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The thing is, I tossed the microwave in the last year or so and have gone entirely stove unit with most of it being top. I can't see going back now.
One thing I have found that I can't make very well is croutons smothered in melted cheddar cheese............and I think that is actually a blessing. The need for cheddar has disappeared from my shopping list.
Try the little Coleman Camp Oven, for $30. Add a pizza stone and a small peel. You can bake bread, cakes, muffins, cookies, casseroles, lasagna...whatever the imagination can dream up.
I cook almost exclusively using just a stove top, but them I'm fairly simple with my meals. I have a crock pot that I've recently started using as well. When I lived in Alameda, I didn't have any additional appliances (no microwave or toaster), so I ONLY used the stove top. For everything. I was still eating bread back then, so I'd "toast" my bread in a skillet. I have a grill-ridged frying pan as well, so I'd use that for fish and the like.
Breakfast:
Fried eggs, bacon, sausage, (even the vegetarian versions like soy chorizo), omelettes, pancakes, crepes, skillet frittatas.
Lunch:
Who needs a stove...get some cold cuts from the deli! Sliced ham, cheese. Get some fresh spinach or other salad stuff for the sides. For vegetarian version, get some tofu or other meat substitute and fry/grill it.
Could also do soup.
Dinner:
Did I mention I'm simple?
Whip out the good skillet again. Fry pork chop or chicken breast or tofu or whatever. Get another pan and cook some veg (I like broccoli).
If you're eating carbs, you can also make cornbread in a cast iron skillet on the stove...it's how it's been done for ages, although I've never tried.
As long as you have the right cookwear, you can probably adapt a lot more to cooking on the stove top than you think.
As a side note, I knew somebody in SF who only had a coffee maker - no stove, no other appliances. He got pretty creative with using that thing to cook with!
I lost my stovetop and oven last week. I've been cooking on the Coleman camp stove, but my Le Crueset was too big for the burners, so it was pretty miserable. I ate out of cans because they would fir in my small pans.
Especially when someone asked me, "Why don't you just use the microwave? Do you have one?"
Me: "Uh no." (Doh!)
"Do you have an electric skillet?"
Me: "No." (Doh!)
"Coffee maker?"
Me: "No, (Doh! Why did I get rid of my kitchen gadgets???")
When my stove died I had no choice.
Most everything was cooked on the grill and microwave. That and a crackpot. . Had to do that for a year before I had enough to buy a stove.
I lost my stovetop and oven last week. I've been cooking on the Coleman camp stove, but my Le Crueset was too big for the burners, so it was pretty miserable. I ate out of cans because they would fir in my small pans.
Especially when someone asked me, "Why don't you just use the microwave? Do you have one?"
Me: "Uh no." (Doh!)
"Do you have an electric skillet?"
Me: "No." (Doh!)
"Coffee maker?"
Me: "No, (Doh! Why did I get rid of my kitchen gadgets???")
Well, I'll admit, that might be me....I still do have an electric wok and crepe maker, though; just haven't used them in YEARS! (did test the crepe maker a few months ago).
Well, it might be me, I mean there is a stove in apartment #2 as well, but saying there wasn't, there I'd be, using my hiking stove, perhaps using the small wok pots, perhaps the camping cook gear to make meals. Trashed the microwave and coffee maker a while back.
IF such were to happen, I'd probably make the investment in a larger camping stove that I have been thinking of doing, anyhow. After my last camping trip (where I'm a team leader) where I provided much of the food but depended on others for the camp fire, I rather realized that when people are cold and tired, you need a way to get hot food into them quickly. It may be straying outside some of my concepts of camping but then again, it isn't straying outside my concepts of leadership.
We have an induction burner, a toaster oven, a multifunction cooker, and a tabletop roaster. No problems cooking anything!
ETA: Oh, and a microwave. But we use the others a lot more.
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