Creative Cooking Without A Kitchen
 

We're having our kitchen completely renovated. Its been a month since demolition, and we've survived with a gas grill, microwave, toaster, a sous vide, and coffee maker. And a lot more takeout than usual. We've done ok with dinners as long as its not raining (which has been about 3x per week) using the grill. Breakfast and lunch have been the most difficult, a lot of frozen breakfast burritos and sandwiches. This morning the microwave decided it had enough of our overuse, and gave up for good.

We likely have another two weeks without appliances. We have a refrigerator/freezer. I'm not buying an air fryer or toaster oven. Using the tools above, I'd be grateful for any creative meal ideas anyone has, especially breakfast and lunch.

Are you replacing the microwave?

If you can get hold of PAN maize flour (this is different from Masa Harina) you can make Arepas in your grill. Cut in half, add cheese and stick back in the grill*. Perfect for breakfast (great with avocado and other salad ingredients)

I understand you can make rice in the sous vide also.

Either of these would go with the endless varieties of protein or vegetable or protein and vegetable dishes and stews that can be done sous vide. If you want a bit of variety get a box/block of Japanese curry roux and stick some of that in as well.

* Once cooked and halved, if you hollow one out a little (or ring round it with mayonnaise) you can add an egg and toast it under the grill. Otherwise drop an egg in a greased mold (ceramic, metal or silicon) and cook the egg under the grill that way.

Yes, but unfortuantely we had to order it to fit the space in our cabinets that were just installed, because of a trim kit. I'm guessing its about a week before we get it -- but really everything in this project has taken about twice as long as expected so I'm not counting on it.

We've had a fair amount of microwave rice (which is not very good) up to this point, but I will have to look into the sous vide method.

Why not use the gas grill to cook eggs in a cast iron pan? Ditto for bacon and other gems

grilled salmon

grilled baguette with mozzarella & sliced fresh tomato (caprese)

ultra yum

This has been our weekend plan several times. And several times its rained on those mornings. Supposedly no rain in the forecast this weekend so I'll be trying again -- fried eggs with corned beef hash. During the week, I don't really feel that I have enough time to heat up a cast iron on the grill and make breakfast. The contractors have been showing up around 7:30 or 7:45 and at that time we try to stay out of their way...don't want to be walking through the kitchen to get food, get to the grill, etc.

I have tried to sous vide eggs a couple of times. I guess technically it's poaching since the water isn't boiling, but I've put the whole eggs in their shells in. Once too undercooked and once the yolks were hard but the whites were still runny. Eventually I may get to a perfect poached egg. But also a lot of time just to get a couple of eggs!

Thanks for the ideas!

I'd buy one of these, in part because I'd use it for breakfasts and lunches:
Otherwise, overnight oats, ricotta and yogurt parfait.

A cheap $20 electric hot plate can really help. (I think we paid $10 for ours, lol) We bought it probably 35 years ago for a similar situation as yours, and have used it many times since when the need arises. Doesn't take up much more space than a thick cookbook. Cook breakfast out of the rain. :)

No Crockpot?

There's a lot you can do with a slow cooker in terms of stews/chili for lunch food, and it can also be used to make coffeecake and similar for breakfast. I like the recipes on https://www.ayearofslowcooking.com

Not quite sure the timing on a sous vide but softboiled eggs with bread (toast preferred but you work with what you've got) is a common breakfast in South East Asia. Kaya is optional (if you can find it).

Cobb salad (or chicken ceasar) often work for lunch. Once in a while, I'll go buy a bag of bhel puri (indian snack mix). Grab some cucumbers, tomatoes, tofu puffs (this you have to cook) and some onions to make a different kind of salad.

Yes! My wife thought of that on Sunday, and when I get some time this week I'm going to go dig around in all our kitchen boxes and see if I can find it. Never should have packed it away, but then again we were told the work should be done by end of July and here we are guessing it will be some time in September since they started a couple weeks late and seem to only schedule workers 2-3 days per week.

Can't you just buy a used mini fridge and stick it in an another room?

I have also grilled during a thunderstorm--sure, not the smartest idea, but I wanted steak.

We have a refrigerator/freezer, thankfully. We asked them to leave it in the house until the new appliances come. When they install the replacement, there will be a one-day transition where we put everything into coolers. I've grilled dinner several times in the rain in the last month, sometimes with a large golf umbrella in one hand. I have very little desire to grill breakfast or lunch in the rain though, at least on weekdays when I'm working. I'm much less tolerant of everything in this world before 8 am.

Mac N' Cheese could never go wrong for a earlyy breakfast or a snack!

You can make breakfast casseroles in the crock pot.

