Just Bento

Wow, that's a difficult situation! I think I'd just try to get through the week with cut-up vegetables or premade salads, bread (look for interesting rolls and things beyond just sliced bread), things like that. Maybe some nice pate in a jar or something with crusty bread. Fruit that doesn't need refrigeration. If you have a Japanese grocery store near you, you can get ready-to-microwave rice, furikake, even curry in a pouch, that don't need refrigeration. Good luck!

i once spent half a year without a fridge, in fall/winter you can store milk products like yoghurt, pickled things and veggies on a cool windowsill outside as soon as the temperature drops.
i used to put any meat and fresh milk in an isolated box as you'd use for camping and bummed frozen ice packs for cooling from a nearby friend- keeps stuff fresh for at least a day or so. packs of frozen peas add extra coldness, but of course they'll thaw and need to be used up the next day.

wow!! o_o
This is what I'd do and actually did when my kitchen was infested with roaches and i didn't even dare to enter there!!! so I had my food stored in the living room (cooked it with my rice cooker...) for a couple of weeks until the pest control guy came and saved me xD

I'd rely on pasta or rice (you can cook them every day or just use pre-cooked rice), veggies that don't need refrigeration, like onion, carrots, green pepper, apples, oranges, grapes,

There is a brand here that sells yoghur that doesn't need refrigeration, maybe you can find something like that near your home.

Also, spanish ham, chorizo and so on do not need refrigeration if you carefully wrap them in plastic wrap or put them in a tupper ware (i'm certain they are sold in the US, i don't know if they are cheap!) and you can buy old cheese, it can be on the counter inside a tupperware.

You can use powder milk as well! just mix it with water and drink.

Canned food will save your life a few times too :)

good luck!!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Week Two w/o a fridge... which is turning into Week Three... has been survivable due to the kindness of neighbors. I grab stuff in the evening (either from the store on the way home or stored in her fridge), cook in the evening (sometimes as late as 10:30), then store my bento in her fridge until morning. However, this situation has really taxed my bento creativity.

One night I made extra tonkastu and supplemented it with cheese grits (cooked that morning) and a slaw salad (from the grocery store). I also just discovered furikake, so there's been a lot of rice and soboro -- both things that can be made in quantity and stored in individual portions in her freezer. Inari seems to keep well. The only real problem has been incorporating protein; carbs and veggies and fruit have been quite easy.

Hmm. Pate. I never really considered that as a "lunch" staple; it's always been for special occassions. Hey! This fridge-less situation could turn out quite well with pate on the menu ;-)

sing it with me:

it's peanut butter-jelly time!

hana.yori.dango