My Travel Kitchen

We got our shipment on Thursday and oh my word, what a day. It poured rain all day. The unload--which took three hours for our last move--took seven hours. At the end of the unload, the truck was empty and we were missing 45 items. The next two hours were spent painstakingly going through the inventory and hunting through the house, locating and matching items missing inventory stickers, or missed on the call-out, a task made much more difficult by the less-than-exact inventory prepared by the company at the other end. Thankfully, we had a good crew who calmly and cheerfully searched through the chaos and we ended up finding everything. What a blessing they were. But y'all. We have never had a move like this. We've already found some damage and I'm praying there isn't more.

And that will be just about enough of that. Onward. Last week I mentioned my travel kitchen, my bare minimum of kitchen things that I take with us so that I can make simple meals as we wait for quarters, or for our stuff to catch up to us. I've been doing this for years and never thought to share, probably because we've never been displaced for this long. All of this stuff fits in a hard-sided, collapsible grocery tote that measures 13"L x 11"W x 11"H, with the exception of the small crockpot.

Here's my list. Easy to customize to your own preferences and useful in all kinds of situations, not just moving. I also should note that this list assumes access to a microwave and a small fridge, which are pretty standard no matter where you stay.

Slow cookers: 3 qt, 1.5 qt

Dishtowels

Dishwashing liquid, scrubby

Cutting board, small knife

Liquid measure, measuring cups/spoons

Saucepan

Micro-cooker (2 qt., Pampered Chef)

Small tongs

Can opener

Spatula, serving spoon

Mix n' Chop (Pampered Chef)

Pizza cutter, ice cream scoop (yes, bring the scoop)

*****

I love my slow cooker collection and use them all the time, and they really are invaluable when you don't have a kitchen. The 3 qt. size is perfect for the two of us: large enough to accommodate a pretty wide range of recipes, but small enough to take up very little space. The 1.5 qt. is just right for a small side dish, or even a small dessert. I also use it to cook chicken breasts for other recipes (it will hold a package of 3). Lots of great low-prep and no-prep recipes out there for both sizes.

The Pampered Chef items I've had for years and are some of my most used. The micro-cooker (microwave) can be used to steam vegetables, heat stuff, and even brown ground beef. This 2 qt. size also doubles as a mixing bowl. The mix n' chop is what I use to break up cooked ground beef.

And that's it. Just a small tote of essentials and you can set up a tiny but adequate kitchen and get a break from fast food. There are a number of "slow cooker for two" cookbooks to choose from, with recipes sized for these smaller crockpots, or you can just do some googling and choose what looks good to you. 

There is definitely an emotional boost from smelling the aroma of a favorite dish wafting through an empty house, or in our case, a house that smells of cardboard boxes. Having supper simmering away all day as I unpack endless boxes--without having to frantically find kitchen things to cook with--makes me feel like I might survive this.

Happy Cooking!