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Life without a microwave?


Slache
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Our microwave died and I'm trying to justify not buying another for the counter space, cost, and not having to move it. Are you microwaveless? How would you heat up leftovers? Like steak and potatoes or lasagna? Is the cost of heating the oven so frequently a concern?

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We didn't have a microwave for 6 years.  We wouldn't have one now, except it came with the house and for the 8yo, it's a safe tool.

I heat leftovers on the stove.  Pizza tastes better from a pan. LOL  And I just cooked my kid leftovers for dinner: a pork chop reheated in a very hot pan to sear it again and potato soup in a small pot.  I don't usually heat leftovers in the oven unless there's a few of us or it's something special.  Lasagna, eh, maybe in the oven?  Otherwise a bit of extra sauce and low heat in a covered pan.

Our one vice was popcorn.  Microwave popcorn is sooooo easy.  But we bought an air popper and that worked fine.  When that died, I dedicated a nonstick pot to popcorn.  It has worked even better for everyone except the 8yo.  ?  He gets help, or the microwave.

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I have just given my microwave away. It just took up counter space, and I used it maybe once a month to soften butter for baking. My parents and grandparents never owned a microwave in their lives.

You can heat leftovers in a pan on the stovetop.  I would not use the oven to reheat leftovers, unless there were large quantities,  or I had the oven going for some other purpose already.

Edited by regentrude
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We didn't have a microwave for at least the first 15yrs of marriage.  We had a toaster oven to heat things up and to make toasted cheese.   We live in a house with a built in microwave.  I use it about 2-3x per week - maybe to heat up leftovers.   But, I don't use the toaster oven much anymore either.  

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We have a microwave and use it rarely. Mostly, it's a very large popcorn maker.

We heat up leftovers in a pan on the stove. We don't typically have large enough quantities of leftovers to need the oven, but that's an option I wouldn't hesitate to use if I needed it.  If something is browned, make sure to cover it with foil so it doesn't burn on reheating, and reheating temps are generally a bit lower than cooking temps. We stopped using the microwave gradually over the years and I don't miss using it. Generally speaking, leftovers were always "rubbery" to me when reheated in the microwave. It's probably been more than ten years since we used it regularly.

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The only person that eat leftovers is my husband and he doesn’t mind me reheating over the gas stove top. Leftovers of steak and potatoes would have been likely cut up/cubed and cooked with added ingredients in a pot. I like lasagna so it is unlikely there would be leftovers.

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We did without a microwave for quite a few years.  (Growing up, my mom held out on getting one for what seemed like ages back then, lol.)  Leftovers mostly on the stove.  We do have one again. I mostly gave in to make it easier to get the kids to heat up their own food.  Also, I started filling the freezer with a lot more meat and got sick of forgetting to defrost it in the fridge early enough!

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We've been without a microwave twice. Once was for a year in an apartment with a galley kitchen. Our microwave took up fully half the counter space, and when it started acting funny we didn't bother to replace it. The other time was also for a year and ended recently. 

It's not difficult to live without microwave. Just re-heat on the stove top, adding a little water or sauce if needed. It just gets annoying to dirty a whole pan that I'll probably need later in the day, vs a microwave where I can use the same plate that I'll eat off of, then stick in the dishwasher. Not a dealbreaker, but it gets old. 

Now that we have a microwave again, we're all kind of giddy about it. ? The kids were blown away by microwave popcorn, LOL. And I think it's so cool to not pull out a pan and then have to wash it every time I need two tablespoons of melted butter, or a half cup of warm milk. And leftovers get heated up just like that!

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I hate to cook and in the past, my children may have given me the title of "the Microwave Queen".  If I do have to cook, I prefer it to be in the microwave.   I've been known to burn hard-boiled eggs when cooking on the stove (granted, I was a teenager at the time but there are few things I like doing less than standing at the stove).  I like the microwave for the ability to go do something else while the food is cooking.

