Maxi hopes/Miniscule Usefulness: Nearly 50% of microwave use, I'm using it to heat a beverage, coffee or tea. Nearly the other 50%, I'm reheating leftovers. (You can tell, at least we don't eat very many teevee dinners ;o)
Around here someplace, I might have a microwave cookbook that I bought quite awhile ago. Started to read it with enthusiasm! Might have thrown it away in disappointment.
Vegetables are a possibility but I haven't been very happy with cooking most of them in the microwave. I now and then slice mushrooms, combine them with a little margarine, and microwave them, stirring once or twice. It's a good way for me to include mushrooms in something that will benefit from their addition.
Could I broaden the possibilities of cooking other vegetables with silicone cookware?
Cookware like this: LINK
Steve
I do use my microwave a lot. Mostly for heating leftovers, but I don't know how to cook for less than 6 and I like to do most of the cooking for the week in a day and just reheat later. I don't like to do much cooking after work and I don't mind left overs.
However I do make some things from scratch in the microwave
Cheese crisps (snacks. I did this by accident, now I do it on purpose)
Chicken mandarin - The original recipe calls for frying the chicken first, but I rarely fry anything. I put 4 pieces of chicken thighs or breasts in a glass casserole. Skins are optional, they will not be crispy. Add one can of mandarin oranges with the liquid or orange juice would be better. Salt and pepper to taste. I am on a low salt diet so I omit the salt. Nuke it for about 15-20 minutes and serve over rice.
Rice can be made in the microwave in a microwave rice cooker but it is messy, so I use the rice cooker and cook enough rice to last 4-5 days. Rice freezes well too and can be reheated in the microwave.
I make oatmeal, not instant, that is nasty. The old fashioned oats can be made in the microwave.
Microwave casseroles. Any casserole I can bake in the oven I can make in the microwave as long as browning is not a requirement
Beef and macaroni
Mac and cheese
Pork chop casserole (O.k. I do have to precook the pork chops on the range in a frying pan)
Potatoes (poke holes through the potato skin and wrap in a wet paper towel. Nuke for 4 minutes for a medium potato. 10 minutes if you want to make smashed potatoes
Cut up potatoes and cook in a little water with a cover to steam and you get boiled potatoes or the beginnings of a potato mash.
Microwaves are not for browning, toasting, or for really fatty or oily foods like bacon and butter unless you like your dishes to have a meltdown. It is not for reheating fried foods or anything you want to stay crispy. It can bake cakes and pies but they don't color up nicely and crusts are chewy.
Bread is iffy, it is initially soft when warm but soon becomes a rock.
Frozen and fresh veggies are good in the microwave as long as it is spread out or steamed and you don't over cook them.
I use the rice cooker to do double duty too. I add eggs in the shell to the rice and when it is done, I have boiled eggs for a week. Edamame, peas, or beans can be steamed with the rice. Broth can be substituted for the water in the rice. In Hawaii, nearly everybody has a rice cooker or two, it is a necessity, potatoes are not.
However I do make some things from scratch in the microwave
Cheese crisps (snacks. I did this by accident, now I do it on purpose)
Chicken mandarin - The original recipe calls for frying the chicken first, but I rarely fry anything. I put 4 pieces of chicken thighs or breasts in a glass casserole. Skins are optional, they will not be crispy. Add one can of mandarin oranges with the liquid or orange juice would be better. Salt and pepper to taste. I am on a low salt diet so I omit the salt. Nuke it for about 15-20 minutes and serve over rice.
Rice can be made in the microwave in a microwave rice cooker but it is messy, so I use the rice cooker and cook enough rice to last 4-5 days. Rice freezes well too and can be reheated in the microwave.
I make oatmeal, not instant, that is nasty. The old fashioned oats can be made in the microwave.
Microwave casseroles. Any casserole I can bake in the oven I can make in the microwave as long as browning is not a requirement
Beef and macaroni
Mac and cheese
Pork chop casserole (O.k. I do have to precook the pork chops on the range in a frying pan)
Potatoes (poke holes through the potato skin and wrap in a wet paper towel. Nuke for 4 minutes for a medium potato. 10 minutes if you want to make smashed potatoes
Cut up potatoes and cook in a little water with a cover to steam and you get boiled potatoes or the beginnings of a potato mash.
