Healthy-ish meals made with a kettle?

Barneysmom

Would he be allowed a toaster, he could have toaster pockets?

We've got these toastabags from Lakeland, they're quite good and you can do loads with them, even bacon.
These ones are expensive (they have cheaper ones in supermarkets) there's a little recipe leaflet with it.

Or if he's close to a hospital they have brilliant canteens now, or he could have a meal at the supermarket on his way home?

sarahsarah

IS there no staffroom or similar at his work with a microwave where he could rustle something up before he went back to his room?
Eg call at a shop for a whoopsied readymeal /tin of chunky soup etc on the way to work?

sarahlouise210

I find the hospital canteens are dearer than going somewhere like weatherspoons !!!

PasturesNew

Where I used to live, the hospital canteen was strictly staff only. And anything in the public areas is run by grannies, so sells muffins and tea from 10am-4pm.

PasturesNew

A lot of garages/Spar shops have hot food counters these days. Worth a look to pick up a hot meat pie/pasty, or even half a chicken. Same with supermarkets - I think the hot rotisserie chickens in there have to be sold within 2 hours or reduced. Many supermarkets have other hot food for sale too, hot sausages for example, bigguns.

barbie_babe

I think the idea of the slow cooker is the best as he could make stews and curries and chilli in this and maybe serve with instant mash or crust bread.
There other things you could buy without cooking like salads all ready made in boxes.
Tins of cold meat to make sandwiches or add to a salad.
Crisps,fruit,boxes of cereal.(longlife milk).

nearlyrich

Surely if his company have set him to work away they offer a daily allowance for food?

Cafes, supermarkets, shops pubs etc etc all sell food some of them even offer it ready cooked, is he pocketing the cash and making you feel sorry for him?

BitterAndTwisted

I think the main problem with being in digs is that there's nowhere to store any food: I doubt where this lad is he even has a fridge to call his own. I'd be living on those couscous sachets as you only need a kettle of hot water to make it

bluebag

Pasta mug, curry pots, cup a soup, John West do a ready to eat tuna salad in a pot, baked beans and sausage from the tin ( ring pull type) Fruit pots, ambrosia rice and custard pots, jellly pots, all keep without refigeration.


Places in train stations do very early breakfast sometimes from 6am. Macy D's BK etc.

babyshoes

Eggs can be boiled in a kettle, as long as you prop the lid open so it doesn't turn itself off once the water reaches boiling temperature. You need to watch it carefully though as it can boil dry and start a fire this way! You may also need to de-scale the kettle more often, and obviously if the egg splits you would have to wash it out - use room temperature eggs and cold water to reduce the chance of this happening.

I imagine you could steam veggies/pasta etc over a kettle too if you improvised something with a small seive or collander - though you couldn't use the water for tea afterwards. I wouldn't try boiling pasta in a kettle as it would stick to the element and make a mess I should think! I am imagining a meal of cheap noodles mixed with steamed sweetcorn and other veggies, and maybe a boiled egg or a bit of ham/salami/other cured meat chopped into it for protein. Brown sauce/chilli sauce or something similar for extra flavour. Not exactly gourmet food, but hot and more nutritious than pot noodles! You could also make a version of cauliflower cheese with steamed cauliflower and cheese sauce made up from powder & boiling water. Extra cheese is nice but not essential. Good side dish to go with something like cooked chicken from the supermarket. To make it more substantial, again you could add small bits of meat like ham etc.

We used to make toast using the bar-style incandescent heaters in our rooms - they were mounted high up on the wall, so it took a few minutes of standing on a chair holding a fork pushed into the bread, but it worked!

Toasted sandwiches can be made with an iron, as long as it is not set to steam and is well protected with thick foil. Wrap both iron and sandwich in foil, and keep the iron moving to prevent burning. Protect the surface below with a thick towel or similar if you don't have an ironing board.

A small cooler bag will keep milk fresh enough for a day or two (or longer if he has access to a communal freezer and can swap ice blocks every day). It is also a good place to keep fruit/veg etc. If he is above ground level, milk will stay fairly fresh on the outside ledge of the windowsill at this time of year. (depending on his location of course, it has been fairly mild here for the past few days!) Longlife milk keeps at room temperature for longer than fresh milk, even once opened.

How long will he be there? Is it worth investing in something like a sandwich toaster or cheapy microwave? You could probably find those sorts of things on freecycle, in fact!