We moved to a different state last year. It was a complicated move. I ended up not having access to my belongings for almost 3 weeks. (They got put into storage, and my husband was supposed to unload them, and my son was going to help him, but my husband got sent overseas on a trip for work and so my son got assigned to a very large work project out-of-town, both at the last minute. I couldn't get them because our daughter has medical issues and I just couldn't spend several hours digging through storage stuff, plus I couldn't exactly move the couch out of the way by myself to find the kitchen things). So we had what we packed in the car (thankfully, an SUV). We had 2 camping chairs, a small table that folded flat, our laptops, an air mattress, 2 pillows, blankets, 2 towels, 1 shower curtain liner, and 2 suitcases with basic clothes and toiletries. We also had one gourmet picnic tote that had an insulated section and a section with 2 plastic plates, 2 plastic wine glasses, 2 sets of basic flatware and a corkscrew with a small 1 inch knife attached (for cutting the foil on a wine bottle). That was it. I bought two plastic cereal bowls, one cheap sauce pan and a cheap skillet at the dollar store.
This is some of the stuff we ate:
Pasta, tossed with cherry or grape tomatoes, kalamata olives and tiny mozzarella balls (sold in plastic containers in brine - you can find them in really small sizes about the size of the small tomatoes - with a little olive oil. No cutting required. Only the pasta needs to be cooked. Best with short pasta in a similar size to the other ingredients, like shells, or orechiette, or penne.
Office-lunch-ready cups of oatmeal that cook in the microwave, with added dried fruits, nuts, etc.
Creative grilled cheese sandwiches: cheddar with ham; sliced tomatoes and mozzarella; deli roast beef with provolone and grainy mustard
Boil-in-bag rice, boiled, mixed with chopped deli ham, cooked beans, can of diced tomatoes, your favorite Mexican seasonings (cumin, or taco seasoning) and/or taco sauce
Apple and banana slices dipped in peanut butter
Diced peaches or mangoes, diced seeded cucumbers, diced avocado, a little cilantro and fresh squeezed lime juice make a really refreshing salsa. Serve it with a roasted chicken bought whole from the supermarket.
Roasted halved baby potatoes. Roast, drizzled with olive oil at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until golden and tender. Just when they're about done, sprinkle a good blue cheese (Stilton or Maytag are my favorites) over them and just let the cheese soften and melt for a few minutes. It's one of my favorite meals.
Salads with whatever is seasonal (already-washed and bagged mixed greens or baby spinach or arugula, zucchini, tomatoes, baby carrots, etc), topped with deli roast beef slices, and a blue cheese or ranch dressing
Buy some bamboo skewers and spear cooked salami chunks, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese (not the shredded stuff), a basil leaf, drizzle with olive oil.
I also cook healthy (I have a blog dedicated to simple, pure foods that are easy to prepare and don't use processed ingredients), and we eat fast food maybe 4 or 5 times a year, but had to relax a little bit when I didn't have my knives, pans, tools, etc. Cups designed to be microwaved with oatmeal and chunky soups are pretty convenient when you have no dishes. Boil-in-bag rice is also convenient when you have no measuring cups. I never buy the rotisserie chicken, and only roast my own, but the supermarket rotisserie chicken was a life-saver.
We also had a trip that took 3 days. When you eat healthy at home, it's hard to be on the road. The food at fast food places is not good! We tried to avoid the fast food places and instead find a good supermarket and buy deli containers of pre-cut fruit or berries, packaged fresh vegetables (they make pretty good selections for lunch boxes!) and good quality cheeses and breads for lunches and suppers at the hotel.
Oh, and on our 4th day in our new apartment with our sparse furnishings, for my son's work assignment (he already lived in the town we moved to), he asked if I could supply dessert for a VIP get-together! (It was kind of an emergency situation). I told him no way, I had no pans, no nothing except a corkscrew. He said, mom, you can do this! I refused to give in and buy new supplies, knowing that my beautiful knives and pans and food processor and mixer were just a mile or two away in storage. But I took the challenge. At the grocery store, I bought nice quality plastic plates that looked like pretty serving ware but were actually disposable. That only cost a couple of dollars. I think they're intended for taking to an upscale picnic or something. I bought strawberries, and a block of cream cheese, a container of mascarpone cheese, a bag of powdered sugar, graham crackers, a chocolate bar and a lemon. Using my corkscrew knife attachment, I cut a little hollow in the washed strawberries. Using the dollar store cereal bowl and the plastic spoon from the picnic set, I mixed softened cream cheese with mascarpone cheese and a little sugar and lemon zest and lemon juice until it tasted like cheesecake. (I just kept tasting until it was both tangy and sweet enough). I crushed the graham crackers in a zip-top bag with my hands. I used the serrated end of the corkscrew wine-foil knife to zest the lemon peel and to puncture a hole in the lemon to squeeze the juice out of. Then I put the cheesecake-type stuff into another zip-top bag and snipped the end off and filled the hollowed-out strawberries with it. The chocolate bar went into another zip-top bag, got microwaved until it was just barely melted, and I snipped a teeny corner off of that bag I spread all the crushed graham crackers on the plates in a thick layer, set the filled strawberries in them, sprinkled a little more graham crumbs on top, drizzled the chocolate sauce over, sprinkled a tiny bit of lemon zest over that, and served a VIP party. They loved it. My son said "how did you get to your kitchen stuff to make this?" I said, this was done with a corkscrew, 3 baggies, a plastic bowl and a plastic spoon. So you can do this!!!!
Good luck with your move! And make sure to have a corkscrew. Somehow, with a little glass of wine, some fruit and cheese and bread make a delicious meal.
