Not Spending Money

In most kitchens, microwaves are pretty standard.  Sometimes they come with the kitchen. Occasionally, you might be renting an apartment that doesn’t have one, or buying a house with no appliances, or your microwave just broke, or someone offered you a few hundred dollars for your old one (hey, we can dream, right?).  At any rate, there are those days when you might find yourself without a microwave.

Wait! Stop! don’t go buy one! 

Microwaves didn’t always exist and people got along just fine.  Personally, I find that I rarely use mine. If you are microwaveless and have to choose between buying a new one and just making do, here are some ideas that might make the cheaper option easier.

Get a Tea Kettle

This is priceless. They have some rather expensive self-heating tea kettles on the market (Target’s cheapest is around 14.99) which are good if you are renting a room with no kitchen whatsoever, but if you do have a kitchen, this essentially pays for another stove burner as well.  A regular ol’ tea kettle is just fine — the kind without a plug. 

Tea kettles were once used to heat water on stoves, or sometimes bare fires, to be used for hot drinks as well as sometimes dishes or bathing, although not at the same time, as the knives tend to cut the bathers.  Hopefully the loss of your microwave will not affect your bathing or dishwasher needs, but it will most likely affect your preparation of hot drinks.  Hot drinks of all kinds are often made in the microwave.  Although I wouldn’t recommend heating anything besides water in your tea kettle (most tea kettles are rather difficult to clean) it do well for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cider, or anything else that requires the addition of hot water.  Don’t put more water than you need or it will take longer to boil.  It does take longer than microwaving, but doesn’t actually require more work. Putting the kettle on an extra five minutes early while you brush your teeth in the morning won’t detract from your Morning Instant Coffee routine as much as you may think.  Plus, many make a nice whistling sound that is a very analogue version of the microwave’s beeping. 

Read Directions for Conventional Oven

I know it’s been a long time since you’ve read the directions on your microwavable food, but many foods that are microwave-friendly also have directions for a conventional oven as well.  Again, this is assuming you have a kitchen with a range handy, but if you do, you’ll find that many soups, freezer dinners, etc that microwave up so nicely will also cook up nicely in the oven.  Plus, it’ll add a little golden-brown tint to the top to add that “home-cooked” touch.  All these years and we still haven’t taught microwaves that.  Plus, if you have guests and you pull your would-be-microwaved food straight out of the oven in front of them, they’ll swear it was completely homemade. This happened to me once. True story.

Buy Fewer Microwave Products

Some products are just designed for microwaves.  Microwave popcorn, for one.  There are brands that are popped on the stove rather than the microwave.  Or maybe there’s a non-microwave snack food that you’d enjoy just as much.  At any rate, find foods you like that don’t need microwaving, like baby carrots or some nifty recipe.

Eat Leftovers at Work

If you and your family are avid leftover-eaters, then instead of keeping the leftovers to be microwaved up for dinner, package them up in lunch-sized portions and send them off with the workers in the family.  Most office lunchrooms have a microwave handy.  This way, not only do you avoid microwaving your leftovers at home, you also save on lunches out at work.  Plus, if you cook well, everyone will compliment you at work on your cooking skills because your lunch smells so good as its heating in the office microwave.

In most kitchens, microwaves are pretty standard.  Sometimes they come with the kitchen. Occasionally, you might be renting an apartment that doesn’t have one, or buying a house with no appliances, or your microwave just broke, or someone offered you a few hundred dollars for your old one (hey, we can dream, right?).  At any rate, there are those days when you might find yourself without a microwave.

Wait! Stop! don’t go buy one! 

Microwaves didn’t always exist and people got along just fine.  Personally, I find that I rarely use mine. If you are microwaveless and have to choose between buying a new one and just making do, here are some ideas that might make the cheaper option easier.

This is priceless. They have some rather expensive self-heating tea kettles on the market (Target’s cheapest is around 14.99) which are good if you are renting a room with no kitchen whatsoever, but if you do have a kitchen, this essentially pays for another stove burner as well.  A regular ol’ tea kettle is just fine — the kind without a plug. 

Tea kettles were once used to heat water on stoves, or sometimes bare fires, to be used for hot drinks as well as sometimes dishes or bathing, although not at the same time, as the knives tend to cut the bathers.  Hopefully the loss of your microwave will not affect your bathing or dishwasher needs, but it will most likely affect your preparation of hot drinks.  Hot drinks of all kinds are often made in the microwave.  Although I wouldn’t recommend heating anything besides water in your tea kettle (most tea kettles are rather difficult to clean) it do well for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cider, or anything else that requires the addition of hot water.  Don’t put more water than you need or it will take longer to boil.  It does take longer than microwaving, but doesn’t actually require more work. Putting the kettle on an extra five minutes early while you brush your teeth in the morning won’t detract from your Morning Instant Coffee routine as much as you may think.  Plus, many make a nice whistling sound that is a very analogue version of the microwave’s beeping. 

I know it’s been a long time since you’ve read the directions on your microwavable food, but many foods that are microwave-friendly also have directions for a conventional oven as well.  Again, this is assuming you have a kitchen with a range handy, but if you do, you’ll find that many soups, freezer dinners, etc that microwave up so nicely will also cook up nicely in the oven.  Plus, it’ll add a little golden-brown tint to the top to add that “home-cooked” touch.  All these years and we still haven’t taught microwaves that.  Plus, if you have guests and you pull your would-be-microwaved food straight out of the oven in front of them, they’ll swear it was completely homemade. This happened to me once. True story.

Some products are just designed for microwaves.  Microwave popcorn, for one.  There are brands that are popped on the stove rather than the microwave.  Or maybe there’s a non-microwave snack food that you’d enjoy just as much.  At any rate, find foods you like that don’t need microwaving, like baby carrots or some nifty recipe.

If you and your family are avid leftover-eaters, then instead of keeping the leftovers to be microwaved up for dinner, package them up in lunch-sized portions and send them off with the workers in the family.  Most office lunchrooms have a microwave handy.  This way, not only do you avoid microwaving your leftovers at home, you also save on lunches out at work.  Plus, if you cook well, everyone will compliment you at work on your cooking skills because your lunch smells so good as its heating in the office microwave.