Surviving a Kitchen renovation

I can’t believe we made it but I can officially say that our kitchen renovation is finally DONE. Well, I guess technically we still need pendant lights, a chandelier, bar stools, decorations and countless miscellaneous items BUT our cabinets are installed, the countertops on and the sink is back-in-action and I am one happy Mummy. I’ve learned a few things over the past few weeks and months of this kitchen renovation and even acquired a few tips! So, have a kitchen renovation planned? Hopefully this post may help survive the chaos that may ensue in your kitchen 🙂

First things first, make some plans! I love lists, well mostly I enjoy crossing things off my lists, so the first thing I did before our sink was disconnected for 19 days was to make sure I had an idea as to where my dishes were going to be cleaned. If you’ve never been without a sink for an extended period of time, I’m going to break it to your right now, it is quite the adjustment. I didn’t want to clean dishes every day, and I also did not want to have to lug them down to the basement into our bathroom and bringing them upstairs and risking the clanging of pots and pans waking up two sleeping children was out of the question. So, I made a different plan. First, I went to Target and grabbed two storage Rubbermaid containers, one for dirty dishes soap and water and one for clean dishes with clean water. It may have taken me a little longer than it would have to do the dishes in the bathtub but I didn’t mind, plus for whatever reason my kids love putting dishes and towels away so I usually left the clean dishes for the morning and added the tasks onto their mental chore list.

The second and most important thing was to decide what we were eating for the entirety of the reno, to minimize dishes but also I needed to factor in my lack or nonexistent counterspace which was basically a cutting board on top of the dishwasher! Below I’ve included my menu and if you follow me on Instagram (@HumarockMom) you know I love making weekly menus! This one was a bit reminiscent of the original Covid menus I was making since we were only getting groceries delivered once every two weeks, it took a bit of maneuvering around what we were eating.

Some tips, buy precut up and frozen veggies when you can, as a vegetarian I obviously eat a lot of veggies which all require being washed (obviously an issue when you don’t have an easily accessible sink) so I utilized a lot of precut up vegetables, carrots, celery, squash, brussels sprouts etc. from the produce aisle.

Fingers crossed you end up with your very own dream kitchen just like we did!!

Surviving a kitchen renovation menu; including recipes and links!

Broccoli cheddar soup find my recipe here!
Sausage & veggie sheet pan find my recipe here!
Pulled pork, crock pot ; I used a recipe this “Eating on a dime” which my husband said was good…if you’re looking for a vegetarian option I usually use sweet potato; “Yup it’s vegan” has a great recipe
Bean enchilada find my recipe here!
Easy lasagna find my recipe here!
Frozen TJs Pizza
Cauliflower steak find my recipe here!
TAKE OUT SUSHI
Spaghetti and meatballs!
Crabcakes, salmon & risotto; usually you can find the risotto recipe right on the Arborio rice package
Hash and eggs ; recipe from the one and only Martha Stewart so you know it’s a keeper!
Butternut squash soup; one of my favorite squash soups from Host the Toast!
English muffin pizza
Frozen chicken parm
Hot dogs & french fries (or this vegan option which I’ve made and are really good!)
Veggie dumpling soup; this recipe had homemade dumplings!
Hawaiian tofu ; OBSESSED with this one, from Fit Mitten Kitchen, and remember add and remove whatever you don’t like!
Stuff artichokes find my recipe here!

As you can see towards the end of my MASSIVE menu I was getting a little loosey goosey with the “one pot dinners” because I could see the end was near! In other words, I wouldn’t start your kitchen reno meal plan with stuffed artichokes or the effort may cause you to end up ordering take out for the remainder of the time!

GOOD LUCK!!