Eating without a kitchen

[PorcelainCatStack]

In a few weeks building will commence on our kitchen extension and then a few weeks after that we will be “kitchen-less” until the new one goes in. Because of the logistics of the build it might be a while so please can I ask for any tips for how to get through it?

We will have a kettle and microwave in another room and maybe a small drinks fridge.

Obviously laundry will be laundrette but any ingenious tips or tricks when it comes to eating without an actual kitchen?

It may of course just be the obvious takeaway & eating out (praying for lockdown to end before my kitchen does ha ha).

Borrow a slow cooker if you can. Can family or friends nearby, cook and drop off dinner once or twice a week?

We got a sandwich toaster.

You can buy a single induction hob from IKEA, plugs in to a normal wall socket. Really helped us

Can you move your freezer to another room?
Batch cook, pre portion and freeze for microwave meals.

Slow cooker and a hot plate for cooking with pans. I picked one up for £20 second hand

There's quite a few microwave recipes which I saw on the Tasty page on Facebook and some which you can do in a mug. It's not ideal but it can help during a temporary period. I'd probably invest in a George Foreman grill and then I could have rice from the microwave and cook meat on it. Also, it can do grilled sandwiches so you get double the use out of it.

Alternatively during the time before your kitchen is decommissioned I would do some batch cooking and stick it in the freezer and then defrost and reheat during those weeks. Then you're saving time and money but also you know you're eating hearty meals. I did some slow cooker chicken korma, butter chicken, casseroles and cottage pies for my lunches as I don't always have time to cook.

I got a camping stove and cooked a bit on that. Plus microwave rice pouches etc.

Borrow a slowcooker, or ideally something like the Tefal Multicook so you can do rice and slow cook in it.
Can you not move your current fridge/freezer to somewhere? Shopping everyday would be a right pain, esp at the moment.
If you have a bbq, you can do loads on there
Ask around, and you might be surprised what people would load you - we have a tabletop electric hob that I bought for camping that I'd be happy to loan a friend/acquaintance

Don't put your microwave on a waxed or polished wood surface.

Airfryer

You say you’ll have a small drinks fridge, so you won’t have a proper fridge or freezer? That’s more difficult than not having an oven I’d have thought.

Thanks all. Sadly no room for a freezer anywhere so no batch cooking storage. No friends or family nearby either (well none that would cook for us).

The slow cooker / plug in induction hub etc all sound like great ideas and I’ve added sandwich toaster to the list too.

Luckily we do live near a LOT of takeaways but it’s not ideal

No, no proper fridge or freezer sadly. It’ll be like camping I think

You can’t fit much in a small drinks fridge. Any chance of freezer access? If so, do what Jenitherabbit suggests and do some batch cooking in advance. You could even buy a chest freezer and put it in another room, they can be quite cheap, and would soon pay for itself if the alternative is daily ready meals or takeaways.

When we moved into our house we didn’t have anything (total project) - we got a microwave and mini fridge and mainly lived off M&S ready meals with their bags of microwave veg (which are expensive but nice). But I was able to go to M&S 2-3 times a week - I wouldn’t fancy doing that right now.

Depending on whether your tastebuds can cope, some powdered milk might be handy, to save fridge space.

Oooo I’d not thought of air fryers / multi cooks either. Might be worth investing now then rather than waiting until the kitchens done.

We’ll only have a worktop for appliances that’s about 1m square too. Small drinks fridge on the floor. So not a lot of room either.

Slow cooker/air fryer/George Forman grill

Oh dear sorry, cross post. But if you could feasibly fit a freezer anywhere I’d do that.

One of those work top steamers. You can do veg and fish in them I believe.

Air fryers take forever

Yeah I think the drinks fridge will just be for butter and milk really. It’s not going to be easy! But after lockdown this almost feels like a fun change at least it’s different ha ha.

Powdered milk is a good shout too. At least it lets me keep just a bit of milk in the fridge.

I bought a camping stove and cooked most things on that, I still use it when I make somosas so I don’t stink the flat out. I put my fridge and freezer in the living room, it was cramped but something I could live with.

Hot chicken, or pork, from the Tesco deli counter once a week!

I used my instant pot a lot making macaroni cheese in it, salmon, potatoes and peas and various stews, risotto (especially as the weekend before the kitchen got ripped out DH killed the microwave).

Remoska tabletop ovens are so good for cooking anything. A roast. Jacket potatoes. Sausage bacon. I would get a large one though. I use mine all the time even though I have an oven.

We managed for about three weeks with a microwave, toaster and sandwich toaster. We do have a soup maker which we used a few times.

It was the washing up that got me down a bit, but on the whole it was quite fun.