Microwaves are not for browning, toasting, or for really fatty or oily foods like bacon and butter unless you like your dishes to have a meltdown. It is not for reheating fried foods or anything you want to stay crispy. It can bake cakes and pies but they don't color up nicely and crusts are chewy.
Bread is iffy, it is initially soft when warm but soon becomes a rock.
Frozen and fresh veggies are good in the microwave as long as it is spread out or steamed and you don't over cook them.
I use the rice cooker to do double duty too. I add eggs in the shell to the rice and when it is done, I have boiled eggs for a week. Edamame, peas, or beans can be steamed with the rice. Broth can be substituted for the water in the rice. In Hawaii, nearly everybody has a rice cooker or two, it is a necessity, potatoes are not.
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Gary350
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7419
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
Vegetables contain enzymes that are very healthy if you do not heat them. There are 6 enzymes each one has a temperature that will kill it. First one is about 112 degrees next one about 120, 125, 130, 140 and 145. Heat above 150 kills all the enzymes. Eat the vegetables raw it is very good for you digestion. I put lots of raw vegetables in salad, peas, beans, carrots, lettuce, kale, tomatoes, chard, melon, grapes, apples, celery, more. You can also make a vege smoothie.
Cheese crisps ... I've led such a sheltered life, Imafan'! DW is exploring the "smoothie world."
I commonly cook 3 things, but not in a microwave: stir-fry, soup and casserole. If all three have the same ingredients, that's fine
. Perhaps meat, stock, vegetables, and a starch -- the percentages of each vary.
The way I have nuked vegetables might be okay to use them in a casserole or soup.
DW has little interest in frozen or canned vegetables and I'm really okay with that. As gardeners, we certainly spend a lot of time and $ in the produce section of the supermarket
. It's okay ... I can't expect my 180 square foot greenhouse to supply us with much to eat through the winter. And, that produce section provides us with lots and lots of winter fruit!
I guess I should venture over in the frozen food section and learn if there are recent improvements that we may be able to imitate in our own kitchen. By "recent," you know - I mean in the last 30 years or so
.
Vegetables microwaved in sauces should be worth exploring. Gotta be careful here - calorie excesses, you know!
Steve
I commonly cook 3 things, but not in a microwave: stir-fry, soup and casserole. If all three have the same ingredients, that's fine
. Perhaps meat, stock, vegetables, and a starch -- the percentages of each vary.The way I have nuked vegetables might be okay to use them in a casserole or soup.
DW has little interest in frozen or canned vegetables and I'm really okay with that. As gardeners, we certainly spend a lot of time and $ in the produce section of the supermarket
. It's okay ... I can't expect my 180 square foot greenhouse to supply us with much to eat through the winter. And, that produce section provides us with lots and lots of winter fruit!I guess I should venture over in the frozen food section and learn if there are recent improvements that we may be able to imitate in our own kitchen. By "recent," you know - I mean in the last 30 years or so
.Vegetables microwaved in sauces should be worth exploring. Gotta be careful here - calorie excesses, you know!
Steve
The fancy chefs use hard cheeses like parmesan rind, but I have done this with cheddar.
https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/201 ... risps.html
https://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/how-ma ... -microwave
Actually, I find shopping in the produce section of the market disappointing and shocking. Except for onions, potatoes, carrots and most of my bananas which I do buy at the market, I grow most of the vegetables I eat or get them from friends and family for free or in trade for what I have.
Unless I go to a farmer's market, most of the stuff at the super market is more than a few days old. Cucumbers are limp, tomatoes are bland and mostly green, peppers, cukes, eggplant are in various states of dehydration. Lettuce is drying out or browning, and fruit is a junk shoot sometimes they are good, sometimes they are not. I actually prefer to get the vegetables from the freezer instead. I also encounter price shock since I don't usually pay for things like green onions ($1.99/lb), lettuce ($2.49/lb), eggplant ($1.69/b) chayote ($1.69/lb), hot peppers ($2.99-$6.99/lb), herbs ($1.99 -$2.49 a bunch), cucumbers ($0.79-$1.99/lb), gourd and kabocha ($0.79-$3.69/lb), lemons and limes ($0.99 each). Organic is 30% higher.
