Eating During a Kitchen Renovation | 6 Step Survival Guide
If you currently have a working kitchen, picture yourself without it for the next week.
How does that look?
Maybe a little inconvenient, but doable.
Now try 8+ weeks. No sink, dishwasher, stove, oven, garbage disposal, maybe even no fridge...
Let me speak for you.
It stinks. REAL bad. Not literally, but it really blows.
However, here we are, safely on the other side of our DIY renovation and we didn't starve. In fact, we kind of rocked it and I'm going to tell you how! It had its moments, but for the most part, we got creative and had some pretty easy systems going that made it bearable. Lemme just dive in.
1. Designate a space for a makeshift kitchen.
This took a bit of trial and error, but it was probably the most important part. Here's our first failed attempt at containing our makeshift kitchen:
I crack up every time I look at that photo. What were we thinking?! So sketchy. That table in there wobbled at the slightest touch and an electrocution was just waiting to happen. Good gracious.
So we cleared out another room that was full of our boxed cabinets and countertops and used this second bathroom for washing dishes exclusively and it turned out like this (week one vs. week bazillion):
I'll be honest, it still wasn't amazing, but it was definitely doable. We made it work! Give yourself some room to prep, room to store items, and even room to sit down and eat (we used my desk that's in our bedroom). I highly recommend the stainless steel table you see there. Before our renovation, our kitchen needed it for extra counterspace and at only $125-$150 it beats out any other little "island" you find in stores in terms of price and size. Trust me, I hunted around for the best deal on freestanding islands for weeks.
2. Give yourself several ways to "cook."
Since you won't have a stove, you'll probably use a microwave to replace it most of the time. But believe me when I say that gets old... fast. Have a couple other methods like a grill or a crockpot. We bought this grill for cheap and it's been a total champ. You may end up eating a lot of hot dogs, and grilling them helps you feel more settled than you really are. Plus, raw meat doesn't exactly microwave, so throwing a roast in a crockpot with some veggies is a great home-cooked alternative to frozen meals.
3. Get a wholesale membership.
My in-laws are amazing and gave us a Sam's Club membership as an anniversary gift, which happened to be right around the time we started our reno. This came is so handy in terms of stocking up on bags of microwavable veggies, meat, snack packs of chips or fruit, water bottles!!, and hot dogs/buns. It saved us a ton of money and kept us fed for ages.
4. Go disposable.
I know this isn't very "green" of us, but doing dishes in a little bathroom sink or bent over a tub just sucks. Paper plates and plastic utensils saved us soooo much time (and back-aches) and also saved us from breaking our good glass dishes. Of course, we had a few larger glass bowls for heating soupy items and serving veggies and such. To be honest, you eventually stop eating off of anything at all and you and your spouse pretty much eat straight out of serving bowls and paper towels. So maybe we were "greener" than we thought? Do your best to find disposable items that are biodegradable.
5. Find your favorites and rotate.
You'll probably find something really easy to make and begin to fixate on it. For us, it was hot dogs. But instead of eating them over and over and getting sick of them quickly, we had them every other day... and I'm actually - to this day - not tired of them. Other meals included:
- Grilled chicken, instant rice with cream of mushroom soup, and steamed veggies.
- Frozen chicken tikka masala and naan heated on the grill.
- Hot dogs, baked beans, chips.
- Marinated grilled chicken, potatoes, and steamed veggies.
- Toasted bagels and cream cheese, side of fruit.
- Sandwiches and chips.
- Canned soup.
- Microwavable asian meals.
- Frozen hot pockets, meat pie pockets, or burritos.
- Take out: Chinese, Vietnamese, pizza, Indian, etc..
If you can get creative and prep your food days in advance, you'll find it's not too hard to eat decent meals at home, and some frozen meals are really pretty tasty these days!
As wise people say, "it's not going to be easy, but it'll be worth it." True that. With the right tools, organization, and determination, you can survive a kitchen renovation and not starve.
Now, with a finished kitchen and lots of decorating to do, we are eating delicious meals with the help of a stove and oven. Baking is such a passion of mine and I am thrilled to finally be back at it! Worth it, indeed.
Have you lived in a house during a kitchen renovation? Any other kitchen reno questions for me? Leave a comment or contact me!
The Indian Family Kitchen | by Anjali Pathak
When Tom and I moved to Atlanta a year and a half ago, we had never tried Indian food. We had been serious foodies in Milwaukee, but as a less diverse city, Milwaukee didn't give us a lot of ethnic options. Clearly, we were missing out. We've now found our "go-to" Indian restaurant that we try to frequent, but it's about a 40 minute drive from where we live now.
Given the opportunity to review this cookbook was a welcome privilege. Since we can't visit our favorite Indian locale as easily anymore, this cookbook has brought out the chef in us. We're both naturally inclined to cook as it's something we enjoy, but we also love a challenge. After trying Indian food, we realized we were missing out on a great plethora of flavors -- this cookbook teaches you how to use and master those unfamiliar spices. Reading through each recipe and admiring its beautiful photography helped us realize we're perfectly capable of mastering the Indian cuisine right in our own home.
