We are in the middle of a kitchen renovation, which, when finished will result in a fantastic update of a 60-year-old tiny city-apartment-sized kitchen. This project, however, has been subject to the inevitable delays and we’ve been without a working kitchen for a month and a half now and we’re expecting to be without one for another month and a half.
My creativity is running out and my food bill rising dramatically with eating out too often. What meals can you brainstorm that can be cooked using just a microwave & stove top? The oven does not work and dishes must be *very* minimal as the sink does not drain properly: we have to use the tiny bathroom sink (or the tub) instead. The disposal is also broken.
One pot/pan dishes are ideal. We do not own a crockpot. -Karyn
Back when I was 11 years old, we lived without a stove for seven months while we were living in a construction trailer and building our house. We only had a microwave, crock pot and electric skillet and we learned to make all sorts of pretty delicious meals sans an oven. So I just wanted to encourage you that it is totally possible to survive without an oven and eat at home.
Do you have a grill? This would be the time to pull it out. You can grill chicken, steak, hamburgers — and even pizza!
Do you have a waffle iron? If so, waffles are a simple dinner. Just fry up some bacon or sausage on the stove and add some fruit and you’ve got a delicious dinner.
There are multitudes of meals which can be made on the stove top. Check out this huge list of Skillet Meals.
If you’re still feeling like you need more ideas, I would heartily suggest you consider investing in a crock pot. You can find one at Walmart for under $30 and it will pay for itself over and over again. Check out the Crock Pot 365 Blog for more crock pot ideas than you could use in, well, a year!
You might also check out a post from a few months ago on Meals You Can Make in a Hotel Room. There are lots of ideas there which you might find inspirational and helpful.
What suggestions do the rest of you have for meals Karyn can make without an oven?
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I LOVE my toaster oven. I use it to make tuna melts or veggie melts, or even roast small pans of veggies or meat. It could cook a casserole and some are made to cook pizzas. As for stove top meals, my favorite is one my mom calls Zucchini Casserole.
Brown 1 lb of ground beef (or pork, turkey, elk, etc) with a chopped onion and a little garlic. Drain well. Slice several zucchini very thinly, and layer them in the skillet over medium heat, seasoning with salt and pepper between each layer. When you’ve finished layering, pour a can of tomato sauce over the top, and season some more. Cover and cook till the zucchini are tender, then add some sharp cheddar to the top and cover to melt. Serve right out of the pan. Delicious!!
We lost our oven when we were expecting our second child (he is 16 now)-even back then we would not buy anything unless we could pay cash for it-so we went without an oven for just about a year. I made serious use of our crockpot and microwave. We were fortunate enough that it was a wall oven we lost so we still had our cooktop (sort of only a couple burners worked) and skillet casseroles were made quite frequently. Our gas grill was also used even in the dead of winter.
I just want to point out that a CrockPot would cost the same or less as one meal out for a family of four, a great investment over time! Use it twice and it pays for itself.
I think you need to go get a crockpot for $20 it will be better than eating out like you have been!
The Pampered Chef has an awesome stoneware piece that you can use to make some unbelievable meals in the microwave. I know that may sound gross but I make them and you would never guess they were made in the microwave. It is called the Deep Covered Baker, it can be used in the oven or microwave and there are tons of recipes that can be made in the microwave in 30 minutes or less. I love my Deep Covered Baker!
@Angela,
i was going to suggest that also! you can even make a whole chicken in the microwave! i was skeptical at first but it turned out great. It is a little pricey but it is definitely cheaper than several meals out. you can get recipes for it right off their website.
I lived for a month in an extended stay hotel with only a stove top and microwave – no crockpot or oven. I was really happy because we didn’t eat out at all that month. We only ate in. Here are few things we ate – none of them were incredible, but we were going for easy and cheap.
Sandwiches:
Grilled Cheese
Pan Fried Sausages with Onions, Peppers and Hot Mustard on Rye French Dip – thinly sliced deli roast beef and swiss on hoagie rolls with beef broth warmed for dipping
Meatball Subs – hoagie rolls, meatballs cooked in a pan, marinara sauce and parmesan cheese
Sloppy Joes
BLT’s
Tex Mex:
Quesadillas – sandwich shredded cheese between 2 tortillas and cook until cheese is melty on a dry skillet. Use a pizza cutter or knife to cut into wedges.
