Foods you can prepare without a kitchen

Making our own food is an important step towards sustainability, not because buying prepared food is inherently unsustainable but because much of the processed food available isn't currently sustainable- packaging, industrial agricultural practices, non-local ingredients, food ingredients based on unrealistically cheap corn, all these things make most packaged, prepared foods unsustainable and unhealthy. Our health is an important part of environmentalism and sustainable living not just because good health is intimately tied to more sustainable food practices like buying locally grown organic produce, but also because a healthy nation and a well nourished world give rise to healthy minds as well as bodies, and healthy minds empowered to make better choices for the future of this world. The healthy mind comes from the nutrients in healthy food as well as from a change in our relationship with food that leads to changes in our relationship with nature and the plants and animals we make our food from.

This guide is for people living in dorms and bachelor units or any other situation where a kitchen isn't available. With a little time and effort, (not to mention sneakiness) you can get away with making these food items without a kitchen, but you will need some inexpensive and basic items such as an electric hot plate, measuring cups and spoons,and a couple of pots among various other small items. I won't explain the details of each of the processes outlined below. Instead, I will give an overview and provide you with a link or links to learn more on your own. Making your own food empowers and liberates, enabling you to control your diet and therefore your health in all aspects as it relates to your diet.

Kombucha

My kombucha home brew and kombucha mother giving off a mouth
watering aroma of sweet and sour smells.

Soda is bad for your health. It is loaded with high fructose corn syrup and empty calories. Once you get out of the habit of drinking it, it doesn't even really taste very good. Kombucha on the other hand is a healthy, low calorie carbonated alternative.

Kombucha is fermented tea, usually black tea. You take sugar, water, black tea and make tea like you normally would. Then you add the kombucha 'mushroom' which is just a collection of yeasts and bacteria, and in about a week you have your own kombucha ready to drink. If you don't have a kombucha mother already, you can make one using store bought kombucha as a starter.

The resulting drink is virtually nonalcoholic. It will be sweet and sour, more sweet or more sour depending on how long you let it brew. Some find that it is an acquired taste, meaning it is strong and different until you get used to it. I liked it at once. If you've never tried it, you can get it at the mini mart tucked away in the back of the ASUCLA store in Ackerman. For more information on brewing Kombucha go here.

Yogurt
Making yogurt is suprisingly simple. All you need is any kind of milk (cow, goat, soy, whole, lowfat, fatfree), a small container of plain yogurt with live active cultures to act as a starter, a small electric burner ($15) to boil milk, a small electric heating pad, a yogurt or candy thermometer (or any food thermometer will do), a couple of pots (one without a handle that fits inside the other), a container to store your yogurt in, and some instructions. It only takes about a day to get yogurt.

Bread
Bread makers allow you to make your own bread almost anywhere. I found mine used for $8 at a garage sale and I've seen several at Salvation Army Thrift Store. In other words, they're not too hard to come by used and usually at a bargain price. Making bread with a bread machine is easy. Add water, salt, oil, flour, and yeast. Close the lid. Select the proper setting. Press 'start'. The machine does the kneeding, rising, and baking for you. In about 3 hours you have fresh bread.

Solar Oven Cuisine

A solar oven is ridiculously easy to make. By using mirrors, foil, or anything with high albedo, you can make a solar powered oven that focuses the suns raises on a pot of stew, beans, chicken noodle soup, a grass fed pastured pork roast, or anything else you think up. It takes longer to heat up compared but will reach temperatures between 350 and 400 degrees. If you're wondering where to put it and leave it for a few hours outside, look no further than the roofs over your heads. High rise roof tops are often accessible to tenants and make perfect places to cook a meal with solar energy. For solar oven plans and instructions go here.

Toaster Oven Cuisine
If you don't want to make a solar over, any small toaster oven, even an Easy Bake Oven, will work for making cookies, pies, and brownies or cooking small meals, chickens, or roasts. A convection toaster oven is even better because it uses a small fan to circulate air during cooking, using convection to increase efficiency and cut down cooking temperatures and cooking times.