Self-Catering

On our recent trip to Tasmania (post 1, 2 and 3) we stayed in an apartment we found on AirBnB with a full kitchen. Or - mostly full. There was no chopping board, nor was there a colander. But there was a gravy boat, so... It came with a big container of tea bags, instant coffee (blech) and sugar satchets, and we found a pepper grinder (but no salt). Otherwise, the cupboards were bare.

I thought I should do a blog post on self-catering holidays, since it is our favourite way to travel. I enjoy eating out quite a lot, and Andy likes it less, but we both don't love to do it for the entire holiday. Since we flew to Tasmania, we couldn't bring our own food, so we got a bit creative. The week's meals costed more than a week of eating at home would, but much less than eating out all the time. They were a bit carb heavy, but we did so much walking we needed all the fuel. I was going to go all detailed about what we bought and how we did it, but I kind of can't remember now, and it would get boring, so I'll just list the meals instead!

Our first meal was mushroom pasta - reduced-to-clear mushrooms sauteed in Nuttelex, mixed with a jar of sauce, and that's that. I didn't take a photo, because it was nothing special.

The next morning for breakfast we had porridge, made with little packets of sugar from the tea canister, and flavoured with peanut butter. It wasn't great! We bought raisins to make the porridge more tasty the rest of the trip.

At the Salamanca Markets on Saturday, we bought some dukkah, a lemon, and a big cauliflower. For dinner that night, we sauteed half the cauliflower in lemon juice and butter, and then mixed it with pasta and dukkah. It looked like beige mush but was really quite tasty.

On Sunday we went to the Farm Gate markets and got some more fresh produce - another small cauliflower, some baby bok choy, purple carrots, fresh garlic, broad beans and potatoes.

Purple carrots with a yellow middle.

Broad beans take time to prepare, but they're worth it.

Our veggies needed some pepping up after the day at the brewery.

So we had a Sunday Roast - potatoes, cauliflower, garlic and carrot, with some fresh broad beans, gently blanched, and reduced-to-clear vegan aioli.

For breakfast one morning, we had the remaining mushrooms with a block of tofu and some garlic, perfect with toast.

One night we had chilli beans on toast - a tin of kidney beans, a tin of tomatoes, come cauliflower and garlic mixed with one of those instant-sauce packets for "chilli con carne".

Another day we had sloppy peanut noodles with tofu, garlic, cauliflower and bok choy. For this we used a bottle of "singapore satay sauce" from the "ethnic foods" aisle, topped up with extra peanut butter, obviously. I ate so much and it was so good.

And one night we had reduced-to-clear kale sauteed up with some garlic, a jar of chickpeas, and the rest of the aioli as a sauce.

 With some yummy bread on the side.

 My main advice for self-catering holidays is to plan ahead a bit, but not too far - if you buy food for every meal at the start of the trip, you might waste a lot if you decide to eat out, or you have a late lunch and don't feel all that hungry for a big dinner. Choose things that can do multiple tasks, like peanut butter for satay, and for porridge, and for toast. Rely more on convenience foods, but pair them with gorgeous local produce whenever you can!

Do you like to self-cater on holidays? What are your tips?