As we travel around the Southeastern U.S., we typically stay in one city (or a general area) for one week. We try to be relatively frugal with our lifestyle, whether we are traveling or not. This means that for the sake of our wallets and our health, we prefer not to eat out for every meal. It sounds like fun at first, but after your 23rd restaurant meal, it proves to be less fun than you think.
In our current situation, each city is a different setup. Sometimes we have a basic hotel room with a fridge. Sometimes we have a fridge and a microwave. Occasionally, just to change things up and give our digestive tracts a break, we seek out hotels that offer a two-burner stove. As it happens, my husband’s employer does not allow AirBnB-style rentals due to the cancellation policies, therefore, we must use hotels for our current adventure. This fact has made us creative in the kitchen.
Last year, we stayed at a hotel in Miami that served snacks in the evenings. One of the dishes that my husband fell in love with was a chilled chickpea salad. While I am a true hummus addict, I always thought I disliked chickpeas in their natural state. However, my husband was right; that stuff was pretty darn good. I re-created it with a knife, a mini-cutting board and Tupperware. My version contained chickpeas, red & yellow peppers, red onion, cucumber, feta cheese and Italian vinaigrette salad dressing. No, it wasn’t as good as the hotel’s, but it was a nice change of pace and it kept us from snacking on junk food.
As discussed in April 2020, I love to make homemade chicken salad. Fortunately, whipping up a batch does not require appliances. Most store-bought chicken salad is too wet for my liking. It seems as though they are covering up a lack of seasoning and flavor with excessive amounts of mayo. However, there is ONE pre-made version that I love. My favorite chicken salad comes from my favorite chain grocery store. Their version has 20+ grams of fat in a teeny, tiny serving. Despite my request to the store manager to create a healthier version, they have not yet done so. The quick & easy kitchen hack that I use to make my own is to buy a rotisserie chicken and chop that up. It is already seasoned so I don’t have to use more salt and I don’t have to worry about cooking the chicken. I remove the skin, use low-fat mayo, add tarragon and slivered almonds. Tarragon is my favorite spice to pair with chicken. The flavor combination is divine. A whole chicken makes enough chicken salad for two people to eat sandwiches or salads for days.
When we are blessed with a two-burner stove, then we really get wild and crazy. My husband has long been famous for his homemade fried rice. When we have leftovers in the fridge that don’t seem to go together at all, he somehow makes terrific fried rice out of them. He often will cube leftover chicken or a leftover pork chop and stir fry that in a pan with broccoli, carrots, red onion, and fried eggs. He uses thick chunks of yellow squash and zucchini, so they don’t get soggy. Obviously, the vegetables we choose vary by season. In a separate pan (because we have two burners) he makes brown rice. At the last minute, he throws the brown rice in with the other mixture. If we are staying in one place for a bit, we might have a bottle of low-sodium soy sauce handy. If not, we travel with an array of condiment packets. (This is a nice way to keep those little packets from going into a landfill). He empties a few soy sauce packets into the concoction and TA-DA! We travel with a set of Tupperware, therefore, when he is done cooking, we portion out the fried rice. The next time we are hungry, we just grab two plastic containers out of the fridge and pop them in the microwave. (Note: When possible, we try to heat food on real plates rather than in plastic).
During our quarantine, we actually had access to an oven. This was a game-changer, obviously. I am going to blame this next dish on the need for comfort food at that time. Let’s just say it isn’t on anyone’s diet. . . or it shouldn’t be. We called it “Poor Man’s Poutine.” If you are not familiar with poutine, it is a Canadian dish from Quebec that consists of French fries drowning in cheese curds and brown gravy.
It’s cold in Quebec a lot of the year. This is starchy, stick-to-your-ribs winter food. While Mr. HomeFree and I quarantined in Florida and had absolutely no excuse for eating winter comfort food, it was a memorable experiment anyway. I am sure any self-respecting Canadian would not have touched our mess with a 10-foot pole, but that just meant more for us. We baked tater tots until they were dark and crispy (much longer than what the package suggests) and then doused the pile in brown gravy and melted (shredded) cheddar cheese. We did not have enough calories and fat on there yet, so we added ground sausage too. It was amazing! Obviously, this is a dish we only made once because, well. . . we wanted to live. It was fun while it lasted, though.
Do you have culinary inventions that only require a microwave? If there is a crazy kitchen hack that you think we should try, let me know in the comments.
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