How Portable Electric Kitchen Appliances Can Be Useful after Disasters

It doesn’t take a world-class disaster for a home kitchen to become a No Man’s Land. A long-term power outage can render the stove, oven, and fridge inoperable. Floodwaters can make cooking impossible, storm damage can wreak havoc on a home’s structure, but one thing remains constant — people have to eat!

Anyone can set up a temporary and operational kitchen with just two or three small appliances, and their versatility, as explained in this article, may surprise you.

How Versatile are Portable Electric Kitchen Appliances?

Is a single small kitchen appliance really all that helpful during and after a disaster that impacts your kitchen and leaves it too damaged to be safe or completely without power? Can it actually make a variety of meals and not just one-offs or snacks?

Good news! A waffle maker can make more than just waffles. And that rice cooker? It can make more than just rice. Let’s see how those forgotten little appliances in your cupboards can turn into real lifesavers for cooking meals in an emergency, or on any ordinary day. Even in a long-term power outage, they can make the difference between a hot meal and eating cold ravioli straight from the can.

Electric Griddle

My electric griddle usually only sees pancakes, but it turns out it can be more of a workhorse than you might first suspect, especially if your options for cooking are limited. For instance, it can be used for:

• French toast
• Hashbrowns
• Grilled sandwiches
• Fried eggs
• Hamburgers
• Sausage links/patties
• Bacon
• Tortillas
• Quesadillas
• Pork chops
• Steak
• Foil-wrapped salmon
• Grilled tilapia
• Shrimp
• “Grilled” Asparagus and other veggies

That’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner covered. And folding electric griddles are available now, too. However, if you want a gadget that has the functionality of a griddle but even more options, read on.

Electric skillet

Electric skillets can do everything an electric griddle can and more. They’re great for sautéing, pan-frying, stir-frying, browning meat, and deep-frying, along with griddling those breakfast favorites.

Any meal cooked in a skillet on the stovetop can be cooked in this. Some units offer optional accessories for steaming and grilling, which extends its usefulness even more. This electric skillet is not only dishwasher safe, but it folds up for easy, compact storage.

So what can it make? Everything from the electric griddle list plus things like:

• Chicken Lo Mein
• Scrambled eggs
• Hamburger/Tuna Helper-style meals
• Donuts
• Biscuits
• Brownies
• Lasagna
• Cornbread
• Meatloaf
• Pot roast
• Cake
• Chicken enchiladas
• Seafood chowder
• Scalloped potatoes
• Oatmeal cookies
• Fried chicken

Phew! I could keep going, but you get the idea. And I was pretty much sold at donuts, anyway.

Waffle maker

Several times a year my family has a hankering for waffles. When that happens, I dig the neglected waffle maker from the depths of the pantry, and we feast on those wonderful butter and syrup delivery systems. Otherwise, it sits forgotten.

Imagine my excitement to learn a waffle iron is much more versatile than one might think. Indeed, there are myriad other foods one could make using it. For example:

• Panini
• Brownies
• Pizza
• Quesadillas
• Cinnamon Rolls (The ones from the can would be fast and easy.)
• Tater tot hashbrowns
• Bacon
• Cornbread (Cornbread waffles topped with chili? Yes, please!)
• Potaffles (Potato pancakes that are “waffled.”)
• Biscuits (Just add gravy for a yummy breakfast.)
• Chocolate chip cookies

Definitely no need to waffle about keeping that waffle maker anymore.

Crockpot

Ah, the crockpot. My mother once owned five, all different sizes and shapes. Over the years they offered up a vast selection of delicious soups, stews, spiral hams, and roast beef. Just like the others, though, there’s quite a bit more this common kitchen appliance can do, such as:

• Oatmeal
• Roast chicken
• Mac-n-cheese
• Meatloaf
• Bread
• Baby back ribs
• Corn-on-the-cob
• Deep dish pizza
• Baked potatoes
• Lasagna
• Corned beef
• Granola
• Yogurt
• Cinnamon rolls
• Applesauce

Anyone else looking at their slow cooker with new eyes? I know I am. But if you’re a crockpot newbie or maybe just need a refresher on how to get the most from this cookware, this article will help (whether it’s winter or not.)

