I need help, food friends! (From Bournemouth Echo)

Here's the first meal we had in our current flat, on the day we moved in. Like you, we had a two-ring burner and a microwave.

Leek & Bacon Pasta

You need :
1 pack back bacon
2 smallish leeks
Worcester sauce
Creme fraiche
Pasta (fusilli is good)
Black pepper

Take a pack of back bacon and dice. Fry it off until lightly browned.
Remove from pan but leave the fat.
Add two leeks (assuming they were smallish ones) which have been sliced finely and cook gently until they're softened.
Put some pasta (fusilli works well) on to cook while the leeks are softening.
Add the bacon to the leeks and add a couple of sploshes of worcester sauce. Mix to combine.
Just before the pasta is ready, add a pot of Creme Fraiche and mix to heat through.
When Pasta is ready, drain then add to the bacon/leek (or add the bacon/leek to the Pasta, whichever way fits into the pan you've got). Mix well to combine, add a good scrunge of ground black pepper and serve.
De-lishus! You can also add mushrooms, at the adding leeks stage, if you've got some to hand!

I knew you'd have a solution, Jenny! this one's on the list for next week...

Or how about Kedgeree? This feeds two adults, one child :

You need :
1 onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
An enormous lump of butter
Curry Paste (a mild one), or
half a tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
half a tsp ground coriander
2 heaped tsp curry powder
1 tsp tumeric
300g smoked fish, skinned
2 Eggs, hard boiled (I would do these in advance as they're not required to stay hot)
Long Grain or Basmati Rice, quantity to suit you.
Some chopped coriander, to taste.

First of all, melt the butter in a deep frying pan or large saucepan, then add the onion and garlic and sweat until transparent. It can colour a little, but no more.

Then, add the curry paste or the spice selection as detailed above and stir to combine, then cook for 2-3 minutes.

Put the rice on to cook in a separate saucepan.

Next, cut the fish into same-size pieces and lay the fattest pieces on top of the spices. Turn the heat right down, cover and cook gently for as long as it takes for them to appear half-cooked. Then add the thinnest pieces of fish, re-cover and continue cooking until everything flakes easily.

In the meantime, shell the eggs and separate the yolk from the white. Chop the white and add to the fish to warm through. Set the yolks aside.

Once the rice is done, drain and add it to the fish (or the fish to the rice, both work as well as each other!). Add the chopped coriander if you're using it, and mix through with a fork to keep the grains fluffy.

Serve onto warmed plates and crumble the egg yolks over the top.

It's a firm family favourite, this one!

Then there's Smoked Haddock Chowder - that's a one-pot deal!

It's at http://poshpause.mul
tiply.com/recipes/it
em/43/Everyday_Smoke
d_Haddock_Chowder - which is probably easier than writing it out again here!

You could go on a sort of raw-food / salady / fruity / nutty fast? I've heard people swear by this... I'd fade away though. How about baked potatoes in the microwave? You can fill them with all kinds of good things that don't need cooking. Good luck with your new kitchen!

Get yourself a slow cooker / crockpot. They are very inexpensive. You can cook all sorts in them and one of the beauties of them is that you can leave them on all day and come home to a nice meal.

I've got one, Peter, I just need flavour inspiration so we're not eating beef/lamb/chicken stew for a month!