the things for however long it takes to cook the rice. I tend to cook about two cups of rice at a time which is too much but it hasn't failed me with the food being cooked through.
Feeling fancy cut up an onion and sautee it in the rice pot prior to adding rice and water.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:38 PM on March 29
Meal kits are pretty good for this kind of thing. They assume you have a salt and pepper and sometimes butter and flour. Most also assume a cutting board and sharp knife.
posted by soelo at 7:08 PM on March 29 [2 favorites]
posted by soelo at 7:08 PM on March 29 [2 favorites]
Locate a supermarket or some other food shop where there is a help-yourself salad buffet, start using that a lot - not necessarily for just the "salad" part either. Instead, you can use that as a convenient precooked-food bulk-bin store. Here's what I mean:
Lots of such salad bars have pre-sliced, prechopped, and parcooked vegetables in there - chopped carrot, chopped celery, sliced onion, steamed corn kernels, cooked peas, steamed green beans, etc. This means that you can help yourself to a small scoop each of the peas and the corn - which would probably be just enough to add to a bowl of instant ramen to jazz it up a little. Some salad bars also have cooked chicken and shrimp, and you can grab a few pieces of that to throw in the ramen too. And - you've grabbed only just enough for that one meal, so you won't have to worry about having to buy the whole bag of frozen corn because you only need a half a cup and then having to store the rest. They even have salad dressings, usually, with little plastic cups you can pour those into.
If you find one of those places, that'll go a long way towards getting your food shopping done; you can get exactly however much you need for a given meal or two, and that will help with the food storage.
Three other big flavor bombs - one of which you can likely also get at a salad bar like that - are anchovies, capers, and olives. There is a salad I've made that consists of nothing more than chick peas, some chopped olives, some chopped onion, and vinaigrette. It is delicious, and you could absolutely throw that together with salad-bar-grazing plus a can of chick peas (they may also even have cooked chick peas at one of these salad bars, too).
Canned fish and canned beans also frequently help here. If you get a can of cannellini beans and a can of tuna, and dump them both into the same bowl, you can then either toss some salad dressing and other vegetables of your choice in and eat that as a salad, or you can toss that with some pasta. Hell, divide the combination in half and do both.
There is a Japanese cookbook I have that has a "salad" that is nothing more than canned tuna and grated carrot, with a drizzle of soy sauce. And you don't need to buy a bottle of soy sauce necessarily - just order some cheap takeout one night and save all those excess soy sauce packets they always give you. One or two of those should be all you need for this.
AlexiaSky also has a good idea above vis: the rice cooker. You can get a cheap one for about $25 - I have one I've been playing with, and used it for a simple recipe recently that was pretty decent:
1 cup white rice
¾ cup plus 2 T water
One 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
2 T soy sauce
1 ear of fresh corn, husked and kernels stripped off cob
One tin of small sardines, undrained
4 fresh shiso leaves cut into ribbons (optional)
3 green onions, thinly sliced
In that recipe, you mix the rice, water, ginger, soy sauce, and corn together, then lay the sardines on top and run it through the cooker. Then you add the shiso and green onions, stir everything up together and serve.
For YOUR situation, I would use a half cup of corn and 3 spoons of chopped green onions from a salad bar, and one packet of takeout soy sauce for those ingredients. For the ginger, raid a sushi bar (if your supermarket is extra fancy they may have one there too). For the shiso, just leave that out.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:42 AM on March 30
Lots of such salad bars have pre-sliced, prechopped, and parcooked vegetables in there - chopped carrot, chopped celery, sliced onion, steamed corn kernels, cooked peas, steamed green beans, etc. This means that you can help yourself to a small scoop each of the peas and the corn - which would probably be just enough to add to a bowl of instant ramen to jazz it up a little. Some salad bars also have cooked chicken and shrimp, and you can grab a few pieces of that to throw in the ramen too. And - you've grabbed only just enough for that one meal, so you won't have to worry about having to buy the whole bag of frozen corn because you only need a half a cup and then having to store the rest. They even have salad dressings, usually, with little plastic cups you can pour those into.
If you find one of those places, that'll go a long way towards getting your food shopping done; you can get exactly however much you need for a given meal or two, and that will help with the food storage.
Three other big flavor bombs - one of which you can likely also get at a salad bar like that - are anchovies, capers, and olives. There is a salad I've made that consists of nothing more than chick peas, some chopped olives, some chopped onion, and vinaigrette. It is delicious, and you could absolutely throw that together with salad-bar-grazing plus a can of chick peas (they may also even have cooked chick peas at one of these salad bars, too).
Canned fish and canned beans also frequently help here. If you get a can of cannellini beans and a can of tuna, and dump them both into the same bowl, you can then either toss some salad dressing and other vegetables of your choice in and eat that as a salad, or you can toss that with some pasta. Hell, divide the combination in half and do both.
There is a Japanese cookbook I have that has a "salad" that is nothing more than canned tuna and grated carrot, with a drizzle of soy sauce. And you don't need to buy a bottle of soy sauce necessarily - just order some cheap takeout one night and save all those excess soy sauce packets they always give you. One or two of those should be all you need for this.
