10 Meals To Cook During a Kitchen Renovation

We’re here to save you from another night of spending 45 minutes picking a takeout in your demolished kitchen with a whole list of easy meal ideas during a kitchen renovation.

As your DIY kitchen reno besties who went nine months without a fully functioning kitchen, we developed a pretty solid rotation of recipes that forgo the oven and cooktop. It’s a whole slog to get through a remodel as it is without adding on the expense and the stress and the unhealthiness of eating out all the time.

So, here’s a mix of crockpot, air fryer, grill, Mexican, Italian, salad, breakfast, and dinner recipes and meal ideas during a kitchen remodel. Tested and loved by us (and two toddlers!)

Ramen salad

We usually cook the chicken breast in the slow cooker, but the salad comes together quickly and is always gone within minutes of being served. The key is to pre-make the dressing and pop it in the fridge though, it’s so much better if the flavors have time to blend (oh look at me sounding all Gordon Ramsey over here).

Credit: Gimme Some Oven

Crockpot pork carnitas 

This meal slaps. We cook this crockpot pork shoulder about every two weeks, during a kitchen renovation or not. It’s always amazing, easy to throw together in the morning, and so versatile. We have it in burrito bowls a lot (use the 90-second microwave rice packs for an extra easy kitchen reno meal), in actual burritos, on tacos, and we’ve had leftovers on pizza as well. So good.

Credit: Carlsbad Cravings

Chicken and mango salsa

This has to be one of the easiest meals to put together. The chicken goes right on the grill and, for us, while Alex is out cooking I whip up the salsa. When we have use of our stovetop, we also make coconut rice and it’s such a good combo.

Credit: The Chunky Chef

Pimped out grocery store salad

So it’s not going to win any culinary awards, but bagged salads are a go-to when we have zero energy to cook. We add some rotisserie chicken (or anything from the grill), some boiled eggs, air fried veggies (red pepper and sweet potato cubes are favorites), sunflower seeds, and some croutons.

Air fryer chicken fajitas

I really didn’t expect to be such an air fryer convert, but here I am signing up to the cult. Any kind of meal where everything can go on the same pan and get chucked in at the same time is a win in my book (and these are actually really delicious!)

Credit: Cooking With Coit

Burgers

Kind of a ‘duh’ option, but you can’t go wrong with burger night. Alex and the kids both like a classic beef patty, but I love whipping up some of these chicken burgers to go on the grill. Throw on some avocado, feta, and garlic aioli and it’s like a gourmet meal at home. Oh, and we like these sweet potato air fryer fries to go with it.

Freezer Breakfast Sandwiches

Have you guys bought frozen breakfast sandwiches at the store? They’re insanely expensive. These ones are great to prep pre-kitchen renovation and taste surprisingly good reheated (I was skeptical about the egg myself!). The perfect fuel for a day of demo and crying in frustration.

Credit: Tastes Better from Scratch

Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts

I’ve been on a real brussels sprouts kick the last year or so and the air fryer gets it right every time. This is a great side for grilled chicken or steak, and is amazing topped with some bacon, shredded gouda and balsamic glaze.

Credit: Andi Anne

Air Fryer Lemon Parmesan Chicken 

This one does take a little bit of prep space, but if you’ve got a makeshift camp table or workspace then you’re good to go! This meal feels very high end but is really simple to make, and if you kind of squint your eyes you can pretend you’re in a restaurant and not surrounded by chaos.

Credit: A Shade of Teal

Snack Dinner

A favorite of our then-2-year-old: snack dinner. This is basically a poor man’s charcuterie board filled with whatever you can scrounge together. For the grown-ups, we’d always have cheese and some kind of deli meat, hummus and crackers, some grapes, some nuts, maybe some chocolate if we were feeling wild, and the kids would have a toddler-friendly version with a few more Cheez-Its and Goldfish. Throw it all on a cute cutting board and it’s the easiest meal of the week, but probably everyone’s favorite honestly.

So there you go: the main meal rotation that got us through a lot of stressed-out, exhausted nights DIYing our kitchen. If you haven’t seen the reveal of that project, come check it out and see if all the toasted sandwiches we ate were worth it.

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