micorwave oven.

Thirty or forty years ago when microwave ovens were fairly new for consumer use and still rather ezpensive, they often came with free cooking classes, lots of them. I went to every class and learned that one can do amazing things in a microwave oven, with the right utensils, but it is not the same as other kinds of cooking. If your chicken comes out rubbery, you are probably overcooking it, and not getting the moisture part right, so I recommend you try Ziplock's new ZipnSteam Microwave Cooking Bags which tell you right on the bag how long to cook the chicken. I cook almost everything in the microwave and use it so frequently that we removed the range and oven from our kitchen and use the space in a better way. My other kitchen appliances are a small convection oven, an Sunpentown induction cooktop, and Farberware's excellent electonic multicooker.

I am like you. I only use my microwave for heating foods up in. In the summer it comes in really handy. I get up early before it gets hot here and cook dinner and then at nite....just zap it without heating my apt. up.

I use it mostly to warm food or drinks. I never had much success with defrosting. It seems too complicated and variable for different foods and, if one is planning on cooking, meat, then it takes very little more effort to plan ahead. I do use it, though, to cook frozen and fresh vegetables (greens, green beans and peas). It is a great deal faster and, I believe, healthier than cooking in boiling water. It is on a par with steaming and takes less time and energy for a given amount of vegetables. I have also cooked rice with some success in a microwave. Rice takes approximately the same time (15 - 20 mins) to cook whatever method you use but cooking in a microwave allows more space on the stove top and less hassle with lifting and draining heavy pans of hot liquid. My method is as follows: * Allow 1/2 cup rice per serving. * Rinse rice in cold water and place in a microwaveable bowl, allowing enough space for the rice to expand. * Add 2 cups water or stock for each cup of rice (or pro rata). * Cover with cling film and pierce the film. * Microwave on maximum power for 10 mins. Allow to stand 1 min. * Peel back the film and stir, adding a little more water if it seems too dry (the total amount of liquid varies with the kind of rice but generally it is 2 1/2 times the volume of dry rice, so if you added 2 times at the start, you will need another quarter of that amount). * Cover again and microwave on full power for 8 minutes and allow to stand for 1 minute before stirring and serving. ** I often like to include a little salt if I am not using stock and a few cardamom pods or a bay leaf. Other foods which are successful in a microwave are couscous, noodles and other pasta, scrambled egg, omelettes (with an omelette maker), porridge oats and dried beans (quite similar to rice, except they should be soaked overnight and drained and rinsed first).

we use the microwave almost all the time. it's a great way to cook tasty food. we usually use it to warm food brought from outside but otherwise we use it to cook half of our food items

I only use it for heating things up. and i rarely put plastic things in the microwave cause it scares me that my food would taste like plastic!.. ok lemmie explain. I used to heat up water for oatmeal in the microwave in a plastic measuring cup.. Then once i did teh same method for making tea, but when i sipped the tea.. OMG THE TASTE WAS BAD! like the plastic. that CAN'T be healthy for you!! so no more plastic in the micro nuker for me!!

i pretty much use our microwave for warming things up too. i will re-heat pizza and that type of thing, but never outright cook something in there. well i do make baked potatoes with my microwave..its just so much faster that way. our microwave gets used a number of times a day though, so i could never get rid of it.

I actually dumped my microwave, mainly because it was not needed and it was in a right state! I don't like microwaves to be honest, and the food is definitely not of the same quality as when it's done in the oven. I haven't replaced it, and I haven't missed it in all honesty, I can easily live without a microwave.

I make popcorn in my microwave, melt butter and heat things up but that's about it. I do use it for things like Stovetop Stuffing when I cheat and fix that, but I agree completely about things coming ut rubbery. I tried chicken years ago when I got my first microwave and it was not only rubbery, it wasn't done all the way through and that made me feel rather ill. There's nothing worse than chicken that isn't well-done! I know some people like to do scrambled eggs in the microwave, but I don't care for them either, they're also very rubbery. Baked potatoes are good, though. Annie

I use mine for my morning oatmeal, baking potatoes, steaming veggies, scrambled eggs., mashed potatoes. I don't have much of a freezer. If I did, I would buy tv dinners, frozen entrees, pizzas, etc. that could be made in the microwave. I've never tried to cook a chicken. I would use my toaster oven for that. I don't have a regular stove with an oven. I live in a very small studio and have a minimal kitchen.

The main use of our microwave is warming up leftovers. I never cook food in it unless it is a frozen dinner. I make popcorn in the microwave occasionally too.I do warm up canned soups and pasta in it also.

A microwave oven is more usefull than only for warming things up. the microwave can also kills the virus and the bacterium.so we can clean some bottles and towels or clothes just by wet them and put them in the microwave oven and run just a few minutes. I also like puffed rices by use the microwave oven,he he

Our first microwave is a very expensive one, but we only use it to warm up the left food, and at the time we moved to a new place, it was broken on the road. Now we use a cheap one, we use it to cook dishes, wash clothes, in a word, make full use of it. And now, my mother has more free time than before, so she always use it to prepare meals for my family.

My microwave serve one purpose and one purpose alone. It is my main source of popcorn! :D Well I do heat some meals from time to time, but popcorn is the main reason I keep it.

90% of my microwave activity comes from warming up food ,9 % defrosting food and 1% cooking .That one percent actually represent the one time I tried to cook in my microwave and it came out rubbery and uncooked.One of my favourite uses of the microwave is melting of cheese and warming up bread.When you use cheeese in the microwave it just melts so it spreads on whatever substrate you choose.Splashing a little moisture on the bread and microwaving it gets it back nice and fresh and gummy ,I love bread when its done like that.

Down here in Arizona, my husband and I don't have a microwave. I have one at home in Canada, and it is very handy for me when I just want to heat up something like a cup of coffee, make some popcorn, or melt a piece of cheese on some good rye bread.

I have baked some cream cheese cupcake recipes which came our pretty well. Apart from that I only use it to heat and defrost.

We both are sailing in the same boat. Even we have a high funda microwave oven but we seldom use it. I had several plans to cook, pizza, tandoori chicken, sandwich and more and bought a new microwave oven. But now, I am using it only for warming things and defrosting fronzen foods. Also, I dont think so that food cooked using microwave oven comes rubebry. Once i tried chicken using that and it cam out very well.

I use my microwave for many things .. Defrosting, melting butter for popcorn, popcorn, and I make speghettio's in it and all the nice fun foods. Microwaveable foods when I have no time.

I haven't used the microwave in quite a while, to tell you the truth! As I was reading your description of the rubber, soggy chicken, I had to cringe because I know exactly how that works (and how it tastes). YUCK! (LOL) I don't like to use the microwave for cooking either unless I absolutely have to. Sometimes my family will buy the meals that can either be cooked in the microwave or oven. The oven always takes longer, but it cooks more thoroughly and tastes so much better. I think it's probably better for us too! If I have the time, I prefer using the oven. If I'm in a hurry, yes I resort to using the microwave. Sometimes I'll just get lazy and use the microwave anyway. I'm cooking dinner for my younger sisters tonight, so I'll probably end up heating up some good ol' leftovers for dinner tonight. (LOL) That's the easy way to go since they meal has already been cooked however long ago we had the meal before it became leftovers. Great discussion!

In daily life ,I think microwave oven is a necessary part for everybody.Of course,for my famility numbers, microwave oven is just for warming up no matter which food materials,but I afraid of cooking by it,I don not know why.