That said, dh does 99% of the dinner cooking, and leaves me breakfast most mornings so the kids and I are only really dealing with lunch.  But, when it comes to lunch, ds (my SPD Aspie) has a very limited selection of foods he'll eat and most of them must be cooked in the microwave.  I don't want either of the kids using the open flame gas stove when they are home alone, but besides that ds doesn't like most of his foods cooked on the stove or in the toaster oven.  We've used a toaster oven while camping (because it's less likely to hit a texture he doesn't like than over the fire or campstove), and the stove when we lose power, but it really limits his eating options if we can't use the microwave.

I guess whether you truly need one or not depends on what you use it for.

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4 hours ago, Slache said:

Our microwave died and I'm trying to justify not buying another for the counter space, cost, and not having to move it. Are you microwaveless? How would you heat up leftovers? Like steak and potatoes or lasagna? Is the cost of heating the oven so frequently a concern?

 

Haven't had a microwave since 2005. Don't miss it at all. I have a larger toaster oven and heat up leftovers in it. I don't think the heating cost is a factor.

 

 

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I tried to give up my microwave.  It didn't even last 48 hours.  There was so MANY more dishes to wash since I had to transfer leftovers from their fridge containers to the pots.  I struggle to keep up with dishes as it is but basically doubling my workload was not sustainable.  Maybe for a small family but for 8 people who often eat at different times during the day there was just no way..

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I haven’t had one ever. I just don’t believe in them ?. It’s harder now that I work in that most our weeknight meals are things I made at the weekend or previously and froze, but I use the stovetop and the oven. I’m sure it would be easier with a microwave but I just don’t want one.

Edited by madteaparty
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I really don’t like to be without a microwave.  We once lived in a house with nothing in the kitchen except for a stove, fridge, a bucket of water I filled outside, and a couple of tables and i was surprised to discover that it was the microwave I missed most.  Warming things on the stove didn’t work because we eat lots of leftovers and I had only one pot, so with the bucket of water system it wasn’t any fun to have to wash the dishes more often than necessary. The oven was difficult to light too so I didn’t often use it.  If I’d had more pots and running water we probably would have be able to deal with it. I also like to have an easier way than the stove for younger children to warm things up.  

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We don’t bevause I never replaced the one that died.  Well except in the van.  There’s one in there.  It is sucky if you have people that come home at random times but I’ve lesrned to just reheat stuff over a saucepan of hot water or make crockpot dinners.  It’s also good if you like full milk hot chocolates.  Otherwise I don’t really miss it too much.

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I use mine to make my one bowl of oatmeal in the morning and sometimes to reheat leftovers. But I just read an article that says certain foods like chicken and rice should not be reheated in the microwave because it changes them somehow to be unsafe. I don't know if this was click-bait or actually true. I am tired of cleaning bread crumbs off of it and from underneath it and could really use the space. On the other hand, I hate to clean an oatmeal pot for one bowl of oats. 

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Too many dishes to deal with if I have to reheat dinner and it takes more time to do everything. I could live without my microeave, but I don't want to.

The kids use it for oatmeal, warming up leftovers, heating tortillas, warming up/cooking frozen items, and other tasks that don't require my help. The youngers wouldn't likely do it on the stove themselves.

I use it for my morning instant coffee, melting hutter, melting chocolate/ peanut butter, and cooking skinless chicken breasts without making them crispy. When we've had to go without, the leftovers pile up--no one eats them.

So, prepare for some things to take longer and for doing more dishes.

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Mine died a few years ago.  I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal to be without one.  But for us, it was.  We heated things up on the stove top, but it took a lot longer.  I hadn’t realized how often I steamed veggies in the thing, until it was gone. I like it for things like heating up my banana bread for 20 seconds to take the chill out of it. I didn’t bother to do that on the stovetop, so I just ate cold bread..  Twice a week for lunch my boys eat Lean Cuisine meals that get heated in the microwave and they couldn’t do that.  We realized we used it too much and after only a few days, we replaced the microwave.

 

Edited by Garga
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Some of us are old enough to remember not having one when we were younger......

