Easy meal ideas

[GrowThroughWhatYouGoThrough]

So for the next 3 weeks I will have no kitchen due to having building work done and a new kitchen.
I'm looking for easy ideas to feed a family of 4 2 adults and 2 dcs 6&3.
We have set up a temporary kitchen in our dining room. we have kettle microwave toaster slow cooker and a two ring electric hob.
Does anyone have any quick and easy dinner ideas please

Tinned and frozen stuff curry...
Jars of curry sauce
Tin of chick peas
Tin of lentils
Frozen spinach and sweetcorn
Spring onions cut up with a kitchen scissors

Microwave until hot.

Serve with microwave rice and naan heated up in the toaster.

Any slow cooker recipes that don’t involve mince will be as easy as chuck it all in. You can buy slow cooker liners to save washing. Mince ones could do with browning first. So things like veggie chilli, stews/casserole, curries etc would be easy
You can also do slow cooker pasta bakes, salmon in the slow cooker (with microwave/steamed veg) and jacket potatoes in there too.

I've currently got a beef stew and dumplings in my slow cooker. There's loads you could do in a slow cooker, roast chicken/gammon/beef in there you could even make a toast dinner if you had micro mash and micro veg. Other things you could make such as sausage casserole, curry, chilli, spag bol etc. Pasta on the hob. Microwave rice, mash and veg for easiest.

You can do a lot with two rings but how much you'll want to do depends on:

1. Washing up arrangements - do you need to minimise it in absence of a dishwasher or draining board?
2. Ease of chopping stuff and access to implements/food processor etc etc.
3. Ventilation - you'll not want to set off smoke alarms or be left with a lingering smell.
4. How far you have to go to get water. This sounds trivial but when we were having some work done last year in our kitchen the water was turned off for a bit. We have a utility room which still had water but every single time I needed water I had to traipse across the dining room to get to the utility room. You don't notice how much you use till it's not there.

I'd recommend making as many meals as possible ultra-simple. Hummus, warm pitta, carrot and other veg sticks, fruit/yogurts, for example. If you are able to make a stew in your slow cooker, make it in bulk so it will do more than one meal (put excess in freezer if you still have one switched on). Buy some decent ready meals or components of meals like mashed potato. Merchant Gourmet do nice pouches of pre-cooked lentils mixed with other things which just need heating up and would make a good carby side dish with salmon fillets cooked in the microwave and a fresh green veg.

Eat out or get takeaways here and there to get access to food you can't cook at present and ease the burden of trying to feed everyone with this makeshift arrangement.

Good luck - we got through our work OK. It was wearing but worth it in the end. It's only three weeks, you'll be fine.

Oh yes, another point about lack of sink. Where will you drain things like pasta? You don't want to be carrying a pan of boiling water any distance, especially with little ones about. You might find you can stand a colander or sieve in/over a basin/bowl and get rid of the water when it's cooled a bit.

Thanks for the ideas so far.
I won't have access to the dishwasher as of tomorrow 😫 we have a utility room for water which has a draining board but I will have to traipse pots through from the front of the house. I have a make shift worktop in the dining room so I have room to prep just don't want to make too much mess/washing up

Casseroles, chicken cooked in slow cooker with veg steamed in the microwave (or but an electric steamer). Curries & pasta sauces can be cooked from scratch in the microwave or slowcooker. Serve with boiled rice\pasta. Chilli in slowcooker with microwaved rice\jacket potatoes. Homemade soup in the slowcooker\microwave. You can add dumplings to a casserole in the slowcooker....they take about 40 minutes to cook.

Do you have a Barbecue, gas one hopefully!
As long as it's not raining outdoors, that could increase your repertoire quite a bit