Tuesday Tip: Vacation Cooking — My Summer Vacation Cooking Kit
This Tuesday tip: vacation cooking is thirteen years in the making — after more than a decade of beach trips, VRBO stays, and Airbnb condos, I have figured out exactly what to bring from home so I can feed my family real meals all week without buying my entire pantry at vacation prices or lugging my whole kitchen in the trunk. A small bag of dry goods and one little soft-sided cooler. That is it. And I promise you, it changes the whole trip.
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Watch the full Summer Vacation Cooking Kit walkthrough above — or keep reading below.
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Here is how this whole system works. I have two things: a small tote bag for dry goods and a soft-sided cooler for cold items. Everything fits in the trunk alongside your luggage and takes up almost no space. The goal is to arrive at your destination with enough to make the first night’s dinner without going to the grocery store — because that first night, everybody is tired, nobody wants to shop, and you just want to be on vacation already. My system makes that happen every single time.
The secret is that I am not trying to replicate my whole kitchen. I am just covering the things I do not want to pay vacation prices for and the things I always forget to grab at an unfamiliar store. Spices. Condiments. Coffee creamer. Butter. A loaf of brioche bread so I can make toast the next morning or a grilled cheese sandwich that first night when we roll in hungry and exhausted. Thirteen years of beach trips will teach you exactly what matters and what you can leave home. If I could only bring one thing off that whole list, it would be Kinder’s The Blend — salt, pepper, and garlic in one jar, and it seasons just about everything I cook out there.
Tuesday tip: vacation cooking — The Pantry Bag
This all fits in a small reusable tote. The goal here is spices, sweeteners, and shelf-stable staples you will use across multiple meals. Nothing bulky, nothing that will spill, nothing you will have to throw away at the end of the trip.
👜 Pack Your Pantry Bag
Everything I pack in my dry goods tote — click any item to shop on Amazon.
Olive oil and flour are just-in-case staples. The sugar is for hot tea and iced tea, the whole cloves are for the crockpot BBQ pork, and the bread covers toast, sandwiches, and a grilled cheese in a pinch.
The Small Cooler
Here is where it gets good. This is my soft-sided cooler — nothing big, nothing bulky. And the very first thing I put in it is a five-pound pork tenderloin, frozen solid. That tenderloin is my ice pack for the drive. By the time we arrive (up to about seven hours away in my case), it is thawed and ready to go straight into the crockpot. I start it before bed and wake up to the most incredible smell. Pulled pork sandwiches for the whole crew the next day — it is our official vacation dinner tradition and my family counts on it now.
Around that pork tenderloin I pack all my condiments and the cold things I cannot live without. The USDA recommends packing frozen meat directly from the freezer into your cooler as a cold source when traveling — which is exactly what I am doing here. The frozen tenderloin keeps everything cold on the way there, and it pulls double duty as your first big meal. It is the smartest thing I have ever figured out about vacation cooking.
🧃 Small Cooler Essentials
Everything I pack in my little soft-sided cooler — the pork goes in frozen first, the rest goes around it.
The frozen 5 lb pork tenderloin goes in first — it is the ice pack AND your first night’s dinner.
➕ If You Have Room
If there is space left in the cooler after the essentials, I add these three.
Sour cream is for tacos, ranch is for salad or dip, and American cheese turns the brioche from the pantry bag into the perfect grilled cheese.
🏖️ Get the FREE Summer Vacation Cooking Kit PDF
My newsletter subscribers always have access to all of my PDFs. That includes my complete printable Summer Vacation Cooking Kit — the full pantry bag checklist, cooler checklist, 4 easy vacation meals with grocery lists (only 5 items per meal!), and my full Crockpot BBQ Pulled Pork recipe. It is found in the Seat at the Table — my subscriber-only page, along with all my other PDFs. So sign up below to get it.
Subscribe & Get the PDF →Tuesday tip: vacation cooking FAQ — The Questions I Get Every Time
Is it safe to use a frozen pork tenderloin as an ice pack?
Yes — I have done this for years with zero issues. The key is that it goes straight from your freezer into the cooler, it stays frozen for the duration of a drive up to about seven hours, and you put it straight into the crockpot when you arrive (or refrigerate it immediately if you are not cooking it that day). The USDA actually recommends packing frozen meat as a cold source when traveling, and that is exactly what this is. Keep the tenderloin in its original packaging so any juices stay contained.
What if my VRBO or Airbnb does not have a crockpot?
Mine often does not, so I bring mine. It packs flat in the trunk and is absolutely worth it for a week-long trip. If you are flying, check whether the property has one listed in the amenities — more and more vacation rentals are stocking crockpots now. If they do not and you cannot bring one, the pork tenderloin is still a great cooler cold source; just cook it in the oven at the condo when you arrive instead.
Does this Tuesday tip on vacation cooking work if you are flying?
The cooler and frozen meat approach is really designed for road trips. If you are flying, the shelf-stable pantry bag items work great — olive oil in a travel-size bottle, garlic powder, Kinder's seasoning in your checked bag, a few packets of spices. Skip the frozen meat and condiments. You will need to buy those at your destination, but you will still save money on spices and staples that would cost triple at a vacation-town grocery store.
How long is the drive where this method still makes sense?
I have driven up to seven hours with the frozen tenderloin as my cold source and it stays frozen solid the whole way when the cooler is packed tightly. For our beach trip it is about an hour. For Helen, Georgia it is about seven. Both work great. Beyond seven hours I would think more carefully about it — or bring a small bag of ice alongside the meat just to be safe. If the meat thaws completely during the drive, refrigerate it immediately and cook it within a day or two.
What four meals can I make with this vacation cooking kit?
From my pantry bag and cooler, you can build four full dinners with only five grocery items each at the vacation store: tacos (ground beef, shells, salsa, lettuce, cheese), spaghetti (pasta, jar sauce, ground beef, garlic bread, salad), burgers and hot dogs (patties, dogs, buns, chips, fruit), and crockpot BBQ pulled pork (the tenderloin you brought + buns, BBQ sauce, onions, potato salad or pasta salad). The full recipe is now on the site at that link, and the complete grocery lists are in the free PDF — sign up for my newsletter at the link above to get it.
📅 New here?
Every Tuesday Tip I have shared lives on my Tuesday Tips page — sorted by what you need, from feeding a crowd to stretching the grocery budget.
More Tuesday Tips You’ll Love
- Tuesday Tip: Feeding a Crowd — How to Feed 10 People on One Pound of Meat — the budget tip I get asked about more than anything else.
- Tuesday Tip: Meal Planning — Stop Inventing New Dinners, Reinvent One Instead — the system that took the decision fatigue out of weeknight cooking for good.
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Tuesday tip: vacation cooking — About Stephanie’s Tips
Stephanie Longstreth is the home cook, mom, and storyteller behind StephanieCooksForACrowd.com. She cooks for a family of seven in Florida — five kids, two cats, and one husband who appreciates a good meal. Four of her children came home through adoption, and family stories are woven into everything she makes and shares. Find her crowd-friendly recipes, weekly meal plans, and real family life on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest @stephaniecooksforacrowd.