I agree with just buying for a 1-3 days at a time, and then every other week or so check the cabinets to see if there's something you should be using up. That way you won't get to the end of your stay and have lots of partially or unused food.

Also remember that eating from the freezer doesn't have to mean yucky frozen dinners. You can have leftovers of homemade food, ingredients for quesadillas, fruit for smoothies, edemame, etc.

I say buy some olive oil, salt, peppeer, some easily storable protein sources like canned beans, canned fish, and eggs, or even maybe sausage, and then buy a few dry items like pasta, grains, rice, and then rely on yourselves to buy fresh leafy greens and other vegetables, fruits, herbs, and nuts each week or so, and mix and match them all into meals. You won't be loading up a full blown pantry too much and you'll still be eating fresh and whole. some ingredients will also work for breakfasts. like if you get some grains and mix with fresh fruits. or eggs scrambled with veggies. you can keep some freezer items for quick fix, freezer veggies and fruits, or meals, but i think it's a solid way to go.

Los Angeles has a lot of really amazing Farmer's Markets, all over the city. Grab veggies and fruits from there if you can. Avocados and oranges are a must. Also the tortillas at the mexican markets are usually handmade and amazing (I go to Vallarta for those).. so you could always have quesadillas if you're short on time to cook. I also like stocking up on fresh tamales.

I don't where in LA you'll be, but we have amazing farmers markets here, all over, you can find one any day of the week. I always use rentfoodbroke.com I think it's an LA only kind of thing, but they have links to stuff to do for $10 or less, but they also always have the farmers market information. They're always up to date.
Welcome to Los Angeles!

I have stayed in Europe a couple of times for a month or two at a time, with just a couple square feet of floor to ceiling space as a kitchenette, and cooked 2 meals a day for 2 out of that thing every time (this little contraption was truly an amazing use of space). I think the hard part of doing this for me was getting into a scaled-down mind-set. I needed much less than I thought to eat well in a temporary situation like this. What helped me was to focus on stocking what I needed for just a couple of breakfast options (we had either cereal with fruit, or eggs and toast with sauteed veggies) and a few dinner options (we lived mostly on pasta+meat+greens, or 1-main-ingredient soups), rather than trying to recreate a miniature version of a fully-stocked kitchen. By keeping our options down to just a handful of things that we would like to eat again and again, and were adaptable to differing fresh ingredients, we were able to not spend too much on pantry items we would ultimately have to leave behind. If you can go more often to the store to buy fresh food, that definitely helps. I think all I had on-hand consistently was salt, pepper, butter, olive oil, canned tomatoes, pasta, bread, eggs, jam, hot sauce and mustard. Buying fresh ingredients that were flavorful on their own, since my flavoring options were limited to salt or pepper or one of my sauces, was also key (although honestly, having mustard, jam, and hot sauce was really plenty of flavor variety for a short stay).

I would try to find a store with a good bulk section. That way you can buy just the necessary amount of an ingredient you need. A few tablespoons of flour for a roux, or a few cups for cookies, just enough of a spice for one dish, lentils or dried beans for one pot of soup, all less wasteful than buying preportioned bags of it and having to throw the rest of it away when you leave.

I find the thing I missed most when living a few months in another kitchen was my spices collection. Worse yet, good spices can be reaaaaally expensive to replace! If I had to do it again I would make a small kit of my favorites, something like this travel spice kit.. (if that link doesn't work, just search for travel spice kits for inspiration.)

Depends on how often you use a lot of spices, of course.

Meal Planning! I know that lots of us don't do that around here, but it really does save time and money. Look at your schedule for the week of when you will be home for dinner, and plan meals for those nights, minus one. I find that if I think I will be home for four nights during the week, if I plan meals for three of those nights, they all get eaten. If I plan for four, life happens and something gets left off the menu. You could also do the cook once, eat twice or more technique. Cook something at the beginning of the week and munch on it the rest of the week.

There is some solid good advice here. I spent three months in a similar situation, and the other thing I would add is to re-think what you consider a meal. The place I stayed offered a cooked breakfast, so I would load up then and many times just have fruit and yogurt for dinner.

One of my favourite things about DC is the Dean & Deluca store. No, not a cheap option, but a great way to make yourself really excited about trying out new products at home instead of eating out.

Their spices are conveniently packaged for brining home, and chances are, you will find so many wonderful products, you will make a point of bringing them home (D&D got me addicted to Staud's Blood Orange Marmalade with Rhum).

The best meals are actually quite simple, and what makes them truly glorious is having the freshest and best ingredients possible... For example, a lovely toasted pain au levain or ciabatta, rubbed with garlic and tomato, covered with soft goat cheese and a perfectly poached egg, served with a simple green salad; absolutely divine. Try a small can of lemon or mandarin olive oil, and a lovely balsamic vinegar.

Make a classic Roman pasta dish with one of the best dry pastas available, an artisanal pasta from Naples like Afeltra: Cacio e Pepe.

Or pair the Afeltra with Marcella Hazan's classic tomato sauce.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Cheese-and-Pepper-Pasta-Cacio-e-Pepe

Keep some prosciutto and good bread on hand, along with cherry tomotoes, and other fruits and veg, including marinated ones, for easy, light meals.

For breakfast, get some lovely muesli, fruit, and yogurts.

Have fun with it -- make it into a culinary exploration and vacation!

Oops, thought you were going to DC for some reason... Well, LA is full of amazing farmer's markets and Whole Foods, so you have tons of options. The trick is to make it into a treat to eat at home, instead of having a sad, unfulfilling meal. You are not going to have lots of kitchen tools so aim for things which will require minimal preparation, minimal ingredients.

All of these ideas are terrific! I don't live in L.A. but have been there often enough that I can attest to the superiority of the farmers' markets! Take a market basket with you...my daughter gave me one that she got in Germany and it holds just enough stuff for a couple of days. It has dramatically changed my thinking about how much you actually need for a healthy diet. Fresh is best, for sure.