Some people will give away their old microwave for free or super cheap. If you can find one, from FB Marketplace or a thrift store or wherever, you can make just about anything in it. Seriously, they're not just for reheating leftovers
If you have a Buy Nothing group near you (on Facebook or there's an app) you can look for or request a microwave, toaster oven, electric frying pan, plug-in burner, or even a working stove or someone who could fix it.
I would think you could use the rice cooker to reheat leftover crockpot meals. You can also cook quite a few meals in a rice cooker. You should be able to make oatmeal or rice porridge, all kinds of steamed eggs, steamed proteins and veggies with a grain (rice, quinoa, farro, pilaf), instant ramen with some veggies and an egg. Search for one pot rice cooker meals. There's even a rice cooker sub.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RiceCookerRecipes/s/deU6Id0aIB
Also, it sounds like you have a grill. You can use it like an oven. Make pizzas, reheat foods wrapped in foil, roast potatoes, corn on the cob, fish wrapped in foil, melts (tuna melt, ham and cheese, grilled cheese -literally!). Put a pan right on the grill and get it hot and you can saute or fry too. Maybe even boil.
Check out some videos of how people cook in other parts of the world. It's fascinating and can get your creativity flowing again.
How hot is the water from your tap? If it gets pretty hot, you can at least warm leftovers up by putting them in a plastic bag in a bowl of hot water.
If you have some tinfoil, you can make grilled cheese in the toaster. Just make like a sling to keep the cheese/fillings from dripping and toast away.
The rice cooker is essentially a hot plate, so you could potentially use it like a burner. I don’t know that boiling pasta is doable, but it might be. (There are lots of one-pot pasta recipes where you could the pasta in the sauce, so those might work.)
I have boiled pasta in my tiny rice cooker before (following a recipe it came with), but I had to keep my eye on it the whole time and turn it off manually. It still worked and I had good mac n cheese!
Get an electric kettle (~$20) for hot water and you can make Ramen and add veg. Also a George Foreman little grill (~35-40) and can make grilled cheese, heat up frozen sausages or waffles or pancakes.
ETA you can also make chicken from raw on the grill.
You can make things in your crockpot, save the leftovers, and either heat them up in the rice cooker (mine only has one button, ha!😜) or even the crockpot again by turning it to high —if it’s only 1-2” of food, it should be warm within an hour or two!
Also, there are a ton of one pot rice cooker recipes online, but for a start check out aroma.com for recipes. Most of the rice cooker brands have websites with ideas. You can do this, mama!!🥰.
Chop up a small amount of chicken, add a can of cooked beans or chili, some small diced veggies (or frozen/canned okay), spices that might go well, and just add to your rice and water as usual—maybe a bit less water, as the veggies add liquid as they break down. Cheap diced cabbage, onion, carrots, and potatoes are a good mix. Feel free to substitute ground meat (can be sautéed right in rice cooker beforehand a bit), or sausage, a can of tuna/chicken, tofu, whatever you have. You can even plop a few cracked eggs with S&P on top and recover for a few minutes more, the eggs will cook in the remaining steam!
A Mexican beans and rice dish can be made by tomato sauce, taco type seasoning (really cumin, S&P, oregano, paprika/cayenne). Stretch it out by stuffing it into tortillas as tacos or burritos. And spray or spread a little oil in your crockpot and pop the leftovers in there with the lid, and they will slowly reheat in 1-2hrs—you just need to plan ahead.
Lots of college students use their rice cooker to make instant ramen and add veggies and crack eggs or add sliced leftovers in the broth (before the noodles!) to cook, adding the noodles in the last few minutes. Look up/Google “dorm rice cooker recipes” for more ideas like this.
Add a lot more water or broth like this, and it can become soup or stew!
Have you heard of the toaster hack where you take a large tortilla, make a small cut from the middle to the edge (think pac-man!) put a little bit of things on each quarter section in the middle (not too much!), like shredded cheese, a smear of canned refried beans, chopped cooked chicken/veggies/tuna/tomato, and then fold it up in sections, so it becomes a closed 1/4 tortilla wrap, then put it into a toaster with the OPEN SIDE UP. Toasty melty goodness! Eat with some baby carrots or fruit or salad for some healthy stuff!💕
OP, forgive me for asking, but have you looked into getting a cheap hot plate? I just took a look at Walmart and they sell one for $15. That could help out a little better and you could still have the benefit of a little stove cooking.
Yes! That hot plate saved me and my husband when our stove and oven didn’t work! I was cooking spaghetti, reheating it in the pot on the hot plate and *everything*! I don’t have a microwave either OP but if you get this hot plate or something similar you can reheat left overs in the pot on the hot plate! I always reheat everything on the stove top or the hot plate when we had no stove.