I don't really know how much it costs me to raise my own since cost of media, seeds, plants, and pots have gone up too. I don't need to use a lot of fertilizer because my soil test was a good deal at $12.00 each and I saved more than that on fertilizer I did not have to buy. Slug bait though cost $58 for 20 lbs and the snails are still winning.
I have ventured into premade meals, but most of them I find to be very salty, but I am sensitive to salt since I don't put a lot of salt in my food. Costco roast chicken is cheap and ready to eat so it really isn't worth the time to make it from scratch. Parts will be used for sandwiches, chicken salad, casseroles, and soup. I cannot make a pumpkin pie for $5.00 from scratch, but I do buy most of my fruits from the grocery stores or farmer's market because a lot of the fruit and some vegetables from Costco and Sam's are rotting in the bins if you don't get there soon after it comes in, and the quantities are too large unless you can split it with a couple of people. I end up wasting more than I save that way.
I do like Eggo, since I don't have a waffle maker, and tv dinners have improved a lot.
Soups though, I have to admit are better slow cooked on a range or the slow cooker than in the microwave. They just need to have the ingredients added at the right time and long slow cooking and time for the flavors to blend. Some wine in the pot doesn't hurt either.
https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/201 ... risps.html
https://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/how-ma ... -microwave
Actually, I find shopping in the produce section of the market disappointing and shocking. Except for onions, potatoes, carrots and most of my bananas which I do buy at the market, I grow most of the vegetables I eat or get them from friends and family for free or in trade for what I have.
Unless I go to a farmer's market, most of the stuff at the super market is more than a few days old. Cucumbers are limp, tomatoes are bland and mostly green, peppers, cukes, eggplant are in various states of dehydration. Lettuce is drying out or browning, and fruit is a junk shoot sometimes they are good, sometimes they are not. I actually prefer to get the vegetables from the freezer instead. I also encounter price shock since I don't usually pay for things like green onions ($1.99/lb), lettuce ($2.49/lb), eggplant ($1.69/b) chayote ($1.69/lb), hot peppers ($2.99-$6.99/lb), herbs ($1.99 -$2.49 a bunch), cucumbers ($0.79-$1.99/lb), gourd and kabocha ($0.79-$3.69/lb), lemons and limes ($0.99 each). Organic is 30% higher.
I don't really know how much it costs me to raise my own since cost of media, seeds, plants, and pots have gone up too. I don't need to use a lot of fertilizer because my soil test was a good deal at $12.00 each and I saved more than that on fertilizer I did not have to buy. Slug bait though cost $58 for 20 lbs and the snails are still winning.
I have ventured into premade meals, but most of them I find to be very salty, but I am sensitive to salt since I don't put a lot of salt in my food. Costco roast chicken is cheap and ready to eat so it really isn't worth the time to make it from scratch. Parts will be used for sandwiches, chicken salad, casseroles, and soup. I cannot make a pumpkin pie for $5.00 from scratch, but I do buy most of my fruits from the grocery stores or farmer's market because a lot of the fruit and some vegetables from Costco and Sam's are rotting in the bins if you don't get there soon after it comes in, and the quantities are too large unless you can split it with a couple of people. I end up wasting more than I save that way.
I do like Eggo, since I don't have a waffle maker, and tv dinners have improved a lot.
Soups though, I have to admit are better slow cooked on a range or the slow cooker than in the microwave. They just need to have the ingredients added at the right time and long slow cooking and time for the flavors to blend. Some wine in the pot doesn't hurt either.
Everyone has different tastes. See, I would drink the wine and put the cheese in the soup .
DW saw a chayote on the teevee the other day. "Is that some kind of mango?" No, DW pointed out that they were on a vine that was only climbing the tree. "Oh." I thought I'd seen them before but couldn't remember that they were edible gourds . And, now that you have reminded me of the name, still don't know how to pronounce it.
Other edible gourds, I have grown - including luffa and wax gourds, even bitter melon. But, since I don't even really care for summer squash, these experiences added nothing to my diet. Varieties of kabocha, I've grown several times. Buttercup squash has been a standard in my garden for ... well, I used to say, for 35 years but it's over 40, now
.
