How to survive a month without a kitchen?

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

We are in the very fortunate and longed for position of having our kitchen completely done in a couple of months. It needs everything right down to rewiring and new ceiling. Our kitchen chap is planning for a month.

we live in a teeny house, no downstairs loo, no utility room etc. How are we going to manage?

So far plans are:
I'm cooking double amounts of things, like bolognaise. Freezer will go in garage temporarily.

At some point the washing machine will be plumbed into the garage. But before it does I guess its the laundrette. Tricky - I don't drive and dh is working long hours. I guess it will be Sunday afternoons at the laundrette!

fridge and microwave going in dining room. Along with essential foods plates and kettle etc. Do have a camping stove and a bbq that can come into play. oh, also a slow cooker. its the carbs bit that seem harder. Can you do pasta and rice in the microwave?

Washing up to be done upstairs in the bathroom? Grim.

I keep telling myself we go camping for a fortnight with less than this but it still seems like a bit of a challenge. Any hints and tips please to make it easier?

Could you set up a camping washing up station in the dining room also?

Maybe plan a lot of weekends at friends' houses?

we used the bathroom for washing pots (easy if you have a washing up bowl and pour it doen the bath!)

and we had a microwave, kettle, cheese toastie maker in the dining room. (fridge lived i nthe front room anyway because I didn't dare move it incase I broke the gas bottle)

If you can get hold of a baby belling (tiny cooker with 2 rings and an oven), then you're laughing.

we did this, we were fortunate that the council redid our kitchen

3 weeks they told us. 8 weeks later...
oh and they did bathroom at the same time too :o it was crazy

our tiny living room became a kitchen of sorts at one end with a forman grill! no washing machine that was all done by hand in a bowl...

it was hellish but worth it, its the dust that got to me most!

We kept the sink unit and moved it around various parts of the space which were available, using flexible pipework and quite a lot of Heath-Robinson contraptions. Also had a camping stove fixed to a section of old worktop with a small calor gas bottle.

My husband is a plumber by trade

It was grim, no doubt about it, but liveable.

some on ebay

If you have a camping stove, use that for pasta, etc. I found I did more one pot meals on (borrowed) camping stove than I did microwave meals - possibly because we have teeny tiny microwave.

Do you have baby bath or something you could use for washing up in the dining room?

If you have a dishwasher, could that be plumbed in in the garage along with the washing machine, maybe?

(why the delay in plumbing washing machine in, BTW - that would be at the top of my list!)

Sandwiches and cupasoups make good meals. How old are your DC - can they have a hot meal at school so you can feed them sandwich / toast-based things in the evening?

I had this situation and bought a hot plate from argos for about £20. If I boiled the water in the kettle first, and heated the saucepan on the hot plate, then I could make pasta and rice. The sauce can be heated in the microwave.

Ask the builder to do the sink first - then you may be able to use it.

you can get nice microwave rice, it comes in special packets.
not sure about pasta.
potatos are fine in microwave.
you can do x on toast with toaster in the dining room.
lots of uncooked salady things?
lots of takeaways and meals out too.
Take food to a friends and cook for you all.

can you get a temp sink plumbed in to avoid washing up in the bath?

Set up a washing up station - as suggested re camping. The thing is you need a draining board/ temporary surface to put stuff on and ideally another one to save your back to put other stuff on. Keep on top of it with glasses and mugs so you don't end up with great piles of it.

Pasta is lovely in the microwave - you need a lid on the dish you cook it in.

Re slow cooker you just add the carbs to the casserole so its an all in one meal.

We managed 3 winter months like this. It really isn't so bad.

On dry days there's always a barbecue in the garden to add grilled stuff/ spatchcock chicken etc to the mix. I liked barbecue breakfasts (sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomato).

Easy meals scrambled egg on toast, beans on toast etc.

Buy paper plates and chuck them out afterwards. I just kept a really limited stock of cutlery out plus a few mugs/glasses so that the washing up didn't pile up - just took a washing up bowl into the sink in the bathroom and pretended I was camping :o

I bought a really cheap oven/grill from Lidl for £20 which I cooked pizzas etc in but we did eat a lot of crap.

Microwave chips are surprisingly nice

We were without at kitchen for about 8 weeks (walls moving etc) and got a completely brilliant single ring hob from Ikea. It just plugged in, and we've used it since when catering for large numbers.

Slow cooker was invaluable.

I'd totally agree with getting the washing machine sorted first. Life's complicated enough without worrying about getting to a laundrette.

Food stored in big plastic boxes we normally use for toys.

You'll be amazed at how you cope. Honest!

