What can I cook? No fridge, oven or hob - microwave and kettle only. And no ready-meals!

[thereistheball]

We are moving house and the people supplying our kitchen have messed up delivery. As of Saturday I'll be in a flat with nothing in the kitchen except a sink with a cupboard underneath, and a microwave, kettle and lots of boxes on the floor.

We normally try to avoid carbs (except veg) but have been eating rubbish in the run-up to the move, and I can't face more of the same next week. What proper meals, light on the starch but with lots of vegetables, can I make in the microwave with no fridge or worktop?

I'd happily live on M+S ready meals for a week if we lived in the UK, but oddly enough the ready meals in France are horrid (except for the odd thing from Picard, which is closed for refurbishment).

So, I'm desperate for your ideas - thanks!

Microwave is a really good way to cook salmon fillets. Maybe with some asparagus and green beans. Mmmmmm.

Can microwave chicken, pasta, rice... can you invest in a slowcooker?

Oh no!
You can do veg in the microwave
Hmm lots and lots of fish I guess? No idea if chicken would work...
Otherwise salads?!

Oooh could you do soup?

I am in almost this situation as our oven has been disconnected, so we are reliant on the microwave.
I can confirm that you can't cook fishcakes in the microwave.
And that cooking bacon for too long in a tupperware style box melts the box and cuts the microwave power off for a few minutes.

However:

Any vegetables can be cooked.
Most meat can be cooked, just place in an appropriate dish and turn every 15 minutes if doing something large.
Any pasta, rice or noodles can be cooked.
You can do an easy omelette style thing by beating two eggs with a knob of butter and some grated cheese and cooking for 6 minutes.
Pastry doesn't work well as a rule.

Chicken and leek supper in the microwave.

Ingredients

* 2 whole chicken breasts, skinned, split and boned
* 1 small ripe tomato, cored and sliced 1/4 inch thick
* 1 medium courgette, trimmed and sliced 1/4 inch thick
* 1 leek, trimmed and sliced 1/4 inch thick (including 1 inch of the green)
* 1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
* 3 tablespoons Chicken stock or stock from a cube
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 6 grinds fresh black pepper
* 1-1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preparation

1 Arrange chicken pieces over half of a 12-inch round fland dish so that the pieces are fanned out but do not touch. Fan tomato slices opposite chicken and place courgette slices in center. Scatter leeks and parsley over all.

2 Stir together remaining ingredients and drizzle over chicken and vegetables. Cover tightly with cling film. Cook at 100% for 9 minutes.

3 Remove from oven. Uncover and serve (check chicken and do for a bit longer if you need - it depends on how powerful your microwave is). Spoon the cooking juices over the rice and broccoli or whatever you are serving with the chicken On this occasion you'll need to forego the rice - but it does also say serve with crusty french bread chilled white wine - so those you can do

This is from a great book called Microwave Gourmet. It's official name is "Chicken Dinner in 20 minutes". Technically you can use 4 chicken breasts (they are nice cold) - but I found I couldn't fit them in the dish.

There is also a mean recipe for risotto that I use frequently - but you said you wanted low carb.

Could you use a little camping stove?

jacket potatoes and baked beans
tins of soup

Just noticed that the version of this that I found to copy & paste (I started typing it and thought bugger me - I'll see if it's already been posted on the internet) says the chicken breast should be "split and boned". I've always just used ordinary skinless boneless chicken breasts (have even, 'cos I'm stingy, bought chicken breasts with skin and just pulled it off). You don't need to "split" them.

Those bottles of Bouillebaisse (sp) are OK, aren't they?

My mum swears by scrambled egg done in the microwave.

Can you get any nice ready made soups?

I know you are trying to avoid carbs but something like cous cous or bulgar wheat can just be left in boiled water.

Thanks, these are great.

I've stopped panicking and started thinking. I also came up with salmon fillets (great as DD loves salmon), and soup with bread and cheese on the side (DD won't touch this but we can have it for supper). I can also have variants on my favourite salad, which contains some or all of the following: spinach, tomatoes, sun-blush tomatoes, avocado, mushrooms, parmesan shavings and parma ham, with slivers of red onion if they are sweet.

Otherwise: rotisserie chicken to have with veg then leftovers in a sandwich; pissaladiere with salad and goats' cheese; eggs (my favourite microwave eggs involve parmesan and spinach, which I could do if I kept a handful of spinach back from the salad overnight on the balcony); toasted sandwiches done in toaster bags (forgot to mention that, sorry); and noodles with microwaved prawns and broccoli doused with soy and chilli sauces.

Camping stove a no-go, sadly, because there are roolz. We are camping otherwise - sleeping on camping bed, eating off camping table, sitting on camping chairs. Looking forward to it!

Also, the chicken and leek dish sounds delicious - thanks for posting it.

Slow cooker!
I couldn't live without mine when my kitchen was done. Between that, the George Foreman grill and a microwave and breadmaker I was set!

slow cooker! :)

My slow cooker just broke. I was waiting til I get back to the UK to buy a new one. But you're right, it makes sense to a look for one in France.

I do this on the hob, but the recipe is from the cookbook that my Mum got with her first microwave and she has always done it in the microwave and it's yummy.

1 white onion
2/3 rashers of bacon (or equivalent pancetta)
1 carton of passata
4 chicken breasts
Rosemary and thyme - fresh if you have it, dried works fine if you don't

Chop the onion and bacon finely, and put in a microwaveable dish with a little olive oil. Cover and cook for 5 mins.
Add the passata and cook for 5 more mins
Add the chicken breasts and herbs plus some black pepper, cover and cook for 25 minutes.

We always have this with pasta, but you can just as easily serve it with a heap of green veg of some sort.

Annoyingly (but unsurprisingly) they are twice as expensive here as in the UK.

That sounds delicious!

It is! It's one of my 'comfort food' meals, and when I had dreadful sickness when I was pg with DS it was the first proper meal I managed to eat in 2 months! Needless to say I had to get DH to cook it for me.... :)