Microwave cooking

When we had the kitchen replaced last year they had to remove my very old combination microwave which I used on a daily basis as it wouldn't fit in the new units - we bought a small built in ones which I hate, It's not big enough to even get a plate in so I bought a new combi a few weeks ago to use in the utility room which I love. It has no turntable and 2 shelves so great for oven use but I use the microwave for all sorts - reheating, cooking, defrosting. The one in the kitchen is ok for heating a bowl of peas!

I don't have one and don't want one either. I prefer to cook from scratch and if we do have ready meals it only takes 25 minutes to cook them in the oven. We have enough other stuff taking up worktop space!

I could live without one but handy for quick jacket potatoes, frozen peas, reheating tea, heating ready meals and probably most of all warming up my wheat bag. Tried cauliflower (as recommended above) the other day which worked well. One of my daughters talked me out of doing without one many years ago and it has just become part of the kitchen equipment.

Shysal that reminds me that, two days after our housesitters left last month, my husband opened the microwave to heat his milk for coffee and found 2 stale loaves of bread.

Yes i only use mine for reheating or making scrambled eggs,and also its good for starting baked spuds before i put them in main oven as they come out nice and fluffy.

Shysal, sounds like a chap I saw on TV last night. He doesn't cook, so his pristine oven is used to store his

As I have a small kitchen, the microwave doubles as a bread bin! It is a nuisance having to empty it every time I want to use it though.

Thank you for all the tips - I do cook fish in it but I don't use the defrost at all as I'm worried about the food safety angle. I'm going to try vegetables in kit. I seem to remember I used to cook them in a bag which saved washing up saucepans and they wert waterlogged. I still resent the room it takes up on the work top and their is nowhere else for it to go. If I'm ever widowed it will still be the first thing in the skip.

I use mine for many of the things listed above. I also love and use my halogen cooker - every day in fact. I only really use my big oven when entertaining or doing batch baking.

“Fangled”!!!

I remember us spending a week with my sister in law who had just bought one of these new fanged microwaves. Everything we ate was cooked in it. Some of the most dismal, unappetising food I had ever come across. By the end of the week I wanted to die! It was a long time before we bought one.

Thinking back to when they were all the rage, I remember even evening courses in Microwave Cookery ( not content with pierce and ping) which spent a lot of time changing perfectly adequate traditional recipes into “microwave food.”
The awfulness of microwave meringues was eminently forgettable. One such pretentious tutor attempted to tell us how we could ripen a Camembert in the m/wave for a dinner party. DH disowned me when I asked if you could also use it to “chambré” the Beaujolais

I don't use mine a lot but I wouldn't be without it for porridge; starting off baked potatoes; microwave rice; defrosting food, and cooking some, but not all, vegetables. I was in a supermarket yesterday and passed two young women perusing some boxes of something or other. One said “what do you do with this then?” To which the other replied “I dunno, but if you can’t stick it in the microwave I don’t want to it!”

Use mine quite a lot for all the above,
I must be incredible greedy because one of the microwave rice packets doesn’t do me twice !!!!

Teetime are you convinced yet ?

There is definitely a case for 'some things that taste better from the oven,' e.g. warmed croissants, but like others, we find our MW very useful indeed.

Use mine for re- heating and melting also I use steam bags for some of my veg in it, they are good. DH prefers his bacon done in microwave too.

I always use mine for rice - it cooks it really well and no danger of boiling over and messing up the hob. Other than that it's porridge for breakfast and warming plates!
My DIL who is a radiographer won't have one in the house - I do wonder if she knows something we don't....

Heating beans, spaghetti, soups etc. Cook (from frozen) peas, sweet corn. Fresh carrots. I make my white sauce, cheese sauce, sweet & sour sauce, custard in there. Sponge puds are quick and easy, light as a feather.
Porridge, scrambled eggs quick and no messy saucepan. Fish easily steamed.
There aren't many days mine isn't used.

I use mine for re-heating home made soup; poaching fish - you don't get the lingering fishy smell when you microwave it; and it's the best way I know of cooking asparagus.

Defrosting food
Starting off jacket potatoes (then finish off in the conventional oven to crisp them)
Cooking vegetables (I use a Lakeland steamer)
DH makes his porridge in the microwave

I did try 'microwave mug cakes' recently with the help of the DGD but should have used one very large mug because they were like bullets.

Oh yes, of course, jacket potatoes. I know people say these do not come out quite the same as from the over, but due to a medical condition I cannot eat the actual jacket, and love how fluffy the inside of these potatoes are in such a short time.

I have a basic microwave, but it is in use every day. Porridge for brekkie, then at lunch I often have poached eggs on toast, eggs poached in microwave. Sometimes also have baked beans, (cheap and healthy), one tin does for twice, done in microwave. Scrambled eggs are done beautifully using this machine. Jelly cubes melted into small amount of the pint water, then remaining ice cold water poured in (Jelly then sets v. quickly). Custard, - milk warmed up in microwave. I use microwave rice - ideal for one person portions, again one packet does for twice. I keep small, fresh cream cakes in my freezer, so when I have an unexpected visitor I can take out three or four of these, defrost in seconds in microwave (on defrost setting) and these can accompany tea or coffee. When I cook for family visits, I always make enough to freeze into single person amounts for me (shepherds pie, Fish pie, etc. etc.). These can then be given a few hours defrost in the 'fridge, and then into microwave on plate for an excellent meal. Probably lot of other things but this is why it is an essential part of my kitchen.

I cook scrambled egg every morning in mine, also mini cakes and puddings, very quick and easy.

Mine is very handy for stacking cat food boxes!

Ping meals, baked beans, scrambled egg, I use it for porridge (H insists on doing on the hob) warm left overs, defrost, jacket spuds .
Teetime do you have anywhere to put it on a bracket above your worktop. That's how mine was until we revamped kitchen, now have a built in one.