What can I feed my 3yo? Please help!

[CupcakeBlues]

Our cooker (oven and hob) stopped working earlier today. It's going to be a week at least until we can get a new one ordered and fitted.

In the meantime, I'm struggling to think of meals I can do for our 3yo DS. He's a fussy eater and normally we do a lot of roasts, baked fish, boiled vegetables, noodles, plain pasta etc. DH and I can survive on microwave meals until the new cooker comes but DS doesn't like the kids ones (I've tried him on them in the past and he finds them too mushy).

Tonight's dinner was microwave cheesy mash with carrot sticks.

Plan for tomorrow is cheese sandwiches with sweetcorn cooked in the microwave for lunch and then cold chicken and ready-made pasta salad for dinner.

Struggling a bit for inspiration. I'd happily feed him takeaway food but he won't touch most of it (with a McDs Happy Meal, for instance, he only eats the fries).

Any ideas welcome! What can I do with a microwave, toaster and kettle that a fussy 3yo will eat?

@CupcakeBlues

We don't know any campers unfortunately! We're several hours away from family and we don't normally batch cook since we have a tiny kitchen and so just have a small fridge-freezer (live in a city so tiny house). Chilli is my go-to meal but we normally store it in the fridge and eat over 3 days so no spare portions unfortunately.

We do have lots of shops/takeaways within reach. Most major supermarkets, Lidl, Aldi, M&S food etc. I've tried my DS on the M&S kids microwave meals (mostly rejected - though I eat them up and I think they're yummy!). Haven't tried the Little Dish ones so I'll give them a go.

He won't eat soup but we can definitely do beans on toast in the microwave. We've never tried potato waffles but we could give those a go. He'll eat tinned tuna with sweetcorn pasta so we could try cooking pasta in the microwave.

Avocado, houmous, cottage cheese are all out unfortunately...he ate all of these as a baby but won't touch them anymore. He will eat cous cous and kidney beans.

I'm sure you can buy microwave pasta packets like the precooked rice pouches.

Would he eat falafel, houmous, pitta bread etc?

Just go and get a load of picnic stuff instead of cooking sweet corn in the micro, way easier surely?

You can do fish, rice, veg, scrambled egg, beans, "jacket" spuds all in the microwave. Buy some ready cooked chicken. Have picnic dinners, crackers, cheese, salami, fruit and veg.

Noodles and cous cous only need hot water. Pasta and sauce packets?

Buy a plug in worktop induction job? We had one when our kitchen was being refitted here although only works for certain pans!!

I would do plates of picnic style food - cucumber, carrot, pepper slices, humus, falafel, pitas

If you can get a cheap air fryer they are basically a small fast oven, so you can do chips, fish fingers, sausages, nuggets, roast potatoes, jacket potato, etc.

Oooh actually, I have a spare tabletop oven that you can borrow if you are anywhere near me! We got it as an emergency cooker and it's nearly new, but fab! I'm in Lancs.

Reminds me of those lovely 80s cookery books where you could supposedly entertain a while dinner party with zapped food!

Micros are good for steaming if he eats carrot, broccoli etc. Microwave jacket potatoes. Or you can do stuffed pasta with water out of a kettle, it only has to heat through really.

If you fork out for a fancy new slow cooker like an instant pot, they have a sauté function so you can cook pretty much anything in there.

@TheVolturi. Thanks so much for your lovely offer but unfortunately we're the other end of the country to you!

Some good ideas though...if we add in a sneaky Pizza Express trip later this week, we might manage to survive.

I've just had a lovely M&S microwave meal with black rice and chicken...I offered some to DS and it was emphatically rejected. Maybe hunger will drive him to broaden his diet by the end of the week .

@TheVolturi. Air fryer is a good idea - will have a look. We actually gave one to PIL for Christmas but they're in Norfolk unfortunately so hours away from us.

Part of the problem is that our kitchen is quite small so we don't have a lot of cupboard/surface space for extraneous fun kitchen stuff. Though I do think we have a toastie maker somewhere in the loft so might try to dig it out. Bizarrely, we also have a popcorn maker which has never been used (still in its box) - not sure that's going to be a lot of help!

Frozen mash with cooked chicken and microwave veg. Frozen jacket pots. You can make them mug shots with hot water.

Ahhh what a shame! I've just remembered there are those ready baked sausages that zap in the microwave as well, walls I think?

www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-cook-microwave

OP, don’t you have any friends or neighbours? You could surely ask to use their cooker just until your new one arrives. In my village we would automatically do that.
I stored all my frozen food in the village shop’s freezer when mine broke down, and I’ve done a neighbour’s washing when their machine died.
Or in this glorious hot weather you could live on salads and picnic food - ready made pies, quiche, cold meats, hummus etc.

