It really depends on your tastebuds. Other than dinners, we don't eat any differently on the island than at home. That means cereal, eggs, bagels...that type of stuff for breakfast. Sometimes we make a giant breakfast, but overall, just keep it simple. The main thing to think about is what to pack for lunch. Being that we spend every day at the beach, and that water activities make us hungry, we always pack 1-2 sandwiches per person....and when I say sandwich, I mean a simple sammy...white bread, meat, cheese,done. We even do pb&j. We freeze water bottles the night before and stick those in the collapsable ice chest in the morning, along with a few sodas. We toss the sandwiches in, as well as chips, crackers, cheese, fruit, energy bars....things like that to munch on.

To be honest, we concentrate most on what we are to eat for dinner. When making steaks, we make enough to have leftover steak sandwiches the next day. When making chicken kabobs, we make enough to throw in an omelette the next morning. Breakfast and lunch are an afterthought...just depends on our mood. Also, we love pates. We stay on St John, so I can't say what they are like on St Thomas. Hercules and Jewel's Pates are outstanding. Vie's is a great place to grab food, too, but she's always closed when we're there in August 🙁
So my point is that we pick up pates in the morning (and I do mean morning because they sell out fast) and save those for post-snorkeling. Nothing tastes better after a snorkel than a pate...at least that's my opinion...mmmmmmm. Of course, they aren't exactly healthy, so I wouldn't recommend it for EVERYDAY, but we succumb and end up eating them just about every other day while there.

Our group of 9 are getting together this week to decide exactly what we want to bring. There wil be 4 in their 50's and the other 5 are in their 20s.

Breakfast is big with us, so we will bring some bacon, pork roll and sausage. Eggs and bread can be bought at the Marina Market.

We will also bring some chicken cutlets, hamburgers already made at home and hot dogs. We can either cook these up at the villa or take them to a beach where there are grills for lunch.

Snacks will be a problem. Hopefully, everyone can carry something with them, like pretzels, chips and taco chips.

We'll bring peanut butter and jelly (especially for my daughter), but of course that will be plastic containers.

We intend to seal everything with my seal-a-meal and freeze before we go, put it in a cooler that has wheels on it. That way we can bring it to the beach with lunch and some beers.

As far as liquor, at the airport in Phila you can buy it really cheap. Beer we'll get at the Marina Market when we get there.

For this many people you can't eat out all the time....it's just way out of the budget. Also, sitting out at night at the pool or jacuzzi, everyone would love to have snacks and some drinks.

So...in general, we'll buy breads, eggs, juices, etc. in St. Thomas. Everything else, we'll bring.

Oh...and don't forget to bring spices!!! The villas usually have some, but often they are old, or not exactly what you need. I love to cook and have a big problem if I'm missing any key spices. So if there are some you can't live without, throw them in your suitcase!

I just finished putting my shredded chicken enchiladas in the freezer for my trip in May. Next week I will cook and freeze my fall off the bone, baby back ribs.YUMMY! Then roladin (sp?) German, rolled steak stuffed w/ whatever strikes your fancy, I like dijon mustard, bacon and onions. Probably do meatballs and sausage, chicken picatta(again sp?). Lunch, usually just fruit, cheese and crackers or eat out. Chicken roti! can't wait for that. Breakfast we usually make some breads. Banana, cran orange and have them with coffee. Getting hungry again!

Leticia,
You are very ambitious! Can we start a thread with your recipes?? I have yet to make good ribs:) You check all this on the plane?

If you like ribs that fall off the bone, the fastest way to cook them is to give them a quick boil in a large pot filled with spices. Technically, the water shouldn't be all out boiling...it should be just barely simmering. The point is to separate the cartilage from the bone. Then place them on a baking sheet and cover them in your favorite sauce (we like sweet baby ray's). Then put them in the oven or bbq. The meat falls off the bone. Some people prefer giving their teeth a bit more of a workout and thus don't use the submerge in water method..everybody is different. My friends and family love my ribs, but most connoisseurs would probably say I'm lame for using water to cook them.

Roladin is spelled correctly.

Include one of those small German Gerkins when you cook them. Makes them yummy

Not sure how you do your ribs, but why not just do them a week before, refrigerate instead of freezing. They should keep in just the cooler unfrozen. That's what I do.

parboiled ribs, nyet.....phooey

Connie,
I'll be over! 🙂
As for the liquor, it is cheaper yet here! This is one item that people take home with them, not bring!