Tacos – brown hamburger meat and onion together and use a taco seasoning pack. Then fill tortillas with meat, lettuce, tomato, cheese and salsa.
Bean burritos – cook chopped onion in a bit of oil until translucent, add a can of refried beans and cook through, add cheese (maybe 1/2 c per small can of beans). Spoon mixture into tortillas and roll up like burritos. Place the burritos you want to eat on a plate, cover with a wet paper towel to keep the tortilla texture nice and warm in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Serve with salsa.
Pasta
Spaghetti with Marinara Sauce
Cooked penne with asparagus steamed in the microwave, chopped tomato, olive oil, garlic, black & red pepper flakes, and plenty of parmesan
Big Salads
Taco Salad – browned hamburger meat, lettuce, tomato, crushed tortilla chips, cheese, canned pinto beans drained and rinsed, salsa for dressing
Chef Salad – lettuce, tomato, peas steamed in the microwave and cooled, diced harboiled egg, cheese, chopped deli meat turkey/ham, ranch or blue cheese dressing
Soups
Too many ideas to name…definitely use allrecipes.com if you’re needing free new recipes.
I hardly ever use my oven…I don’t think I would be at a loss without it lol.
Something like fajitas or burritos seem optimal. You really just need one skillet, and they’re not too messy.
Things I generally serve when I don’t want to cook: beans tossed in salsa over rice topped with various things like cheese, avocado, tomatoes, japs, whatever I have on hand. I make dried beans, but if you buy canned, this is a no brainer, you just have to cook the rice (and you can buy microwave rice if you use the microwave, I try to avoid it). You could also make fajitas/burritos from the pre-cooked chicken (rotisserie, or sliced chicken that you buy near the lunch meat) for another easy meal (rotisserie chicken is not all that expensive, it has a lot of meat on it, and I usually boil the bones for broth to get more for my money). Pasta with canned sauce (again, homemade is better, but if you have to make due) can be easy (for added health benefits, add veggies like spinach to the sauce). Stir fries are easy, although they can be kind of messy. They’d be a one pan recipe if you microwaved rice (you can buy bags of frozen veggies so that you don’t have to dirty a cutting board, and use rotisserie chicken if you don’t want to cook chicken). Omelets can be made in a single pan, especially if you buy frozen veggies. Just scramble directly in the pan and proceed as usual.
To sum it up, just try to rethink your favorite recipes using healthy “convenience” items like frozen veggies (these generally have close to the same nutritional value as fresh) and pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. Try to prepare whatever you can *in* the pan instead of using a separate dish.
Good luck
oops, “make do”
My oven has been broken for almost a year (the 2nd time I’ve been through this) and I don’t plan to get it fixed. I’ve found all kind of things can be cooked on the stove top instead the oven – chicken, fish, fries, potatoes, meat patties (instead of baking a meatloaf) and of course all the usuals that just need a stovetop – pastas, soups, vegetables, etc. I do miss not being able to bake pizza, biscuits, cookies, etc. But I refuse to fix or buy a new oven every 5 years!
@CJ, I see things like pizza, cake, etc. in crock pot cookbooks all the time- so you definitely do not need an oven to “bake”
We do this every year, actually. I refuse to use the oven during the summer months to help keep the house cool and energy costs down. I use the crockpot a lot but not nearly as much as we grill. We grill all the time in the summer! We also have a skillet and George Forman grill if we really want hot food. Otherwise I do stovetop cooking or even sandwiches/cold food.
A rotisserie chicken from Costco or other store is a great way to skip the oven part — and it could cost less than buying raw! I make a Rick Bayless recipie for Chipotle Chicken Salad. It’s served cold and even the kids love it.
