What’s wrong with plastic dishes
Another convenience, this time in the form of unbreakable plastic, can also be source of danger. However, among plastic products you can find both undesirable and relatively harmless.
On articles and packages made of plastic there are numbers that indicate the type of material and whether it belongs to a certain recycling category. So, the types of plastic labeled 1, 2, 4, 5 can be allowed in your home and your kitchen (it is, by the way, more often accepted for recycling), while the other numbers (3, 6, 7, etc.д.) all other numbers (3, 6, 7, etc.) tell us that plastic is potentially dangerous.
The plastic has become so much in everyday life that it can not be completely eliminated, but you can try to reduce its share. How to limit contact with plastic? Let’s try to stick to a few rules.
- First of all, if possible, pay attention to the markings on plastic products and choose those made of safe materials.
- Heating any plastic with food inside (such as in a microwave oven) is not recommended. This contaminates the food with chemicals released from the plastic (faster than at normal temperature).
- Replace unbreakable plastic dishes for babies with glass or ceramic ones.
- Instead of wrapping your lunch in cling film, you can use less unhealthy sandwich paper.
- Baking paper (coated with food-grade silicone) can be replaced by sandwich paper, which you can grease yourself with harmless grease.
- It is important that the plastic does not come into contact directly with the food. I store cheeses and sausages in tightly sealed glass containers. I store my vegetables in cardboard containers. I wrap the loaf in paper and then in a plastic bag.
Not only does the dish lose vitamins, but it can also cause poisoning, or Why we improperly heat food in the microwave
Many housewives remember the joy and gratitude of the microwave oven’s creators. Indeed, the procedure for heating and thawing food has become much easier. A microwave will do the job in minutes or even seconds. Recently, however, experts on healthy eating have begun to say more and more often that mistakes made in the operation of this appliance, deprive dishes of vitamins and can even cause poisoning.
Most housewives, especially working ones, cook dishes for once: they don’t want to, and there is no time to stand at the stove every day. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s important to know how to properly reheat cooked food. Below, we’ll discuss the most common mistakes many of us make when reheating food.
Hot on the side, cold in the center: how to put a plate in the microwave so that the food heats evenly (trick)
With the advent of microwaves, the process of heating food has become much easier and simpler. And although this wonder of technology has been around for a long time, it turns out that few of us use it properly. TikTok user Isabella Avila told how to heat up several dishes in the microwave at once. This is a great way to save time and energy.
Mini oven acts as a standard oven, has several modes of operation: top, bottom, combined heating, grill, convection mode. In microwaves, these features are only found in expensive models The mini oven can be used as a microwave, but the microwave as an electric oven cannot.
Yes, you can even reheat food in the oven, but the time and physical cost is a little more in this case. When choosing, people sometimes dread microwaves. Turns out they do it for nothing. The thing about microwave heating food is that hyperactive water molecules can damage long chains of molecules.
Roaster
Looks like an oven or microwave, but the inside is designed like a toaster. The chamber has a grid on which the dish is placed. The design usually has two heaters: an upper heating element and a lower one. The lower heating element preheats and the upper element grills. The thermostat allows you to adjust the temperature in the range from 60 to 290 degrees, so the roaster can do baking. Some have a spit and a fan for blowing, which expands the functionality of the device many times over. How roasters differ from ovens?. the inexperienced user will ask. It’s simple: the roaster is much more compact than the oven and has in its arsenal of useful functions.
There are not many proposals on the market, let’s consider the most interesting option, from the point of view of our experts.
Smile TKO 2403
It does not need to buy anything extra, all the accessories are already included:
Why look for alternatives
Nutritionists think it’s a mistake to think there’s no alternative to microwaves. The principle of microwave oven operation is simple. Short waves make the water, fat or sugar molecules in the food vibrate. This way they dissipate energy, i.e. heat. Since the waves propagate inside the oven, reflecting off the walls in different directions, the food is heated evenly.
However, despite the fact that this method of cooking or heating is fast and cheap, it has its negative aspects. Experts say that such food loses up to 90% of its nutritional value. There are many myths about the microwave oven, but not all of them should be discounted. In particular, heating with short waves significantly impairs the absorption of protein.
Unconventional ways to replace the microwave oven
Anything can happen in life: the electricity in the apartment was cut off for a long time, or you wanted to have a hot meal while traveling, or a roadside hotel does not provide culinary services to guests. There are several ways to replace the microwave in such cases.
Boiling
A simple way to reheat without using the microwave. boiling. There are several ways to boil water in uncomfortable conditions.
