Ideas please ! Limited facilities

pinkcheshirecat

Hello Lovely OS people,

I wonder if I could trouble you for some ideas.

There are 2 things I could do with some help over....

The first being, I am currently having some major work done in the house and then having a kitchen fitted, I've ambled on until now, but for the next couple of weeks I'll have my free standing cooker and no sink or prep area handy in the kitchen. In fact for a couple of days, I won't even have access to my cooker. So, any handy ideas for stuff that's not too fiddly/ expensive and can be cooked in a microwave :eek: would be much appreciated.

The second thing is an odd one really, my mum used to make an apple and walnut cake which was delicious, sadly mum died 10 years ago and we can find no trace of a recipe. There was no filling at all to it and it was a fairly thin moist recipe which went fairly crispy on the outside. I love baking so would love to see if I could replicate it. my aunts miss it too! I still have the dish she used to cook it in, so could replicate perfectly if I could get the recipe right.

Thanks in advance for what I know will be wonderful suggestions.

Pink

Helen2k8

Individual portions of "ready meals" such as bolognese, lasagne, curries, Shepherds pie.....all reheat fine in a microwave (assuming you have fridge or ffreezer still?). Veg also steam fine in the microwave though it's a bit trial-and-error to get it spot on. And "nuked" baked potatoes work. Will that see you through a couple of not-very-exciting days?

As for the cake, do you remember if the apple was in lumps or shredded, any other clues?

sjprmc01

If you are still going to have use of a freezer you could make up and freeze some 'ready meals' to be zapped

Omelettes are very easy in the micro


not very MSE but you can get micro packs of pasta and rice if you are at a. Loss

pinkcheshirecat

Thanks for replies, unfortunately no freezer, so have not had a chance to batch cook and stockpile. I never normally use the microwave for anything except making porridge in the morning, but omelette and baked potato are fab ideas I'd not necessarily have thought of!

As for the cake, there were definitely small pieces of apple, but there may also have been some shredded. I'm happy to do trial and error :rotfl::rotfl: if people have favourite recipes, it's never a hardship to eat cake !
Thanks

honeythewitch

pinkcheshirecat wrote: »

Thanks for replies, unfortunately no freezer, so have not had a chance to batch cook and stockpile. I never normally use the microwave for anything except making porridge in the morning, but omelette and baked potato are fab ideas I'd not necessarily have thought of!

As for the cake, there were definitely small pieces of apple, but there may also have been some shredded. I'm happy to do trial and error :rotfl::rotfl: if people have favourite recipes, it's never a hardship to eat cake !
Thanks

perhaps you could find out which recipe books were most popular at the time when your mother was most likely to have needed one (such as when she got married?) and see if the recipe is in one of those?:)

Honey_Bear

I'm defo not advocating this as a way of life, but tbh if you are effectively kitchenless for a few days, that's when ping cuisine comes into its own. If you can afford it, get yourself some luscious sounding food from one of the supermarkets (including prepared veg) and allow yourself to live as some do all the time. It just isn't worth trying to cook from scratch in the amount of chaos - I know, because I was kitchenless for about a month a few years ago. It drove me nearly mad trying to cook without a sink, which was the real problem.

For a proper meal in minutes, you can ping noodles, a salmon fillet and sugarsnap peas with mini corn on the cob if you must cook from scratch in order to feel virtuous. The trick is not to have to prepare stuff.

Steve059

Try this. I can't see any reason why it couldn't be done in a microwave.

THREE TIN BEEF STEW

Cheap, quick and easy, and also delicious, warming and filling. Useful as an emergency meal, especially if you have no water supply, as it uses the water in the tins. Also useful for camping or caravanning. Not recommended for backpacking, though.

Makes 4 x 250ml bowls

INGREDIENTS

1 tin of stewed steak in gravy
1 tin of new potatoes in water
1 tin of sliced carrots, sliced mushrooms or garden peas in water

METHOD

Open the tin of steak. Put the steak and gravy into a saucepan.

Open the tin of potatoes. Drain the water into the saucepan. Cut the potatoes into 2cm (1 inch) pieces. Add the potatoes to the saucepan.

Open the tin of carrots, mushrooms or peas. Add them and the water to the saucepan.

Stir thoroughly.

Put the saucepan on a medium heat. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering). Put the lid on the saucepan and continue to cook for 5 minutes until the potatoes are cooked.

ADDITIONS & ALTERATIONS

Add a beef stock cube.

Add a teaspoon of dried parsley.

TIPS

If any of the potatoes are damaged, mash them up and add them to the saucepan. They will help to thicken the stew.

Fruball

A quick bing search came up with 1,710,000 results so I am sure your Mum's recipe is amongst them!

That is a lot of cake tasting

nuttyp

Steve059 was you looking through our caravan window???? lol we use to do this when our DD was racing karts. It was lovely hot and filling.

unimaginative_user_name

Are you cooking for one? I have more success cooking leek and mushroom risotto in the microwave than I do on the hob but it might be tricky for one to get quantities right. Let me know if you'd like the recipe.

purple45

May not be to your liking, but I go camping or stay in travelodge for several days and live off sandwiches, salad and fruit for an easy life.
I make a huge bowl of chopped salad; tin of sweetcorn, chopped cucumber, radishes, red onion, cress, 1/2 a white cabbage. This makes up about 8 portions that I stick in tubs (old saved coleslaw type things)(keeps okay for about 4 days, any longer and it looks a bit sad, if you use lettuce it doesn't keep that long hence the cabbage).
Once the salad is made (and I have made these in travelodge!), its easy enough to get by with just an electric coolbox and basic collection of cutlery and plate. Cheese n pickle sandwiches or a french stick and philadelphia nomnom!
Good luck with your renovations!