No kitchen for 3 weeks - food ideas for busy f t working mum living in a building site!!

[DIddled]

That's it basically, we are having an enormous building job done, part of which will leave me with no kitchen for 3 weeks. DH and I have busy stressful jobs, son aged 15 has a long school day inc travel time.

How are we going to live? . I have resigned myself to three weeks of micro wave dinners ( which I never ever buy) or takeaways. We like good healthy food- and I have suggested we all eat a hot lunch during the day. I can live with a draughty extension and living in a building site, but the kitchen situation is stressing me out, even the mere thought of it.

Any ideas would be very welcome, and in terms of microwave dinners , which ones would you all recommend please, as I don't fancy chowing down on a horse!

TIA

If you all have a hot lunch, then soup and toast/sandwiches would be fine for tea, and the chilled soups from the supermarket are good.

If you have a slow cooker you can do loads of nice meals in that (look on Pintrest for the slow cooker freezer meals which let you make up the bags of stuff ahead of time, freeze, then dump into the pot), fresh pasta can be put in a bowl of boiling water in the microwave and nuked for 3 min and combined with a sauce you've preprepared and frozen, freeze chilli ahead and combine with a pouch rice, or a M&S curry meal - they are really nice.

You can microwave pasta, leave it to drain and heat the sauce.

Slow cookers are fantastic. You can stick a whole chicken in and microwave veg to go with it.

If you have a decent sized freezer start doubling up your cooking. Lots of things portion freeze well and then microwave - minimal washing up that way.

I tend to freeze things separately though so instead of freezing cottage pie i freeze the mash as one bag and mince/ sauce as another.

I've done numerous big house projects and been without a kitchen for several months at a time more than once. Its much easier in the summer as you can barbecue. Also washing up in the garden is somehow fun with dishes drying in the air on the garden table.

In the depths of winter when the house is full of dust and your attempting to dry laundry with the heating and power turned off, plus washing up in the bath, drying on the bathmat, whilst someone inevitably wants to use the one available toilet in the same bathroom is not so much fun.

So ideally budget for some meals out or even try to have a few weekends away with kindly family who'll let you come laden with washing.

The time goes by quickly and just focus on that end result.

We're at the end of week six of a ten week build - my kitchen starts to go in at the end of next week. We're lucky because we decided, many years ago, to buy a cheap Cookworks combined microwave from good old Argos and it's really come into its own these last few weeks. I also invested in a couple of electric hobs - only about fifteen quid each and they'll be useful when I have bigger meals to cook when the new kitchen comes in - like at Christmas and for parties. They've been my best investment to be honest. I can do jacket potatoes in the microwave and add sausages and veg done on the hob or microwave some fish and do mash or rice or pasta to go with it. Worth looking into as they can give you more scope.

I cooked up batches of chilli, spag bol, tomato sauce to slap on poached fish etc. They've been fine on the hob but should be OK in a microwave. Jacket potatoes can be filled with baked beans, chilli, done in the microwave or have cheese on top. Salmon cooked in the microwave can be added to couscous (just boil up a kettle)

Hope that gives you some ideas. I would say it's worth looking at a couple of electric hobs - they've kept me sane! And they're handy afterwards - you could even run an extension cable and use them in the garden to keep food warm for summer parties.

Good luck. It's not as bad as it seems. I've got so used to my pokey little cooking corner I won't know what to do with all the new space - but I'm sure I'll get used to it ha ha!

I love you lot!! Thanks so much. Going to struggle with any sort of batch cooking as got to pack up this weekend and DH at work. Bit I am going to buy an oven hob combo for about £100 and hopefully with the microwave this will have to do!!

What everyone has said re freezing/batch cooking etc plus:

Chilled soups from the supermarket are good. Also, a toastie maker is nice if you have one lurking in the back of a cupboard. Soup and a toastie is fine. Don't forget things like beans on toast, scrambled eggs on toast (scrambled eggs easy to make in the microwave).

Fresh stuffed pasta and Lloyd Grossman sauces. The odd ready meal/take away/eat out. Hit cooked chicken from a supermarket with micro mashed potatoes. Carpet picnics always fun and fine in terms of nutrition, especially if you are having hot lunches.

I won't lie, it's not pleasant but it is do-able. Big tip from me is to make sure everyone is drinking enough water. We are 'grab a drink the next time we're near the tap' people but when the kitchen is out of order that doesn't work!

Thanks Wilson- we may have the luxury of a sink :)