My Mom’s Go-To Dinner for Night One of a Family Vacation

When my family goes on vacation, the biggest stressor is figuring out the game plan for meals.

We all love going out to dinner, but it can get far too expensive to do so every night. Yet, we don’t really want to spend a ton of time cooking while we’re on vacation either. The kitchen is unfamiliar and small, and the equipment at rental houses isn’t always the best (looking at you, dull chef’s knives).

But despite those challenges, my whole family appreciates the effort that goes into a home-cooked (vacation-cooked?!) meal.

My Mom’s Vacation Dinner

Once a year, no matter what we all have going on in our lives, my parents, my brothers, and I head to Cape Cod for one week at the beach. As we’ve grown from kids to teens to adults, my brothers and I have taken on more of the cooking and trip planning, but my mom figured out the best meal for the first night of vacation long ago: meatballs.

If you’re a touch skeptical, I get it—meatballs don’t exactly shout “beach meal.” But they’re perfect for that for that first night for almost any vacation destination at any time of year for several reasons.

Easy To Make Ahead

Meatballs freeze well (check out Chef John’s meatball recipe and the freezing tips), so you can make them when your pre-vacation schedule allows. My mom makes a big batch of Italian meatballs the week or two before vacation, freezes them, and then tosses the freezer bag into a cooler for the drive to the beach cottage. They defrost while we unpack and enjoy the first day of vacation without having to stress about a grocery store trip on day one.

Make Cooking Simple

To finish off the meatballs, toss them into a pot with the sauce and let them heat through. We’ll occasionally cook spaghetti and make an easy salad to go with the meatballs, but an even easier option is using them to make meatball sandwiches. We get sub rolls and provolone cheese to finish off the sandwich assembly, and the only big item to clean is the pot we used to heat the meatballs.

A Crowd-Pleaser

In my family, no one complains about eating meatballs. When we were kids, my mom knew she could get us all fed with minimal groaning, and vacation could start with less bickering (at least not about what was on the table). 

How To Freeze Meatballs

After cooking your meatballs, spread them out evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and pop the tray into the freezer. Once the meatballs are fully frozen, transfer them to a resealable plastic freezer bag or freezer-safe container. This method ensures the meatballs won’t freeze together into a single solid mass.

My Mom’s Tips for the Best Meatball Sandwiches

• Use squishy sub rolls. After slicing open the rolls, brush them with a little olive oil, and place them in the oven or toaster oven until they’re lightly toasted.
• Reheat meatballs in sauce. You can make homemade pasta sauce if you like, but we like to keep vacation cooking as simple as possible and use store-bought sauce. 
• After loading meatballs into your toasted sandwich rolls, top meatballs with a slice or two of provolone cheese. Then, stick the sandwiches back in the oven briefly to melt the cheese.
• Since these sandwiches are pretty hearty, serve something light on the side, like chips or Caesar salad.