Meals with no cooking facilities except a kettle

[Tagaagajavdv]

Hello

My accommodation (short term) has come with a set of awkwardness and rules so I’m having to figure out how to survive without cooking facilities except a kettle.

I can eat fresh fruit, and will order some protein bars/shakes to my Amazon locker but other than that I can’t think of what I can make except pot noodle/mugshot/similar type meals. I have access to a microwave at work but very limited fridge space here.

If anyone has any very simple, not messy ideas I’d be most grateful

This I should add is only for a few weeks

You can cook couscous with just a kettle - put the couscous in a bowl, add boiling water to cover then cover the bowl until water is absorbed. I sometimes add lemon juice and dried coriander to it, sometimes a tin of mackerel in tomato sauce, sometimes apricots, or just really any veg, salad, etc I have around! It is very versatile!

Can you have a toaster?

Have you looked into buying a cheap little plug in induction hob or halogen cooker? Saved us during kitchen renovations, and meant we could cook pretty much as normal.
If this isn't an option, toaster? You can do a surprising amount in a toaster.
With kettle, limited more, but obviously pot noodle style things, cup a soup, powdered mash etc. You can boil an egg in a kettle, just by putting it in as soon as it's boiled and leaving for 6-8 mins. And can pour boiling water over frozen peas and leaving for a minute to cook them, assuming you can do spinach and other quick cooking veggies in the same way.

In river cottage veg there’s a homemade ‘pot noodle’ recipe you can do with just a kettle.

Get a toasty machine? Slow cooker? Camping stove? It's incredibly unhealthy to live on pot noodles and mug shots. The sodium alone would be awful.

Id aim to have my bigger meal of the day at work.
Microwave instant meals stuff.

And then sandwiches with cup a soup for evenings.

Have a look in the pot noodle aisle. There are lots of more substantial soups/noodles which are just add water.

I think you can boil eggs in a kettle.

We are doing a home renovation and prior to getting a van onsite, lived in a house with no kitchen.

We got an electric frypan. Would you be allowed one? You can fry things like a normal frypan- eggs, bacon, tomatoes, steak etc. Heat through a ready meal like spaghetti at a push. Also fill with water and boil pasta.

Can you microwave things at work and take home for your evening meal? I have a wide mouth thermos which keeps thing hot all day.

You can buy a microwave for £40-£50! Could you use that at your accomodation?

This site includes endless info about how to cook almost everything using just a kettle (very MacGyver). It also has “essential tips” for how to do things like make plain rice or scrambled eggs, and also how to specially clean your kettle when cooking with it, since you’ll need to remove the food taste and residue. (Remember, if you get a strong taste in it, you can clean it with vinegar and then just keep rewashing until the vinegar taste and smell is gone).

cookingwithkettle.wordpress.com/

When you say fridge space is limited, is that at work or home or both?
I would probably swap dinner with lunch in your position (hot microwaved meal at work, cold but nice food at home) if that is possible.
So for lunch, jacket potatoes are fine in a microwave... can have with beans, cheese, tuna mayo, hummus etc for a bit of variety.
Soups from a can (nicer than powder soup imo). With toast if you have a toaster, or just bread. Maybe cheese on top.
I know that hounous, tuna, cheese depends on fridge space but potatoes and tins don't.

Then for dinner at home, have sandwiches, salads, cold cooked meats and fish...
I don't know what your budget is, but if I were in your position I think I would prefer to eat cold foods I really like over hot cup a soups and noodles. (Eg, a lovely salmon sandwich with a side salad, a hot cup of tea and nice cake for dessert would satisfy me far more than a powdered soup, even though it is a cold meal). But that of course depends on personal tastes, budget and fridge space.

Porridge can be made with boiled water and oats. Sounds boring, but nice with golden syrup, jam, or stem ginger stirred in.

Huel hot and savoury comes in a couple of flavours and is made with just a kettle - that's a balanced meal with all your calories, fats, proteins, carbs, vitamins etc and easy to store. In your position I think I'd try that. How long will this situation be for?

How short term do you mean, and do you have money/space to throw at a toaster, microwave or induction hob?

I reckon I could manage a month with things like powdered soups, good bread, cheese, crackers, slightly higher-end ramen/soba, eggs boiled in the kettle, maybe a takeaway once a week or something from the hot food counter at a supermarket. More than a month would break me.

Do you have a flask? You can cook pasta by adding boiling water to pasta in the flask and leaving it. Fastest is obviously fresh pasta, and you could have filled pasta for more interest. A pasta sauce could be heated up by pouring it into a clean tin and standing that in a jug/bowl of boiling water.
A packet rice can similarly be heated by standing the pouch in boiling water, or plain rice can be poured into the water for a minute.
A sachet of miso, rice noodles, and a shredded spring onion and carrot is nice. I also like tomato cup a soup with rice noodles or cellophane noodles cooked in it
Are you able to pick up a ready meal on the way to work so you can microwave it for lunch, and then you could keep a little bit of fresh food in the work fridge till home time - even some butter and some cheddar sticks would let you take a bit back every day and make dinner more interesting

You can get instant porridge in pots that you can make with just hot water for breakfast.

As your fridge space is limited, try looking at long life meals that don't need a fridge. John West do a range of salmon with grains, in different flavours, Italian, Moroccan etc. Just cut open the pouch and serve on their own or with salad. JW also do a pasta in sauce & tuna combo in different flavours that just needs boiling water added.
Rio Mare make tuna with mixed bean salad or cous-cous, again ready to serve out from a tub.

Look out too for ready to eat Spanish omelette, you could have with potato salad, tomatoes etc.

Cous cous with feta and anti pasta veg and olives

Tortellini and pasta sauce - heat the sauce in a tub standing in boiling water

Itsu noddle pots with spring onions and ready cooked tofu

Get a jar of good quality pesto, a spoon or two stirred into noodles will work wonders.

Canned food will help. Sardines, tuna, beans etc. You could even heat stuff up at work in the microwave sometimes and put into a widemouth thermos flask to take home. Cup-a-soups with bread are good too, as well as the inevitable pot noodles.

Wow @lorisparkle - that’s my go-to easy meal! Mackerel fish (in tomato sauce) with couscous! I had to move around a lot when younger - so it was a nice meal - tried not to have it more than 2 times a week to avoid too much of the heavy metals in seafood. But I thought it was quick and healthy! My kids now love it and it’s a treat when we do have it for lunch (usually because we’ve run out of bread).

Canned mixed bean salad with chopped red onion, peppers, tomato and vinaigrette (olive oil and balsamic vinegar).

We were without a kitchen for 4 months and bought an instant pot. They are not cheap but you can do most things in them, we fed our family of four quite happily.

Tinned hot dogs. I place in a bowl pour boiling water over then...leave 5-6mins and they are heated through...delish in buns with ketchup, carrot and cucumber sticks and a bag of crisps!!!

Go on Amazon and buy a food flask. Then, buy two microwave meals on the way to work in the morning (one for lunch, one for dinner). While you eat your lunch, cook your dinner in the microwave at work, while it is cooking "prime" your flask with boiling water so the food stays hot (ideally you need to leave boiling water in the flask for minimum ten mins). Once flask is primed and dinner cooked, pop dinner into the flask to take home to eat at night. Simple!

There are some wonderful microwave vegan meals, I'm thinking of a gorgeous squash risotto I used to buy in Sainsburys. Doesnt have to be unhealthy rubbish.

If you are able to pop back into work kitchen at end of day and cook your meal then, rather than at lunch break, that would be even better as obviously the least amount of time food stays in the flask, the nicer it is likely to be.