We have now been without a functioning kitchen for about three and a half weeks. We’ve also been living in three bedrooms and using one bathroom for the same period of time.
I’m not gonna lie, it’s been a pain. And by pain I mean we’re kind of going insane. But also, weirdly, kinda not.
Eye opening – that’s what this is.
No Dishwasher, No Kitchen Sink
We’ve been doing dishes in two recycle bins in the tub, camp style. And by we, I mean Stephen. One for washing, one for rinsing. The dishes are lined up on a towel in the bathroom to dry. And we haven’t been using a ton either. More than is honestly necessary, but way less than we actually own.
Makes you wanna go, Hmmmm……
Cooking
When we thought we’d only be without a kitchen for a couple of weeks, we ate out a lot. Not ideal, but something you can deal with for a couple of weeks. But, we grew tired of that very quickly. (I actually love cooking and prefer to make food from scratch.)
During this time we learned that Stephen carries the gene for celiac disease and is gluten intolerant, so we had to find gluten free restaurants. We’ve located several, but honestly, pinning down more variety in restaurant choices isn’t on the top of the priority list at the moment. And we got sick of eating at the same 4 or 5 places.
Insanely Long Gluten Free Tangent (Bear With Me, Otherwise Skip It)
We’re still learning about celiac disease and gluten intolerance, but we know we will have to convert our house to a gluten free (GF) one. Because we don’t have enough other stuff going on. And honestly, right now it’s making us laugh. Sort of a deranged psychopath laugh, but still. Because otherwise? Filling up the river De Nial with our own tears.
Anywho.
Stephen quit eating gluten about two or three weeks ago and is starting to feel a lot better already. More tests are coming, for the kids as well, but we’re relieved to have an answer. Even if that answer means short-term complication while we educate ourselves. But I digress.
End of GF Tangent, You Can Start Reading Again Here
Continuing with no functional kitchen (the oven works but no cooktop and as of this week no microwave), we Stephen decided to schlep himself to Lowe’s and pick up some propane for the grill.
We’ve been using that bad boy regularly. Stephen even made scrambled eggs on it this weekend. Plus, we eat outside by the pool for a change of bedroom scenery. This is actually the first time I’ve really enjoyed the back yard. In five years. Pitiful.
Plus, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually been in the pool. For realz.
Coffee
Our coffee pot is on the bathroom counter. Because coffee is Man. Da. Tory.
Pantry
Since the kitchen is useless to us and we had to remove everything from it, we relocated pantry items to our bedroom. And since Stephen has been purging his clothes, that opened up some space in his armoire. We are now using part it as a pantry.
Our Micro Pantry
And you know what that shows me? We don’t need a lot of space for food storage.
We’ve been buying what we need for the week. And it all fits. Because that’s all the space we have.
Funny how that works.
The Future Kitchen
When the kitchen is put back together, it will definitely be a minimal one. This experience has taught us what we use and need. All that other stuff is superfluous. When I can actually cook again in the kitchen, I’ll be able to use pots, pans, cookie sheets, etc. But all of the five million plates, utensils, coffee and tea mugs? Not so much.
Random True Confession Time
And, as I write this horizontal in my bed, I’m looking out my bedroom window. At someone else’s cleaning lady wiping down the windows and sweeping the front porch. I’m not ashamed to admit that I miss the help with housecleaning. I’m not gonna lie. But seriously, who wouldn’t?
Kandice, two and a half years ago I was looking for a new much smaller home. I found the perfect place in the exact area I wanted to be. The problem was it didn’t have a stove or any way to hook one up. I considered this for a couple of days then decided to accept the apartment. I thought I would buy a hot plate, but never did. I do all my cooking in either my slow cooker or a rive cooker. I found that anything I had cooked on a stovetop I can do in the rice cooker, although if I had a large family it would be too small. Since then I have been experimenting to see what else I assumed I needed but don’t. It’s been quite an eye opening experiment.
That’s fabulous. I admit, I look at videos on youtube of micro apartments and micro houses and kind of sigh with longing at the simplicity of it all. Some of them have miniature ovens, some don’t have ovens or stove tops at all. For me, I’d be despondent without a cooktop and stove because I do love being in the kitchen cooking and baking. But I don’t have to be in a BIG kitchen to do those things. I don’t have a rice cooker, but have considered whether it would be useful given that I can cook rice on the cooktop. What else can you do with a rice cooker?
Kandice, When I was having my kitchen remodeled last December I bought a $35.00 Aroma brand all in one rice cooker/food steamer/slow cooker from Costco. I have cooked, steamed and slow cooked so many meals in this thing. I thought it would die — after all, what $35 buck product lasts these days but this thing is fantastic. 90% of our meals are vegan and thus the bean cooking fiesta has been great. Grains, soups, stews, oatmeal…it’s perfect.
Can you cook dry beans in there? I have the worst time cooking dry beans. I soak overnight and cook for hours and they’re still too firm in the middle.
I do. Usually it cooks for about 6 hrs. My other “cannot live without” item is my pressure cooker. I use that for most bean meals as it literally is 15 mins to cook a soup or chili. Do I use one?