Overnight? Please share your favorite!
We found out last night that our appliances should be delivered and installed within 7-10 days depending on how the work goes before then. All of a sudden they scheduled work for every day including this Saturday, and sometimes have two contractors on the same day. This is after the electrician apologized to me and stormed off yesterday to call the "project manager" after I showed him how he installed the lighting incorrectly (project manager gave him incorrect information). So I'm not getting my hopes up yet.

https://www.runninginaskirt.com/vege...ast-casserole/

That recipe is for a vegetarian version, but you can add bacon, ham, or sausage as well. You'd need to use pre-cooked meat, so the vegetarian option is probably the better option.

I love this, didn't know it was possible. Thank you. Even after the kitchen is done I want to experiment with it. Frankly I was assuming that this might be only sweeter options like some kind of french toast bake. Often for Christmas, my wife will make something similar to this the evening before, but in a casserole dish. Then she gets up early to preheat the oven and bake it. Time to start practicing!

LOL, it's definitely been a thing for a while. McCormick used to manufacture seasoning mixes for crock pot breakfast casseroles. https://www.walmart.com/ip/McCormick...5-oz/539652439

Hopefully your new oven has the option to set it to turn on at a certain time (usually using an app). Our LG also has the option where I can turn it on remotely at any time (like if I'm doing errands and I can turn it on when I'm driving home so it will be cooking when I arrive).

Heston Blumenthal used to do sous vide scrambled eggs with smoked salmon 🤤

https://recipes.anovaculinary.com/re...scrambled-eggs

I can't find it, but there was a really funny challenge on Top Chef Masters (Google says it was season 1 in 2009) where these Michelin-starred chefs had to create a meal inside a dorm room--using only cooking equipment that college students typically use. Maybe OP can find some inspiration. :D

without a stove, to get nice SV eggs with a firm outer white, you can set ur SV to 99C (or highest), drop the eggs in for 3min to "sear" the whites, then you fish em out, and drop in your SV packed potatoes/carrots, which need 90C, so you're not wasting energy earlier for heating up the water to max to get the eggs 'seared'; once the potatoes are cooked at 90C/2 hours, you can drop in the next lower temp stuff like asparagus 85C (not in season, i know, sorry), then put in your (now cold) eggs at 65C to get the yolks 'fondant', then when they're done in goes the SV packed salmon (45-55C, to taste....)

since you can't' sear pre/post SV, to simulate the missing maillard/caramelisation you can use condiments like soy sauce, dashi powder, or the trader jo's mushroom powder to get back some of the 'browning' flavour...

I joined FT for FT talk but didn't know I can do food talk too, love it

if you're in for a project
https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vid...r-not-to-smoke

although SV beef heart is my current goto....

Ikea (and Amazon, I'm sure) have single-burner induction cooktops that plug into a regular outlet. That would let you cook inside using a regular pan.

Like this one: or this one: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/tillred...lack-30546508/

1800 watts is 15 amps at 120V, so if you use this on high you would need to ensure it is the only thing active on the circuit.

No real suggestions from me, but this thread reminded me of a great summer that I spent while working an internship at NASA Kennedy Center in 1980. I was trying to save money for my return to school in the fall so lived in a cheap, small motel room that had only a small dorm-style refrigerator and an electric skillet. No freezer and although microwave ovens had been invented, they hadn't become a staple in hotel rooms as of yet. I bought a cheap cookbook and tried to adapt recipes to meet the limitations of my "kitchen."

This could have been a miserable experience except for one thing. The motel was located directly on the oceanfront and most nights dinner was al fresco at one of those cement patio tables that overlooked the water. The lack of a freezer meant no frozen dinners, my budget meant very few meals out, but that locale inspired a lot of decent adaptations of the recipes in that cookbook, mostly made with fresh fruits and vegetables.

I probably ate better that summer than I have ever since.

Thanks for all the suggestions! Took some tips and still want to try a few, including the crockpot breakfast.
As of two days ago we now have a full range, microwave, and dishwasher, plus the new refrigerator. Problems installing blower unit above the range and the second oven. While we still can't move into the kitchen as there's a lot of work to be done, at least we can cook normally -- just running around the house to find pots and pans! In all honesty, I think I kind of miss the old appliances (they were still under 12 yrs) but love the new countertops and additional functional space we have just by reconfiguring the room.

We're hopeful that within the next week or two we're down to minor items.

Tasty!!

what are these scissors called because they cut king crab legs so well and now this is what I need in my life with the Costco king crab legs.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9d2fa1904.jpeg

Seafood scissors. You can get a multipack on Amazon for less than $10.

thank you! I’ll check. They look amazing.

If not, might I suggest your local asian supermarket... Those look similar to the scissors dim sum places use.

FYI, Costco no longer carries the giant meaty King crab legs as they were getting them from Russia. They carry Golden crab legs which arent worth buying --at least the ones in my store arent. Regardless, every kitchen needs good kitchen shears. My favorite ones are by Joyce Chen.

Seafood scissors are similar to kitchen shears, but shorter and curved. Straight edge kitchen shears will work, too, but may be unwieldily for delicate seafood.

Damn, you're making me crave Dungeness crab. The season is just about here...