I cooked ahead and froze a bunch in our large separate freezer. I used lots of freezer zip loc bags, then microwaved in casserole dishes. We have to be careful about salt intake, and I didn't want to eat out too much or have too many processed foods. It is pretty easy to move the fridge wherever to keep fresh fruit and veggies. We moved the microwave out of the kitchen into another room, used paper plates a lot, we grilled, microwaved, whatever. We also put up temporary countertops so that we could use the kitchen even without our permanent countertops installed.

An electric skillet, toaster oven and electric kettle are very helpful. One difficulty that we ran into was that the outlet we needed to move our microwave to was not as strong as the outlet that we moved it from.

I got a stand alone induction burner (saw one a few weeks ago at my local Tuesday Morning) but that will only help you if you have cookware that works with it. However, we ate pretty well using just that, the toaster, microwave, and grill. The worst part is not feeding the family, but the cleaning up. I did not enjoy washing my dishes in the tub, and was so very happy when the utility sink in the laundry was finally made operational.

I grilled a ton....meat & veggies and even garlic bread. Microwaved veggies, pastas, rice. Ate lots of salad. Used the toaster oven for smaller baking. I also had the following items in the temporary kitchen: crockpot and electric fry pan (I didn't use either of these). I got a few Costco Chickens and we ate out on Tuesdays (usually a kids eat free place). We ate a ton of cereal for breakfast. I missed weekend breakfast, so we went out a couple times for that.

Rice cookers work very well as crockpots (add a layer of foil under the lid). They also work fine for boiling water for pasta: keep the lid off and it shouldn't switch off. If it does, just keep flipping the switch back to 'high'. I bought an electric single burner for about $12, and between the two items I could pretty much make dinner. I don't think I used the microwave at all.

My electrician wired a plug onto the cable of my old wall oven, so that I could plug it in to the 220v supply for the dryer. That made life really simple: the oven and broiler, plus two burners? Why was I bothering with a new kitchen?

Good luck - if you treat it as an adventure, and a challenge for the family to be creative, you'll be amazed at what you can come up with.

We set up a small refrigerator (dorm size) in our upstairs hall (tiled) along with a toaster oven (a friend did the same in her basement),we used a bench as a table and sat on the floor. We used the upstairs set up for milk, water, cereal toast and yogurt. We also used the grill a lot and I bought one camping pan for the grill and used it to make rice and veggies. There is cooked rice in the freezer section and we added a small amount of water to the pan, tented it with foil and put it on the grill -- same with fresh and frozen veggies. Frozen bread wrapped in foil also did well on the grill. We also ate at grocery stores -- prepared foods -- and we also ate out. Have fun!

Eat out: 1 x per week
Eat at MIL's house: 1 x per week
Grill on outdoor grill (DH's job!): 2 x per week
Deli night! (make your own sandwich with purchased cold cuts): 1 x per week

The rest of the days we did MW meals (frozen stuff or baked potatoes) or Toaster oven meals (mini pizzas, bagels, melted cheese sandwiches or quesadillas, etc.)

We were kitchenless for fourteen weeks so we didn't follow this schedule to the letter every week. Probably more eating out than eating at MIL's. And a lot of frozen MW meals. But heck, it's all a distant memory now!!

We did use all disposables with the exception of one plastic pitcher for making juice and one good knife.

lowspark - 14 weeks? Yikes. I'm hoping to be only out 3-4.

You all are giving me good ideas on how to cope. Disposable dishes are a must. We do have a kitchentte downstairs with another fridge, microwave and some countertop. Should be enough to keep us functioning. The crockpot was a great suggestion. I don't have a toaster oven or electric frying pan. Maybe it's about time I bought one. We do have a George Foreman grill.

Keep the suggestions coming please!

Had to laugh...my mother just called and said she's bored at home and wants to fly in for a visit. What perfect timing.

My MIL and SIL came to visit for two weeks in the middle of our remodel. We warned them! They found the whole thing quite fun, and we actually held a dinner party while they were here. With 3 of us cooking down in the basement, and DH keeping the ball rolling upstairs, it was a great success.

I'm interested by how many people used disposable plates. I never use them normally, so it didn't actually occur to me. Further, because we have a regular size sink in the basement, and I grew up in England hand-washing all the dishes anyway, it was never a factor. And much better for the environment. . . . but you'll know how much hassle you're prepared to put up with. My tolerance was probably higher, because washing-up dishes was nothing new.