AlexiaSky also has a good idea above vis: the rice cooker. You can get a cheap one for about $25 - I have one I've been playing with, and used it for a simple recipe recently that was pretty decent:
1 cup white rice
¾ cup plus 2 T water
One 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
2 T soy sauce
1 ear of fresh corn, husked and kernels stripped off cob
One tin of small sardines, undrained
4 fresh shiso leaves cut into ribbons (optional)
3 green onions, thinly sliced
In that recipe, you mix the rice, water, ginger, soy sauce, and corn together, then lay the sardines on top and run it through the cooker. Then you add the shiso and green onions, stir everything up together and serve.
For YOUR situation, I would use a half cup of corn and 3 spoons of chopped green onions from a salad bar, and one packet of takeout soy sauce for those ingredients. For the ginger, raid a sushi bar (if your supermarket is extra fancy they may have one there too). For the shiso, just leave that out.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:42 AM on March 30
Best answer: We travel full-time (staying in short-term rentals) and while I personally am carrying around way too many kitchen things, my primary spice cabinet is: salt, a good ground pepper, Cavender's Greek seasoning, cajun blend (get no-salt if you can), red pepper flakes, garlic powder, dried minced onion, a modest bottle of decent soy sauce, and whatever your go-to vinegar is (mine is rice wine).
When you're cooking in low-supply/low-storage situations, I find it is most economical and "stuff-conscious" to use helper items more than I might with all the time and space I could want. Jar curry, bottle and pouch sauce, pouch and minute rice, frozen meatballs/burger patties/meatless items.
Definitely meal-prep, just don't fill the freezer too much. I usually make 2 multi-serving meals a week, so this week might be 1) one-pot pasta with frozen meatballs, jar sauce, a good sturdy pasta (I usually use rotini or cavatappi), frozen cauliflower, maybe also frozen spinach 2) a big batch of teriyaki or orange chicken using bottle sauce, to put together on various days with bagged stir fry - check your produce department; sometimes I find a bagged "superblend" of shaved brussels, cabbage, carrot, broccoli that is perfect for stir fry and rice, or over bagged salad or eaten "lettuce wrap" style with romaine. (Also, there's nobody to stop you from making teriyaki tacos with cabbage and a little rice.)
I hope you're in the kind of kitchenette hotel that has some kind of oven or toaster oven; if it doesn't you might buy the cheapest air fryer you can put your mitts on, or toaster oven, or check around among friends to see if someone's got a rarely-used one they'll loan you. That unlocks roasting and casseroles and the ability to somewhat bulk-produce sheet pan proteins and/or sides.
We also spend more than we might in regular circumstances to keep really good sandwich options on hand. I get the good brioche or pretzel buns now, or marble rye, and one really good mustard (also a cooking component for dijon-y or honey-mustardy sauces; makes a good coating for roasting proteins too), and of course you can get an entire world of sliced cheeses and meats and it is pretty easy to get through it before it goes bad. You can also use those sandwich-makings for omelettes, fritattas, egg sandwiches, chopped into salads of the "big green", "mayo-based", or "potato" variety.
Big Salad is definitely a frequent flyer, especially as the weather warms up. I will bulk-prep what I call "neutral chicken" - onion, garlic, salt, pepper, maybe cumin to roast or saute, and then add some kind of distinctive seasoning or sauce when assembling a meal, since this base combo suits anything from butter chicken to tacos to shawarma. And my motto is "anything is a salad dressing if you want it to be", so to avoid buying 9 bottles of salad dressing I tend to wing it with Asian-style bottle sauces whisked with a little extra vinegar or peanut butter, salsa mixed with a little sour cream, mustard vinegar and hot honey. I used to have a beloved little Italian restaurant near my office that just used canned crushed tomatoes with some seasoning and a dash of balsamic vinegar as a green salad dressing - try it. Plus, Big Salad is just a few format-modifications away from being tacos, lettuce wraps, a "bowl", etc.
When you do eat out, strategize. I like to get takeout that can be turned into multiple meals, and anything that's likely to sell extra sides of sauces is especially bonus - I get a lot of BBQ and Middle Eastern food because it's easy to stock up on yogurt sauce, BBQ sauce, extra rice/potatoes, breads, hummus and other mezes you can use to make wraps and salads. Also check the hot bar (usually only open until 6 or 7) at your grocery delis, where you can often get grilled chicken, meatloaf/meatballs, grilled or baked fish that you don't want to cook in your room and smell for a week, roasted or grilled vegetables.
Eggs. So many eggs. Make big omelets or frittatas for multiple servings, or breakfast casserole if you have an oven.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:35 AM on March 30 [5 favorites]
When you're cooking in low-supply/low-storage situations, I find it is most economical and "stuff-conscious" to use helper items more than I might with all the time and space I could want. Jar curry, bottle and pouch sauce, pouch and minute rice, frozen meatballs/burger patties/meatless items.
