Kid friendly dinners that don't require oven or stove

June 8, 2023 6:14 AM

Our air is hazardous outside so we're trying to keep our indoor air as clean as possible. Our range is gas. What are some kid friendly dinners that don't make use of a oven or stove?
posted by donut_princess to Food & Drink (20 answers total)

Sandwiches? Seriously, a big horkin' Dagwood sandwich would work. Your kid would enjoy the novelty, and you can load the thing up with healthy stuff.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:24 AM on June 8, 2023

Charcuterie! Crackers, cheese, salami, olives (cut for choking risk), smoked salmon, bread, fig jam, etc. My toddler will eat like 1000 capers and olives if permitted, and shove down entire handfuls of smoked salmon like a little bear.

Microwave eggs (stir and microwave for scrambled or put in a bowl of water for poached)

Sandwiches - Peanut butter, tuna, cream cheese, hummus, etc…

Boil water in the microwave for oatmeal or ramen

Cold cereal with fruit

Toaster waffles

If you have kitchen appliances gathering dust, dig them out- bread maker, sandwich press, grilled cheese pocket press, air fryer, crepes, waffles, griddle, etc
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:28 AM on June 8, 2023

What kind of food do you have on hand and do you have any other food-cooking appliances handy? (Microwave, toaster oven, air fryer, electric griddle, rice cooker, electric kettle, crock-pot, instant pot - anything like that?)

Personally I am a big fan of "ice cream for dinner" in extraordinary circumstances (my generally very health-and-diet-conscious family did this during extremely hot weather in my unairconditioned youth).

Seconding sandwiches, or just "snacks for dinner" - are there any dips your kid(s) like? Veggies and crackers and dips can be a good meal, add on some cheese or cold cuts for protein.

If you have one or more of the other appliances I mentioned above that opens up a lot of other options - english muffin pizzas if you've got a toaster oven, pasta if you've got a microwave.
posted by mskyle at 6:28 AM on June 8, 2023

Getting groceries today.

I have a rice cooker, microwave, and an instant pot, but I have only used the instant pot a couple times so I'm not extremely confident with it.
posted by donut_princess at 6:32 AM on June 8, 2023

Steamed rice and hot dogs in the rice cooker.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:38 AM on June 8, 2023

You can definitely make stuff like mac and cheese, other pasta in the instant pot - now is a good chance to get confident with it (and you can always fall back on sandwiches or charcuterie). Some of these Kid-friendly Instant Pot dinners sound really good!

You could do tacos or taco bowls using the microwave and/or rice cooker (you won't be able to brown the meat but with the taco seasoning on it it won't be that noticeable).

Also, if you're going shopping, maybe just buy some prepared food that your kid will like. The smoke situation in North America is likely to get much better by the weekend. Mid-to-long term, maybe it's worth buying a toaster oven and/or an induction burner so that you have more options in case of similar events in the future, and of course when you replace your stove you probably want to switch to electric if possible.
posted by mskyle at 6:45 AM on June 8, 2023

Charcuterie is a great idea.

When I had littluns, we’d do a monthly “eat with your hands night” - in part because I had a number of female-bodied kiddos and wanted to keep relationships to food fun and flexible and playful.

No silverware allowed, and i’d let the kids choose the menu - so it was their favorite deli meats, cheeses, “fancy crackers”, and invariably pudding or ice cream or yogurt would make the list. Asparagus did too (you can easily steam that in your instant pot) because it was so fun to sword fight with it.
posted by Silvery Fish at 6:46 AM on June 8, 2023

Make these chicken carnitas for tacos or quesadillas (microwave the tortilla and cheese, add the chicken)! One of the best IP recipes I know.

The last step is to broil the meat, but it's not necessary by any means. And I've skipped the sauté stage many times with no noticeable effect. Just dump all the ingredients and hit the cook button.
posted by mcgsa at 7:03 AM on June 8, 2023

The appliances mean this is not hard at all. But I'll start with what I thought first, before you posted about appliances.