We are on month 3 of our remodel (DH doing it all and mostly on the week-ends). We eat out a lot on the week-ends because the kithen is either full of dust or I would be in the way cooking. We have kept a sink in the kitchen the whole time except for one week. WE ate out a lot during that week because I refused to wash dishes in the bathtub. It doesn't drain well anyway and I just thought that would make matters worse. During the week I used the grill extensively and the microwave. DH doesn't really like sandwiches so that wasn't an option for us. He did eat a lot of cereal for supper though! I just built the eat out money into our budget. That being said, we ate a lot of McD's and Sonic--cheap stuff that I usually just went and grabbed and brought back home. Lots of paper plates (even now because I don't have a DW yet). Hope this helps!

First, you may want to do a few searches (or I'm sure one of the old timers here will chime in with links for you), because there are a few good threads on this subject already.

I am just fininshing up our remodel, and so I can tell you what I planned vs. the reality, and also add what I wish I had done.

My mom cooks for us 1x a week, so we continued that - she lives with us and has a small (no oven) kitchen area. We ate in her "living room" which is a small room.

My bf made us 3 meals and froze them - she is our child care provider, so all I had to do was ask her to heat the meal up, and when DH picked up the kids, it was ready. This was really good - she made lasagne, m&c, and chicken pot pie. The frozen meal thing really works, but you have to have something that goes in the MW or toaster oven if that's all you have. Also, our freezer broke down in the middle of July, so we might have lost food if we had done a lot of it (as it was, we did have to throw out food).

My criteria for cooking was that it had to be able to be served on a paper plate. I wanted to keep dishes to the absolute minimum, so that eliminated a lot (crock pot, roasting pans, skillet, etc.) I had planned for grilling a lot, but the it rained most of June and July, so that was not available as I had wanted.

My remodel affected my whole first floor - kitchen, dining room, and living room. There was no where to set up a make shift kitchen where I could have "counter", water, fridge, and "cooking" all on the same floor. This made it *very* inconvenient to cook anything - or even to just get your cereal in the morning - for us it meant running up and down 3 floors (I have a tri-level - fridge was in basement, kitchen sink was functioning for most of remodel on 1st floor, food and dishes were on 2nd floor).

We moved our OTR MW up into the office and put it on the floor and used it there. Unbeknownst to us, the light must have been turned on at some point and it charred the carpet!

I would suggest that, if you can, set up your temporary kitchen before the demo even starts - make it near a water supply and where you can plug in the refrigerator, and you'll be set. A George Forman and/or a toaster oven goes a long way. Microwave is also very helpful if you can keep that going. And, if you have the room, it's nice to have someplace to sit and eat said meal - again, my thoughts were that we'd be out on the deck at the outdoor table, but that didn't happen until the end.

Someone else mentioned the dust and grime. I put the stuff that I planned on using into plastic bins with covers, but all it takes is 1 kid to leave off the cover in the morning, and it's all over. We ended up moving them into a room farther away and behind closed doors.

Suffice to say I did not enjoy cooking in this environment or see it as an adventure past the first few days. My contractor kept my kitchen sink in business for as long as possible, but without the refrigerator near by or a table to cook or prepare on, it wasn't that much help. In hindsite, I should have cleared out part of my office (room on next level) to set up a temp kitchen area and borrowed a dorm fridge or something like that.

A 20+ year old toastmaster electric griddle was a lifesaver. Plus an electric hot water boiler/dispenser and a toaster oven was what we lived off of for a few weeks.

We managed to swap refrigerators old and new within a few hours. That was the trickiest part.

Toaster oven, crockpot, grill, microwave, hotplate, electric kettle. I've thought about hauling out our propane cookstove, but haven't yet.

My main problem is that everything is plugged into the same wimpy circuit. Try to locate your temporary kitchen where you can run more than one appliance at a time.

sleeve,
yeah, 14 weeks! It was a complete gut including the laundry room, plus some work reaching into other parts of the house.

It sounds like a lot and it was! They only went about two weeks longer than anticipated, though, so we knew what we were in for. Out of that 14 weeks, I'd say they only went about 5 or 6 weekdays without SOME work being done. And they worked on some Saturdays too. So, the work really did take that long.

I can't believe I forgot to mention the coffee maker - definitely couldn't have survived the remodel without that functioning. Must have coffee . . .

I've been concerned about the same thing--but mainly where to wash the dishes. I think my only choice is the bathtub. I definitely need to stock up on paper products.