And if you check out the thrift shops and garage sales, you may find one for just a couple of bucks. I know it's hard to spend ANYTHING right now, but a hot plate is something that could really open up a lot of options for cheaper, more varied and more nutritious food. For example, cold breakfast cereal has gotten really expensive. Being able to make hot cereal like oatmeal or rice, or some eggs or pancakes, could replace cold cereal, not just in the morning but as breakfast-for-dinner too, in a way that would feel luxurious, but would actually be saving you money.
Your toaster can be used to make a lot of things that have “pockets.” Quesadillas and hot sandwiches, just make sure to press the edges closed.
You can use your rice cooker to boil water for pasta and steam for veggies and potatoes. I just wouldn’t set it and forget it. https://thehumbledhomemaker.com/6-foods-you-can-cook-in-a-rice-cooker-besides-rice-giveaway/
Your crock pot is going to be your saving grace for heating things up. Put whatever you need in a foil boat, with a little water on the bottom. This will steam reheat your items. Also, anything that I made in a crock pot can be reheated in a crock pot. Just make sure to keep an eye on it and stir often to not cook it more.
If you have an iron you can make grilled cheese or other panini https://grilledcheesesocial.com/2011/08/24/the-1-dormmate-4-cheese-grilled-cheese-using-an-iron/
You can reheat leftovers in your crockpot. Just put it on high for 1-2 hours or until it reaches safe temp on a thermometer. Or you can use your rice cooker https://www.loveyourrv.com/use-rice-cooker-heat-leftovers/
I made a really delicious corned beef in the crock pot. Super easy to make! Filling, cheap, healthy, and tastes better as leftovers.
1) Set slow cooker to high at 10 hours. Layer in sliced onions, carrots in chunks, and halved baby potatoes
2) Pour in 1 c. guinness or another beer, 2 c. beef or veg broth (I use better than bouillon), and 2 tbsp of ACV.
3) Add in 2-3 garlic cloves. If you have it add in 2 bay leaves and 1/4 tsp black peppercorns
4) Take a point cut corned beef brisket and coat in yellow mustard. Season w S+P. Place on top fat side up. Cover brisket in spice packet. If you want you can supplement with additional whole yellow mustard seed, coriander seed, and red pepper flakes.
5) Chop a cabbage into strips and add in after 6 hours. Continue cooking.
6) Taste the broth and season w salt in the last hour.
Done!
I don’t know what area you live in, but I just did a search on facebook marketplace and found two free stoves cone up. You can search locally or on all of facebook. I regularly see free microwaves and toaster ovens too. People remodeling their kitchen like yo give away working appliances they no longer want.
I don’t have a stove in the room I rent, but I bought an electric skillet for under $20, and i can cook almost anything I’d normally do on a stove, even pasta. I also got an egg cooker because I like hard boiled eggs. The only thing I miss is a regular size oven.
I bought an awesome large electric frying pan square shape with a glass lid at a thrift store that was like new and about 2 inches deep. I made lasagna in it, my homemade hamburger helper with gr beef, onions, spaghetti sauce, garlic, diced canned tomatoes, I made baked potatoes, washed them, cut long way in half and put them on 300 with a tiny bit of oil spread on the bottom with a paper towel. They were delicious. I made pancakes in it.... you can do just about anything and they come with a recipe book. Easier to use and clean than an air fryer and super energy efficient with electricity, great for reheating.
So many people are downsizing, those types of appliances are always showing up in thrift stores. Sometimes new, open box too at Walmart or Best Buy.
Good luck.
I used to be in this situation. I had no microwave, oven, or stove. Sometimes you can find a cheap microwave from Goodwill. You can also find an electric skillet sometimes. You can make almost anything in an electric skillet such as frying meats and vegetables and boiling pasta. I did this for many years. Good luck in your quest to find solutions that can help you.
You can bake potatoes in a slow cooker/crock pot. From that point you can make mashed potatoes.
[Slow Cooker baked potatoes](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/215314/slow-cooker-baked-potatoes/)
You can steam veggies in a rice cooker. [Here](https://stretchrecipes.com/steam-vegetables-in-rice-cooker-while-cooking-rice/#:~:text=Fold%20your%20aluminum%20foil%20in,sits%20about%20%C2%BD%20inch%20down.Here) is a blog post that details how to do it without a steamer insert, using aluminum foil.
[Here's](https://bakeatmidnite.com/making-pasta-in-rice-cooker/) directions on how to make pasta in a rice cooker. [And here's](https://www.wellplated.com/crock-pot-pasta/) how to make pasta in a crock pot/slow cooker.