Friends of mine often bring their own powdered drinks, canned soups, and dip mixes. The spice idea is a good one also! Cereal is alot cheaper up there, so I often bring that back with me as well.

What is the temp and time after you par boil ?

Thanks.

I have no clue...taking the temp and paying attention to the time is far too organized for me, haha. I can make some amazing dishes time and time again, but I can't reproduce them on paper. I'm 28...I figure I have many years to perfect things prior to writing down my recipes and passing them along to my future children. I'm sure you can do a search online and find specific instructions regarding the specific time and temp. Just do a search for "braise" and "ribs"....something like that. Again, this is only good if you want to cook the ribs fairly quickly and get the meat to remove itself from the bones entirely. I think the entire process is around an hour, but it's been a few years.

Thanks for everyone's help. How the heck to you pack all this frozen food for the plane? I was thinking of cheese and stuff, powered drinks and even bagels to freeze when we got there. Not sure how to get this all on the plane with the travel restriction for carry-ons.

Thanks for the info. Any help is appreciated.

Don't actually carry on...check the food as baggage. You will not be able to carry much of the food on the plane, anyway. You can pack food in boxes, ice chests, collapsable ice chests placed in a box....get creative and use your scale to weigh the baggage. Try to stay around 45 pounds per bag/box so that you have 5lbs to work with at the airport. Re-package items in ziplock bags to make extra room and reduce weight. It's kind of an art, but if you start 2 days early, you'll get the hang of it by the night before. Good luck!!!

after all of these years it's pure science.

I have a collapsable insulated cooler on wheels. I freeze that which needs to be frozen. The morning we leave I load up the bottom of the cooler with a couple of bottle waters frozen. Pour off a bit before freezing. I then use one of those blue frozen things. Fill the sucker up so there's less air circulation and top off with a throwaway towel. Nice and insulated.

We travel all the way from Los Angeles and even with the layover in Miami and the waiting at RH, it still arrives frozen.

And we do not carry on. We check it through.

We're in San Diego and do pretty much the same thing sans the frozen water and blue thing. Our large chunks of frozen meat keep everything ice cold...the meat is still frozen 24 hours later. Kind of shocking! The collapsable coolers really are the best!!!

Hi again. Promoguy, all I have to say is WOW. I can't believe you know what Roldan is! I will try the pickle on a couple for myself (husband doesn't like them though...or any veggies really). I have heard that a couple of times though. What else should I put in there with the pickle. How do you know about Roldan? I got the recipe from my stepmothers, mother. She immigrated from Germany (with parents) right before things started to get bad over there. As for the ribs I don't like to feel like I am doing alot of cooking for my trip. Thats why I start so early. I like to keep things frozen because I fly from New England and there is no non stop from here. It sometimes takes 8-10 hours to get there. Most AA flights are routed through Chicago then San Juan then STT. So I figure better safe than sorry. It is all still very frozen when I get there. Plus the frozen stuff keeps my specialty cheeses, butter and MUST HAVE Coffee Mate cold. You know ,its is hard to find Coffee Mate there. Bummer. As for HOW I make my ribs I like to cook them nice and sloooww. I mix 2 parts barbecue sauce with 1 part OJ
put ribs in 2-9/11 pans with the sauce
wrap tight with foil and cook on 300 for 3 hrs.
uncover flip and raise temp to 350 for 1 more hour
if you think about it turn them half way through the final hr.
They are worth it. I do them on a Sat or Sun for all obvious reasons. I have tried the par boiled way but, I'm a bit of a food snob when it comes to meat. I get the hebgb's easily and I can taste that boiled meat flavor even through the sauce. I drive my husband nuts actually cause I won't take the short cuts with cooking meat. Weird I know. Enjoy!

Leticia-

I'm going to try your rib method- sound yummy. My ribs always come out dry -too high of a temp. i think. Do you use a rack of ribs or those country style ones?

Thanks.

Leticia-I lived in Germany for 8 years, when you were probably a toddler, if you're even that since it was the late 60's to mid 70's, 🙂

I was one of the few things my ex mother in law could cook that tasted good. Ex wife was terrible at cooking and when she came to the states decided to become in love with salads. I still need meat.

I'll make rouladin or even a sauerbraten once in a while. Yummy stuff.