Houseboat Meal Planning

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(This is all useless advice inspired by the baloney sandwich.) In my days of shore camping and water skiing, I (single guy) usually focused on minimal effort cooking. Breakfasts were pre-boiled hard boiled eggs (with orange wine cooler for Vitamin C), lunch was ramen noodles, dinners were "tube steaks" on the barbecue. Another tale from those days was of a recovering alcoholic who drank plain tonic water to maintain hydration, and ending up feeling effects from all of the quinine.
 
Bigbassman said:
Great ideas! I like the marinated chicken idea, frozen and ready to thaw.
Taco salad sounds amazing and simple. I think we'll try that one night.



YESSSSS -making me hungry here ;)
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Our favorite marinated chicken--cut breast meat into pieces about the size off tenders. Put in Gallon freezer bag, add marinate (2 cups sprite, 1 cup oil, 1 cup soy sause, 1 teaspoon garlic powder--add a little horseradish if you like) freeze, take out the night before you are going to BBQ. Super good with potatoe salad, dutch oven potatoes or funeral potatoes. I make my funeral potatoes and dutch oven potatoes at home and freeze and just heat them up on the boat.
We make some type of green salad most every night--homemade ranch and nothing tastes better at the lake!
I make lasagna and freeze in throwaway pans. We do cafe rio sweet pork salads (make the pork at home and freeze). We smoke ribs on the trager at home, freeze and just do the last step with the BBQ sause on the grill. I usually do a brisquet on the trager or a huge beef roast and take frozen, we do street tacos with carne asada and chicken.
I assign the breakfast and clean up but I do all the dinners to cut down on coolers and everyone bringing the same condiments. I prepare and freeze 80-90% of my dinners before we go. Our meals are always amazing and the prep on the trip is minimal.
I know everyone does it different and I love reading these and getting some new ideas!!
 
Cindy Burr said:
Our favorite marinated chicken--cut breast meat into pieces about the size off tenders. Put in Gallon freezer bag, add marinate (2 cups sprite, 1 cup oil, 1 cup soy sause, 1 teaspoon garlic powder--add a little horseradish if you like) freeze, take out the night before you are going to BBQ. Super good with potatoe salad, dutch oven potatoes or funeral potatoes. I make my funeral potatoes and dutch oven potatoes at home and freeze and just heat them up on the boat.
We make some type of green salad most every night--homemade ranch and nothing tastes better at the lake!
I make lasagna and freeze in throwaway pans. We do cafe rio sweet pork salads (make the pork at home and freeze). We smoke ribs on the trager at home, freeze and just do the last step with the BBQ sause on the grill. I usually do a brisquet on the trager or a huge beef roast and take frozen, we do street tacos with carne asada and chicken.
I assign the breakfast and clean up but I do all the dinners to cut down on coolers and everyone bringing the same condiments. I prepare and freeze 80-90% of my dinners before we go. Our meals are always amazing and the prep on the trip is minimal.
I know everyone does it different and I love reading these and getting some new ideas!!
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Can I have your recipe for "homemade ranch" ? Please .. ;)
 
Pulled pork--take it to the bank. Just go to the local BBQ and order it by the pound and freeze it or throw it in the cooler. Easy to reheat
Sometimes we do curry and rice in a similar fashion. Don't be afraid to make your life easy by ordering from a restaurant and freezing it.
 
Back in the early eighties before we houseboated we camped a lot. Learned early on that frozen gallon milk jugs were great. No wet food and you had drinking water when they did thaw out. When houseboating we follow the previous suggestions of letting each couple handle meals for a certain number of days. It's actually fun to let each couple put their best foot forward.
 
Tiff Mapel said:
And, flats of bottled water take up soooooo much room. (And, when water bottles are empty they tend to blow off boats and then Trash Trackers pick them up later....) It's much easier to bring a 5-gallon cooler to keep in the houseboat in a shady corner. Have all your guests bring their own re-usable water bottle, and they can be responsible for filling it. Put a block of ice daily in the cooler, and it will keep your water cool. Bring those 2.5 gallon jugs of water to refill the cooler throughout the week.

Tiff
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I couldn't agree more with Tiff here. Blowing through that many disposable water bottles is nuts. I have one of those Gatorade Home Depot drink coolers. We do have a small deep freeze on the houseboat which helps, but I buy five or six of the blocks of ice specifically for this Gatorade drink cooler. I bring 3-4 five gallon water jugs to Bullfrog and then I fill it up at the picnic area there, keep them inside the houseboat in the shade. They usually still tastes fine after 5 to 6 days not much more though. It's just part of the daily routine, somebody puts a fresh block of ice in the Gatorade cooler and tops it off with big water jug. And then people usually only use one Gatorade water bottle per day and just refill it.

Everything else everybody saying about pre marinating pre freezing, dry ice that's exactly where you need to be.

Ok Powellbride, please share this french toast casserole recipe I am intrigued and hungry!!
 
Food service:
We try to make it easy on everyone helping with meals. Usually we have 4 couples (our kids are now adults), so it's just the Mom's and Dad's.
Out trips are 5 nights most years and this is our standard food plan.
1. Each couple is responsible for all meals for one day, breakfast, lunch and dinner
2. They are also responsible for kitchen clean up
3. On the fifth day we eat leftovers, love lefties

The couple on duty always get's help, so it's not a fun-less task.

Dinner is our big daily get together, so each couple try to make it special, but not crazy.

Food:
I love food, you serve it I'll eat it !

Ice:
Fill your coolers and if the houseboat has a stand-alone freezer your set.

The above plan has worked for us for 20 plus years, and each year get easier.

God, I love Lake Powell !

See you on the water !
 
sparkin5280 said:
I couldn't agree more with Tiff here. Blowing through that many disposable water bottles is nuts. I have one of those Gatorade Home Depot drink coolers. We do have a small deep freeze on the houseboat which helps, but I buy five or six of the blocks of ice specifically for this Gatorade drink cooler. I bring 3-4 five gallon water jugs to Bullfrog and then I fill it up at the picnic area there, keep them inside the houseboat in the shade. They usually still tastes fine after 5 to 6 days not much more though. It's just part of the daily routine, somebody puts a fresh block of ice in the Gatorade cooler and tops it off with big water jug. And then people usually only use one Gatorade water bottle per day and just refill it.

Everything else everybody saying about pre marinating pre freezing, dry ice that's exactly where you need to be.

Ok Powellbride, please share this french toast casserole recipe I am intrigued and hungry!!
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we do the same thing in regards to the ice/water and gatorade in the cooler, stay hydrated and not a ton of water bottles in the trash can, works so well.
 
Is there some specific reason to avoid the drinking water on the rental houseboat? Should we really be worried about bringing 5 gal jugs of drinking water? I wasn’t planning to only use disposable water bottles. We have reusable Nalgene bottles, but now you’ve got me worried about filling them from the boat water! :oops:
 
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Bigbassman said:
Is there some specific reason to avoid the drinking water on the rental houseboat? Should we really be worried about bringing 5 gal jugs of drinking water? I wasn’t planning to only use disposable water bottles. We have reusable Nalgene bottles, but now you’ve got me worried about filling them from the boat water! :oops:
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We don't like the taste of the water on the lake. I know several others with boats that feel the same way.

As an aside, we usually do a theme night as well. Cammo, Miami Vice, 'Merica, Pirates, Super Heros. This year is 1970's. Food and some sort of fun beverage (adult in this case) is a good time.BF2BA8F2-F7D6-46DF-82AB-620086733D2C_1_105_c.jpegB61F7C26-1327-495B-88ED-6A794CECEE24.jpeg
 
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