From whole roasted salmon with coconut and dill, to cumin roast potatoes, to pecan muffins with saffron cream... this beautiful Indian cookbook is, without a doubt, a book to cherish.
Anjali includes helpful secrets to go along with many of her recipes, as well as pages dedicated to her family history. It truly is more than a cookbook, but almost a memoir of an Indian family and the love and tradition they pour into their food. Her recipes are the same classics enriched with new techniques or ingredients. You can read more about Anjali Pathak here.
There is something for everyone in The Indian Family Kitchen. Recipes for beginners and intermediate cooks, meat-lovers and vegetarians, sweet tooths and health conscious persons, and everyone in between. I must say with honesty, keeping a large library of cookbooks is not of interest to me. They take up space and are generally not used. However, I'm convinced that a more ethnic cookbook holds more value in this respect, as it offers more than just recipes, but valuable information about the ingredients and techniques I don't have a natural understanding of. (Click here for a peek inside)
In our excitement to put this book to use, we tried one of the simpler recipes for Valentine's day. The Pomegranate & Ricotta Frozen Yogurt was simple, and in a word... perfection. It called for ingredients I would never mesh together and created such a harmonious dessert, we have already begun the process of a second batch. It was tangy, not overly sweet, creamy, and (seriously) addicting. The drawback was the fact that finding pomegranate molasses was nearly impossible... but we hunted some down before the day was out!
Isn't this book just stunning? Not only are the recipes mouthwateringly irresistible, it makes a gorgeous coffee table book. So happy to have this one in our collection.
For the sake of transparency with my readers, I will always tell you when I've received something for a discounted price (or free) or could potentially receive a commission off a purchase made through one of my links. Thank you for understanding the benefits these sponsorships bring to your favorite bloggers!
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this honest review.
Progressive Dinners
Maybe you've heard the idea of Progressive Dinners before, but if not, let me explain.
Back when I lived in Milwaukee, a handful of my co-workers lived in the downtown area and would occasionally hold a Progressive Dinner Party. Basically, you would begin at one apartment, for drinks, the next would be appetizers, the next a main dish, then maybe another main dish (depending on how many people offered to make their homes a stop), and the last place would be dessert. The whole group would move from place to place, and therefore the term "Progressive Dinner" was used to describe it. Along with the movement from place to place, there was also a recurring "theme." Maybe everyone had to follow a Mexican food theme... including Mexican drinks. Or perhaps a cheese theme (think Wisconsin), or maybe Italian, or even Downton Abbey themed. Sometimes each different stop had its own theme chosen by whoever lived and served there. Super fun idea, right?
Well, a couple weeks ago, I was blessed by the presence of my five best friends who all flew down to Georgia to visit me. How awesome are they, right?!
On the second night they were here, we all decided to go out for dinner, but we all have issues making decisions as a group (can you relate?) and ended up going to this adorable strip of restaurants. Upon our arrival, we somehow managed to decide on doing a progressive dinner in record time. Like, as soon as we parked we all agreed immediately.. phew.
Our first stop was called Zest. It was a fun, modern, atmosphere with a wonderful tapas menu. Here, we also decided on buying a bottle of wine at every stop to share amongst ourselves. As for the food, we ordered a delicious spinach and artichoke dip, mac and cheese (with panko crumbs and truffle oil... oh yummm), and grilled calamari. We ended up with two bottles of wine here, but who's counting?
The second stop was at Pastis Bar & Restaurant... French cuisine. We popped a bottle of champagne, and this time we "coupled up" to order. The wine from the last place might have gone to our heads a little, but we were laughing so hard in this restaurant, a crazy woman in the bathroom actually asked if we were drunk... which in fact we were not. Just so happy! We all mostly ordered the same things, and our excitement got the best of us when we saw a Caesar salad for $6. However, when we got our "salads" we realized there was about 50 cents worth of food on the plate and we completely lost ourselves making fun of the dish. It was good, don't get me wrong, but the disappointment was a lot to bear!
Stop number three was dessert at a cute little cupcake shop that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of. We all bought different kinds of cupcakes and spread them across a table and tried each one. It was the perfect way to end the evening.
Stop number four doesn't necessarily count as part of dinner, but for old times sake we found a nice, rowdy bar and took our bottle of wine to the empty porch to play Heads Up. My! How times have changed! It seriously seems like yesterday when we were the girls on the dancefloor having the time of our lives. Now, we're sipping our wine on an empty bar porch laughing and yes, still having the time of our lives.
If you have never had a Progressive Dinner, I encourage you to give it a try. Whether it's from restaurant to restaurant, or home to home, it is always a fun new way to party. If you're wondering how the restaurant bills were handled, two girls were in charge of splitting the cost of the wine bottle at each place, and the rest of the bill was split amongst everyone. It was really pretty cost effective!
Have you ever done a Progressive Dinner? What other tips or ideas do you have? Theme ideas?