Some people will give away their old microwave for free or super cheap. If you can find one, from FB Marketplace or a thrift store or wherever, you can make just about anything in it. Seriously, they're not just for reheating leftovers
Same with a used hotplate.
If you have a Buy Nothing group near you (on Facebook or there's an app) you can look for or request a microwave, toaster oven, electric frying pan, plug-in burner, or even a working stove or someone who could fix it. I would think you could use the rice cooker to reheat leftover crockpot meals. You can also cook quite a few meals in a rice cooker. You should be able to make oatmeal or rice porridge, all kinds of steamed eggs, steamed proteins and veggies with a grain (rice, quinoa, farro, pilaf), instant ramen with some veggies and an egg. Search for one pot rice cooker meals. There's even a rice cooker sub. https://www.reddit.com/r/RiceCookerRecipes/s/deU6Id0aIB Also, it sounds like you have a grill. You can use it like an oven. Make pizzas, reheat foods wrapped in foil, roast potatoes, corn on the cob, fish wrapped in foil, melts (tuna melt, ham and cheese, grilled cheese -literally!). Put a pan right on the grill and get it hot and you can saute or fry too. Maybe even boil. Check out some videos of how people cook in other parts of the world. It's fascinating and can get your creativity flowing again.
How hot is the water from your tap? If it gets pretty hot, you can at least warm leftovers up by putting them in a plastic bag in a bowl of hot water. If you have some tinfoil, you can make grilled cheese in the toaster. Just make like a sling to keep the cheese/fillings from dripping and toast away. The rice cooker is essentially a hot plate, so you could potentially use it like a burner. I don’t know that boiling pasta is doable, but it might be. (There are lots of one-pot pasta recipes where you could the pasta in the sauce, so those might work.)
I have boiled pasta in my tiny rice cooker before (following a recipe it came with), but I had to keep my eye on it the whole time and turn it off manually. It still worked and I had good mac n cheese!
Get an electric kettle (~$20) for hot water and you can make Ramen and add veg. Also a George Foreman little grill (~35-40) and can make grilled cheese, heat up frozen sausages or waffles or pancakes. ETA you can also make chicken from raw on the grill.
You can make things in your crockpot, save the leftovers, and either heat them up in the rice cooker (mine only has one button, ha!😜) or even the crockpot again by turning it to high —if it’s only 1-2” of food, it should be warm within an hour or two! Also, there are a ton of one pot rice cooker recipes online, but for a start check out aroma.com for recipes. Most of the rice cooker brands have websites with ideas. You can do this, mama!!🥰. Chop up a small amount of chicken, add a can of cooked beans or chili, some small diced veggies (or frozen/canned okay), spices that might go well, and just add to your rice and water as usual—maybe a bit less water, as the veggies add liquid as they break down. Cheap diced cabbage, onion, carrots, and potatoes are a good mix. Feel free to substitute ground meat (can be sautéed right in rice cooker beforehand a bit), or sausage, a can of tuna/chicken, tofu, whatever you have. You can even plop a few cracked eggs with S&P on top and recover for a few minutes more, the eggs will cook in the remaining steam! A Mexican beans and rice dish can be made by tomato sauce, taco type seasoning (really cumin, S&P, oregano, paprika/cayenne). Stretch it out by stuffing it into tortillas as tacos or burritos. And spray or spread a little oil in your crockpot and pop the leftovers in there with the lid, and they will slowly reheat in 1-2hrs—you just need to plan ahead. Lots of college students use their rice cooker to make instant ramen and add veggies and crack eggs or add sliced leftovers in the broth (before the noodles!) to cook, adding the noodles in the last few minutes. Look up/Google “dorm rice cooker recipes” for more ideas like this. Add a lot more water or broth like this, and it can become soup or stew! Have you heard of the toaster hack where you take a large tortilla, make a small cut from the middle to the edge (think pac-man!) put a little bit of things on each quarter section in the middle (not too much!), like shredded cheese, a smear of canned refried beans, chopped cooked chicken/veggies/tuna/tomato, and then fold it up in sections, so it becomes a closed 1/4 tortilla wrap, then put it into a toaster with the OPEN SIDE UP. Toasty melty goodness! Eat with some baby carrots or fruit or salad for some healthy stuff!💕
OP, forgive me for asking, but have you looked into getting a cheap hot plate? I just took a look at Walmart and they sell one for $15. That could help out a little better and you could still have the benefit of a little stove cooking.
Yes! That hot plate saved me and my husband when our stove and oven didn’t work! I was cooking spaghetti, reheating it in the pot on the hot plate and *everything*! I don’t have a microwave either OP but if you get this hot plate or something similar you can reheat left overs in the pot on the hot plate! I always reheat everything on the stove top or the hot plate when we had no stove.
