By Mike Thayer
The microwave and the crock pot are perhaps two of the best pieces of kitchen equipment for the bachelor. Meals, easy peasy.
The microwave is SO handy when it comes to reheating leftovers or heating up a ‘to-go’ snack. Many prepared foods these days in fact, are crafted with microwave cooking in mind.
But if you don’t stay on top of keeping your microwave clean, it can become a real pain in the butt to clean later. Those splatters of food, those pops and minor explosions you hear when reheating food…. That’s a mess in the waiting, but it’s a preventable mess if you take a few easy steps before pushing those buttons to heat something up.
Some people don’t cover their food at all when using the microwave. That’s just lazy. You’re begging for a mess, asking for and INVITING food splatter city! And never mind the naked food getting too cardboard-crispy on the edges and/or too rubbery in the middle, that’s not good eats!
Others use a paper towel when heating something up. That helps to reduce food splatters, but it doesn’t eliminate them. Sometimes a paper towel will get moved out of position by the process of the microwave and the popping of food. That leads to a food mess. Another drawback to using paper towels is they can soak into your food depending on what you’re nuking. Pulling a tomato sauced paper towel off your food is a bit nasty and is a whole other mess, drip, drip, drip on the way to the waste basket….. Visualize a paper towel drooping into a bowl of chicken noodle soup. And try pulling a paper towel off a cheese topping. Good luck with that. Don’t use paper towels to cover your food.
When reheating leftovers, a lot of people leave the plastic wrap that was used to cover the plate of leftovers for the fridge, on, when reheating that food in the microwave. Don’t use plastic wrap to cover your food for the nuke machine either. Plastic wrap over food is prone to inconsistent heating leading to hot spots and cold spots. Some cheaper brands of plastic wrap will even partially melt or pull away from edges of the food container, which means food splatters will find their way to the inside walls of your microwave. Covering with plastic can also mean pockets of condensation building up during the cooking process. Have you ever pulled the plastic back from reheated food from the microwave and gotten a steam burn?
The best easy peasy tool to heat up just about any food in the microwave and eliminate food splatters is a paper plate placed upside down over your food. Paper plates provide full coverage for your meal or snack, they stay in position, allow for even cooking, they don’t soak into your food, melt, or create steam pockets that can potentially burn your hand. The best part, food splatters are almost non-existent and clean up is a breeze. It’s nice to open up that microwave door and see no food splatters because you used a paper plate. Here’s what you might have to deal with….. Some tomato sauce splattered onto the paper plate. So what, roll it up, throw it away, no drips, no saucy hands. Reheating a food with a cheese topping…. No worries, paper plates are naturally domed, but if you need a little more height, put a slight fold in the plate before covering your food.
I also like to use a paper plate on the bottom of things that might boil over such as soups, stews or gravies. Putting a paper plate on the microwave’s glass tray, then the bowl of soup, then a paper plate on top will help to keep a boil over to a minimum. Cleaning that glass tray is not fun and then there’s the worry about breakage when you’re washing it. Use a paper plate to reduce spillage.
I like to keep my paper plates right on top of the microwave, it’s just handy that way.
For the times when you do get food splatters on the walls of your microwave, and you will, heat up some water in a tea pot (don’t use the microwave!) pour some of that hot water into a coffee cup and set it in the microwave, close the door and just let that water steam things up for a bit. Then after a few minutes, wipe down the inside of your microwave.
Keep your microwave clean with paper plates!
$pend Wisely My Friends…
Help support the continued content for Shopping, Dining, Best Deals, Product & Service Reviews, Tips, Hacks, Recipes and other great information by buying me a coffee. Your support to keep Bachelor on the Cheap a free resource is much appreciated! ~ Mike
Easy way to help keep your microwave clean – Bachelor on the Cheap
By Mike Thayer
The microwave and the crock pot are perhaps two of the best pieces of kitchen equipment for the bachelor. Meals, easy peasy.
The microwave is SO handy when it comes to reheating leftovers or heating up a ‘to-go’ snack. Many prepared foods these days in fact, are crafted with microwave cooking in mind.
But if you don’t stay on top of keeping your microwave clean, it can become a real pain in the butt to clean later. Those splatters of food, those pops and minor explosions you hear when reheating food…. That’s a mess in the waiting, but it’s a preventable mess if you take a few easy steps before pushing those buttons to heat something up.
Some people don’t cover their food at all when using the microwave. That’s just lazy. You’re begging for a mess, asking for and INVITING food splatter city! And never mind the naked food getting too cardboard-crispy on the edges and/or too rubbery in the middle, that’s not good eats!
Others use a paper towel when heating something up. That helps to reduce food splatters, but it doesn’t eliminate them. Sometimes a paper towel will get moved out of position by the process of the microwave and the popping of food. That leads to a food mess. Another drawback to using paper towels is they can soak into your food depending on what you’re nuking. Pulling a tomato sauced paper towel off your food is a bit nasty and is a whole other mess, drip, drip, drip on the way to the waste basket….. Visualize a paper towel drooping into a bowl of chicken noodle soup. And try pulling a paper towel off a cheese topping. Good luck with that. Don’t use paper towels to cover your food.
When reheating leftovers, a lot of people leave the plastic wrap that was used to cover the plate of leftovers for the fridge, on, when reheating that food in the microwave. Don’t use plastic wrap to cover your food for the nuke machine either. Plastic wrap over food is prone to inconsistent heating leading to hot spots and cold spots. Some cheaper brands of plastic wrap will even partially melt or pull away from edges of the food container, which means food splatters will find their way to the inside walls of your microwave. Covering with plastic can also mean pockets of condensation building up during the cooking process. Have you ever pulled the plastic back from reheated food from the microwave and gotten a steam burn?
The best easy peasy tool to heat up just about any food in the microwave and eliminate food splatters is a paper plate placed upside down over your food. Paper plates provide full coverage for your meal or snack, they stay in position, allow for even cooking, they don’t soak into your food, melt, or create steam pockets that can potentially burn your hand. The best part, food splatters are almost non-existent and clean up is a breeze. It’s nice to open up that microwave door and see no food splatters because you used a paper plate. Here’s what you might have to deal with….. Some tomato sauce splattered onto the paper plate. So what, roll it up, throw it away, no drips, no saucy hands. Reheating a food with a cheese topping…. No worries, paper plates are naturally domed, but if you need a little more height, put a slight fold in the plate before covering your food.
I also like to use a paper plate on the bottom of things that might boil over such as soups, stews or gravies. Putting a paper plate on the microwave’s glass tray, then the bowl of soup, then a paper plate on top will help to keep a boil over to a minimum. Cleaning that glass tray is not fun and then there’s the worry about breakage when you’re washing it. Use a paper plate to reduce spillage.
I like to keep my paper plates right on top of the microwave, it’s just handy that way.
For the times when you do get food splatters on the walls of your microwave, and you will, heat up some water in a tea pot (don’t use the microwave!) pour some of that hot water into a coffee cup and set it in the microwave, close the door and just let that water steam things up for a bit. Then after a few minutes, wipe down the inside of your microwave.
Keep your microwave clean with paper plates!
$pend Wisely My Friends…
Help support the continued content for Shopping, Dining, Best Deals, Product & Service Reviews, Tips, Hacks, Recipes and other great information by buying me a coffee. Your support to keep Bachelor on the Cheap a free resource is much appreciated! ~ Mike