If you don’t have a Crock Pot, there’s probably a good reason, so I wouldn’t invest in one for only six weeks. I have one I use a couple times a year. I just don’t care for the kinds of food made in them. You can modify most recipes for a Dutch oven. You can also modify many recipes to make them one-pot meals if you plan well (cook noodles first in the pot you’ll be making the stroganoff or sauce in). Some basic suggestions: tacos, stroganoff (Cooking Light has wonderful stroganoff recipes for chicken, beef, and pork!), Italian/Polish sausage sandwiches with peppers and onions, stovetop mac and cheese (Cooking Light has many wonderful mac and cheese recipes–choose the ones with lots of stars. Also, if a recipe calls for broiling, just skip that step!), smothered pork chops, quesadillas, taco salads (try with sliced chicken breast and ranch dressing mixed with a pureed, canned chipotle), stovetop meatloaf patties, easy pasta fagioli (http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000521146), and so on.
One of my all-time favorite quick and easy recipes is chicken chilaquiles. The recipe may look weird, but it is delicious!: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-with-Chilaquiles-and-Salsa-Verde-232970
Keep in mind that you can modify recipes to use whatever ingredients you have on hand or like.
A series of “How to Cook Without and Oven” and “No-Cook Meal Ideas” from this summer might be helpful:
http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2010/07/68-cheap-healthy-no-cook-recipes.html
Pasta is always a good go-to quick meal that doesn’t use an oven. You can make any variety of sauces to go on it on the stove as well. Just start with some garlic and onions, saute it them, add some protein, veges, and spices and some sort of liquid (canned tomatoes, chicken broth, milk or cream, etc) to make it a little saucier then toss it all together. Its not a one pot meal, since you have the pasta pot and a saute pan, but not bad!
I’m not sure if this was suggested already, but if you have a thrift shop or Goodwill/Salvation Army store nearby, I’d look there for a crockpot before buying one new. You should be able to get a good sized one for under $10 or so. That way you can try it out and if you find you don’t like it, you’re not out a lot of money. We use ours pretty consistently. I work over supper time one or two nights a week. It’s soooo easy to put a meal in the crockpot in the morning and then my husband and sons have a hot meal for supper. I’ve found that some of the all day cooking meals are a bit mushy for our taste. I usually just shorten the cooking time by not starting them until closer to noon. Works well for us!!
We completely remodeled our kitchen last summer and so I was also without a kitchen for a good 6 weeks. I also had to get very creative with meals as I operate a daycare in my home and lunches still had to get served…even without an oven. As many others have suggested, a crock-pot is a must. I also purchased a toaster oven from Wal-Mart for around $50 and LOVE it! I still use my toaster oven more than my oven. Unless I am baking something (which I rarely do bake), I always use my toaster oven. Kid friendly meals like chicken nuggets, fish sticks, corn dogs, etc. work great in there. I have also toasted bagels, english muffins, frozen pancakes/waffles, and have also cooked casseroles and lasagna in mine. I recommend getting a larger one so that it will hold the larger casserole dishes. Soups and salads are also a great go-to/few dishes meals (I remember washing dishes in the bathroom tub…not fun at all!) Good luck!
I would suggest tacos, omelettes/scrambled eggs, quesadillas, stir fry. There are a ton of things to make with only a stove top.
I’ve also been there and done that. No oven for a year. No stovetop either during that year. I survived with a crockpot, an electric hot plate borrowed from our church (it had 1 working burner), an electric skillet and also a toaster oven. When the stove went out, I bought a larger size toaster oven for under $80 at Target. That toaster oven was my only oven for the next year. We cooked everything in it. It was big enough to fit a round pizza pan or 2 side-by-side loan pans or an 8×8 dish, so any food that could fit that size pan was cooked in the toaster oven. We relied on our regular menus but just had to coordinate the cooking methods. Didn’t invent any new recipes but we survived on the usual. Hang in there! Your new kitchen will be SO WORTH IT when it’s completed and you’ve sacrificed to get there!
Shannon in Indiana <
I have a very unusual idea. There is a cookbook out there called “Cooking without an oven”. This guy wrote this cookbook for the person who is on the road traveling for business a lot.
Among some of the things I remember is doing scrambled eggs in a coffee pot. Basically, you steam the eggs by putting them in a coffee filter where the grinds usually go and you get cooked scrambled eggs. There were quit a few other recipes, too. You might look for it online, and in your library and/or local bookstore.
Hope that helps, and good luck!
What about cooking several meals at a friend’s house? That way you can wash most of the dishes in a real kitchen sink/dishwasher and heat up the food in the microwave at home as needed. That way your are not having to change your regular method of cooking and you can have a fun visit as well. (I think the lack of an oven wouldn’t bother me near as much as lack of a kitchen sink/disposal/dishwasher.)
