No oven for at least a month - meal planning help needed.

[AwdBovril]

We’ve recently moved house & had to move in before we could get an oven. We have a small health grill, sandwich toaster, microwave & an Instant Pot. And an electric kettle.

DH eats a lot & is a fairly committed carnivore. Needs a decent evening meal as often doesn’t get proper lunch break, & sometimes no breakfast either. DD doesn’t like soup, stew or anything spicy. She is on school lunches for now, so could have cold tea sometimes. I am not fussy but need to eat a lot of veg, I can just have salad every day though.

We’ve bought some ready meals (now we actually have a fridge, woohoo!) But they’re pretty limited, uninspiring & expensive to live on for over a month. Also, we don’t have a car, & our house address isn’t registered yet (new build) so we can’t get anything delivered.

So far it’s been beans/egg on toast, burgers & ready meals. Will get some tinned soup but DD won’t eat it.

Please help!

Been there!
Microwave rice
Jacket potatoes
Salmon (actually very good done in microwave)
' Cook' posh ready meals (not all suitable for microwave so check)
BBQ?

Ikea so a mini induction hob. Or you can get mini oven - they have oven / grill and 2 rings.

I was just cooker less for 2 weeks and it was painful!

Microwave rice, with char grilled veg and chicken from the grill.
Pasta can be cooked in the microwave. Pot/jar of tomato sauce, and a packet of cooked chicken or chorizo pieces (char grilled if you can be bothered) stirred in.
Jackets with cheese/beans/tuna/coleslaw.
(Hotdog) sausages - either stirred into pasta sauce or as hotdogs.

Any way DH can get a decent lunch, so you xan all do snacky dinners?

Can you borrow a slow cooker? You can make lovely casseroles in those.

Get one of those tiny ovens with two hob plates on the top. We managed with this for about 3 months when we were extending. When you think about it, you rarely use four hob plates unless it’s a roast.

An induction oven cost £40 and cooks everything an oven can, from cakes to chops and roast potatoes.

Why not ask your neighbours if you can pop a casserole in their oven when they've got it on anyway for their own dinner? If you ask a different neighbour every few days, you’ll get to meet everyone in the street, maybe make some new friends, and have some more variety in your meals than is possible in a microwave.

We don’t have money for an oven or hot plate, especially if it would just be a temporary measure, just can’t do it. No spare money, we were homeless a week ago & funds are so tight right now. I’ve already asked about slow cooker, no luck, but can manage with the IP to make stew etc for me & DH.

Microwave rice with grilled meat & veg sounds great. Will try microwave pasta, & fish. Have got some tinned & frozen veg that can be microwaved.

DH works in a school so their portions are pretty small. He’s mostly been having pot noodle or pie etc that are reduced for supermarket closing time. I’m mostly eating fruit, porridge, yogurt & baked beans on toast.

@Babdoc I suspect that the neighbours might not have an oven yet either, as we struggle to get anything delivered due to the issue re: registration of the addresses. Plus, neither of them have moved in anyway so mostly they aren’t around. We had to move in, as our accommodation in the shelter was needed, we had less than 24 hours from signing the lease here to when we had to be out of the shelter.

a hob top induction ring. Or one of those glass Halogen worktop oven, not too dear and very good. Uses less electricity than an oven. I hardly ever use an oven now, all hob top

Chicken breasts, burgers, fish fillets etc in the health grill, veg in the microwave (reusable steamer bags are good for fresh veg, frozen is fine in a covered bowl with a splash of water), chips/wedges/pasta/rice in the instant pot - gives you a good variety of protein-veg-carbs to try in different combinations. Instant pot can be used as a slow cooker, so you can do stuff like lasagne, cottage pie (frozen mash cooked in microwave for topping), sausage casserole - actually 101 types of casserole . We were cookerless for a month a few years ago, so I feel your pain!

Oh, and cheese toasties/cheese & ham/tuna mayo/chocolate spread & banana - really want a toasted sandwich now!

When we were getting our kitchen done a weekly treat was one of those rotisserie chickens from the supermarket, with microwave mash potato and salad.

You can scramble eggs in the micro - scrambled eggs and toast is a really good quick meal.

Couscous is great, add peas, sweet corn (from a tin or defrosted from frozen) with the hot water, mix a chopped red pepper through with seasoning.

You can do loads in the IP but if DD doesn't like anything 'wet' then not ideal - I'm sure a friend of mine says she can roast chickens in hers though!

Do you have any friends nearby OP? I'd happily let you use my cooker to do some batch cooking that you could just reheat in the microwave. People do want to help, and that's a really easy way to let them.

Used your instant pot!

Risotto
Spag bol
Curry
Chilli

Rice
joints of meat
meatballs in Tomato sauce
Lasagna
porridge
ribs
Home made soups
Cheesecake
Rice pudding
mash potatoes
corn on the cob

e

All of those and more I make regularly in mine.

Google whatever recipe with instant pot and take a look.

You can even use the saute function to do scrambled eggs if you don't like cooking them in the microwave.

Is there a Freecycle or TrashNothing group in your area? There's usually a section for requests as well as for offered items. Current list in my area includes a ceramic hob, fridge, loads of furniture.

We've tried freecycle etc. No luck, everything is collection only, or too expensive, or both. We don't have a car so can't collect. Lot of food for thought though on the recipe ideas, haven't ever thought of microwaving pasta, could do lots of things in the IP if I can do pasta to go with it. Potato wedges in the IP are an even bigger surprise, wonder if I could freeze them... (still loving my freezer after quite a few days of keeping milk cold in the sink!)

Thanks, think our diet will be a bit better after this. I was previously all smug about DD liking real food as opposed to processed stuff - massively bit me on the arse with that one!

Wishthiswas now I want an Instant Pot too!

We've tried freecycle etc. No luck, everything is collection only, or too expensive, or both

Expensive I din't get - freecycle is supposed to be...free.

But collection only - your thread makes me question my own attitude. In the past I have declined requests for me to deliver my own stuff to them. After all, wtf I'm giving it away, then you want me to deliver it too!!!. But I can see that some people have a real need and genuinely don't have the resources, large vehicles etc. to collect large items.

For me a large part of who I choose to receive my junk useful item is in the message. Explanations about "why I want it" always feel better than just "can I have". So perhaps a short explanation about not having a car will also elicit a more positive response.

Microwave chili www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/microwave-chilli
Jambalaya www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/microwave_jambalaya_72083
‘Fried’ rice recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/20-minute-recipes/simple-fried-rice
Macaroni cheese recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/quick-and-easy/microwave-mac-and-cheese

Try freecycle again, say you have no oven and no car and ask for anything that can help whether that be a hot plate, rice cooker or even an oven.

Have you applied for any help from the DWP? Do budgeting loans still exist?

Am I correct an instant pot can be used as a slow cooker? If so shove a joint of meat in it, no fluid unless you want to, cook veg in steamer or microwave and you have (almost) a roast dinner.

Make 'poached' eggs in the microwave.

Lightly grease a ramekin, crack an egg into it, pierce the yolk - this is important and then microwave on low for about 2 mins.

Slow cooker breakfast - cook overnight

put sausages in sc, roll bacon and put in on the rolled edge, chop mushrooms and put in a mug with some butter on top. Put beans in another mug.

You can steam puddings in a slow cooker, steak and kidney or sweet suet eg jam roly poly.

As well as microwave pasta you can just put it in a bowl, pour boiling water over it and leave (covered top keep the heat in) for 10 mins.

Sweet potato 'mash' stick a sweet potato in the microwave on full for 5 mins, turn over and cook for another 5, then cut in two and squeeze the mash out.