Preparing for Kitchen Renovation

[Anonymous]

I would love to hear from people who survived a gut kitchen renovation with young kids. What were your go to meals? Would love any advice. We will relocate our fridge to the dining room. The only usable sink we have will be in the laundry room so I really want to limit dirty dishes. I have a microwave, toaster oven, slow cooker and rice cooker. Are there any other gadgets you found really useful during the renovation process? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Grill! Ours has a burner so we could also boil stuff. Grilling made the cleanup easier.

We went to Costco and loaded up on bulk paper products.

You need someplace for storage and food prep. Even a card table. We were really limited because the whole house was being done so that made it worse.

[Anonymous]

we did it this summer with an almost 3 year old and an almost 1 year old. It took about 10 days. We pre-cooked stuff in the slow cooker and froze it. We ate that 6 times for dinner and got take out 4 times. It seemed like a good balance. Breakfast was cereal and milk each day, yogurt and fruit, toast and jam. We used paper plates and bowls and plastic cups and utensils. Sometimes, you just have to do it. We live in a condo and the thought of washing dishes in the bathroom made me feel icky. good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grill! Ours has a burner so we could also boil stuff. Grilling made the cleanup easier.

We went to Costco and loaded up on bulk paper products.

You need someplace for storage and food prep. Even a card table. We were really limited because the whole house was being done so that made it worse.

Saw the pp who was only out for 10 days. We were without a kitchen for 10 weeks. You definitely need to plan differently for 10 days vs 10 weeks.

[Anonymous]

+1 for the grill. We used an electric wok because you can cook anywhere and boil water. Ditto freezing meals.

[Anonymous]

Here are 50 items to grill in foil from the Food Network:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/things-to-grill-in-foil/pictures/index.html

[Anonymous]

Set up temporary kitchen with electric skillet and micro. Can do quite a bit in skillet....

[Anonymous]

I just went through this for 12 weeks, with 2 little boys and a hungry husband.

I got a plug-in single electric burner from Amazon (about $20) so that I could have a "stove".

I did a weekend's worth of cooking in advance, so that I could separate portions and freeze to thaw and heat in microwave or toaster oven (made meatloaf, beef burgundy in crock pot, pork BBQ in crockpot, soup, chicken pot pies, chicken enchiladas in ONE weekend).

Lots of rotisserie chickens, pizza, bringing home leftovers to reheat as second meals.

Ditto the Costco paper goods and plasticware so that there were minimal dishes to wash.

[Anonymous]

OP here--thanks for the great ideas. I think I need an electric wok. I wish it was nicer out to grill but it has been pretty crappy weather in NY. The renovation will probably be about 6 weeks so I'm definitely trying to plan ahead.