Oh hey! That's a good one for the microwave! Winter Squash.
Many of the winter squash that come into my kitchen are for pumpkin pie. I have been playing around with extra Jack o'lantern pumpkins the last few seasons. No, I tried them unsuccessfully in the microwave ... However! Not really liking zucchini led me to see what I thought of pumpkin in a zucchini squash soup --- success! Of course, they are just fine in a loaf Half Moon Bay pumpkin bread. Ummm, what was I saying about calories? Microwaves?
Steve
having oatmeal raisin cookies with his bowl of fruit for breakfast, this morning. oh yeah, has grown oats before !
.DW saw a chayote on the teevee the other day. "Is that some kind of mango?" No, DW pointed out that they were on a vine that was only climbing the tree. "Oh." I thought I'd seen them before but couldn't remember that they were edible gourds . And, now that you have reminded me of the name, still don't know how to pronounce it
.Other edible gourds, I have grown - including luffa and wax gourds, even bitter melon. But, since I don't even really care for summer squash, these experiences added nothing to my diet. Varieties of kabocha, I've grown several times. Buttercup squash has been a standard in my garden for ... well, I used to say, for 35 years but it's over 40, now
.Oh hey! That's a good one for the microwave! Winter Squash.
Many of the winter squash that come into my kitchen are for pumpkin pie. I have been playing around with extra Jack o'lantern pumpkins the last few seasons. No, I tried them unsuccessfully in the microwave ... However! Not really liking zucchini led me to see what I thought of pumpkin in a zucchini squash soup --- success! Of course, they are just fine in a loaf Half Moon Bay pumpkin bread. Ummm, what was I saying about calories? Microwaves?
Steve
having oatmeal raisin cookies with his bowl of fruit for breakfast, this morning. oh yeah, has grown oats before
!Chayote is vegetable pear (because it is pear shaped, I think, it tastes like a squash). The chayote can be pickled like mango when they are young, or cooked like gourds in soup pr stews (chicken and papaya soup, tinola, substituting gourd or chayote for the green papaya). It is called merlitins in the South and is stuffed in Mexican recipes. It is also used in Caribbean dishes The shoots are also edible. Tips are blanched and mixed with tomato, onions, soy, and fish sauce in a salad. It is a climber and a sprawler and where it does grow, it needs very little care except to keep it off the trees and on the fence.
Squash should do fine in the microwave. I have also done eggplant. You just have to remember to poke holes in the skins of any fruit or vegetable in the microwave if you don't want them to explode.
I actually don't like to eat cheese by itself, and I don't really drink wine, I usually use it for cooking. It tenderizes tough cuts of meats and enhances the flavor without adding salt. I like amaretto, tia maria, or cointreau on ice cream. However, somebody did make a trifle that was strong enough for my face to turn red, and my booze cake really smells like it, but that one is hangover free.
Cheese, I only like a few, muenster and american for sandwiches. I tried swiss and provolone but I don't get them a lot. Parmesan for spaghetti and caesar salad. Kraft shredded cheeses for casseroles and quesadillas. Smoked gouda for salad, and brie for crackers. I used to buy cheese sticks as treats for my dog. Cheese can last a long time in my frig and freezer.
Squash should do fine in the microwave. I have also done eggplant. You just have to remember to poke holes in the skins of any fruit or vegetable in the microwave if you don't want them to explode.
I actually don't like to eat cheese by itself, and I don't really drink wine, I usually use it for cooking. It tenderizes tough cuts of meats and enhances the flavor without adding salt. I like amaretto, tia maria, or cointreau on ice cream. However, somebody did make a trifle that was strong enough for my face to turn red, and my booze cake really smells like it, but that one is hangover free.
Cheese, I only like a few, muenster and american for sandwiches. I tried swiss and provolone but I don't get them a lot. Parmesan for spaghetti and caesar salad. Kraft shredded cheeses for casseroles and quesadillas. Smoked gouda for salad, and brie for crackers. I used to buy cheese sticks as treats for my dog. Cheese can last a long time in my frig and freezer.