Meals when you have no kitchen!

[HugeGlassofMalbec]

Due to being let down by a charlatan builder, we will now be living in a house with no kitchen for a few weeks.

We'll have a slow cooker, microwave, and toaster for use.

I have two toddlers who usually like to eat pasta for every meal. One is allergic to milk and the other is allergic to fish.

Send me some lunch and dinner ideas to keep us going, please!

[Ivory200]

Buy very small pasta shapes (if you have an Italian grocery near you, ask for pastina), and it will do ok in microwave. As will rice. Quick sauces such as mascarpone mixed with chopped cherry tomatoes, jar sauces etc. Usual slow cooker stuff. Buy silicone pockets, and you can put sandwiches in the toaster, they come out like proper toasties.

[HugeGlassofMalbec]

I was planning on stocking up on Uncle Ben's rice. I was wondering if there was a microwaveable pasta.

I'm sure there's a way to microwave vegetables?!

I've got the usual slow cooker stuff but it'll be a faff chopping and dicing with no kitchen too.

Waffles in the microwave with scrambled egg.

Everything on toast.

Tinned soup.

Jacket potatoes in the microwave.


It all sounds like we're staying in a cheap b&b

[bellinisurge]

See if you can find Look What We Found ready meals.

[user1483390742]

We borrowed a camping stove and boiled pasta, rice or spuds in the garden- the kids loved it!

[yummyeclair]

Slow cooker, use to roast any meat dry or in stock, then eat with packet rice, tin veg, . Also do jacket potatoes or hasselback potatoes with cheese , ham fillings etc. Look up slow cooking central receipes on internet. Also do any veg wrapped in foil and salmon or fish as well as lasagne Bolognese just add pasta in last hour. Absolute God send when we had builders in.

[Alicatz66]

There is microwave pasta ... Uncle Bens .. with little pots of sauce on top .. they aren't great but ok !! I'd live on dips and oatcakes and cheese , but I hate cooking when I've got a kitchen !

[HugeGlassofMalbec]

We were thinking of getting a camping stove - I might see if there's a cheap second hand one on Gumtree or eBay.

[Deadheadstickeronacadillac]

Dolmio used to do microwave pasta.
Frozen veg cooks well in microwave...might be worth getting a sistema microwave veg steamer, also look at the Leuke range of cookware as it is designed for oven and microwave. Cooks chicken breasts really well.

[HugeGlassofMalbec]

Can you put dry meat in a slow cooker??

My kids are carb mad (so am I) they have to have pasta or potatoes with every meal or they feel like they been abandoned in a Victorian workhouse!

[Ta1kinpeace]

WE had no kitchen for six weeks - we did BBQ every day, even in the snow

[HugeGlassofMalbec]

BBQ was my DH's idea and 3 years ago I would've agreed! I'm not overly keen on the thought of bbq- ing while two toddlers run riot around a building site... I'm close to losing my marbles as it is right now.

[AtleastitsnotMonday]

Cous cous
Waitrose do great frozen steam pouches of veg, rice, quinoa etc
Pre made falafels in pitas with salad

[BlingLoving]

Definitely look into a camping stove for boiling pasta etc. But also google slow cooker pasta options - this is quite popular in the US as a concept. This link came up on my first google (although haven't looked at the recipes: www.bettycrocker.com/menus-holidays-parties/mhplibrary/everyday-meals/best-slow-cooker-pasta-recipes).

Will your kids accept noodles instead of spaghetti? Most of those asian noodles are like couscous - they only need hot water, not to be boiled.

To cook vegetables in the microwave, place in a bowl with a few teaspoons of water, cover in cling film, prick it and nuke. For a bowl of carrots or similar I'd go with about 2 minutes. Alternatively, buy frozen vegetables and cook the same way - but saves you peeling and chopping. Tends to take a bit longer to nuke. Sweetcorn should be wrapped individually in clingfilm. Two will take 3 minutes. 3 will take 4 minutes and 4 should go in for about 5. Leave to stand for at least 2 or three minutes after - longer is fine too. Broccoli, asparagus and other more "delicate" vegetables may take longer. Spinach can be wilted in about a minute. (I regularly do lunch at the office with a piece of hot smoked salmon, half a bag of rice, wilted spinach and some creme fraiche, but it sounds like your DC wouldn't go for that).

Definitely stock up on bag rice - so much easier. Ditto, new potatoes can be nuked too but again, you'd probably have to experiment to get the right amount of time. I'd think about 5 minutes or so, but possibly longer.

If you do a large bbq, wrap jacket potatoes in tin foil and place them on the edges of the coals once the flames have gone down (but before you're ready to cook your meat). You can do this with sweet potatoes too .They will take probably about an hour to cook. Do enough for more than one meal then you just have to nuke them slightly when you want to heat them up later.

What do you mean by dry meat? If you mean meat that hasn't been pre-browned, yes. The BBC good food website was doing some specials on this recently. Take a look at their website. It you can afford it, consider buying bags of prepared vegetables for the slow cooker, or use frozen vegetables and increase the time you use to cook them (I haven't tried frozen, but imagine it would work fine).

Also things like mince for spaghetti bol actually works very well in the slow cooker and doesn't require pre-cooking if you can't manage it. Just throw your onion, mince, stock, tomatoes etc into the slow cooker and leave to do its thing over a long long time.

[delilahbucket]

We've just done a 7 week stint with only a microwave, kettle and toaster. Greek salad with flat bread became a staple! Lots of Chinese meals cook well in a microwave. Get precooked meat, bag of stir-fry veg, fresh egg noodles and a sauce, in a plastic bowl, cling film on with some holes in it and heat through. The veg will steam. We also had a chorizo jambalaya //www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1243/microwave-jambalaya but with precooked rice and less liquid.
Cooked chicken, fresh pasta, a small amount of chicken stock, garlic (I used the frozen chopped stuff as I had little prep space) and halved cherry tomatoes also in a clingfilmed bowl.
We even managed enchiladas by loosely following this recipe flippindelicious.com/2014/06/10-minute-gluten-free-enchiladas.html
We also had A LOT of barbecues! We used the disposable ones as we had nowhere to wash up our normal one.