13 Aug Self-Catering Accommodation Weekend Meal Plan
Planning an entire menu for a family, group of friends, or even just your partner, can seem daunting. That’s one, two…SIX meals you have to plan, shop, and prepare for. Luckily, with enough planning and preparation before you leave, you won’t run around Barrydale like a headless chicken in search of the frozen food aisle.
Absolutely Wild has prepared an easily adaptable meal plan. You’ll find these ingredients in every supermarket, even the OK on the edge of Barrydale. Tip: shop before you go. Barrydale supermarkets aren’t as well-equipped as your local Pick ‘n Pay. Our kitchens are fully equipped with fridges and freezers, so don’t worry about food going off.
This meal plan includes a lot of braaing and one or two stops at Barrydale’s assortment of restaurants. It also includes full recipes and grocery lists.
Friday
Dinner is burgers and chips.
Saturday
Breakfast: bacon, eggs, tomato, with optional toast.
Lunch: Cheese toasties
Dinner: Braai meat with a potato dish and braai broodjies.
Sunday
Breakfast: pancakes with syrup and fruit of your choice
Lunch: Diesel and Creme
Let’s dive in!
Note: don’t forget to grab wood, firestarters, lighters, etc. before the trip.
Meal Plan for Self-Catering Glamping Weekend
Here’s a quick grocery list. Scroll and check out the recipes to ascertain how much of what you
should buy.
Grocery List
- Cheese
- Tomatoes (big ones)
- Snacks (more on that after grocery list)
- Drinks (beer, wine, etc.)
- Firewood, fires starters etc.
- Burger patties
- Onions
- Lettuce
- Burger buns
- Oven chips
- Oil and/or butter
- Eggs
- Bacon
- Bread
- Braai meat
- Potatoes
- Flour (depending on whether you’re making potato bake or salad)
- Milk
- Sugar
- Salt and pepper
- Mayo
- Baking soda
- Syrup
- Strawberries
- Whatever else you’d like (see below)
Let’s assume you leave Friday morning. You’ll probably be a bit peckish around the afternoon, right? Enter car picnics, the perfect quell for tired and bored children (or partners).
Checkers has an awesome range of healthy snacks called Simple Truth. They have snacks that come in pre-packed portions, our favourites being the mango fruit gums, skinny dipped chocolate roasted almonds, high protein berry balls, and brain food mix.
If you really want to take your snack game to the next level, head to Woolies. Their biltong is to die for, and they have numerous healthy and unhealthy snacks that you’ll go back to time and time again.
Enough said.
If, for some reason, you’re not a fan of car picnics, head over to one of Barrydale’s wonderful eateries.
Our favourites are:
- The Blue Cow: Vegan and vegetarian-friendly, serving farm-style breakfast, lunch, and brunch.
- Karoo Daisy: The Karoo Daisy is dog-friendly, has a playground, and is equipped with a full bar. Its building is beautiful, painted with Route 62 landscapes. They serve pizza to burgers, pies, quiche, toasties, and more.
- Joubert Tradouw: A veritable hidden gem, on the R62 just before you reach Barrydale. They’re renowned for their wines, platters, and friendly service. Try their Chardonnay!
- Diesel and Creme: If you need a bit of fun in your life, stop at Diesel & Creme. Their milkshakes are thick and imaginative, and the place is in an American diner style, adorned with numerous quirky rubber ducks.
After you’ve arrived and have explored the farm or other things to do in Barrydale a little, it’ll probably be supper time.
Supper time: Burgers and chips
What’s a glamping experience without burgers? This recipe is easily adapted to the amount of people you’re glamping with, so buy ingredients as needed.
You’ll need:
- Burger patties.
- Onions.
- Cheese (optional). We recommend a good cheddar.
- Tomatoes.
- Lettuce. So you can pretend it’s a little healthy.
- Burger buns.
- Chips. You can get a potato or sweet potato in the frozen aisle, or just leave these out (not recommended). Woolworths stocks good sweet potato chips, and McCaine does great yellow potato chips.
- Oil and/or butter. Canola, olive, coconut–whatever does the job. We also recommend buying butter for the rolls and upcoming sarmies.
Plus, anything else you like on your burger. Woolies does a great burger mayo if you like it with your burgers.
The recipe:
Put the chips in the oven. While they cook, fry or braai the patties. Fry the onions ‘till golden brown. Rinse and slice the tomato and lettuce. Slice or grate the cheese. Then, butter the rolls or toast them with oil. Layer the patties, lettuce, sliced tomato, cheese, and onion atop the rolls. Serve with chips and enjoy!
Saturday
Get ready for three meals your family, friends, or partner will love! A fry-up for breakfast, cheese toasties for lunch, and a braai for supper.
Breakfast
When we say fry-up, we mean bacon and eggs. You can also serve it with tomato, wors, and toast, it’s entirely up to you.
This recipe calls for:
- Eggs
- Bacon strips
- Tomato (optional)
- Butter and bread (optional)
- Whatever else you like with egg and toast
Start by frying the bacon. Then, cook the eggs however you’d like them. We recommend sunny side up for maximum yolk dippage. After that, toast or fry your bread with butter or oil. If you’ve decided to include tomato, fry this, too. Enjoy!