OP I really hope your oven is here and working as expected/planned. I ordered from Currys - approx 16 weeks with no oven due to their cock ups, faulted brand new oven and their appalling customer service.

I would invest in a slow cooker or cheap mini oven/grill. I bought a Ninja Foodi (not cheap but I knew it was going to be a long time) - life saver, and I still use it loads now!

Hi, thank you for all these ideas! I've got a couple of mini dish meals for DS to try for lunch, otherwise it will be cheese sandwiches or baked beans! I've bought a rotisserie chicken for tonight, with microwave new potatoes and microwave veg. Luckily DS will eat broccoli and carrots so he'll get some nutrients. I've also got some pre-cooked salmon fillets for tomorrow (pricey !) which I think we'll do with microwave rice and lentils. Then microwave jacket potatoes with baked beans and cheese on Thursday. And add sliced peppers and carrot sticks to everything for extra veg. Yoghurts for extra protein.

Where we live is quite urban and transient and people are quite self-contained so unfortunately I don't feel I can ask to cook in anyone's house. Not a close-knit village unfortunately! We've started making friends here but everyone we know is still being very careful about Covid (having playdates outside still etc.) so wouldn't want extra people in the house.

DH is going to organise the new cooker today. If it's going to be a week or two, we can manage... if more than that, we'll have to at least get a temporary hob or slow cooker. I've already spent twice what I usually would on food for this week .

Chicago Town do the micro pizzas
Ready meals?

It's hard were in week 3 of no kitchen. Only microwave as no where to use the slow cooker without little fingers touching.

It's been hard going. 2 adults. 1 teen. 3 Yr old and 1 Yr old with allergies and 8yr old dsc..

Glad for bbq weather but also too many take aways.

And yes. Ready meals are so expensive compared to cooking properly.. I'm spending a fortune.

Can you get a slow cooker?

You can roast a chicken or a joint of meat in one. Just put the meat in and leave.

You can also do baked potatoes.

You can also use it as a bain marie to steam veg and suet puddings (sweet or savory) or ramakins with eggs in.

Have you seen the cooked breakfast in a sc? Basically mugs containing beans, eggs, mushrooms etc.

Did you say you have a toasted sandwich maker?

You can cook eggs easily with one. Switch on and oil top and bottom (I use a 1 cal spray) when hot just break an egg or two into it, then put the lid down but don't press the seal, -3 mins and you have a half boiled / half fried egg to go on your toast.

I think you can do similar with beaten eggs to get a scramble / omelet type egg. You can also do mushrooms and I'm sure you can experiment.

@3LittleDucksQuack. Gosh, 3 weeks without a kitchen sounds awful! And six of you - that must be costing a bomb! Are you having your kitchen redone so also living in a building site?

Chicago town mini pizzas sounds fab! We usually make our own or go for the pizza bases but they'd be a good alternative for our weekly pizza night.

Ready meals are fine for DH and I, although he works late at the moment and so I suspect will bail on us and get a proper meal in the work cafeteria . And I don't mind having takeaways for a bit - we have lots of choice round here and it's nice to have a break from cooking. The problem is DS who is quite fussy. He eats a fairly healthy diet (lots of fish, fruit and vegetables) but he's not a big meat fan, doesn't like mushy food (which most ready meals are) and doesn't like lots of children's takeaway favourites like burgers and chicken nuggets.

We cooked fresh pasta in the microwave several times when we had no kitchen. It's amazing what you can cook in one, just Google microwave recipes.
Can you get a disposable BBQ?

Just another thought.

Meals on wheels.

And no I am not crazy, my local council allows anyone to have them as long as they are in the city or not far over the border.

There is also a local lady who does her own version.

OK pasta can be cooked by pouring water over and leaving for 10 mins. Kippers can also be cooked this way.

Fish fingers in the toaster (wrap in foil or ToasterBag)
Potato waffles, also in toaster
Microwave steam veg
You can also cook pasta and rice in the microwave
Rice pouches in MW
You can “bake” fish in the MW
Ready made pasta sauces, meatballs, falafels etc -warmed up in MW

If you are in S/W Yorkshire you can borrow my slow cooker

Take away pizza
“Posh” ready meals
Fish n Chips from chippy
“Build your own wrap” type meal
Microchips
Microwave recipes
Fresh pasta can be microwaved

Re: beans on toast - if you have one of the sistema microwave soup Tupperware - beans on full power for 3 mins, lid on - I never heat beans on hob now, so much easier.

I use a jug and cling film, so much easier to pour over the toast.