Cooking advice needed.....for microwave :(

Here's the problem: I live in a room. I can't have a fridge here. I do have a microwave.

As you can imagine, my food choices are very limited, and not particularly healthy. Lots of canned foods, i may get something frozen on the way home from work.....Ramen noodles of course....couscous, also!

So....what would you do/cook in my situation?!!!! And remember......I can't buy stuff like butter or anything that needs refrigeration. (It sucks)

PS: Any advice how you might jazz up Ramen Noodles, or couscous, also!

Thanks in advance!

Here's a recipe for adding peanut butter to ramen to make sesame/peanut noodles. Anything that needs to be refrigerated could probably be subbed, like garlic powder instead of garlic.

https://www.thewholesomedish.com/sesame-peanut-butter-noodles/

Also, anything you're going to cook right away you dont need to refrigerate, so you could pick up a piece of fish or half pound of beef at the grocery store and cook them right away. You can cook almost anything in the microwave if you're careful about it. You could google "how to cook salmon in the microwave" to get some good tips, and you'd probably end up with something as good as you'd get out of an oven.

I'd recommend loading up on spices too - get some of those mixed spice bottle to add some variety to the taste. Also soy sauce doesn't need to be refrigerated, that's another good go-to.

And if you don't mind getting a little crafty, you can make a cooler that isn't a refrigerator. It's way easier than you'd think. I learned about these playing the game Rimworld -

https://www.popsci.com/build-your-own-diy-refrigerator/



It will preserve most foods just as well, so you could cook up a pound of ground beef into hamburgers and then put them in the cooler and they'd be completely fine to eat. And you could keep condiments in there too, fruits and veggies, all kinds of things. It's not a freezer, but it should keep most if not all foods just fine.

Bro......this is VERY helpful! I'm going to try and make one of those!!!!

I've never even THOUGHT about cooking meat in a microwave....definitely not burgers!

I do have lots of spices, that is definitely a savior!

Thanks, man! I'm blown away by that homemade fridge! It'll take me a couple of weeks probably before I can go get the materials, but I'm going to try it, and I'll let you know how it turns out!

Thanks again, amigo!

If the microwave as a defrost position on the dial or key pad then you can cook any frozen food if you get it home quickly, any fish or meat can be done also some soups, i would use you tube and google, you may be surprised just what can be done with a microwave.

Just had a look at that video about a home made cooler its real cool lol clever idea

You could make couscous salad. Besides vegetables, you can mix nuts, almonds, and dried cranberries with it. Couscous doesn't have to be heated up and can still be eaten at room temperature, so you don't have to eat warm salad. Spices help a lot too, of course.

Since fruits and vegetables don't have to refrigerated, buy them in small sizes so you can use the whole thing up for the side of a meal and not worry about throwing anything away.

I know Jeff said garlic is refrigerated, but it's actually fine if it's not. Assuming he didn't mean if it was chopped garlic.

The Internet said:

Here's the problem: I live in a room. I can't have a fridge here. I do have a microwave.

As you can imagine, my food choices are very limited, and not particularly healthy. Lots of canned foods, i may get something frozen on the way home from work.....Ramen noodles of course....couscous, also!

So....what would you do/cook in my situation?!!!! And remember......I can't buy stuff like butter or anything that needs refrigeration. (It sucks)

PS: Any advice how you might jazz up Ramen Noodles, or couscous, also!

Thanks in advance!

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chicago said:

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LOL! wow, you really had to dig that one up, you're so funny, lol. Petty, but funny! lol.

I've since got a refrigerator, so I'm all good, thanks! Lots of salads. Can order in and keep leftovers. Cold cuts. Eggs. etc. I make full breakfasts. Got lots of frozen stuff, burritos, chicken, tortellini, etc.....

Microwave Recipes

https://tasty.co/article/christinebyrne/nuke-your-food

VickiTickles said:

Microwave Recipes

https://tasty.co/article/christinebyrne/nuke-your-food

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Thanks Vicki!

This thread was actually searched for, if you can believe it, and then bumped by Chicago because of pettiness from another thread, I guess she figured it would embarrass me or something......so let me just state for the record my general living situation:

1.) I live in a soundproofed music studio. Rents in NYC are in the multiple thousands. I decided years ago I can't - and don't want to - pay exorbitant rents, so I just moved in here. Been here for years and it's fantastic. My rent is 500 bucks a month, a little less what I was paying ten years ago in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and what I was paying twenty years ago in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan (midtown, in the 40s and the 50s, west side), and a little more than what I used to pay to live down in the East Village, Alphabet City and the Lower East Side. (if you don't know NYC, trust me, it's in the multiple thousands-per-month to live in any of those places. Go look it up.).

2.) You know what comes with this room? Free wi-fi, free air conditioner/heater, don't have to pay utilities. My phone is 30 bucks a month, no contract, unlimited....so my overhead is basically 530 a month, plus food and general expenses. I work a few blocks away, so I don't even have to take the subway. That is incredibly low overhead for living here. I've set my life up so that I don't have to live in constant stress of "making rent".

3.) I'm a musician, surrounded by instruments that I can play at any hour. I don't have neighbors walking above me, or below me....nor am I disturbing anyone (a constant problem as I have never kept "regular" hours). I have no landlord or super to deal with.

4.) There are about 30 other music studios in this building, so I'm surrounded by my "people". Across the hall is a world-class percussionist who spends each morning playing Bach on the marimba. That feeds the soul in a way I can't begin to explain. This is the environment I have always felt most comfortable: among musicians.

5.) The trade-off is no oven! (no windows either!) There are showers in the building that I can use but no kitchen. So hence the microwave. It's not a bad trade-off. Although technically we're not supposed to have fridges here, every studio has one, and a few months ago my ex-girlfriend had one sent to me, out of the blue....the guys downstairs saw it, accepted delivery and gave me no problem. That fridge has saved my life as the pandemic hit weeks later. Thanks, babe!

6.) Since corona virus hit, this building has been a ghost town. I couldn't be in a safer place. Never encounter anyone, practically. I work in the middle of the night, nearby, with just two or three other guys......and then I'm in the best place to be in lockdown. I have a giant music collection, the entire history of music, the entire history of cinema, boxes of books, a drumset, two guitars, a bass, and a keyboard. And a computer to access the TMF, of course! I am in want for absolutely nothing.

PS: If I were ever to decide to start my own video company, or do a "session"...or just tickle the hell out of a girl....I'd be in the perfect place. Soundproofed! Can make as much noise as I want.

Thanks to tklfeather10,and Yote (formerly Cinder!) for the suggestions as well! I still haven't made burgers here, as Jeff suggested! Never thought to nuke burgers! Might give it a try this week! I'm kind of a burger snob though, I pretty much only eat them from specific Greek diners! Of which there is one right across the street! I told you I'm in want for nothing!

chicago said:

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/15-minute-meat-loaf/

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Following me around the board (yet again!). Oh my god, you make me laugh A LOT, out loud thank you, seriously.

Hey, this is for you, darling......