I use mine for toast, but I also use it to make hot sandwiches and snacks. It’s far more versatile than a regular toaster, it accommodates bagels and very thick slices of bread, and it’s quicker than a regular oven and doesn’t heat up the kitchen nearly as much. I particularly like making hot ham and cheese sandwiches in the toaster oven.
I once had a house with pretty much no kitchen other than a fridge and a sink - I had a single electric burner and a toaster oven.
Hm, I think I still have my miniature bakeware. I made muffins, bread, cookies, tiny pizzas, cakes … the cheesy garlic bread was killer. I did roasted chicken pieces, broiled steaks and burgers. Pretty much anything anybody would do in a regular oven, just in tiny amounts. [I was only cooking for 2 or 3 at the time.]
My brother uses one to reheat pizza, toast english muffins and bagels because the regular toaster died and they never bothered to replace it because the toaster oven works just fine.
Never thought about it, we have limited counterspace here but I have no objection to using toaster ovens for smaller amounts of something instead of cranking up a whole large oven for a single french bread pizza or something small like that.
I used mine all the time, which my mother can’t understand. We never had one growing up and she thinks they’re useless. Not so! I have a largish Cuisinart convection model and I can bake a whole chicken in there.
It’s probably used every day in my house for things like hot sandwiches, toast, bagels, cinnamon toast, frozen burritos for kid lunches (I nuke them first and put them in the oven on toaster setting to crisp up—works REALLY well for chimichangas), warming pizza, small batches of frozen french fries. Ah! I just remembered the other day I cooked a batch of frozen meatballs in there. No need to heat up the entire oven.
I have a little silicone mat in the bottom. Makes cleanup from inevitable pizza drips a lot easier.
I use it for pretty much anything that fits. It preheats much faster than the regular (gas) oven, I can set the temperature more precisely (and I trust the thermostat more), and there’s a timer. I realize there are full-size ovens with timers, but I don’t have one.
Most common uses for ours:
-Toast (surprise!)
-Sweet potatoes–an occasional dinner entree for us, and three of them bake just fine in the toaster oven.
-Twice-baked potatoes, same as above.
-Reheating pizza
-Toasting nuts for salad toppings.
Hehe. I should have clarified: you do that to keep flour tortillas warm and allow them to steam further. The biggest mistakes I see made by people with flour tortillas is, first, not to heat them HOT enough, and then, not to keep them warm. Rolling up in foil and then in a dishtowel or tucking them into an oven mitt will keep them soft, pliable, and yummy. DON’T ever eat them right out of the package, unless you have bought the package at a tortilleria, and those babies are fresh from the comal.
Of course, if you put enough good hot sauce on a dishtowel, it could be good…
Toaster ovens are great!
I use mine for making toast, baked potato, reheating pizza and melting cheese on toast.
What I often do is zap a potato in the microwave for 5 minutes, then toss it in the toaster oven for another 30 minutes or so at 400F. They come out pretty good.
We’re replacing our toaster oven with a regular toaster. When making toast, the toaster oven only gets one side of the bread brown; the other side stays raw. And they leave lines on the toast.
We used to use the toaster oven for other things, but it’s just too small to get adequate airflow around items for good results.
Now if I could just find a decent toaster that won’t fall apart after a month of use…
Nachos. Hot pockets. Breaded chicken lips/strips/fingers/toes
I use it for just about everything you could use a small oven for. But I don’t make toast with it. Even a crummy toaster does a better job of toasting bread then a toaster oven. I think, at least.
Our convection toaster oven is used for everything that will fit and won’t present a fire hazard. We still don’t have a working stove.
I have the B&D Infrawave with rotisserie. I make cookies, heat buns for dinner, and even cook 12" pizzas in it. For Christmas I’ve got 2 Cornish hens that will be spitted and roasted in there. It even has presets for stuff like cookies, toast settings and various cuts of meat. Best of all, it’s the same size as my microwave and does a lot more.
I have one, it’s not currently in use. It was at our previous apartment, where it was nice for making small batches of something without heating up the place as badly as the oven did.
I have had a Smart Oven for about a year now. I rarely use my full-size oven now. I toast bagels in it every day, and I’ve reheated a bunch too. I’ve also used it for baking. The one downside that I can see, and obviously this is a give and take thing, is the size. I did have to use my old oven when the stuff just wouldn’t fit in the Smart Oven but so far most stuff will.
Baking potatoes
Open faced sandwiches
Warming up plates in the winter time
That’s pretty much it.
[QUOTE=JohnGalt;15806479And they leave lines on the toast.[/QUOTE]
The sheer effrontery!!
I thought of this thread last night as I used the toaster oven to toast sliced almonds for my salad. Mmmm the smell of toasting almonds!