The Easiest Meals to Make in Small Cabin Kitchens

Small cabin kitchens come with plenty of cooking challenges. They’re known for: minimal storage, less counter space and smaller refrigerators. After a couple years of using our compact cabin kitchen, I’ve learned that some types of meals work better in a small kitchen than others.

Here are the three types of meals that work best:

One-Pot Meals

One-pot meals are ideal for a tiny space; all the ingredients get added to one pot and cook together. For example, in this Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup all of the ingredients are added to a dutch oven and cooked together for the final dish. One-pot meals work well because you don’t have to tear up the whole kitchen pulling out all kinds of pots and pans to make dinner. This means less cleanup and less storage!

Slow Cooker Meals

There’s nothing like a hearty and satisfying slow cooker meal. The benefits of slow cooker meals are similar to that of making a one-pot meal. You simply add all of the ingredients to your slow cooker and let it do the work. You can even start your Crock-Pot meal in the morning so that it cooks all day—leaving the kitchen free until dinnertime. We especially love slow cooker meals during the colder months, when having a hot meal feels like the coziest way to end the day.  Our current favorite is easy Ham and Bean Soup.

Big-Batch Meals That You Can Freeze

Lastly, big-batch meals are a perfect fit for cabin kitchens because you can cook them once and eat leftovers later. This will save you time and mess in the kitchen. Try taking your favorite recipe, doubling it and freezing the leftovers. Or you can explore resources online like The Family Freezer. 

The benefits of freezer meals are twofold for cabin life: you can skip a night of cooking and also have more time to spend doing...anything else! And if your freezer is big enough, you can prepare meals for the week and freeze them for later. Some of the easiest meals to prep and freeze are simple soups and chilis. 

Small cabin kitchens can be a challenge to cook in, meaning the easiest meals to make are ones that simply don’t require a lot of space or time. Try keeping things simple by making one-pot, slow cooker, or big-batch meals. It may take some trial and error to discover what works best for your kitchen. Once you find meals that are easy and tasty—make them again and again!  

Megan lives with her husband and son in an 800-square-foot log cabin in Jackson Hole, WY. In search of a simpler pace of life, Megan and her husband took a leap of faith to pursue their own cabin dreams: they quit their jobs, sold what they own, and moved across the country from downtown Austin, TX to their mountainside cabin in Jackson Hole, WY. 

Megan runs her blog The Cabin Diary (www.thecabindiary.com), and can be found sharing day-to-day cabin life through social media (@thecabindiary).