Oh...the timing of this could not have been better. We demo'd our kitchen last week. We sold the whole thing via Craig's List and the guy buying it needed it sooner than we had planned to start demo (but it's cash in hand). Cabinet due date was the week of 8/31. I found out 10 minutes ago that they are actually due in the end of this week - woo hoo. Then it's probably 6 more weeks until usable (I think).
ANyway, the first few days were ok - I set up the MW, a toaster and the beloved coffee maker in the dining room, brought up the garage fridge, have a massive grill with a side burner. SHould have been a piece of cake, right?
Well...the garage fridge has the big part as freezer and the small part as fridge. I have just enough room for salad dressings & marinades, a gallon of milk, some oj and a head of lettuce. This makes it so much harder to prepare a meal, because I don't have anything here. Plus, prep is awful on a low table (I have a really bad back) and we're doing dishes in the powder room pedestal sink. Haven't used disposables, but we're using the kids melamine plates (won't break in the sink) and cups. My pots don't fit well in the sink. My kids just got home from sleepaway camp and want all of Mommy's food. I feel guilty because I can't really cook anything, they're frustrated because it's not up to the standard they're used to (ok, that's mostly my guilt again, they're not really complaining) and it's even harder to plan. Yes, I have food in the freezer (I could feed a small nation), but I can't defrost any of it in this little microwave that has a crappy defrost cycle and if I leave it out to defrost, it gets dusty. Hubby is complaining that we're not going out very much (we'll see). Grrr.
Needless to say I had a complete meltdown the other night. I was totally incapable of making anything and cried over the pasta he made because the thought of eating pasta every other day flipped me out.
I know we'll get through it...everyone does...and this will be a distant memory...I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...

Advantium and single hotplate.

The coffee machine goes without saying!

I'm "lucky" enough to have a laundry sink for dishes. It's not great but tolerable with a dishpan on an inverted milk crate. It could be a back killer.

I had to add on to my unmaintained compost bin--I feel less bad about paper plates if I compost them.

Paper plates are bad, but the amount of water we use washing dishes in the bathroom sink ... maybe worse.

So we eat out a lot. :-)

Oh, I forgot: I bought four tall, cheap, table legs from Ikea and used them to increase the height of the basement worktable, so that it was at standard worktop height, which was a lifesaver.

We also set up the coffee machine and pop-up toaster in the room next to our bedroom, so we could have breakfast before facing the chaos downstairs. Put milk in a thermos the night before. It made the morning start more civilized.

Yay for composting paper plates!

We are in Week 7 of no kitchen, but luckily, it is just DH and me (our daughter was home for 10 days, but she was out with friends most of the time and basically just slept here).

It is my summer vacation, so we have gone out A LOT. No travel this year because we have to 'babysit' the dog while the workers are here (not COMPLETELY true, but DH doesn't like to leave him alone), but it is almost like a vacation since we are eating out so much. We usually go out for lunch, then we often bring 1/2 of the lunch home, make a salad, and that is dinner! Breakfast is usually just yogurt. I go back to work next week and will need to start making a lunch every day.

The great thing is: our contractor supplies us with a portable sink, MW, and hotplate. The sink hooks up to our plumbing in the gutted kitchen (they just unhook and move it if they need to work there. It is a full size sink with about 12" of counter space, and it has been a lifesaver. I can do up all of the day's dishes, put them back in the box in the DR (our "makeshift" kitchen) and then the kitchen area is free for them to work in.

Cabinets were just delivered today (YAY!!!), and they start installation tomorrow, so they'll have to unhook the sink, I guess. We grilled, ate on the patio many times, had COSTCO and Trader Joe's prepared foods, ate a lot of salads, and ate small, light dinners. In summer, my husband always says it's too hot to eat, anyway. We managed quite well, but it would have been so much harder if the kids were still at home! Good luck to you!

Well, I am in week 2 without a kitchen and we are eating takeout quite a bit. I'm using paper products, except for coffee cups - for some reason I need a "real" cup for my coffee. We set up folding tables in the basement, with microwave, mini-fridge (we broke our old one moving it), electric skillet and george foreman. I use the sink in the basement bathroom to wash dishes. We do grill some, but we are doing a mixture of GC and DYI so after we both work all day and then come home to do our "chores" - eating out and paper plates are a must for me.

I am glad I don't have kids to feed. Breakfast is toast or fruit or cereal, lunch is sandwiches, and dinner is takeout or MW meals.

I panicked about all this when we tore out the kitchen and posted about temporary kitchen set-ups. All the great folks here calmed me down and helped me out. Good luck, it is an adventure!

Our demo is next month and I'm planning ahead. I bought a "Single Buffet Burner" at Walgreen's for less than $10. It is basically just like one electric stove burner and will work for making omelettes and quesadillas, which we love. I will have my nearly new microwave oven and my toaster oven ( it is amazing what you can cook in one of those, I've cooked chicken and fish in it numerous times ). My fridge will be working throughout the renovation, and I plan to buy prepared chicken and salads occasionally as well. Of course, it also helps that we are not starting the work until our two kids are back at college and we have only the two of us to feed. Good luck!