In our family, summer means salad season -- we eat salads all year round, but during summer it almost becomes a sport to think out interesting salads. Examples are:
- lettuce with green peas and blueberries. Goes very well with smoked mackerel and/or herring if that is something you can find. Or with slices of ham. And bread.
- cauliflower salad where the raw cauliflower is dressed with a mix of mayo, greek yogurt, mustard, garlic, onion and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper. This looks very beige and boring, but I have never met a person who didn't love it and ask for the recipe (except vegans, obvs). We decorate it with cherry tomatoes and capers so it doesn't look too beige. Also good with smoked fish, but it can handle a bit, so it works with charcuterie, too, and with a charcuterie chicken. Actually, buy one of those, and make several uses of it.
- for instance a chicken caesar salad, where the chicken meat replaces the croutons. Or buy some croutons and use both. Huge favorite with my kids. I made the dressing at home, but it's fine to buy one.
- another salad that is good with charcuterie chicken is watermelon salad with mint and feta cheese.
- Brown or green lentils from a tin with finely chopped sweet onion, tomatoes, and a good vinaigrette.

But with your microwave you can make baked potatoes with various fillings.

With your Instant Pot, you can steam potatoes and eggs and green beans to make a salade Nicoise. I'd look for tiny new potatoes so I can steam all the stuff in one go.

Steamed new potatoes also work very well in the above mentioned lentil salad.

You can cook pasta for a pasta salad in any of your appliances, there is one my daughter made on our kitchen counter right now, super simple, just with tomato, avocado and a good vinaigrette mixed with penne pasta.

For us, it's all about celebrating the bounty of the season, so we often decide what to do when we are shopping, from what looks good. My kids have been part of this since they were toddlers, and today I am so proud of them when I see them shopping: they are really good at choosing the best stuff.
posted by mumimor at 7:23 AM on June 8, 2023

Two fun facts about French toast: 1) you can make it in the microwave (many examples on YouTube) and 2) you can make it using melted ice cream. It might be fun to combine these two facts!
posted by staggernation at 7:42 AM on June 8, 2023

It's trivially easy to find pre-cooked food you can heat up in your microwave. Things like shredded chicken, steamer bags of veggies or rice, etc. There's even microwave pasta. This is to say nothing of already-prepared foods, which are getting pretty interesting. I found a cup of dum biryani in my (otherwise pretty terrible) local grocery the other day, and a microwave pho at my bare-bones corner store. You should be able to find a fairly wide variety of Asian noodles at most stores these days, and the formula of noodles/rice + steamer veggies + pre-cooked meat should get you quite a few yummy meals.

It's much easier to bake potatoes in a microwave than in an oven, so maybe a baked potato bar with a variety of toppings for the kids to choose from.
posted by kevinbelt at 8:14 AM on June 8, 2023

We call a cheese and crackers dinner "shark dinner" (from "charcuterie," although I don't actually eat meat), which might especially appeal to a kid.
posted by babelfish at 8:16 AM on June 8, 2023

My kids (aged 5 and 2) love "snack dinner" which is cheese, crackers, fruit, etc. - we do this a lot if the grownups had a big lunch and are not particularly hungry, because cooking just for the kids is annoying.

They also love the novelty of "breakfast for dinner" which in our house usually means eggs, sausage, bacon (that doesn't help you) but perhaps your kids like cereal?

And definitely have a walk around the freezer section of your supermarket.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:27 AM on June 8, 2023

Salads, including potato salad, coleslaw, chef's salad.
I love a Greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, Greek olives, feta, dressed with good olive oil and a small splash of vinegar, maybe some herbs. Serve with bread to get all the juices.
Composed salads, like Nicoise, with some of tuna, tomatoes, cucumber, hard-boiled eggs, Niçoise olives, capers, barely-cooked green beans, small boiled potatoes, thinly sliced onion, artichokes. I draw the line at anchovies.
Tabbouli
Stuffed grape leaves
A rotisserie chicken gives you plenty of delicious chicken to have hot, hten cold leftovers on salads.
Rice noodles just need to be soaked, top with peanut sauce, cucumbers on the side. One of my favorite meals.
posted by theora55 at 8:32 AM on June 8, 2023

Y'all are great! Thank you for helping when my brain is in "only think about smog" mode. Also I didn't know you could make hot dogs in a rice cooker and french toast in a microwave so thank you for that!
posted by donut_princess at 8:41 AM on June 8, 2023

Bean salad, grain salad. Rice is a grain, so make a cooker's worth and mix with all kinds of things. Get baked tofu and cut it up for protein. Get the Korean mixed grains and put them in the rice cooker. Kimchi and pickles and olives and furikake are all good things to serve with rice.
Watermelon.
Good bread with good butter.
If you have a grill, that will take you far. Outdoor cooking and indoor eating.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 8:44 AM on June 8, 2023

You can make hummus easily with the instant pot.