When did they become pretty much standard?  In the mid 70's?  I can't remember.  

However, as an adult, I have always had one, even a tiny one (small apartment).  

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We went without a microwave for several years after ours died. It was no big deal to us. I always heat my tea water on the stove. We almost always have large servings of leftovers (or none at all), so I find it easier to reheat them on the stove anyway. I have never thawed meat in a microwave. We have one again now, but we rarely missed it when it was gone.

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It's nice for quickly heating leftovers and cooking frozen veggies and heating a glass of water, but that's all I use it for.  Maybe once/day?  I could easily go without it.  We've stayed in many rentals over the years (sometimes for months at a time) that didn't have microwaves and I never missed it.  You do plan a head a little more.  I've never liked microwave popcorn.  Making it myself on the stove is so much better!  Several of my children who are on their own now do not have microwaves and don't miss it.

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We don't have one.  I reheat on the stove or a toaster oven.  I prefer stovetop popcorn.  

When we got rid of ours, I found that I could suddenly tolerate leftovers.  I had thought that I was one of those people that "didn't like leftovers."  I just don't like the texture of them reheated in the microwave.

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3 hours ago, DawnM said:

Some of us are old enough to remember not having one when we were younger......

When did they become pretty much standard?  In the mid 70's?  I can't remember.  

However, as an adult, I have always had one, even a tiny one (small apartment).  

I don't know... I was born in '77, and I remember my grandparents getting a microwave.  My sisters (born '80 and '84) and I thought it was so cool!  Our grandparents always got everything first, like a VCR.  They even had a tape rewinder, just for rewinding tapes!!!  We still didn't get a microwave for quite a while. I think our grandparents probably gifted it to us, lol.  Though my house was always late on trends, they tended to be early, so my brain wants to think more mid-80s.

Okay, I felt compelled to google. https://www.wired.com/2010/10/1025home-microwave-ovens/

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29 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

I don't know... I was born in '77, and I remember my grandparents getting a microwave.  My sisters (born '80 and '84) and I thought it was so cool!  Our grandparents always got everything first, like a VCR.  They even had a tape rewinder, just for rewinding tapes!!!  We still didn't get a microwave for quite a while. I think our grandparents probably gifted it to us, lol.  Though my house was always late on trends, they tended to be early, so my brain wants to think more mid-80s.

Okay, I felt compelled to google. https://www.wired.com/2010/10/1025home-microwave-ovens/

 

wow, only 25% of households had a microwave by 1986.   I thought it was a much higher percentage by then.

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I was born in 1963. My brother bought my parents their first microwave for Christmas in 1983. It was huge! I was still living with them, and it was my first real exposure to a microwave oven. We had one in the break room at work, but I was too chicken to try to experiment with it in front of co-workers when I had no clue how they worked.

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Ours died 3 years ago; we have never replaced it.  I used it for boiling water, baked potatoes, frozen vegetables, and leftover warming.  Oh, well!  Found other ways to deal with those.  

I think my heating of leftovers is just as fast:  place food in ceramic skillet on high.  Wait about a minute until it sounds 'sizzle-y'.  Turn off the heat while keeping skillet on the burner and cover with a lid.  All hot in about another minute.  This is only so-so for meat pieces like pork chops.  Use same method, but make sure I have gravy or something in bottom of skillet to help with heating and takes longer.

DH still misses it for leftovers.  Guests are forever opening our beautiful, nearly new before dying above stove microwave to use it for their contributing dishes when over for meals, only to be told it is broken.  They are usually amazed we live without it!

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Never had a microwave. Everything is reheated stove top. I store my leftovers in pots so it's an easy grab from the fridge and put onto the stove. Sometimes I add water but usually not.  In the case where it's not already in a pot ready to heat, it's only a few steps to get it into a skillet. 

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I've never owned one and have zero desire to own one.

There is nothing that microwave ovens do well in terms of "cooking" and reheating food from the inside-out makes foods taste unnatural and messes up the texture, IMO.

