Cooking vegan without a kitchen

[ihugtrees]

My husband and I (and our daughter) are going to be living in a hotel for 3 months while he completes some training (he is in the Navy.) We likely will not have a real kitchen, so I'm trying to look upon this time as an opportunity to be more adventurous in my cooking We will have a microwave, rice cooker and a crockpot, and possibly a toaster oven, depending on space. There are probably books out there with recipes, and I'm going to check them out, but I'd like some firsthand advice. We probably will have a mini fridge, so will be short on storage there too..especially freezer space! However, we will be right next to a nice organic coop and will probably shop there every day! Do you have any recipes for a microwave, the rice cooker, crockpot, or toaster oven? Or recipes that require no cooking? Are there any recipes you have that you *could* make in a crockpot or rice cooker if you wanted to (even if you don't now)? We've never used either item in our lives (well, our toaster oven, but only as a sub for microwave, which we haven't had in awhile--not as a real cooking tool) so this is going to be an entirely new experience for us!!

[Bellamaphone]

I'm pretty sure there is a vegan/vegetarian crock pot recipe book out there

http://www.amazon.ca/Fresh-Vegetaria.../dp/1558322566

yep there it is!

[love bug]

oh I have some great ones!!
I will be back I just have to put the babes to bed and pull out the recipes

[somegirl99]

Depending on the rice cooker, you might be able to use it as a steamer as well.

[love bug]

http://www.recipezaar.com/Sloppy-Veg...ock-Pot-112105 http://www.recipezaar.com/Crock-Pot-Grains-36264
http://www.recipezaar.com/Spicy-Croc...hickpeas-17172 http://www.recipezaar.com/Sweet-Curr...sserole-171217

a few of our fav crock pot recipes

i will see what else I can pull out.

[ihugtrees]

Originally Posted by Bellamaphone

I'm pretty sure there is a vegan/vegetarian crock pot recipe book out there

http://www.amazon.ca/Fresh-Vegetaria.../dp/1558322566

yep there it is!

I wish it was vegan...I hate trying to sub things in recipes. It seems to never work out quite right! I might try to look at it in person and see what I think.

[Ruthla]

You might do best just getting "general ideas for how to cook with this kind of equipment" rather than trying to follow specific recipes.

You can make rice and beans in the crock pot. You can make bean and veggie stews in the crock pot and make rice (or another grain) in the rice cooker. You can play around with beans and different spices, or you can add jarred sauces such as tomato sauce, salsa, pumpkin butter, etc. You can also make soups in the crock pot as well- split peas make a nice creamy soup even without a blender, pumpkin puree or tomato paste thicken up nicely as well. You may want to use canned beans rather than cooking dry beans, and save yourself a few steps (will you have space to soak beans overnight, then cook them in the crock pot, and then drain and add other ingredients?)

The microwave is good for reheating foods (including frozen veggies), but it's not good for cooking things initially. If you're going to use any frozen veggies, I'd suggest just buying what you need for that night's dinner and keeping it on the counter (table?) until it's time to prepare it. I wouldn't use the freezer for anything other than ice cubes- those mini-fridges tend to have very unreliable temperatures in the freezer section.

Lunches can be things such as salads and sandwiches. I'd suggest buying ready-made sandwich fixings, such as hummus or nut butters, rather than trying to make your own without a kitchen.