To only cook on the hob?

[emdude]

Just moved into a new house and the kitchen is SKANKY!!!! We're having a builder round next week to quote for ripping it out and putting a new one in. However until then I don't really want to unpacked my stuff into it.

I've scrubbed the hob, it's now passable-ish. I have unpacked 2 saucepans, 4 plates and 4 bowls. I have a container with a wooden spoon, spatula and cutlery in.

I have 2 DCs (4&2) to cook for, my DH has zero cooking skills. I also have no fridge/freezer until Tuesday!!

Please hit me up with some ideas of what reasonably healthy things I can can feed us between now and then in the hope we don't contract scurvy...

Wow you guys have much better imaginations than me! This is so helpful!

@Iputthescrewinthetuna it's pretty skanky. I couldn't believe the stuff I was getting off the worktops, it took several scrubbings!! And it still doesn't feel clean to me, can't seems to get rid of the sense of stickiness. I don't remember it being this bad when we looked round but the colour of the worktops hid a lot. The people we bought off were lovely so didn't expect it to be this bad!

@Loyaultemelie can you expand on the mac with crispy cauliflower topping? Sounds like something I need to try

Buy dry and tinned ingredients like rice, pasta, lentils, tinned chickpeas or beans, and tinned tomatoes. Many vegetables don't need to be in the fridge. You can lots of things from these ingredients and some spices. Eggs are fine out of the fridge. If you use milk just buy long life milk and use it all that day.

Definitely unpack the slow cooker. They are amazing for easy nutritious meals and so easy to use. Your “ No cooking skills” DH will have it sussed in no time.

These are apparently really amazing for when the oven is unavailable, or if you just want to save money. I don't have one, it;s just on my wish list. (I don't work for them either!)

Should be fine for a couple of weeks. Pasta, stews, curry, stir fry, pancakes, veggie sausage and mash, omelette or frittata, veggie chilli with rice or tacos, veggie mince and tatties, veggie burger in bun with salad.

You can make a nice toasted cheese sandwich in a pan too - butter the outside and fry on a low heat with a weight on until golden brown, flip over and repeat yum.

Thinking about it, I don't actually remember the last time I used the oven. I make everything on the hob - fajitas, curry, pasta and a variety of sauces, chili, risotto, stew, bangers and mash, soups, bacon and eggs, stir-fry. I tend to use the oven for unhealthy stuff - chicken dippers, pizza etc!

Drop scones and griddle scones. OK, it's not a meal, but they're a treat, making a virtue out of necessity. Both can be eaten sweet, or they can be eaten with any sufficiently flavourful vegetable/tomato-y mix.

I did it for more than two years when our oven broke. I can even cook a roast using just the hob. We did eat lots of pasta and rice but we are so used to it we still do, and still mainly use the job for cooking.

Do you have a slow cooker or a rice cooker? I use mine all the time?

Pancakes - can be filled with savory or sweet.

Egg and chips.

You can do a mix of hot and cold eg if you get a quiche from a shop you can serve with hot veg.

Fajitas, pitta bread filled with salad and bacon (yes I know dh is vegi)

Beans o toast - if you have a grill or toaster.

Sausage and mash.

Pasta with mushrooms and cream cheese.

Cook the pasta in one pan, in another fry mushrooms, when the pasta is almost ready add cream cheese to the mushrooms, add a dessert spoon of the pasta cooking water to the cream cheese and stir, add the drained pasta.

stuffed cabbage.

If you don't have a steamer you can use a plate or pyrex lid on top of a plate with the pan lid over so say you are making fish with veg.

Put the veg in water in the pan and bring to the boil, put a plate on top of the pan, put the fish on the plate add the lid over the pan. You can also wrap in foil to steam.

Scrambled egg with cheese (or smoked salmon).

emdude I had a similar experience when I moved in. I could not get rid of the underlying sticky ness and honestly it made my stomach turn. I ripped out the kitchen and fitted a new one myself within a week and a half of moving in. It was exceedingly stressful!!

Also halogen ovens aren't massively expensive and don't take up too much counter space

You have just moved house. Surely at a couple of meals could be takeaways

Anyway moving on from the temptation -hob veggie job meals we do that don't need fridge ingredients include

Pea risotto (peas are cooked and mashed b fore adding to risotto so no need to be frozen ones).
Pasta with lentil and walnut ragu or pasta
Homemade Glamorgan sausages with mashed potato and your veg of choice (greens are good with soy sauce dressing)
You would need a frying pan to cook the sausages though (we use a spray oil)

Get one of those fajita kits and peppers etc and do Quorn wraps for DH and chicken ones for everyone else.