@Kris, Totally agree! I miss my sink the most – more than the oven. People are giving great non-oven recipes, but many of them will dirty a lot of dishes. NOT worth it.
I actually have had to do this, and I bought Pampered Chef’s Deep Covered Baker, and I was able to make a huge amount of dinners through there. Whole chickens, pork roasts, casseroles, etc. It’s a great investment and you can still have healthy foods. It worked for me!
I have a toaster oven that is also a small convection oven that is really handy. You can even roast a smaller-sized chicken in it or a smaller cut of meat. It’s nice to have in case our oven ever goes down (which it has been known to do). Also, crockpots are wonderful!!
My parents completely re-did the kitchen when I was little and we didn’t have an oven or a stove for almost a year (it always takes SO MUCH longer than expected). We did end up eating out a lot more, but we also grilled a lot and my mom learned that you can make a TON of things in the microwave. You can steam veggies and cook pasta and rice in the microwave! We also ate a lot of frozen lean cuisine type dinners. If you look for a sale and get the non-big name ones, they aren’t too expensive. And for once everyone got to eat what they wanted, which was kinda cool.
We have a toaster oven and a few baking dishes that fit in there. I love it and it takes about 60% of the regular time to cook than a regular oven. (Simple things like meatloaf, chicken and rice dish, tater tot surprise, etc)If you could find a toaster oven or crock-pot at a second hand store or craigslist, I would encourage that. What it costs for 1 or 2 meals out, you could pay for one of these items. Plus, I find the crockpot helps heat my kitchen in the winter, which is the central part of our house.
Our electric goes out often in the winter. When it does I serve a Rotesseri chicken form the stores and cheese slices and fruit or Ham cheese and fruit hope that helps a bit.
Broccoli Cheddar baked potatoes
Pizza bagels or english muffin pizzas
Tuna Melts with chips or french fries
I almost never use my oven in the summer, so try thinking of summer cooking — salads, sandwiches, stovetop meals. Tacos are one of our favorite meals, & you don’t need the oven for them. Soups or stews are good too.
Without knowing the details of why you don’t have a crockpot, I would totally suggest you get one if they are easily overcome obsticles. If $30 is too much, try a thrift store – especially on a sale day – like Goodwill. If you don’t have room for a crockpot, then try to find a spot for it in the garage, a bedroom closet, etc. Depending on where you are in the country, if your weather is mild (70 degrees or more), you can put your crockpot on your patio to cook. I know some people who do this because they don’t care for the lingering smells of the crockpot. The blog Crystal recommended is fabulous, and I especially like that she rates how each recipe turns out.
Good luck!
I make my meatloaf in a glass bowl, dig a hole in the center so that it has a giant donut shape, and cook on high about 20 minutes. Everyone thinks it’s strange, but it cooks faster than if I bake it.
I’d have to disagree with all those recommending getting a crockpot. Like one commenter said earlier, if she doesn’t already have a crockpot, there is probably a reason. I have a crockpot simply because I got one as a wedding gift almost 10 years ago, but I almost NEVER use it. We just don’t care for the taste of meat cooked in a crockpot. It is ok for things like soups I suppose, and I used to use it occasionally for making a pasta sauce that was ok. But I don’t find it all that convenient and we don’t care for the types of meals that can be done in a crockpot. We prefer sauteed or grilled meat, both of which can be done w/o an oven. So, just a thought to consider, not everyone loves their crockpot!
Um, anybody else sick of reading crockpot crockpot crockpot????
I haven’t had a stove or an oven since March. We get by with a toaster oven, grill, George Foreman Grill, Quesadilla maker and, most importantly: microwave and electric skillet. I have a crockpot, but we don’t bust it out until autumn leaves start to fall. We’re seasonal eaters and “crockpot” just says fall/winter to me
Our favorite stove/oven free option: Chicken Taco Bake: 3 chicken breasts (cooked on George), cubed and cooked in taco sauce in skillet. 1 package cream cheese (also cooked in taco sauce), 1 large jar salsa. Garnish with shredded cheese, serve with taco chips.
