Hotel Room Cuisine

I’ve been addicted to watching shows like Rachael Ray and The Chew. This is somewhat frustrating due to the fact we have been living in hotels for the last few months and I have no kitchen. The closest thing I have is a microwave and refrigerator. I love to cook and I want to make all those delicious meals I see them creating on their shows. Although cooking meals in a hotel can be challenging, it is not impossible. Nutrition is available without eating out every meal, which can get expensicve or having to eat every morning at the hotel provided carb-laden breakfast, which can get fattening and boring. Believe it or not, you can make scrambled eggs in the microwave. I simply scramble two eggs add a little milk or water, and sometimes a little grated cheese, and pour into a ceramic coffee cup (which I got at Dollar Tree.) You should spray the cup with some cooking spray, or I just add a little olive oil and brush around with a pastry brush. Don’t forget to cover with a paper towel. Cook in microwave for 30 seconds, stir, cook another 30 seconds, stir, and cook for a final 30 seconds. Microwave times vary, so you have to experiment with times. Sometimes we add some veggies such as green or red peppers, mushrooms, onions, jalapenos, etc, and I will add a few more seconds to each microwave cooking time. You can also mix all the ingredients and pour into a microwave steamer bag available near where you would find zip loc baggies at the grocery store. You just cook them in the microwave for a minute or two and you have an omelet. Never use a regular zip loc baggie to do this. Tortillas are one of my favorite staples to keep on hand as you will soon learn. You can wrap the scrambled eggs in a tortilla and add salsa. We have a portable, electric, non-stick grill I picked up at a second hand store for $6.50 that I use to grill meats on. It also works perfect for toasting bread, English muffins, or thin hamburger buns. We enjoy it with just jelly or add egg, cheese and turkey bacon. Another way to cook egg for a breakfast sandwich is to put a some ham or turkey on the bottom or a ceramic coffee cup or bowl, crack an egg on top, cook for a minute in the microwave, add cheese, cook for another minute and slide out onto toasted bread. I like to get fresh cut fruit, or fresh berries, and add to the side of my eggs, turkey bacon, and toast, and you have a nice healthy breakfast, and for a lot cheaper than what you would pay at Denny’s. Not that we don’t like to splurge on Denny’s occasionally. Other easy breakfast ideas are: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, turkey rolled in a tortilla, Greek yogurt and fruit, and oatmeal. Dinners are another challenge. Fortunately, as I mentioned before, I managed to pick up a non-stick, electric grill at a resale store. It is absolutely my favorite purchase so far. My second favorite is my hand held mixer I got at Goodwill for $4. I use it to make my salsa, because I don’t like store bought salsa. But, let’s get back to the grill. I use it to grill chicken breasts, salmon, steaks, hamburgers, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, squash, asparagus, pineapple, and toast. I only have two spices that I carry with me at the moment, and they are not salt and pepper. Weber makes some delicious spices for grilling meats. My two favorites are Kick’n Chicken, and Garlic and Herb. They taste great on any type of meat whether is says for chicken are not. I love when I find a grocery or health food store that carries bulk spices. I can buy as much or as little as I want. So if I just need enough curry spice for one meal, that’s all I have to buy. I don’t have to buy a whole container. I like to use garlic and onion powder a lot, but hate to carry around a bunch of bulky containers. I just get small amount and keep it in the baggies that are provided. They barely take up any room. You can also sometimes find bagged spices in the produce section and they are a lot cheaper than buying the ones in the spice aisle. You just need to re-bag them in a zip loc baggie, because they’re not re-sealable. Another of my favorite ideas for dinner is to pick up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store and serve it with a side or some tomatoes and avocados. I like to get the cherry tomatoes, because they don’t require refrigeration. But I will buy the larger ones if I am going to cut the whole thing up and eat at dinner. Uncle Ben makes some delicious brown rice side sold in a steamer bag that goes straight into the microwave. Santa Fe flavor is our favorite, but I’m having a hard time finding it at Wal-Mart lately. There are also several frozen vegetables now sold in steamer bags as well. We like the broccoli and cheese. I put whatever is left of the rotisserie chicken in a zip loc baggie (how would I ever live without these things!) and serve it the next night on a tortilla with cheese, veggies, and salsa. We sometimes give in and get microwave TV dinners, but not often, because they’re loaded with sodium and controversial ingredients. Healthy Choice makes a frozen dinner line called Café Steamers. My favorite is the Chicken Margherita. Here’s a little secret: You can save the steamer bowl that comes with this meal and use it as a colander to rinse berries and canned beans. It works perfect and its compact. There goes my frugal side. We also like to occasionally get the lasagna dinners for two, but since we don’t get them very often I couldn’t tell you what brand we like. We’ve recently discovered that we love Campbell’s 100% Natural Mexican-Style Chicken Tortilla Soup. Sprinkle some crumbs from the bottom of a bag of tortilla chips on top. Delicious! Hotel room dining isn’t as boring as I once conceived. With a little imagination and ingenuity it can be pretty tasty.