Hey guys.
Sooo... as much as I like to cook I have to admit that after three years living the way I have, Â I'm starting to run out of ideas on what to make on a daily basis. Before I go and ask for suggestions, though, I feel as if I should share some pictures of the place I both live and work in, and spend on average twenty-two hours a day -- that way, y'all can decide if anything you might suggest would even work.
This is my stove... sorta. Really, all I have to work with is a pull-out desk where I can put a rice cooker. Tried using an electric burner, but they get too hot and pull too much power. The cupboard above is actually twice the height you can see in the picture, and it houses all my dry goods and the paper plates/bowls/cups/utensils. Turn 45 degrees, and... this is all I have for a prep area. Yeah, that's my bed. There's actually a second bunk, but we use that for clothes and big-items storage. Turn another 45 degrees, and here is my fridge. Pretty much one of those 'dorm' fridges that you can't stand a 16oz bottle of soda in without removing the shelf and therefore losing more space, and the freezer only fits one bag of frozen veggies. And that microwave isn't there anymore -- first time we used it, it proved to be too much of a power drain. Spin another 45 degrees, and we have this space, which beyond being a place to stick the husband and dog, I cannot utilize.
Yes, that was just the entirety of my home. It's an 8x8 space.
So, as you can imagine, I've been fairly challenged when it comes to cooking for a few years now. Things were actually going good up until a little over a year ago; my husband went on a high-protein, low carb/sugar diet, and I'm developing sensitivities to various preservatives. Even that was fine for a while, but we're both getting sorely sick of rice/couscous/quinoa with whatever soups we can both eat and omlettes/egg scrambles. We'd do pasta (the rice cooker gets up to boiling temps), but with my husband's diet that's pretty much a no-no. Fresher food would be nice, but between loads and various restrictions we can only really get into a Super Wal-Mart once every two to three weeks to stock up on food, and my fridge and freezer aren't big enough for me to keep things like fresh meat in for more than a couple days before they HAVE to be cooked or tossed.
Soooo... any one-pot wonder recipes out there that can be adapted to a rice cooker like this, is mindful of the limited space I have to work with and with the dietary restrictions, can be cooked in an hour or under (we ruined one rice cooker by trying to cook while rolling, but just the movement of the truck caused some of the contents to slosh out of the pot and onto the burner and shorted the whole thing out), and takes into consideration that we can't shop every couple days?
Sooo... as much as I like to cook I have to admit that after three years living the way I have, Â I'm starting to run out of ideas on what to make on a daily basis. Before I go and ask for suggestions, though, I feel as if I should share some pictures of the place I both live and work in, and spend on average twenty-two hours a day -- that way, y'all can decide if anything you might suggest would even work.
This is my stove... sorta. Really, all I have to work with is a pull-out desk where I can put a rice cooker. Tried using an electric burner, but they get too hot and pull too much power. The cupboard above is actually twice the height you can see in the picture, and it houses all my dry goods and the paper plates/bowls/cups/utensils. Turn 45 degrees, and... this is all I have for a prep area. Yeah, that's my bed. There's actually a second bunk, but we use that for clothes and big-items storage. Turn another 45 degrees, and here is my fridge. Pretty much one of those 'dorm' fridges that you can't stand a 16oz bottle of soda in without removing the shelf and therefore losing more space, and the freezer only fits one bag of frozen veggies. And that microwave isn't there anymore -- first time we used it, it proved to be too much of a power drain. Spin another 45 degrees, and we have this space, which beyond being a place to stick the husband and dog, I cannot utilize.
Yes, that was just the entirety of my home. It's an 8x8 space.
So, as you can imagine, I've been fairly challenged when it comes to cooking for a few years now. Things were actually going good up until a little over a year ago; my husband went on a high-protein, low carb/sugar diet, and I'm developing sensitivities to various preservatives. Even that was fine for a while, but we're both getting sorely sick of rice/couscous/quinoa with whatever soups we can both eat and omlettes/egg scrambles. We'd do pasta (the rice cooker gets up to boiling temps), but with my husband's diet that's pretty much a no-no. Fresher food would be nice, but between loads and various restrictions we can only really get into a Super Wal-Mart once every two to three weeks to stock up on food, and my fridge and freezer aren't big enough for me to keep things like fresh meat in for more than a couple days before they HAVE to be cooked or tossed.
Soooo... any one-pot wonder recipes out there that can be adapted to a rice cooker like this, is mindful of the limited space I have to work with and with the dietary restrictions, can be cooked in an hour or under (we ruined one rice cooker by trying to cook while rolling, but just the movement of the truck caused some of the contents to slosh out of the pot and onto the burner and shorted the whole thing out), and takes into consideration that we can't shop every couple days?
