Microwave / BBQ cooking ideas for kotchen refit

[pourmeanotherglass]

Kitchen will be out of action for a couple of weeks, and there is a limit to how many takeaways we can eat. We have a small microwave, a kettle, a toaster and a gas bbq. May be able to borrow a camping gas cooker Im not sure.
Anyone done this before and know what works well?
Family of 4, with a vegan, a veggie and 2 omnivores. A friend suggested freezing a couple of portions of chilli or curry, but I have limited freezer space so can only do a couple of nights this way.

Camping gas cookers are surprisingly inexpensive so might be worth looking at buying one. Can you use a frying pan on a gas bbq because if so, that would add a lot of options.

Jacket potatoes.

Skewers - vegetable ones for vegan, meat/halloumi with veg for the others. Served with couscous or pita breads

Those hot smoked salmon portions from supermarkets can be eaten cold or microwaved for a minute or so. Serve with microwave bagged rice and greens cooked in the microwave (add a dollop of creme fraiche to make it a bit fancier)

I think there are options in the convenience food aisles that are better than a ready meal or a takeaway. Eg bags of veg that can be microwaved or things like cooked chicken/fish etc that can be eaten cold or microwaved to be hot. It gets expensive, but I'd probably do that as I'd also be unenthusiastic about relentless takeaways or ready meals.

Thanks. Good idea about the hot smoked salmon. I agree things like cooked chicken or falafel with salad will be nicer than ready meals.
Ive managed to source a single camping gas ring which will help on the days when it is dry enough to cook in the garden. Fridge and freezer will be in the living room.
Ive seen some microwave chilli recipes for when it is raining.
Should all be fine, but a bit messy as we'll be storing stuff all over the house and the garden access is through the kitchen.

Can you get hold of a slow cooker? That would give you at least a couple of meals a week including vegetable stews, curries and soups.

I'd also do things like cook double on the BBQ when using it. eg add a pile of veg/meat sausages and have those the following day as they could easily be microwaved to be hot and served with mashed potatoes/bread/microwaved vegetables for a hot meal.

Eggs can be scrambled in the microwave.

Get a microwave rice cooker so you can easily cook enough rice for the family and a slow cooker so you can make chilli, bolognese etc to go with it.

Microwave Rice Cooker

George Forman type grill. Great for standard paninis and toasties, but we use ours a lot for grilled meat, hallomi, grilled veg. Easy to do grilled peppers/ hallomi or grilled chicken burgers for example. Ours opens up into two sides if you need to keep things separate for vegan/ veggie options

We've just been through the same and it has been so cold we haven't felt like bbq'ing, although we did do shop bought pizza in our pizza oven. Mixture of takeaways, microwaveable meals from the freezer and M&S and lots of bread and stuff meals. We took into account the cooking aspect but didn't consider the food prep angle, our garden access is through the kitchen too, we relocated the kitchen table to the front room for food prep/eating but then it was a long way back to the garden to use camping stove/bbq and very little table space (it also housed crates of crockery). We didn't use our camping stove once, just microwave, toaster and kettle. Avoiding creating too much washing up was a good idea too.

If the gas bbq/camping stove allows you to use a frying pan that will open up lots of options - fajitas, scrambled eggs/omelettes, stir fry, jerk chicken, pancakes. Rice made by the absorption method only needs to boil for a few minutes and then you can take it off the heat all together.

Couscous is your friend because it's so quick and you can just pour over boiling water from the kettle.

Is there a griddle/flat plate on the bbq?
On the bbq you'll be able to to cook salmon/chicken pieces/whole fish/whole chicken. Loads of recipes online.

Oh and the builders took over most of the patio with stuff so it wasn't as easy to use as we had hoped.

I think those toaster bags could be handy to make toasty sandwiches. Then just warm some fresh supermarket soup to go with them. And very little washing up, but not ‘ microwave meal’

Thanks all for the ideas and experience.
I could probably use the gas ring to make a big bowl of pasta sald which could last a couple of days and be eaten cold with other bits. Anyone got any good ( vegan) pasta salad recipes?
Soup and bread is also a good idea if i can find nice Supermarket ones. Vegan DD often makes her own with whatever veg are in the fridge, and a stick blender, but we could get through a lot of camping gas that way.

We’ve been without a cooker since June. New one comes next month.

We have been fine with a combination of
Microwave
Slow cooker
IKEA induction hob (£35, sits on worktop & plugs into socket, amazingly useful)

In terms of what we’ve cooked it’s been one pot stuff in the slow cooker, baked potatoes etc in microwave, all sorts on the induction hob. Also plenty of salads.

Spanish omelettes from Morrison’s deli, warmed in the microwave with salad was one of my staples during kitchen refit

You can cook pasta by putting it in a bowl or pan and pouring boiling water over it.

Iceland do bags of rice, cauliflower rice, quinoa in individual bags so you can cook for one or 4. They also do frozen mash that works well in the microwave.

Get a slow cooker - you can cook loads of things in one.

I always roast meat in my sc, just put the joint in and turn on.

Obviously you can do stews but also steamed puddings and you can do things like baked beans / tinned soup and tinned meatballs by putting them in mugs in the sc.

Some people do a full English breakfast in a sc but I've not had success.

Think 'camping' and plan around that eg you can make a sort of omlette / scrambled egg in a zip lock bag, one egg per person and they add cheese, seasoning, chopped peppers... you get the idea zip the bags and put in a pan of hot water until the egg is cooked.

If you have a thick bottomed frying pan with a lid you can heat pizza on a BBQ, put the pizza in (you might need to do slices) put the lid on and check after a few mins, take the lid off once it is half cooked so that the cheese melts.

Vegan soups will be quicker. Once you've sweated the onion/celery it would take no time to make Pea and mint for example. Rather than cooking root veg on the hob you could cook them in the microwave, reserve the cooking water for the soup.
Spinach and chick pea, carrot and coriander, mushroom, lentil and red pepper would all be doable.

We are currently living through this too. Agree with the person upthread about making things as simple as possible and minimising the amount of food prep and washing up you have to do as it can be a real grind when you don't have a proper space to do it. We have eaten a lot of takeaways but supplemented with extra veg (steamed in the microwave) and home cooked rice (we have a rice cooker) to make them more bearable. Burgers/hot dogs on the bbq is a good one, with a very simple salad on the side. Buy ready made potato salad, soups, you can even buy pouches of dhal which are not bad. Or use pouches of lentils/rice/quinoa which can be warmed in the microwave and serve with bbq'd meat or veg. Picnic type food, ready made quiches and rotisserie chickens are all good options too.