HotLogic Portable Oven

What? A portable oven? Yup! Think of it as a car oven. If I’ve intrigued you, then head over to this HotLogic product review and learn all about why I think this small appliance is ingenious. If you’re tired of fast food or sandwiches on long road trips, then you don’t want to miss the HotLogic!

Rice cooker

If the electric skillet and the slow cooker had a child, that offspring would be a rice cooker. That’s right. You can cook one-pot meals in a rice cooker, steam veggies, and make other side dishes, appetizers, and breakfasts. You can even make desserts.

Here are some other things I was pleasantly surprised to discover can be made in a rice cooker:

• Roast chicken
• Hard-boiled eggs (Deviled eggs, anyone?)
• Black beans
• Baby back ribs
• Carrot cake
• Pull-apart pizza bread
• Frittata
• Pancake (One big one!)
• Bonus non-food use: Humidifier
• And this rice cooker cookbook gets a ton of great reviews.

With those options, the humble rice cooker rises to an all-new level.

But now for the pièce de résistance of all portable electric cooking appliances–the Instant Pot!

Instant Pot

All Instant Pot converts know that I’ve saved the best for last. This Wonder Woman of small kitchen appliances took home cooks by storm a few years back, and I’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t love it.

Depending on the unit, it can function as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice/porridge cooker, cake maker, steamer, yogurt maker, warmer, sterilizer, and can also sear, saute, bake, and sous vide. In many cases, it will do all that faster than the comparable stand-alone unit. And there are sizes to meet every family’s needs.

A small appliance that can do the work of ten seems like a no-brainer in a disaster scenario. Not to mention its versatility for those with space constraints, those who tend toward minimalism, and those who wonder what to make for dinner 30 minutes before dinner should be on the table.

For more about this little gem and what it can do, read my ode to the Instant Pot.

Two more kitchen appliances for extra versatility

Two more appliances I love for an emergency kitchen set-up are the electric kettle and air fryer.

I love an electric kettle for near-instant hot water. In fact, I put together an emergency cooking plan using only that one appliance. Heat up water for one of those “instant” meals and add another three or four cups of water for either a French press or a pour-over coffee maker.

If you have an air fryer, you already know how versatile it can be for super-quick meals, side dishes, and snacks. Some of the newer models have a convection oven capability, toaster, and can be large enough to bake a pizza.

Should you ever need to set up an emergency kitchen, any of these appliances can be put to work to cook and bake most anything you and your family could want.

What if there’s no power?

After a disaster, if you don’t have access to a kitchen, but you do have electricity, then your only challenge is setting up an emergency kitchen, assembling your small appliances, and start cooking! You can eat healthier, for less money, and enjoy the morale boost of a homecooked meal even in the midst of chaos.

Each of these appliance requires a power source, though, and if the power’s out, you’ll need options. The easiest one is a power bank, basically a large, portable battery used to provide energy. Here’s an example of a power outage cooking plan that combines a portable power bank with an electric kettle.

You may be surprised by what a small power station can run!

A solar generator is another option, but I’ll let you in on a little secret. A “solar generator” is nothing more than a power bank with the ability to charge via solar panels. Read more about what it takes to power small appliances using solar power here.

The key to using a power bank in the kitchen is knowing how many watts each appliance requires and ensuring the power bank will provide that. I thought my Jackery500  would run my Instant Pot — nope. An Instant Pot requires at least 1500 watts.

Of course, you can always use the gas-powered portable home generator to power-up your kitchen appliances during a power outage.So when a power outage or other disaster disables your kitchen, turn to your small appliances for an easy solution for hot, homecooked meals.