Wander around the farm, saying hi to the animals, trying out the supertube and pool or go mountain biking to discover uncharted land.
Lunch
You’ll probably be hungry after all that adventuring! Not to worry, it’s nothing a cheese toastie can’t fix.
This cheese toastie recipe needs:
- Bread– white bread gets the crispiest, but use whatever bread you fancy.
- Cheese.
- Butter or oil.
- Whatever else you like on your toastie.
Grate or slice the cheese. Butter or oil the outside (and inside, if you want) of the bread. Place your cheese and chosen toppings between slices of bread, then fry or braai it until the sarmie is golden brown.
Buttering the outside of the toastie is what makes it extra crispy and golden. Eat it while it’s hot enough to burn your fingers a little.
Supper
It’s not worth camping if you don’t braai. There, we said it. We’ve come up with a tried and true formula for having the ultimate braai. And yes, it includes brandy.
The formula goes: braai broodjie + meat + potato bake/salad + brandy= a great time. That’s because it’s probably been scientifically proven that eating meat and braai broodjies makes you happier. Plus, the brandy and coke will help neutralise the salad.
Okay, here’s the recipe:
Braai Vleis
Pick out one or two types of meat you like. We suggest:
- Boerewors.
- Chicken.
- Lamb chops.
- Beef steak.
- Pork sausages.
- Skewers.
Or, you and your friends could bring and share a bit of everything. It’s your braai! Cook your meat over the fire to get that braai flavour.
Potatoes
Every braai needs potatoes in some form. The formula is less potent without them. We recommend making a potato salad or bake, but you can also serve chips or just eat them raw, like apples (please don’t). Be sure to start on your brandy or beverage of choice during prep.
Potato salad
Potato salad is a braai classic that’s been enjoyed for generations.
You’ll need:
- Potatoes, smaller ones cook quicker and require less prep work.
- Pickles, if you like them.
- Mayo, if you like it.
- Eggs, if you like putting egg in potato salad.
- Dill and parsley (you’re welcome to leave these out).
Cook the potatoes whole (if they’re small to medium-sized). This makes them easier to chop and helps them to retain their flavour. They take 15-25 minutes, depending on their size. While they’re cooking, slice the pickles and boil the eggs (then slice/dice them). You could also wash and slice the dill and parsley.
When the potatoes are cooked, wait for them to cool before dicing them and mixing them with the other ingredients you have prepared.
Potato bake
If you want to get technical, potato bake is actually called Potatoes au Gratin; it originated from the French Dauphinoise recipe.
It’s a mixture of potatoes, sauce, and cheese, and has been known to cure diseases like malaise and lethargy.
For the cheese sauce, you’ll need:
- Flour
- Cold milk
- Butter
- Cheese
Depending on how much sauce you want, start by adding one or two tablespoons of flour to a pot, then add an equal amount of butter. Let the butter melt and sizzle, mixing until the mixture forms a dough. Then, add the cold milk (emphasis on cold) in little bits at a time, whisking so the sauce doesn’t become lumpy. When the sauce is creamy, add in cheese at your own discretion. Let it melt and keep whisking until your sauce is creamy. If it’s too thick, add more milk; too thin, add a bit more flour. Don’t forget salt and pepper. You can also add a touch of nutmeg to really elevate the cheese’s flavour.
When that’s done, slice the potatoes into disks. Grab a large dish and layer the potatoes and sauce. Then, bake in the oven for an hour and a bit until the potatoes are cooked. Lastly, sprinkle some cheese on top and pop it back in the oven until it’s crispy and bubbling.
Braai broodjies
Braai broodjies are a household staple. You’ll need to cook them over the braai just before the meat is done.
Gather:
- Bread
- Butter/oil
- Cheese
- Tomato
- Onion
Slice the onion and tomatoes into rings and grate the cheese. Spread butter on the outside of the bread slices. Put the onion, tomato and cheese in between the bread slices, then grill on a closed grid until golden brown on the outside.
Sunday
Happy Sunday! Today you’ll make gorgeous flapjacks with strawberries and syrup for breakfast and have an awesome lunch out at Diesel and Creme.
Breakfast
These flapjacks are the perfect goodbye to an absolutely wild weekend. The recipe makes 8 flapjacks.
You’ll need:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups milk
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup canola oil or butter
- Syrup
- Strawberries (optional)
Whisk together all the dry ingredients until there are no lumps. Then, add the wet ingredients and mix some more until there are zero lumps. Ladle a quarter of a cup of batter onto a frying pan to cook the flapjacks in batches. Cook until one side is golden brown, then flip and cook the other side. When they’re done, wash and slice the strawberries.
Drizzle syrup over the flapjacks and garnish with strawberries.
Lunch
For lunch, head over to Diesel and Creme on the drive back for awesome milkshakes and lunch. Some of our favourite menu items are:
- The hotdog
- The wrap
- The Meagan
- Tomato soup and grilled cheese
- The NY Deli burger
Their menu is expansive, so be sure to have a good look before ordering.
It’s a solid meal plan, right? We’re kneeling over just thinking about the potato bake.
We’re so excited to open Absolutely Wild and share in the delight of a great camping/glamping experience. If you make any of these recipes, tag us in your Facebook or Instagram post @absolutelywildfarm. We’d love to see what you make, chef!