Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

So my kitchen is going through a remodel for at least 2 months and I'm looking for advice on how to deal with this.

Any tips/advice besides keeping a stash of restaurant #s handy for takeout or stocking up on microwaveable food? Bleh!

TIA.

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

Do you have a toaster oven, you can definitely use that to bake/roast meats, fish, potatoes, etc....
Also... grill! It may be cold out, but its better than take out everyday and atleast you leave most of the mess outside.
You can throw more salads, sandwiches and soup (microwave) into the mix also.

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

The kitchen may be getting done but do you have access to your working fridge? Hopefully that's a yes so that you can still have drinks, cold cuts, breads, fruits/veggies etc.

Keep a microwave and toaster in a seperate room and just live on small meals for awhile. Although it sounds good, I'd try to stay away from eating out frequently. Look for things that you can make in a toaster oven on the broil setting and steam veggies in the microwave.

HTH

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

Microwave
George Forman grill
Convection Oven
Crock pot

These will all become your best friend! Load up on paper plates and plastic utensils so you won't have many dishes to do, and try to make things that you can get multiple meals out of. For instance, go to the super market and get one of those whole rotisserie chickens so you can have some the first night and then make chicken salad or tacos or something the next day.

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

If you will have access to your fridge/freezer, you could always cook some make ahead, freezable dishes in advance, and freeze them in individual portions that can be thawed out and microwaved (e.g., soups, stews, chiles, pasta casseroles).

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

Thanks ladies!

I do have the following:

Outdoor Grill
Microwave
George Forman grill
Convection Oven
Crock pot
Rice maker
Fridge

So maybe it won't be so bad. It's just going to be abit inconvenient not having a sink, but I think I can also go to my in-laws and cook a week's worth of meals while doing my laundry there. My laundry machine/dryer will be out of commission too. :(

Message edited 11/17/2011 12:57:40 PM.

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

For using the slow cooker get one of those liners

So easy to clean

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

we lived without a kitchen for over 4 months since we did the remodeling ourselves. We ate a lot of cold cuts, cereal and oatmeal lol I was so happy to have a kitchen again when it was done!

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

the lack of sink is pretty much worse than any of it.

A lot of good suggestions, we did a handful of those things, but we also were before kids when we lived through the renovation which makes things a lot easier.

1) cereal for dinner
2) going out was cheaper - we ewre on a first name basis with our local diner, probably twice a week, having a quick cheap bite there.
3) pizza, easy to eat, easy to reheat.
4) grilling-again its kind of easy, but the biggest problems with "real" meals, cleaning up. cutting boards, side dishes, prepping etc.

yes you can definately make cooking work... after a while, you start to give up. Don't overdo it, but try harder in the begining having real meals, you'll feel less guilty when you give up and spend 2 nights a week having diner food, 3 nights with cerial and take out the other nights.

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

I set up a table in my dining room. I had the microwave, a hot plate and toaster oven.

Use all paper products cause washing dishes in the bathroom was just a pain. Also use the steam in bag veggies and microwave rice.

We also used the grill a lot.....it was the dead of winter but at least we ate good food.

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

Microwave
Toaster oven
Crock pot
Griddle

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

During construction used our BBQ a lot!!

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

if you do wind up going out to eat, order enough to bring home half for leftovers the next day

Re: Tips for Living w/o a kitchen?

Yes... Read this articleSurviving your Kitchen Renovation