How to Cook a Thanksgiving Feast Without a Kitchen

So thanksgiving is coming up and many people are excited to go home and stuff themselves with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and everything else that comes along with thanksgiving. However, some people aren’t fortunate enough to be able to go home over thanksgiving break.  I didn’t go home freshman year, and I was stuck on an empty campus, by myself in my dorm.  Like many of you know, almost all dorms do not have a kitchen.  I was fortunate enough to have a microwave, so I set out on a mission to make my thanksgiving meal with only a microwave.

Here are some ideas on how to prepare a thanksgiving meal… Dorm style!

You have to first start off with a Turkey because cooking a turkey without an oven will take way longer.  Make sure that when you get the turkey it will be small enough to fit in the microwave (around a 6lb turkey). When you put it in the microwave use a plastic oven cooking bag this will help even out heat distribution while cooking.  You will want to cook it for 9-10min per pound (so I cooked min 56min) on 50% power. Rotate it often.  If you have a food thermometer you can use it to make sure that the middle of the turkey reaches at least 165deg.  This will cook the turkey but if you want to add more flavor you can make a rub and put it on the turkey. This website has the top 10 best Turkey rubs that all can be made without an oven

http://www.bhg.com/thanksgiving/roast-turkey/thanksgiving-turkey-rubs/.

After the turkey is in the microwave I started making the sweet potatoes, however I added apples and cranberries to my sweet potato recipe. What I did was cut up two apples, peeled/chopped 3 sweet potatoes the put cranberries,brown sugar, butter and a little bit of salt into a ziploc steamer bag.  I made 2 bags and each bag was in the microwave for 9 minutes at 100% power.

For the stuffing I just used Kraft – Stove Top stuffing, added hot water and the stuffing was ready!

For drinks I made a cranberry spritzer (cranberry and sprite).

Overall I think my thanksgiving dinner was delicious and definatly did not taste like it came out of a microwave.

Shopping list:

1. Turkey 6-10 lbs
2. Ingredients for the Rub (your pick)
3. Sweet Potatoes
4. Cranberries
5. Brown Sugar
6. Butter
7. Apples
8. Stove Top- Stuffing
9. Steamer Bags
10. Thermometer
11. Sprite

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!