Boiling Pot
Even with today’s level of development of the travel industry it wouldn’t hurt to take the good old boiling kettle on trips, it won’t take much space in your travel bag. Simply immerse the device in a suitable container of water, plug in the power supply, wait for boiling. For boiling water at home we recommend an electric instantaneous water heater.
Immersion boilers are a great substitute for the microwave in case you need to refresh yourself with a liquid hot meal, heat up tea, other beverage. The main thing is to wash the pot thoroughly afterwards, so that it does not leave any grease or pigment marks.
Kettle
Although the kettle is designed to boil water, it, like a microwave, manages to heat different dishes, usually soups, broths. You can even boil in the kettle pasta, dumplings, dumplings and other semi-finished products with dough cover. But first it is necessary to clean the bottom of the crock from scale, so that its particles do not end up in the plate.
As for the electric kettle, you can heat not only water, but also a loose drink, such as compote, herbal broth, tea.
Hot Water
This method of heating is applicable when the owners are making repairs in a new home, where there is no connected stove or other kitchen appliances. Or if you want to have a snack in a hotel room that has neither an electric kettle nor a microwave, but has hot water running from the faucet.
This method of heating is inferior to the microwave in that the food heats slowly, resulting in a lot of water leakage. But it comes in handy when there are no other ways to heat up the room. To evenly reheat food, shake it inside the container whenever possible.
Water bath
A common and convenient way to heat. It is used as a substitute for the microwave, if the food can not be boiled in water, fried. As a result, the dish retains its useful properties and taste. The principle of heating is that the dish with food is placed on another dish in which water is boiling. That is, there is no direct contact with boiling water.
Hot Battery
During the cold season, when heating radiators are working, they can replace the microwave. If the heating is turned on full power, the food becomes hot in maximum 15 minutes.
- Pour water into a small metal bowl, dip a jar of food there, put this construction on the radiator;
- If there is a food container, just put food in it, leave it on the battery.
Sun
The sun’s rays carry thermal energy. So on a nice day you can take the food out into the courtyard of a private house or onto an open apartment balcony. True, you can only do this in the summer, because the winter sun is not warming. Heating in this way is possible in any open container: a bowl, a container.
A disadvantage of this method is that you have to wait a long time for the result. Also note that the sun-heated food will be warm, but not hot.
This ingenious reheating method is considered a student method. Whether it was actually invented by students in the dorms who suffer without a microwave, or whether it was done by some joker, it is unknown, but the heated bottom of the switched on device is a wonderful heating tool.
The main condition for successfully heating food on the iron is to protect it with foil beforehand. Otherwise the food will stick to the surface of the appliance and leave grease marks that are hard to remove.
If you need to reheat the sandwich, wrap it in cooking foil. Then place it on a heat-resistant surface, loaf side up, cover with a hot iron. When the loaf is heated to a delicious dry crust, flip the sandwich over so that the ingredients placed on the loaf base are baked. You can use this method to warm flat foods, such as cheese sandwiches. In this case, the cheese will melt evenly inside the foil. If the sandwich is large, you can not cover it, then turn the iron hot surface up, put the food on it.
It is desirable for two people to cook on the iron: the first holds the device upside down, the second performs culinary manipulations. It is problematic for one person to hold the iron while cooking at the same time.
Baby food
Many parents try to eliminate heating baby food in the microwave. Alternative ways that are not harmful to health:
- Put the bottle with the baby formula in a container of hot water. This method is also effective for defrosting drinks.
- Heating appliances such as fireplaces or radiators can help in the wintertime. It will not make the food hot, but it will not leave it cold.
- For quickly heating food for your child, you can use an electric or gas stove.
Warming up “hot stuff”: water, tea, coffee, soups
What you can easily replace the microwave when heating drinks is a boiling pot. To quickly get your drink to the desired temperature, all you have to do is lower the immersion heater and plug it in.
Immersion kettle
If boiling water is required, an electric water heater is a better choice.
A roomy thermal bag to hold your food.
Another forgotten way in which you can minimize the amount of microwave use is a regular thermos or thermal bag.
Its capacity allows you to keep your first dish or beverage hot all day long. This saves time and eliminates the need to use the microwave.
How To Reheat Food Without A Microwave | Chicken, Rice, Pizza &
Do not boil water in a narrow-necked container in the microwave. Risk of burns.
Another easy way to heat liquid is with an electric kettle. You can’t heat up milk in it, but you can make tea or compote with it. Some people even cook dumplings in it.
Kettle Dumplings
