please help - need to stay on plan but we've no kitchen

[swmina]

Dear all

I need your help with on-plan evening meal ideas that don't involve much use of the kitchen.

We've had an infestation of grain mites for the past month and nothing is killing them - every time we clean them out, they come back the next day! We've had to cover the whole place with a special dust and can't touch it for several weeks whilst we wait for them to die. We can't disturb the dust plus we can't risk taking anything with mites out of the kitchen - so pretty much all the utensils, crockery etc is unusable.

When I thought it was a temporary problem I came off the diet for a bit and we've been eating only things you don't need a cooker, crockery, cutlery etc for... i.e. packaged sandwiches or picnic things. But I've put loads on as a result and now it looks like this temporary problem is going to go on for a few more weeks. It's a nightmare - I really could cry. I was so motivated to lose weight and this has really scuppered me. Now I have more to lose than ever.

But I'm going to have to find a way to stick to the diet despite this nightmare. I have a couple of mugs and glasses I've washed through in bleach and can rescue a knife, fork, spoon etc in the same way. But I can't do any cooking at all - no oven, no hob, no draining or mixing or grating. I can probably use the microwave if it's a one-pot-wonder and doesn't need any thing else.

I reckon my options are:

Fruit
Raw veg
Mug shots
Ainsley Harriott couscous
Cheese
low fat houmous
Ryvita (what other crispbreads are HEb?)
Packaged meats and olives
Innocent veg pots (I know they are low syn?)
Bachelors instant noodle pots

But what else can I have?

Does anyone know of any other instant microwave meals that are low syn? How about low syn pre-packaged salads from the supermarkets - I think tesco finest morrocan couscous is low syn? I really want some hot meals too though.

 

[Happy Holidays]

A slow cooker is a really good idea, you can cook so much in them.

Otherwise, I'd say cook say, pasta, rice, potatoes in the microwave & have say tuna, onions, tomatoes with them or smash with beans & hexa cheese, or scrambled eggs on toast, there are things you can have on toast, or how about those bags you buy from aldi where you put things in & pop in the toaster I got those for my daughter years ago you could buy some chicken bites & put them in that.

I'll put my thinking cap on & see if I can come up with anything else.

 

[AnnaFaraday]

Set aside an area which will for the foreseeable future be your "kitchen". Put down some plastic sheeting. Be near the bathroom if you can, for a water supply.
Paper plates, disposable cups, plastic cutlery - you can get these at any supermarket, pound shop, etc. No worries about washing up.
If you don't like plastic cutlery, Tescos has cheap knives, forks, spoons - you can always wash up in the bathroom - not ideal, but not the end of the world. And charity shops have plates, glasses, cups, usually at silly prices if you don't mind what they look like. My local charity shop has perfectly usable coffee mugs at 10p each
Cheap kitchen knife/chopping board if you need to cut anything up.
Cheap microwave, kettle, toaster, slow cooker. Some places have good deals at the moment on sets of things for people going to university.
Camping stove with gas canisters? I used to cook up amazing meals on a small camping stove with just two rings when we went camping.
No need for pre-packed sandwiches. Sliced bread, sliced ham, sliced cheese, salad from a bag, there's your sandwich with no cutting involved. Cheaper, too.
Presumably you can't get to the fridge? Do you have a coolbox/bag? Could you get one of your friends or neighbours to freeze those blue iceblocks for you?
If not, as the weather gets cooler you can store things in the garage or garden in plastic boxes.

 

[swmina]

Hi guys, thanks for the ideas.

We don't have much room in our tiny house so finding space for a new little kitchen could be tricky. I could maybe use the second bedroom if I cleared it out a bit and have a slow cooker on the desk in there. I'd be a bit worried about fire risk for camp stoves etc. The toaster is out of action but we can get to the fridge to store things and keep cool, which is a blessing.

Any more ideas please let me know!

 

[RM07]

A slow cooker is a really good idea and they can be picked up quite cheaply in the supermarkets. You can cook all sorts in them including soups which you could then eat over a few days if stored in the fridge. Pop a message on your local Freecycle group and ask if anyone could donate some kitchen items. Someone might have a hand held blender they no longer need which would help with soups. Charity shops are another place to look.

Do you have a friends or family local to you? Could you ask if you could cook something there one night a week and make meals you can have leftovers the next night? If you had three people say yes then that would be the week almost covered.

I hope it all gets sorted soon!

 

[fattifi]

If you can rescue the microwave then baked potatoes, beans, scrambled eggs, buy the precooked chicken from the supermarket, salads, if you buy a hand blender then soups made in the microwave or slow cooker, B&M bargains have camp stoves for £9.99, easy to use for pasta, stirfry etc, so they aren't on for long.