If you’re a mum and you’re deciding what kitchen appliance to get next, you should go with any affordable microwave that would fit your budget. The technology of microwaves has been around for years, so even inexpensive models can really be a great addition to your kitchen.
Still not convinced? Here are 10 reasons why every mum needs a microwave at home:
1. Bring back life to leftovers
Mums often do the budgeting, shopping, and cooking of meals, so having leftovers (and being forced to throw food away is always a bummer). But with a microwave, you’ll be able to rescue your leftovers from the fridge. This is more than true whenever you host dinners during holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or birthday parties. Just place the leftover into the microwave, set it to the perfect time and you’ll have hot meals for days.
2. Melting ingredients for baking
If you love to bake, you’ll definitely need a microwave to melt butter, chocolate blocks, and other ingredients in a flash. While you do have to let it cool a bit before use, the convenience this step would give you is incomparable. Believe me, I’ve baked a thousand brownies i
3. Quicker than cooking/heating on the stove or oven
If you’re a multi-tasking mum who does a ton of chores or work-from-home on top of cooking, then you really need a microwave to reduce the cooking time of most meals. From defrosting meat to cooking the perfect popcorn every time, no second is wasted by using the microwave. You can even bake single-serving cakes, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, and other goodies in the microwave without effort. If your go-to breakfast is a bowl of warm oatmeal, it takes less than half to cook it here than on the stove, so why go back to the stove?
4. Cook side dishes here
If you’re already cooking the main dish on the stove and you no longer have space for your side dish, you can begin cooking it in the microwave. Depending on the side dish you’re cooking, you might have to transfer it to the stove for that extra crunch. You can even cook the entire dish and side dish in here if you use the DoubleWave to double your microwave capacity which stacks dishes on top of each other. Either way, you’ve saved a lot of time cooking it halfway in the microwave already.
5. Heat non-food items
You don’t have to use the microwave exclusively for food. I use it to sterilise the soil for my nursery, melt crayons or candle wax for crafts, clean sponges, heat up t-shirts for tie-dying, create homemade cosmetics, and quickly heat items like eye masks, heating pads, and aromatherapy pillows.
6. Get exact temperatures
Unlike cooking on a stove, you can control the temperature and cooking time of a microwave, so you’ll end up with fully-cooked meals and perfectly heated meals every time. Once you’ve gotten the hang of melting ingredients, heating your regular leftovers, preparing baby food, and cooking side dishes, it will be your second nature to set the temperature.
7. Cook eggs in more ways than you’re used to
Level up your egg game, mama! With a microwave, you’d be able to cook omelettes, steamed, poached eggs, scrambled eggs, hard-boiled eggs, egg muffins, and a wide range of egg-based recipes in a flash. Plus, because cooking in microwaves doesn’t burn your egg as a stove does, you can reduce oils with your eggs as well.
8. Try out more frozen food options
When you’re grocery shopping, check out the frozen goods section and see what new franks, hams, flatbreads, frozen fruits, nuggets, and ready-to-microwave frozen meals. If you’re trying out a new diet or adding more veggies into your menu, frozen veggies are going to be a life-saver and there are dozens of them to choose from.
9. Defrost without hassle
If you’re running late and you need to cook that frozen pork chop quickly, microwaves do a good job at defrosting meats, bagels, pizzas, and other frozen goods within seconds. It only takes about 15 seconds to defrost pastries and a bit longer for meats.
10. Clean and sanitise stuff in a flash
As I mentioned earlier, you can microwave non-food items as well. Popping your sponges, cutting boards, and other kitchen tools into the microwave for a couple of seconds quickly sanitises them that no regular cleaning can do.
As a mum with a busy daily schedule, a microwave isn’t just an appliance used for heating leftovers anymore. If used properly, a microwave can serve as your backup stove, oven alternative, and steamer. Use it for prepping your meals, cooking side dishes, and melting baking ingredients.
If you can relate to more than half of the reasons above, then you definitely need to have a handy microwave at home. It’s an investment you won’t regret!