Microwaves have a huge downside in promoting the use of unhealthful "convenience foods."  

I do like having a convection toaster oven but will pass on a microwave.

Bill

 

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I'm of no help - it's a rare day that doesn't see our microwave in use. 

We're fine with heating leftovers in it. There are only a few items where we notice a difference and we'll use the stovetop for those. If we had room for a decent-sized toaster oven, I think we'd reheat in that a lot, but we have very little counter space. The microwave is mounted over the stove, which wouldn't work for a toaster oven bc 3 out of 4 of us would be too short to see in it ?

dh makes quick oats in it about five times a week.

We steam vegetables about three times a week. 

We have sugar gliders that eat tons of frozen veggies and we use the microwave to thaw them (they eat such small amounts it's impossible to always serve fresh). 

We zap our sponges and clean our toothbrushes in it. 

 

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1 hour ago, Pawz4me said:

I was born in 1963. My brother bought my parents their first microwave for Christmas in 1983. It was huge! I was still living with them, and it was my first real exposure to a microwave oven. We had one in the break room at work, but I was too chicken to try to experiment with it in front of co-workers when I had no clue how they worked.

 

My sister still owns one of those insanely huge microwaves. We all kind-of jokingly turn it on and then dash out of the room, lol. 

We had a teen event at our house and one of the boys had to ask how to use the microwave bc they don't have one at home. He did catch a lot of flack for the question ?

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7 hours ago, DawnM said:

Some of us are old enough to remember not having one when we were younger......

When did they become pretty much standard?  In the mid 70's?  I can't remember.  

However, as an adult, I have always had one, even a tiny one (small apartment).  

 

My parents got one in '79, basically for me.   They knew that I would have left the stove on accidentally otherwise and I was going to be a latch-key kid that summer.  
They were new enough that Microwaves came with a How To Microwave class if you bought one.  I remember the class had about 40 people in it.  

I think that either a toaster oven or microwave are practically essential.   Both are nice.   

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We haven't had a microwave for 20 years. They're not really necessary. You just put the leftovers in a small pan with a dab of water and heat on low. Doesn't take long.

Now a toaster oven is crazy useful. We have a Delonghi with convection, and it's great for reheating pizza, that kind of thing. But a microwave, nah, don't need it.

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22 minutes ago, WendyAndMilo said:

How on earth would you make baked potatoes?!?!

I use my microwave at least 10 times a day and I've never baked a potato in it.  That's one of the few things I would say is not necessary to have a microwave for.  (but keep in mind baking potatoes in my house is done 5 pounds at a time so even if I wanted to use the microwave it would be completely impractical).

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We had to remodel our entire kitchen (as in ripped down to the studs) It has taken over a year now to get it back to the point of mostly usable. We had to get rid of the microwave early in the demolition so we've also been without a microwave (or a dishwasher but  we chose not to include a dishwasher in the remodel) for over a year now. Dh's grandmother likes to go to estate sales and auctions and just in the past couple weeks got us a new to us microwave. We keep forgetting we have one again so we keep forgetting to use it lol.

I haven't found a leftover yet that doesn't heat up just fine, if not better, on the stove or in the toaster oven. The trick is to add a little liquid to it before putting it in the oven. Milk, broth or even just plain water and just a little, like maybe a tablespoon at most for a large portion. Covering with foil or a lid helps to trap some of the moisture sometimes too. Baked potatoes are baked in the oven. Yes it takes longer but they do come out much better in my opinion. Popcorn we do on the stove but I'm considering an air popper. We had one when I was little and it can be put away easier than a microwave oven can be hidden. A kettle heats water for cocoa and tea and anything else that needs water hotter than tap water.

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We haven't had a microwave for years now. We are off grid and need to watch our power and microwave just doesn't make the priority list. I re-heat on the stovetop or in the oven. For baked potatoes I just pierce the raw potato, wrap it in foil and chuck it in the oven, or on the barbeque. Let it cook for a while. Half the baked potato experience is unwrapping that foil...

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