We once went without an oven for six months. With a crock pot you can cook soups, stews, chili, and beef & pork dinners complete with vegetables. Anything else can be made on the stove top or grill. This will get you through until your beautiful kitchen is complete.
Wow! There’s so many options already above – but I’ll throw one into the mix. Just today I posted this recipe:
Easy Chicken N Dumplins using a pre-cooked chicken from the grocery store! Hooray that cuts out half the work!!
Here’s the link: http://womenlivingwell-courtney.blogspot.com/2010/11/chicken-n-dumplings-made-easy.html
Courtney
@Courtney(WomenLivingWell),
that looks good!
if you are short on counter space and are looking for less cleanup… I don’t see why you couldn’t use refrigerated biscuits like Pillsbury instead of making them. I can get the basic store brand ones for .49 at my store.
just a thought
I haven’t had a chance to read all the comments yet, so this may have been covered, but I’m a huge fan of stir-frys. You can put virtually anything in a stir-fry and all it takes is one large frying pan or even a large pot of some kind. Any veggie (just about), meat, eggs, pepperoni, lots of different spice options. Go nuts with it (and nuts are another good item to add). Another thing I love are the one-bag skillet meals like Bertolli and TGIF from the freezer section of just about any grocery store. And if you have a ‘wave, there are lots of steam-in-the-bag frozen veggie options available now.
Don’t be shy about letting your friends know that you are in need of a crock pot. Sometimes people has small appliances they want to dispose of for free or sell for a small fee.
Oh, Karyn, I feel your pain. I married my husband and two months into our marriage we ripped out our kitchen. Two months into that, I found out I was expecting our first child. We were without a kitchen for a total of 6 months and we really only had a freezer to keep our food cold since our refrigerator really wasn’t working. I used two electric frying pans, and the use of our microwave really didn’t get much use after I found out I was pregnant.
So, we lived on hot pockets, lean pockets, pasta dishes (spaghetti, stroganoff, mac n cheese) and lots of stir fries. We did sandwiches a lot (as long as our sandwich stuff wasn’t frozen =)) for our lunches for work, grilled cheese was also good. We ate canned soup and I guess lots of pre-made things. We did eat out about once a week, but considering what we were working with, i think that was pretty good! I figured that even buying pre-made stuff at the grocery store was still cheaper (and probably healthier) than eating out all the time.
I hope the renovations go quickly for you! God’s Blessings!
We don’t have a microwave so got a large toaster oven instead when we married. It’s fabulous and we can even make pizzas in there. You mentioned you don’t have a crockpot, but I bet you could get one at Goodwill for just a few bucks!
Stirfries would be good. You could saute chicken or skirt steaks and veggies and make some rice to go along with it.
Also brown hamburger meat for tacos. Or steak/chicken for fajitas. None of these dishes require an oven.
Check online or at garage sales for used crockpots if you don’t want to invest in brand new. But it would be worth it in the long run if you did.
♥ Joy
This is my first time to leave a comment! I cannot help myself to say something. I am a Chinese. Before I came to US, my family never had an oven, neither did any people I knew in China. Stir-fry is easy and quick. The most basic stir-fry only requires soy sauce, salt and sugar. It will taste pretty good.
My husband, who is an American, loves the dish of stir-fry egg and tomatoes. It is super easy. Scramble some 6 eggs in 1 tbsp cooking oil (add a little bit salt when you beat eggs) and take it out from the pan. Cut 3 big tomatoes (or 6 roma tomatoes) into wedges, and cook in 1 tbsp cooking oil, add 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tbsp sugar. Add 1/2 c water and cook tomatoes soft on medium heat and liquid gets thick a little bit about 5 mins. And put scrambled eggs back, and stir with tomato for a minute. And it will be ready to come out. Serve it on rice. It is a sour and sweet dish. If you like sour flavor more, add less sugar. And if you like it sweet, add more sugar. Just don’t forget that a little bit salt, otherwise, it will never taste right. If you like extra sauce to pour on rice, add a little bit more water when you cook the tomatoes. It will only take your 15 to 20 mins to make it.
Check out some Asian cooking books from library may give you some ideas.
I say make grilled cheese. bread & cheese & pickles. Wrap in foil. Use an iron to toast them. For more reference- see movie benny & joon
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