Hellobee Boards

Crockpot? Does that heat your place up?

Do you have a grill so you can cook outside? (Steaks, burgers, chicken... if you had a stove attached, you could make corn on the cobb).

Pork butt in the crockpot with an onion. Serve on toasted buns or in burritos.
Hummus with pita and cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, and tabbouleh.
Tomato with cottage cheese or tuna salad and pita chips.
Cereal.
Ice cream.

Costco sells their rotisserie chicken meat pulled, skinned, and vacuum packed in 2lb packages. Its awesome to chop up for salads.

They also sell housemade cold quinoa salads and pasta salads that you can easily add the chicken to and make a full meal out of.

Tapas or antipasto style platters - cold cuts, cheese, bread, fruit, salad, dips/spreads, and wine/beer. Trader Joe's would be a great place to get junk for that type of meal.

You can do DIY handrolls or Vietnamese summer rolls. Just julienne a bunch of veggies and meat. We like making platters of cucumber, carrots, pickled radish, strips of omelet, imitation crab, avocado, ham or Spam. Then you can spread some rice on a sheet of sushi nori, fill it with your choice of toppings, roll up and dip in soy sauce and wasabi. You can buy those microwaveable bowls of sushi rice and not even have to cook your own rice.

Or if you go with the summer rolls, just skip the rice and instead keep a big bowl of hot water in the middle of the table and have each person dip hydrate the rice paper, and then fill with your fillings. Serve with peanut sauce.

Bump. Any other ideas? We only have a stove and microwave for the next few weeks. No BBQ or crockpot either.

@lamariniere: if you have a stove - we've been making this marinated lentil salad a lot this summer - https://www.budgetbytes.com/2016/10/marinated-lentil-salad/ - only need to cook the lentils and doesn't take too long.
We have also been making wraps with hummus, salsa, and feta or hummus/roast beef.

@looch: cheese is super pricey here. I'm saving the cheese budget for special occasions. Lol. My kids were already picky to begin with but now it's crazy. We've had a lot of pasta since we've been here. I would love a cold meal like you described, just have to find a way to make it work.

@autumnleaves: lentils are a great idea! And bonus for being vegetarian! We've done wraps once so far, I should experiment with some different fillings.

@lamariniere: I am a big believer in shopping local and preparing what the locals eat (within reason, of course) but my son is such a problem eater that I can't even begin to think that he'd eat whatever. It makes it very difficult!

Can you do a mellow coconut curry? We do a quick one at our house that uses frozen stir-fry veggies and a can of bamboo shoots, but you can do the same thing with fresh. Like a head of bok choy, some green beans or peas, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, and some chicken or tofu.

I know Thai curry pastes are crazy spicy, so here's a mellow Western version I use for the kids:

1 tsp grated ginger
1 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp tomato paste or ketchup
A dash of soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1 can of coconut cream or coconut milk (I prefer the cream)

Throw all the sauce ingredients except the coconut cream into the pot and simmer until everything is cooked through. Add the cream and simmer until the sauce thickens a bit. Then adjust the seasonings. Add hot sauce and a squeeze of lime at the table for the adults. Just serve over rice - better if you can find the microwaveable kind. We end up cooking the veggies until they are soft so my kids will eat it mushed up into the rice without protest. That should help your hygiene issues too.

You can probably also cook up some cubed chicken in the pan and then add peanut sauce at the end to glaze and serve that with rice or over rice noodles.