Meal ideas whilst our kitchen is being done

[BG2015]

Three storey house with kitchen, garage and separate toilet/utility room on ground floor. Living room/bedrooms on middle upper floors.

It's being started on Wednesday. Hall and kitchen ceiling coming down to allow for new electrics, wall in kitchen coming down. Then kitchen being fitted.

He reckons it will take 2-3 weeks.

We have got or (or will do) a microwave, kettle, toaster and slow cooker on a table in the living room and the fridge freezer will be in the garage.

All I can think of is toast based meals and baked potatoes

Go out and get yourself a two ring hob. They don't cost much. Between that and the microwave and slow cooker you'll be fine for a few weeks. I managed without the slow cooker for 3 months while our house was done up.

We're doing the same soon, I'm planning to do a couple of joints of meat (gammon, pork, chicken) in the slow cooker which will last two or three meals each, then have them with steam veg done in the microwave and microwavable potatoes (frozen mash, ready made potato gratin, etc). That's as far as I've got!

Frozen stuff reheated. Curry with rice done in the microwave springs to mind.

Slow cooker for chilli, curry, stews with microwave rice
You can cook pasta in a pan of boiling water you just put the lid on and wait till it's cooked
You can make a bolagnaae sauce in the slow cooker
If you have the freezer you can batch cook and freeze
You can do jacket potatoes in the microwave
You can also cook veg in the microwave just chop and add a little bit of water and oil or butter and black pepper
I also add slices of potato sometim

You can get ready mash. Loads of veg cooks in the microwave. Toastie pockets for toasted sandwiches in the toaster. Couscous can be done without hob. Salmon cooked in microwave. Frozen rice bags to do in microwave.

I would cook & freeze a bunch of meals that can be warmed in microwave.

Also, make sure you have some worktop space.

I'd be cooking like mad just now to fill up the freezer then you can just defrost, heat up and eat.

Rice cooks really well in the microwave (I use twice the volume of water to rice, add salt & a bay leaf, cover with pierced cling film and zap it on high for mins and simmer for 10 mins, then leave covered while you heat the sauce ). It might be worth freezing some homemade curry that you can defrost/heat in microwave too.

Bulgar wheat and couscous "cook" by being soaked with boiling water/stock and would go with bought quiche and salad type meals too.

However when our kitchen was being done, I found the worst thing was not having a proper kitchen sink or dishwasher. Trying to wash up in a hand basin or ba th was a rel pain. I couldn't quite bring myself to use paper plates but I Did use small picnic plates that fitted in the sink much better than China dinner plates. Good luck - will be worth it when it's finished !

We're in a similar situation. It also have a three burner camping hob. We manage quite well using the hob, microwave and slow cooker to do stews, casseroles, spag , pan fried chops/chicken, veg. Most things can be done in the slow cooker and microwave to be honest.

We bought a plug-in single induction hob from Ikea for about £30. It's been amazing and when the kitchen is done will be useful to have for e.g Christmas when we could use an additional ring. Super-fast, really efficient.
We've also used the George Foreman grill for cooking meat. And the microwave of course!

We had this for 3 weeks last year. I was able to borrow 2 plug in halogen rings from a friend, so that made it a lot easier. If u can get your hands on even one it would make life a lot easier for cooking rice/ pasta /potatoes. Bolegnese sauces/ curries/ stews/casseroles/ chiili/ joints scan all be done in slow cooker then. Get microvabe veg etc.
Best of luck, it's not easy and is stressful but will be worth it !

We used a single ring camping stove like this when we were having similar works done. I did a lot of stir fries and other dishes where everything could be chucked into a wok or large pan. I also stocked up the freezer with lots of bolognese/chilli/curry types meals that could be reheated in the microwave. Being without a kitchen for a couple of weeks was a nightmare for me. Good luck!

I forgot we also have a steamer and a large foreman grill.

My DP says he's got it all under control ( he does most of the cooking)

Unfortunately what makes this harder is I had a hysterectomy on Tuesday so am banned from doing anything for the next few weeks.

Oh God Bg....that's tough. Good luck with the recovery. Let dh take over the cooking. The steamer will be fab for potatoes/ veg etc. The grill will be great for meat too. Ye'll be fine! ..you nee to rest and recover, so let dh take over.

We had this recently. I expected the faff to be the cooking but actually I found it tougher having reduced access to water and a sink.

I was going to put them off and postpone it but I figured I can't do anything anyway and my DP is off with me looking after me so he's on a mission to empty the kitchen, I think he's quite enjoying it as I can't organise anything

don't forget the BBQ, especially the kettle ones, you can do an awful lot of cooking with one of those, agree with the camping stove. We were without a kitchen for 2 1/2 weeks and got by. Even ended up with the fridge and freezer outside, covered in a patrilineal.

patrilineal = tarpaulin !!

Another vote for stocking up the freezer now (DP, not you!).

You can cook pasta in the microwave.

I would steer him towards batch cooking now. Fwiw we'll be in the same situation in a few weeks and I'm expecting a lot of curry.

We do also have a chip shop, Chinese takeaway and Indian restaurant in walking distance- so that may be an option too.

But not a great fan of takeaways and they are so expensive

Thanks for all your suggestions

Slow cooker is definitely your friend and Pinterest

I do jackets in it, pasta bakes, also chilli, curry, sweet and sour even potato dauphinois

Do jackets one day, reheat the next to go with chilli, you can even do lasagne I believe

I tend to type in slow cooker recipes on Pinterest, the range is amazing