Definitely meal-prep, just don't fill the freezer too much. I usually make 2 multi-serving meals a week, so this week might be 1) one-pot pasta with frozen meatballs, jar sauce, a good sturdy pasta (I usually use rotini or cavatappi), frozen cauliflower, maybe also frozen spinach 2) a big batch of teriyaki or orange chicken using bottle sauce, to put together on various days with bagged stir fry - check your produce department; sometimes I find a bagged "superblend" of shaved brussels, cabbage, carrot, broccoli that is perfect for stir fry and rice, or over bagged salad or eaten "lettuce wrap" style with romaine. (Also, there's nobody to stop you from making teriyaki tacos with cabbage and a little rice.)
I hope you're in the kind of kitchenette hotel that has some kind of oven or toaster oven; if it doesn't you might buy the cheapest air fryer you can put your mitts on, or toaster oven, or check around among friends to see if someone's got a rarely-used one they'll loan you. That unlocks roasting and casseroles and the ability to somewhat bulk-produce sheet pan proteins and/or sides.
We also spend more than we might in regular circumstances to keep really good sandwich options on hand. I get the good brioche or pretzel buns now, or marble rye, and one really good mustard (also a cooking component for dijon-y or honey-mustardy sauces; makes a good coating for roasting proteins too), and of course you can get an entire world of sliced cheeses and meats and it is pretty easy to get through it before it goes bad. You can also use those sandwich-makings for omelettes, fritattas, egg sandwiches, chopped into salads of the "big green", "mayo-based", or "potato" variety.
Big Salad is definitely a frequent flyer, especially as the weather warms up. I will bulk-prep what I call "neutral chicken" - onion, garlic, salt, pepper, maybe cumin to roast or saute, and then add some kind of distinctive seasoning or sauce when assembling a meal, since this base combo suits anything from butter chicken to tacos to shawarma. And my motto is "anything is a salad dressing if you want it to be", so to avoid buying 9 bottles of salad dressing I tend to wing it with Asian-style bottle sauces whisked with a little extra vinegar or peanut butter, salsa mixed with a little sour cream, mustard vinegar and hot honey. I used to have a beloved little Italian restaurant near my office that just used canned crushed tomatoes with some seasoning and a dash of balsamic vinegar as a green salad dressing - try it. Plus, Big Salad is just a few format-modifications away from being tacos, lettuce wraps, a "bowl", etc.
When you do eat out, strategize. I like to get takeout that can be turned into multiple meals, and anything that's likely to sell extra sides of sauces is especially bonus - I get a lot of BBQ and Middle Eastern food because it's easy to stock up on yogurt sauce, BBQ sauce, extra rice/potatoes, breads, hummus and other mezes you can use to make wraps and salads. Also check the hot bar (usually only open until 6 or 7) at your grocery delis, where you can often get grilled chicken, meatloaf/meatballs, grilled or baked fish that you don't want to cook in your room and smell for a week, roasted or grilled vegetables.
Eggs. So many eggs. Make big omelets or frittatas for multiple servings, or breakfast casserole if you have an oven.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:35 AM on March 30 [5 favorites]
When my husband and I travel we stay a lot in hotels with kitchenettes due to food allergies, and we've found Penzey's trial bags invaluable - a lot of Penzey's spice blends are enough in and of themselves to make a pretty basic meal more interesting, and they're so small it's easy to use them up.
posted by posadnitsa at 8:49 AM on March 30 [1 favorite]
posted by posadnitsa at 8:49 AM on March 30 [1 favorite]
I like Indian packet meals - usually beans and curried sauce, very good with rice. Is there a burner? A pork chop or lamb chop and a salad with leftover rice. Risotto. Baked sweet or white potato with butter and maybe toppings. I made a decent version of roasted Brussells sprout with frozen sprouts, olive oil, salt, pepper, sausage. Fried rice with broccoli, meat, scallions, scrambled egg - needs oil and a a sauce of soy, ginger, garlic, a little sugar, some toasted sesame oil. Ramen with extra spinach or other veg. Ready-made potato salad and cole slaw from a good grocery or deli. Bagged salads. Camping meals are a great way to think about this, not the freeze dried ones, but stuff you'd take car camping.
If fridge space is limited, borrow a cooler, get ice (from work, maybe?). A friend might give you some baggies of spices.
Update your ask with foods you prefer and dietary needs for better answers. What a big pain for you to be out of your home..
posted by theora55 at 10:08 AM on March 30
If fridge space is limited, borrow a cooler, get ice (from work, maybe?). A friend might give you some baggies of spices.
Update your ask with foods you prefer and dietary needs for better answers. What a big pain for you to be out of your home..
posted by theora55 at 10:08 AM on March 30
If you're in a town with a korean or japanese grocery, my strategy would be to get a rice cooker (you can buy a new one for $20) and then either make or buy a bunch of japanese pickles or korean namul/banchan and fill the mini fridge up with them. Fresh rice, a boiled egg or steamed piece of fish or meat + mix-and-match cold vegetables provides enough variety to keep me interested for quite a while.
posted by eraserbones at 10:13 AM on March 30
posted by eraserbones at 10:13 AM on March 30
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posted by trig at 3:11 PM on March 29 [2 favorites]