New house, no oven. Cooking ideas please

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Hello
We've just moved house, into a fixer upper. The oven doesn't work and although we have another to install it will be about a week until we do.

We are therefore relying on the instant pot and microwave for a bit. Can you recommend meal ideas please?

Yesterday I did bolognaise and added fresh pasta to the pot once the meat was ready. I can do curry, I can do rice in microwave for all sorts.

3 primary aged children, they are not too fussy but one is dairy free so we can't do easy stuff like Mac and cheese, and ready meals are not really a go-er

Do you have a bbq?

We lived without a kitchen last year 11 months during lock downs. We cooked regular pizza balanced on bun tins / fairy cake tins inside the bbq cooked fine.
Also we did chips and all the other frozen stuff within the bbq.

We bought 2 camping hobs on Amazon £40 each - you can cook anything- fish all meet / pasta / rice / veg etc maybe you should invest in some as they are cheap and can always sell them on ….

We bought a portable induction hob from curry’s. £40. Sold it on once kitchen was done.

I would invest in an air fryer which works like a convection oven. It's amazing.

In the microwave- jacket potato and beans is an easy option

Chicken breast (either marinaded or plain) rice and microwaved veges.

Dinner at family members house?

This is a family favourite in our house:

pinchofnom.com/recipes/campfire-stew/

Scroll to bottom for instant pot instructions; I do it with a few gammon steaks rather than a joint. Then serve with crusty bread.

When we were in a similar situation we also used the BBQ (ours was gas to quick to get going!)

Ninja foodie. You can use it like a hob to sear/saute. It has an oven function, air fryer, pressure cooker, grill. Very useful!

You can cook rice in the microwave... Not just the cooked pouches but normal rice too. So rice + lentil dal, curries, stews etc in instant pot.
Homemade soup + bread
Fajitas and buy the tortillas

Risotto works really well in the instant pot. Also you can cook chicken breasts in 5
minutes.

I would really recommend getting a portable electric cooker. I used one for two years during a big renovation project, couldn't have survived without it! They're tiny, cheap and you can cook ordinary food.

If you have a toaster then you can do stuff on toast cooking the stuff in the microwave - beans, scrambled egg, tinned tomatoes.

Slow cooker - whole chicken, pulled pork, chilli.
Microwave - corn on the cob, steamed veg

You can do couscous with just boiling water from the kettle and can have things like roast chicken or pork with fresh crusty bread and salad or rice.

Some links to recipes for instant pot
Whole chicken - amindfullmom.com/how-to-make-a-whole-chicken-in-the-instant-pot/

Chilli - www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a27335648/instant-pot-chili-recipe/

Thank you, some great suggestions. I'd forgotten about spuds in the microwave. We might have those for tea.

Also risotto is a good call

We do have a gas BBQ, but I've not yet set foot in the garden for that sort of jazz. The heating doesn't work yet so coldness has seeped in

Tower 5 in 1 are fab it has 3 shelves so acts like an oven but has a rotisserie as well.

This is nice if spicy food is an option - cooked entirely on the hob, fairly quick and easy, and the recipe is easily tweaked to your family's preferences/requirements. I made it for the first time yesterday and instead of adding peas and bamboo shoots I put in baby corn with the green pepper and added sugar snaps a bit later to stop them overcooking. My jar of Thai green curry paste had just a spoonful left, so I added chopped garlic, chilli and ginger as well, putting them in with the onions. My husband doesn't like prawns so I put some peanuts on his portion, but you could easily use chicken or pork or Quorn instead of prawns. Not sure it really needs the egg. I used half a big tin of pineapple rings, chopped smallish.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/thai-fried-prawn-pineapple-rice

There are all sorts of ways of making a meal out of savoury rice. Kedgeree would be another option. Risotto already mentioned.

We lived without an oven for over a year. One easy meal was potato waffles cooked in the toaster! With beans or similar done in the microwave.

Microwaved scrambled eggs with bagels smoked salmon and rocket.

Microwaved naice soup served with fresh crusty bread and salted butter.

Is the instant pot the same as a slow cooker? If so lots of recipes online for stews/chilli/soups etc.

Just read more carefully and see although you say oven I think you mean cooker, so no hob. Not sure my rice ideas will work in that case - don't know how an instant pot works.

Stews, lancashire hotpot, jacket potatoes with cheese/beans/tuna

I bought an air fryer from Lidl, £50 been really pleased with it. I'm also looking at a halogen one as it's bigger and more suitable for pizza etc. 30 quid in Aldi. To use both to replace the oven whilst we decide what to do

My oven has died but I do have a gas hob. I refuse to spend for money on the oven as it was getting worse and worse anyway so I'm spending my repair budget on air fryers. Good call so far 🤞 last time we spent about a £100 on the element and that's what's gone again.

So far done pittas, barjis, chips, nuggets, garlic baguette (snapped in half), ready yorkies, onion rings, hash browns etc.

I do have a slow cooker (is that your instant pot?), I mainly cook curry, chilli, stews in it but have 'roasted' chicken breasts, jacket potatoes. I did cook a whole chicken when oven died but it needs a way to crisp up I found. Loaded potatoes? Unsure if will work with dairy free cheese

Does your BBQ have a hob? Might give you more options. Though, for a week, you can likely get by with the micro and instant pot!

Check out the instant pot U.K. group on Facebook. Lots of recipes and ideas! Big one pot things in it will be easy - Mexican, pasta etc. Or you could do slow cooked stuff in it. Can you do bigger meals and it it over a couple of nights? Saves a lot of faff and just reheat it in the IP.

If you feel really adventurous you could always try those recipes for chicken breast or fish in aluminium foil in the dishwasher

Google insta pot recipes. There’s absolutely loads including some nice puddings.
Jacket spuds can be done in the instapot as well.

I have a ninja health grill xl. I cook every day and I rarely use my big oven now. I can cook a whole chicken spatchcocked in twenty minutes.
That and a portable hob and you could make pretty much anything.

Buy an air fryer, I love my Tefal Actifry. And buy electric hot water bottles, they really work! And Amazon unbranded Oodie are brilliant, can’t stand the thought of you being cold!