Help! No kitchen for a week!

jc2703

Evening all

I'm stuck for ideas and in need of help!

We have to have our kitchen emptied of everything by 8am Monday to get a new kitchen fitted (thats the good bit!) I've been so pre-occupied with wondering where I'm going to put everything (appliances, kitchen table and chairs, everything out of the cupboards....:eek:) that I've not given much thought to how I'm going to feed us all next week!

I am thinking the microwave can be set up in the living room but I'm anxious about putting the slow cooker on in there as we have a DD who is only 3 and I'd be worried about scalds.

So how do I feed us all (7 of us) for a week with no cooker and without resorting to takeaway everynight!

J x

notjustlaura

Lucky you getting a new kitchen!

When I had mine done I set up a table in the living room and put the kettle, slow cooker, microwave etc there and it was bearable. However, my household doesn't contain children. Would it be possible to put the slow cooker somewhere high-ish or in another room?

Laura

Counting_Pennies_2

I would put the slow cooker in a room she won't go in, perhaps up high on a dressing table in your room and put an item of furniture in front of the closed door that only you can move.

Or do you have a door that has a key lock you can put it in that room.

In terms of meals, just live with your toaster and microwave (and the slow cooker) Heinz beans do snap pots that go straight in the microwave, so you won't even have pot washing up.

For evening meals stick to Jacket potatoes, perhaps a few good quality microwave meals? Slow cook a few times. Plus the odd pizza take out, or a trip to the local pub is a nice treat for the little ones to get out in amongst all the chaos.

Lunch, Beans on Toast, I think you can scramble eggs in the microwave also, not sure how. Or sandwiches?

Breakfast, you can heat porridge in microwave, or just plain old cereal and toast.

You can cope for a week ok. My friend had a massive renovation which centred around the kitchen and was without a kitchen for a couple of months, so a week should be fine if you plan ahead.

Good luck

beemuzed

Do you have a playpen? Not for your child, but to put anything in you don't want her to touch?
We're about to think of having a new kitchen too, but as it's just the two of us I'm sure we'll manage. I seem to remember last time being without the sink and water for 48 hours....

jc2703

She'd see that as a challenge :rotfl:

rachbc

i get up a temp kitchen as we did our new one ourselves and it took a month - camping stove, mw, sc and kettle in the dining room. I made as many hm ready meals as I could and the rest of the time we ate simpley - pasta and pesto, frittata, jambalaya etc

poppy-glos

dd loves noodles so one or two nights in my house would be 9p tesco chicken noodles done in the microwave, with peas added to make healthier. perhaps buy a cooked chicken an shred that into it.

microwave sponges and custard for a pudding..

jacket pototoes acceptable from microwave

umm.. how about fajitas one evening, with tortillas heated in microwave, a shredded cooked chook from the supermarket and a pack of tex mex dips to put on.

soup.. baked beans..

oh, i used to do a microwave jumbalia/rissotto type thing when i was a student, put chopped onion, uncooked rice, chopped peppers, tin of tomatoes, tin of water, stock cube and some chopped kabanos (type of sausage) in the microwave for half an hour, with peirced clingfilm on top - add some chopped cheddar and mix through before serving.. i can't remember how much rice i put in but i guess it would be about half a cans amount. that used to feed two of us for two meals..

Sunnyday

We started on our kitchen before christmas and its still nowhere near finished, the plaster has dried but still not painted and no units

We are doing most of it ourselves and so it will take a couple of months yet but it is the cheapest option so we are putting up with it. The Christmas dinner was a challenge but was lovely.

Make and freeze as many meals as you can so that they can be popped in the microwave, the slow cooker is a life saver as you can make chilli etc in it and dish up with microwaved jackets, a pan of hot water straight from the kettle with pasta in will cook itself without the need for additional heat. As long as you can keep the hot things away from the littlies all will be fine. We have two doggies to contend with one of which is big young and very clumsy and so far so good.

You may want to consider putting a small sliding bolt on the door to any room that you don`t want little ones getting into whilst things are hot - you can put the bolt vertically at the top of the door so that its not noticeable.

Good luck

SD

angelavdavis

How about cooking in the slow cooker overnight so the litl'en won't be a problem? You can then reheat using the microwave.

I didn't have a kitchen for 3 months (don't ask! Everything went wrong that could possibly have done! Problems with water, electrics, gas, delays on delivery, oven dead on arrival, etc etc) and managed to pick up an electric wok cheaply that I used as a saucepan/frying pan, then already had a kettle, slow cooker, toaster and microwave. Its amazing what you can cook with limited resources.

Dare I say it, I would plan meals for at least two weeks in case things go wrong for whatever reason. As Sunnyday says, plan ahead and cook like fury this weekend! Poppy has some great meal ideas too!

blackcrow

hiya,

had a new (well, new to me, lol) kitchen fitted end of year before last so know how difficult it can be with a little one (my boy was 7 so not so young but i did have similar concerns). don't know what to suggest about the slow cooker but... cous cous? do you like it? all you need is a kettle and a bowl or jug with something to use as a lid and you can cook something in the microwave to mix in with it to make a meal? try baked beans (sounds bleaaargh but my son loves it), mushrooms and onions and peppers sauteed in the microwave with butter on a low level for a few mins plus tinned chickpeas (careful they dont explode like baked beans can in the microwave if you heat them too high!), i'm sure there are lots of other things you could add that could be cooked in microwave but we are veggie so no ideas for the meat-thing, sorry!

good luck with your new kitchen and enjoy! :-)

BC x

se999

We've done a few kitchen's as we've bought houses with 'potential', i.e. need lots of work.

For the last one we coped with just the microwave and a gas BBQ (outside in the garden). My kitchen space consisted of the microwave on top of the fridge in another room.

We've also house sat for friends having their new kitchen fitted and fed us and their children using just a microwave, one camping stove ring and an electric raclette.

The worst thing isn't the cooking, it's not having the clean space to prep the food in my experience. So as many home made ready meals as possible in the freezer, that can be zapped in the microwave.

Jacket potatoes are a basic essential, easily zapped.

Anything on toast if you've a toaster, beans or scrambled eggs easily zapped.

Put up with ready washed salad mix bags, even if more expensive, at least it's fresh and theoretically clean.

Anything zappable reduced in the supermarket, put into your freezer ready.

Re. washing up. I used paper plates on top of normal, and just threw the paper, the normal plates gave a solid base for the paper one. Then plates only needed a quick rinse (only washing up was the bathroom washbasin), discount shops have them really cheap.

OK I'm normally fairly 'green' and hate wasting money, but at times you have to survive the experience. Hope the kitchen fitting goes well