We're just starting week 2. I'm very glad to hear that the single burners are so inexpensive. I'm going to Walgreen's tomorrow, colibri! We have a burner on our gas grill, but I'd love to just be able to make things quickly inside. DH did make quesadillas outside the other night, but oh, the fanfare! I'm all about just getting everyone fed!

But back to your original question, sleevepresto, one thing we've done for veggies on the grill is place them on foil, drizzle olive oil and spices, wrap up and put on the grill, separately with whatever meat, fish, poultry you're making. Of course, watch to make sure they're not overdone.

I think it's just one day at a time, one week at a time...

Sometimes one hour at a time :-)

Yes to coffee cups/mugs - I agree. And wine glasses! I don't like to drink wine out of paper/plastic. And I drank a lot of wine to get through it . . .

We haven't started our kitchen remodel yet, but if you are looking for an awesome toaster oven I highly recommend the Cuisinart TOB-195. It's larger than your average toaster oven (can cook a Totino's Party Pizza in it) and a bit pricier, but worth every penny. I hardly use my oven in the summer because between it and the outdoor grill, I don't need it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cuisinart Toaster Oven

I thought these threads might be helpful:

Tips for temp kitchen setups:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0818275824868.html

And recipes:

Here is a link that might be useful: eating well without a kitchen

We have a Hoosier cabinet which we set up with canned goods, etc, used a lot of paper plates, micro, electric skillet, take-out, grill, and did dishes in the bathtub!

DIYs with DH in construction - Sept - Thanksgiving - 1987. Two (new) homes moved in various stages, last we had temp setup in basement.

I can't believe no one ever uses a Nesco Roaster Oven. I've never done an extensive kitchen remodel but in the last twenty five years or so I would not be without this appliance. I've used it at the cabin, outside, for parties, on the porch on hot days, etc. etc. An essential appliance in my opinion.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nesco Roaster Oven

Occasional poster chiming in. Here's an idea for cleanup: I gave one of these to a friend who was going through a kitchen reno when she complained about breaking a lot of dishes while washing them in her bathroom sink. She said it saved her a lot of glassware. I plan a partial remodel of my kitchen later this year and I plan to use one, too. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: camping sink

We talked about it last night. We have a kitchenette downstairs with a microwave, another fridge, and a small bar sink (not big enough to do dishes in). We're going to buy an electric skillet and possbily a toaster oven. In the laundry room we have a large laundry tub that we'll use to wash dishes. We're going to have to use paper and plastic. I can't remember the last year that we bought paper plates and plastic cups - so for these few weeks, we'll just be a small offender of the environment.

I think we'll be doing a lot of slowcooker recipes, scrambled eggs, salad, and sandwiches. I also see a lot of Costco rotisserie chickens in our future. Not the worst thing in the world. I can't stand fast food, so we have to minimize that as much as possible. I know the mess is going to get to me probably sooner rather than later. I'm trying to prepare myself.

Just had to laugh....At first glance I thought the subject line of the post was "How did you feel about your family during a remodel"

Boy could I go on and on about that one!

By the way, we too just used the grill, disposable plates and silverware. Lots of frozen food from Trader Joes in the microwave that was set up across the room on a table (using shimms because it was an over the range model).

There should be a thread for easy recipes during a remodel!

beekeeperswife - Give me a few weeks into the remodel. I may start a thread entitled: "How did you feel about your family during a remodel". LOL. It won't take long for the remodel to get to me. Thanks for the laugh.

BKWife - Rubyfig posted one above.

I have included the one that I saved before I started my remodel.

Here is a link that might be useful: Favorite Kitchen-less Recipes

We were lucky...remodel started in July and ended in Oct (total gutted 3 rooms and moved doors walls etc). Contractor left as much as he possibly could installed until the last possible minute. We setup an island on the porch with pans, utensils and staples. Also one of the 2 1/2 gallon water bottles with spigot. Used rice cooker (which I use for everything that requires water...vegies, potatoes plus rice) electric frypan and grill with burner. Used disposable plates for awhile until DH decided he was willing to carry them up and down stairs to wash. (we have a kitchenette in basement with sink and micro). We decided that key thing would be mornings getting ready for work. Had an unoccupied bedroom and set up breakfast /lunch making supplies with small refrigerator and coffee pot and countertop for prep (old stereo stand). Kept us from getting stressed in the morning. Rarely ate out during this period and were able to eat pretty much as usual. We do a lot of grilling anyhow.