Instant noodles plus rotisserie chicken (or cooked shrimp) plus Thai green curry paste makes pretty good soup. Add fish sauce and lime juice if you like, and/or greens. If you can be bothered, take apart the chicken first and make stock with the carcass in the instant pot, then use the stock as the liquid in the soup (so, heat the stock in the microwave and then cook the noodles in the stock).

If you can get hold of frozen pre cooked IKEA style meatballs, they are good with cous cous. Add any of spinach, olives, capers, raisins, lemon juice or tomato sauce from a jar to liven it up, microwave it all together.

Smoked mackerel is good with cous cous, add garlic, lemon and chilli to taste.

Make a salad from tomatoes, avocados and mozzarella. Eat with bread, olive oil and sea salt.

Feta, avocado, tomato, coriander, garnish with quick lime pickled red onions and sour cream, make wraps.

Shrimp or mussels, mango, avocado, sour cream and lime juice makes good salad or wrap filling.
posted by quacks like a duck at 8:49 AM on June 8, 2023

One of the best things an Instant Pot can do for you, as a new user, is simmer/boil. Just use the Saute setting - if you keep pushing it, it'll toggle through either 2 or 3 settings of low, med, hi, just use hi to boil and low to simmer and set the maximum time of I think 30 minutes, and then you can just use Cancel to turn it off when you're actually done.

Then you can boil pasta, or brown meat and add tomatoes or jar sauce for pasta, heat up soup, simmer a stew, etc. I use my IP like an electric skillet all the time, and basically anything you might cook in a saucepan on the stovetop would be fair game. Just use a long spatula so you don't bump your wrist on the inner pot, and I like to put the IP on a dining table or desk instead of counter for this so I can see down into it more easily.

Saute smoked sausage pieces until brown, add a couple cans kidney beans, season with cajun seasoning, serve over rice.

Brown ground beef, add a can of pinto or black beans, a can or freezer bag of corn, taco seasonings. Put on tortillas, chips, salad, or sandwich rolls and top with any desired dairy and hot sauces.

You can, with patience, make pretty much ANYTHING in the microwave except for boiled eggs (use the Instant Pot for that - you'll find the timing online). Don't be afraid to google even super-basics - the info is out there.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:19 AM on June 8, 2023

I have not tried this solely in an Instant Pot, but one of our regular easy one-pot meals is sausage and potatoes. Slice up a kielbasa or smoked sausage, sautee in oil with a little garlic. Add a bag of potatoes o'brien (cubed hash browns with bell peppers and onions), season with a little Tony Chacherie or just salt & pepper, fry it all up until the potatoes are done. We usually have a salad or biscuits or some kind of leftovers as a side, but it's also filling enough on its own if you just want something simple.

Instant Pot makes great "baked" potatoes; baked potato night with a bunch of toppings is always fun.

We eat a lot of variants of "sauce over rice"; either some sort of curry, or tikka masala, or stir fry, what have you. Many of them could be done in the instant pot or microwave. Some sort of protein, or potatoes, or chickpeas, or a mix of them; make or warm up a curry sauce, serve it all over rice.
posted by xedrik at 12:07 PM on June 8, 2023

Oh, xedrik's good advice reminded me of the amazing Swedish hotdog dish, which has very little to do with Swedish culinary tradition (it is said to have been invented by Danish scouts canoeing on the Great Lakes in Sweden, and Swedes don't seem to know it).

Anyways, it is a perfect dish for an Instant Pot.

Cut onions lengthwise, so you have long strips. Then cook them slowly in butter with a pinch of salt, till they are al dente. Now add paprika and diced potatoes to the mix and stir well, then add ketchup and water to just cover the mix. Cook on high for about ten minutes, till the potatoes are done. Season to taste with more ketchup, salt, pepper and maybe a tiny pinch of chili, and then stir in sliced hotdogs or cocktail sausages and some whole cream and plain vinegar. Sorry there are no measurements, this is campfire food. I would let it simmer for a while on low rather than bring it back to the pressure cooker setting. (My own set up is an old-fashioned pressure cooker and an induction plate for both pressure cooking, slow cooking or keeping stuff hot at potlucks). It should end up pale pink, hearty and sweet and sour.
posted by mumimor at 12:44 PM on June 8, 2023