On another note. I was diagnosed with Celiac last year. Feel free to email me with questions. I have learned a ton.
Thanks!
My father stopped using the full size oven in his house after he was widowed, and switched to using a toaster oven. It was large enough to roast a chicken, cook an apple pie/lasagne etc., and used much less electricity. Perhaps this is something you might consider? Or one of those multi function microwaves that browns food?
I would, but we’re only a week from having our kitchen put back together (she says with her fingers crossed while knocking on wood). I can make it another week. My mom had one of those convection microwaves. I hated it. I could never get something as simple as microwave popcorn right in it and it was very finicky and prissy. I don’t have time for prissy appliances. 🙂
Turning disaster after disaster into entertainment is a great way to cope. Best wishes and keep on entertaining
Your entire household does not need to be GF unless your husb can’t handle the temptation of having regular wheat based items in the home. Some meals are easier to make GF, rather than making two, like lasagna so the whole family will be eating some GF meals. But it really depends on your husb. If he likes toast, 2 toasters may be in order, but otherwise it is very easy to keep everyone else on their regular diet. Esp if your kids will be tested, they need to continue eating wheat regularly to get an accurate test.
I and both my sibs have been GF for 25 yrs, feel free to ask questions. I cook completely from scratch and don’t feel deprived at all by my Celiac.
For ease of cooking and baking, we’re moving over to all GF foods and ingredients, with the exception of cereals that the kids like to eat for breakfast. So, that will keep gluten in their diets. Otherwise, I’d rather just cook and bake once and be done with it. I’m not going to be cooking three different versions of everything. Forget that. It doesn’t bother me to drop gluten (my mother apparently has celiac, so I should be tested too). Everyone will be tested in the next couple of months. Bread is easy enough to buy GF (until I can learn to make it from scratch). so we’ll get a new toaster and get rid of the bread machine. The hand mixer will be replaced, as well as wooden spoons, cutting boards and the holder for our knives. Other than that, everything else will stay the same. Thanks for the offer to ask questions. I very well might!
It’s kind of amazing what you don’t need in a kitchen. When I pared down, everyone thought I was nuts for getting rid of more than half of my stuff, but I can’t say I’ve missed anything. Being able to find things easily in my cabinets is way more awesome than having an entire cupboard dedicated to pans I never used. It’s not the stuff that makes us good (or bad) cooks, anyway. It took me a while to figure that out, though.
Not even remotely like celiac, but my family is on my IBS diet. It’s not the worst. They can have whatever they want for breakfast and lunch, but I’m only making one dinner. A few of my husband’s relatives have celiac, and there are some great products out there–although you have to really read labels because gluten-free is the new catch phrase, and not everything is truly safe for those with celiac. Anyway, good luck on that adventure…
Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’ll get comments about our lack of “stuff” but I don’t care. I think having empty cabinets (which really is what I’m expecting) will feel great. I’m excited about being able to find things without having to move twelve others first. And, I agree with the making one dinner thing. We aren’t short-order cooks!
From all our moving we trimmed down on our kitchen things. I do have a kitchen gadget problem but we have gotten rid of a lot of things over the years. I kept only the mugs that fit on my Longaberger mug tree, trimmed down my knives, and kept my pampered chef items and got rid of the things I didn’t use. I did keep things that we only use from time to time cause I don’t want to have to go back and buy something when I had it at one time.
Good luck with all that you are doing and when you put things back think about if you really really really need it. Do you really need 4 pitchers, 5 mixing bowls etc….
Thanks! I’m excited about the putting back process. I think it will be really interesting.
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I’m here thanks to Lois. I couldn’t see where to follow you but I’d love to (I’m reading this on my phone). I’ll try again on a desktop but I love your style! Hilarious but on topics dear to my heart line r minimalism, coffee, gluten free, cooking and baking. Oh, I’ll stop there
ps d’oh worked out following – just needed to scroll down more
Welcome! It’s great to have you!
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My husband is a kitchen gadget collector. It’s one of the main areas I want to start clearing out, but it’s kind of his domain. After I started regularly baking bread, I convinced him to get rid of our bread machine-which he was loathe to do as he got it “practically brand new” at a garage sale for $40. It was way more of a hassle than I was willing to deal with, and really didn’t save time, effort, or money as it was rarely used, it took up space, and we had to pay for the kits. Bread is one of those things that, once you make it from scratch, you find out it’s really no big deal. Since that was one of the few kitchen things he didn’t do, and one of the few I did, I was able to win that one.
I’ve got no personal experience with this book, but “Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day” does contain GF recipes. I’ve used their other book, and it is pretty amazing. I just wanted to give it a little time before I requested it, so DH wouldn’t be too annoyed. 😉 DD used to be sensitive to wheat, as is DS, so I’m looking to incorporate more GF into our diets. I’m also interested in getting DD tested since she’s having some things going on that make me wonder about Celiac. Right now the doctors are writing them off, though.
Hooray for tangental comments!(And sorry!)
Thanks for the book suggestion! I’ll definitely check it out. I’m going to have to look at our kitchen gadgets, too.