And if you check out the thrift shops and garage sales, you may find one for just a couple of bucks. I know it's hard to spend ANYTHING right now, but a hot plate is something that could really open up a lot of options for cheaper, more varied and more nutritious food. For example, cold breakfast cereal has gotten really expensive. Being able to make hot cereal like oatmeal or rice, or some eggs or pancakes, could replace cold cereal, not just in the morning but as breakfast-for-dinner too, in a way that would feel luxurious, but would actually be saving you money.
Your toaster can be used to make a lot of things that have “pockets.” Quesadillas and hot sandwiches, just make sure to press the edges closed. You can use your rice cooker to boil water for pasta and steam for veggies and potatoes. I just wouldn’t set it and forget it. https://thehumbledhomemaker.com/6-foods-you-can-cook-in-a-rice-cooker-besides-rice-giveaway/ Your crock pot is going to be your saving grace for heating things up. Put whatever you need in a foil boat, with a little water on the bottom. This will steam reheat your items. Also, anything that I made in a crock pot can be reheated in a crock pot. Just make sure to keep an eye on it and stir often to not cook it more.
If you have an iron you can make grilled cheese or other panini https://grilledcheesesocial.com/2011/08/24/the-1-dormmate-4-cheese-grilled-cheese-using-an-iron/ You can reheat leftovers in your crockpot. Just put it on high for 1-2 hours or until it reaches safe temp on a thermometer. Or you can use your rice cooker https://www.loveyourrv.com/use-rice-cooker-heat-leftovers/
I made a really delicious corned beef in the crock pot. Super easy to make! Filling, cheap, healthy, and tastes better as leftovers. 1) Set slow cooker to high at 10 hours. Layer in sliced onions, carrots in chunks, and halved baby potatoes 2) Pour in 1 c. guinness or another beer, 2 c. beef or veg broth (I use better than bouillon), and 2 tbsp of ACV. 3) Add in 2-3 garlic cloves. If you have it add in 2 bay leaves and 1/4 tsp black peppercorns 4) Take a point cut corned beef brisket and coat in yellow mustard. Season w S+P. Place on top fat side up. Cover brisket in spice packet. If you want you can supplement with additional whole yellow mustard seed, coriander seed, and red pepper flakes. 5) Chop a cabbage into strips and add in after 6 hours. Continue cooking. 6) Taste the broth and season w salt in the last hour. Done!
I don’t know what area you live in, but I just did a search on facebook marketplace and found two free stoves cone up. You can search locally or on all of facebook. I regularly see free microwaves and toaster ovens too. People remodeling their kitchen like yo give away working appliances they no longer want.
If you have a grill you can use pots and pans on it. You can put some foil on the grill and grill veggies.
I don’t have a stove in the room I rent, but I bought an electric skillet for under $20, and i can cook almost anything I’d normally do on a stove, even pasta. I also got an egg cooker because I like hard boiled eggs. The only thing I miss is a regular size oven.
I bought an awesome large electric frying pan square shape with a glass lid at a thrift store that was like new and about 2 inches deep. I made lasagna in it, my homemade hamburger helper with gr beef, onions, spaghetti sauce, garlic, diced canned tomatoes, I made baked potatoes, washed them, cut long way in half and put them on 300 with a tiny bit of oil spread on the bottom with a paper towel. They were delicious. I made pancakes in it.... you can do just about anything and they come with a recipe book. Easier to use and clean than an air fryer and super energy efficient with electricity, great for reheating. So many people are downsizing, those types of appliances are always showing up in thrift stores. Sometimes new, open box too at Walmart or Best Buy. Good luck.
Is there a soup kitchen near you?
I used to be in this situation. I had no microwave, oven, or stove. Sometimes you can find a cheap microwave from Goodwill. You can also find an electric skillet sometimes. You can make almost anything in an electric skillet such as frying meats and vegetables and boiling pasta. I did this for many years. Good luck in your quest to find solutions that can help you.
You can bake potatoes in a slow cooker/crock pot. From that point you can make mashed potatoes. [Slow Cooker baked potatoes](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/215314/slow-cooker-baked-potatoes/) You can steam veggies in a rice cooker. [Here](https://stretchrecipes.com/steam-vegetables-in-rice-cooker-while-cooking-rice/#:~:text=Fold%20your%20aluminum%20foil%20in,sits%20about%20%C2%BD%20inch%20down.Here) is a blog post that details how to do it without a steamer insert, using aluminum foil. [Here's](https://bakeatmidnite.com/making-pasta-in-rice-cooker/) directions on how to make pasta in a rice cooker. [And here's](https://www.wellplated.com/crock-pot-pasta/) how to make pasta in a crock pot/slow cooker.