We had this for three or four months, no w/m or d/w, no oven - only a fridge, microwave and rice cooker which we used for boiling pasta. Washing up in bath or basin is fine and since you aren't really cooking, just defrosting stuff from freezer, you don't generate much mess. Cook batches of food for freezer and see if you can get friends to cook you some stuff as well so you have a bit of variety (I still can't face tomato and marscapone pasta sauce, I ate so much of it during those months). If you don't mind the smell, you can get one of those Foreman grill thingys but I couldn't be bothered - just ate a lot of chicken casserole and lasagna. Could not wait to bake a cake and fry some onions by the end of it.

If you plan your stocking of the freezer carefully, you don't need to stress too much about carbs. I have a freezer full of meals that don't need extra carbs adding:

Instead of making just bolognaise, layer it up into lasagne
Shepherd's pie
Hot pot including potatoes
Any other kind of pasta bake including pasta and sauce can just be heated up
I make sausage cassoulet with lots of beans so no spuds needed

Then you can always do jacket spuds in the microwave, and when you're desparate, also rice and pasta etc. in the microwave if you want.

Although your kitchen guy has said a month, it might not be a month where you can't use anything. When we had ours done, there was literally 2 days when we had no cooker at all, and one day with no sink/water at all. For some of the rest of the time, the cooker might have been the only thing there, but it was still useable.

If you get a 'camp kitchen' type of thing, you can set up a washing up bowl and drying rack on there so no need to do it in the bathroom.

D

What about a steamer to cook rice, potatoes, veg and even a whole chicken!

Unfortunately sink cant be put in until practically last as the worksurface needs templating.

Plan is - week one gut old kitchen, rewire (including new main box - eek) and replaster.

week 2 - put down floor (we have silly old floor boards that let in gales) and as its a small kitchen its going to be better just to do it all. Also - maybe painting?? got lost on that bit.

week 3 - put in units. do templates for surfaces.

week 4 - (hopefully!!!!) put in surfaces, sink, hob etc.

I must ask how quickly we can have our washing machine done!

I think we may have dds old babybath stand in the loft. That would be quite good for washing up... Main thing is to save my back.

Genius idea to give dd hot school dinners!!!! dh can buy his lunch out and I could ermmm go to the pub everyday!!!

Thank you for so many ideas - I was reading the other kitchen threads on here!

I think I will get a kitchen camp thingy - thats a good idea. dd is in the Guides so I can make her do it all. I won't panic buy an oven/grill just yet. We can go and get one if we need to.

Lasagana and other suggestions is a great idea for the freezer.

def paper plates and what not.

Tis an adventure.

It was supposed to be next month but I'm glad it is a bit delayed so it wont be so cold.

That's a good thing (that it won't be cold)

I was spoilt in that we have a garden room so our temporary kitchen was out there (with sink in utility room). Not quite so luxurious was the fact that there is no heating out there at all (think lean-to, but with more windows) and it was January [brrr].

We brought a two ring hob thing from Argos and set up a washing up station on a spare table, although make sure you use a plastic table cloth on it! It was fine we managed for 3 months without a kitchen just make sure they leave you one working tap if possible downstairs as makes all the difference!

Good luck it's hell but worth it in the end - this is a phrase you shall be repeating a lot!

Actually, I found it was okay, because we had a two-ringed camping stove.

We had a mini-kitchen set up in another room, which had the table, the fridge, the freezer, the microwave, and the camping cooker, and it was fine. I'd pre-cooked and frozen absolutely loads, but in the end, the camping stove meant we preferred to cook a lot of one-pot meals.

I can't remember what we did about a sink, but it must have been okay, as I can't remember it, and I remember having no sink in the previous kitchen refit! We had an outside tap and drain, and that came in very handy for cold water, washing veg, etc.

We didn't use paper plates in the end, because we found that because they get soggy with a casserole, which is what you can precook and freeze, you end up with more potential for mess than simply washing a proper plate.

Actually, we could use our outside tap couldnt we. Thats no different from using a stand pipe or something at some of the rougher camping. That would make it easier. Good idea!

I'm sure it will be worth it. Our kitchen was super high priority when we moved here well over 10 years ago! I am soooo excited!!!

We didn't have a working kitchen for 7 months, though for the first 5 of those the old sink was still plumbed in so I could wash up (though only in daylight as there was no electricity!)

We used the back bedroom as kitchen/diner. I got by with a camping gas ring (the sort that looks like a hob ring), microwave and toaster at first; later on branched out and bought a sandwich toaster and slow cooker. We also had a couple of fondues.

One-pot meals obviously best if you can manage them. We also had quite a lot of takeaways . We kept the fridge in the bathroom (double ).

Apparently if you get those toaster bags you can do fish fingers in them. (I tried frying them once as DD had asked for them but they were most unsatisfactory).

However, my fab new kitchen makes it all worthwhile.

Use microware more, get slow cooker, do washing up in bath. Get parents/PIL/friends to invite you over to their place for tea.

Been there, done that, got fab new kitchen now!

blimey ladywellian - 7 months!!!!!

sadly no family near at all purplekate - might gatecrash a couple of friends though.