Life after the microwave

Virtually any Stouffer’s open-faced dish tastes better cooked in a conventional oven than it does in a microwave.

P.S. There’s no such thing as “ziplock tupperware”. Ziploc and Tupperware are two different brands.

I finally gave the Stouffer’s orange box Mac & Cheese a try tonight. 50 minutes in the oven…well, it doesn’t have that crusty top which I always loved, but goddamn is it tasty! I’m keeping this on my shopping list.

Almost a month down, and surviving just fine

The higher end of microwaves are around 2000 Watts, and you’re running it for a quarter hour, so each day you’re using about a half a kilowatt-hour of energy. Electricity prices are less than 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, so you’re using about a nickel worth of electricity per day that way. You’ll save a lot more by preparing food yourself rather than buying the pre-prepared microwaveable stuff.

I’ve lived probably about ten years with a microwave. I finally bought one for reheating foods, because it seemed to me a waste of time and gas to reheat foods in the oven or on the stovetop. Plus it’s awesome for steaming certain vegetables (like asparagus). A microwave need not be unhealthy–in fact, for many vegetables it’s one of the easiest ways to preserve all the nutrients. (I also use it for a certain type of quick and easy roux that doesn’t require constant vigilant attention on the stovetop. I dislike popcorn, so I don’t use it for that.)

Anyhow, it’s easy enough to live without a microwave. It depends on what you’re trying to reheat. With stuff like stews, you can usually just dump it in a pot and heat. With rice, you might want to add just a little liquid and cover it, or fry it. With meat, I’ll put it in a 350 degree oven until it’s warmed through.