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a December 7th, 2012

  1. No Microwave, Please!

    December 7, 2012 by admin

    It’s true!  We have no microwave in the TR home.  We threw out our microwave years ago and we haven’t looked back.  We don’t miss it at all. This attitude seems to puzzle many people.

    Most folks can understand the desire to cook food from scratch, and the want to skip the pre-made microwavable foods sold in the grocery store.  The most common question we get is, “How do you reheat your food?!”  Our answer: it’s pretty easy to do it on the stove top or in the oven.

    Our reasons for removing this kitchen appliance from our home:

    >Cost of microwave food:  We have found that most of the time, for vegetarian, family-sized servings, the cost of  ready-made microwave food hit our pocket much more severely then buying ingredients to make from scratch meals.

    >Typical serving size of microwave food:  Single servings are much more prevalent than family sized meals, which impacts costs and convenience.  Even the packages that claim to feed four often appear skimpy to our eyes.  Those active TR kiddoes get pretty hungry!

    >Ingredients of microwave food:  Have you read what’s in those frozen meals?  We try to cook our foods with a minimum of chemicals and preservatives.  Sure, you can find organic frozen foods, but you’ll pay even more for them!

    >Microwave safety:  We have concerns about chemical leaching under extreme heat.  We also wonder whether it is generally valuable to superheat vitamins and other nutrients in a microwave.  Read more here, for further thoughts on the question of microwave safety.

    >Temperature:  Holy cow!  Does food really need to be that hot?  It just isn’t safe.  A cup of soup gets scalding hot when cooked in a microwave.

    >Separation from Food Source:  Assembling your meals yourself allows you to learn and think about where your food comes from.   Factory-made foods create a distance between you and the source of your food which contributes to poor food knowledge, limited food ethics, and ultimately unhealthy eating decisions.

    So how do we reheat our leftovers?  Most stews, stir-frys, pastas and soups reheat in just a few minutes in a small saucepan on the stove top.  Other things like shepherd’s pie, lasagna, etc., get popped in the oven or toaster oven.  We don’t think we lose a great amount of time heating foods up this way.  After all, we don’t need to be in such a hurry all the time.  And a lot of food tastes much better using an oven to reheat it vs. a microwave – like pizza!

    Again, we don’t miss our microwave at all.  Would you consider tossing your microwave or is it an essential appliance in your home?