Wow, these ideas for meals in your timeshare kitchen sound great! Has anyone tried to bring an "Instant Pot" type cooker, since those function as a pressure cooker or slow cooker crock pot?
When we've stayed at the Marriott Desert Villa in Palm Springs CA (we live in Southern California, so not too far/just under 2 hours drive time), we've shopped at Costco and Sams Club and will also pick up the rotisserie chicken or pizza for no prep. Also the tamales are easy to heat in a microwave, some ready made salads are good for dinner or lunch. Plus some bagels, yogurts or other bakery items for easy breakfast.
When we go to Hawaii we usually stay at the Marriott Ko Olina or other Marriotts on the other islands. We'll also go to Costco, Sam's and local shops like Don Quijote or the local farmer's markets and pick up fruits, vegetable, & groceries for simple breakfast and things like fish, chicken, burgers or steaks to grill for dinner. We'll usually buy lunch out at a local place and get a plate lunch and the portions are always huge, so we'll eat the leftovers for dinner or bbq. I also like to buy the local desserts like malasadas or mochi or ice cream like Dave's since there's room in the freezer. In Hawaii, they have the frozen May's teriyaki burgers, chicken teriyaki and some other grilling stuff that's easy and convenient to grill. So we tend to keep it fairly simple when travelling and timeshareing in the US.
But when we go for a week stay at our home resort, Marriott Phuket Beach Club in Thailand we use our villa kitchen for most of our meals since MPB is far from the larger stores and restaurants; and while the reastaurants at the Marriott resort (MPB is integrated and shares amenities with the JW Marriott) are very good, they're very Western priced.
We hire a driver (Mr. Kom, since 2012!) on our second day for the whole day from 10 AM to 9-10 PM. We'll do any sightseeing & shopping, have lunch and dinner with Mr. Kom at great local places where most tourists would probably not be aware of (that's why it's always great to have a local person!), and do the majority of our grocery shopping in Phuket Town. Recent years, there's been a lot of development in the Mai Khao area and other resorts were built in the area so there are more local restaurants and in the past couple of years there's now a 7-11 and Family Mart within very easy walking/biking distance.
Groceries are generally very inexpensive in Thailand and we'll buy everything (chicken, pork, rice, veggies, fruit, eggs, cooking oil, noodles, coconut milk, sauce mixes, spices, vinegar, condiments, desserts, pastries, etc.) from the big supermarket chains Tesco or Big C and I'll usually bring a large soft sided cooler for the perishables, with our luggage. Mr. Kom will always ask me what groceries/fruits we want and he'll stop at several of the numerous road side local fruit vendors or tables in front of the people's houses with fresh local mangos, pineapples, lychee, rambutan and other local fruits for very cheap and perfectly ripe! If you ever get to Phuket and see the local tiny little pineapples (about the size of a hand grenade!) in season, try it as those are the best - they are super sweet, even better than the local Hawaii pineapples! On our last trip, our friends (originally from Hawaii) travelled and stayed with us and they were amazed at how good these tiny pineapples were! Many of the stands have them already bagged-cut and sliced up with the ends of the stem sticking out like a handle so it's easy to eat. Some of the weekend local street market vendors will sell these small bags of cut up pineapples, but for a bit more than the roadside stands.
Anyways, we will cook most of our meals in our villa kitchen using local ingredients because the western ingredients are much more expensive. If we go to Bangkok, we'll sometimes take a cooking class which is fun. To make it simpler, we'll buy premade curry pastes, satay seasonings, etc. and make various curries like red, yellow, green, Panang, Massaman. We'll make chicken satay, pad see ewe, pad thai, rad nah, fried rice, Tom Yum soups, and even mango sticky rice for dessert! The Marriott PB villas have a fully equipped kitchen (no dishwasher, but the maids will do your dishes with daily housekeeping!) and full sized refrig, place settings, and pretty much most cooking utensils, appliances, even a rice cooker. MPB supplies bottled water, ground coffee & decaf for the coffee maker, instant coffee tubes, teas, sugars (brown and white), creamer and salt and pepper packets and replenishes it daily and you can always ask for more. They also supply and replenish laundry detergent for the washer & dryer.
We always leave our leftover grocery supplies of dried rice, noodles, sauces, condiments, etc. with our housekeeping staff to divy up, as they always appreciate it when we ask them (and leave a note giving them permission to take the leftovers-must be the resort's policy) probably because they don't make much money. One time we really overbought (or maybe ate out a bit more than planned) and had a couple pounds of leftover chicken in the freezer and eggs in the refrigerator and they seemed very surprised that we had so much leftover. But they were happy.
I guess even though we're on vacation, I don't mind cooking (and cleaning as I feel a bit "odd" having the maids wash our dishes!) our meals in such a gorgeous place! And it's fun to try and recreate the recipes that we learned at the cooking class! If you ever get a chance to go to Phuket, try and stay at the Marriott Phuket Beach Club! The other Marriott timeshare, the Marriott Mai Khao resort is nice, but we prefer the MPB resort more with it's location right on the beach and integrated amenities with the JW Marriott.
Like many others, we weren't able to travel this year because of Covid 19 travel restrictions and had to push our week out to 2021 or 2022. We really miss the travel but also the inexpensive and fresh fruit from Thailand this year as some of our stores here in So Cal are charging $5 for a tiny bag of rambutan or lychee fruits where we would probably pay less than $1 for that same size bag! And the rambutan and these other "exotic" fruits aren't as sweet, tasty, and fresh as compared to Phuket! Can't wait to get travelling again! It was helpful and fun reading everyone's favorite dishes to cook in their timeshares, their tips, or what supplies and equipment they bring!
Thanks again!
Cathy