Posted by Janet Harriett on May.16, 2009

©iStockphoto.com - emreogan

In an earlier column, Green Diva Mom discussed why you should not microwave food. Knowing that microwaves may decrease the nutrient content of your food is one thing. Actually getting rid of the magnetron in your kitchen is another thing entirely. Convenience foods rely on the quick cooking of the microwave, and our hectic modern lifestyle is that much less hectic when you can pop forgotten cup of coffee in the nuker for a minute to warm it back up. Ditching your microwave takes some adjustment. Here are some suggestions for working cooking the most commonly microwaved foods without a microwave.

Microwavable Meals

Use the conventional oven. Most TV dinners and microwave meals have conventional oven cooking directions. Frozen microwave meals take longer to cook in the microwave, but it can be done in most cases. Of course, when you are taking 30 minutes to make a TV dinner, you may find it just as easy to cook a meal fresh. Without the convenience factor of the microwave, you might just get rid of the overpriced, over-processed “convenience” foods altogether since they aren’t as convenient and, reading the nutrition labels, some should barely count as food.

Leftovers

Depending on what the leftover is, you can reheat either in the oven or on the stovetop. Anything that can withstand stirring, like spaghetti, soup and casserole, can be reheated  in a saucepan on the stovetop, with a few tablespoons of water to loosen up the cold food and frequent stirring to prevent scorching. Foods like lasagna, pizza, hot sandwiches or cutlets are better warmed in the oven. Just place in an ovenproof dish or on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until warmed through. For small portions, consider using a toaster oven to save energy over the larger oven

Vegetables

Rather than microwaving vegetables, steam them lightly in a stovetop steamer basket. A collapsable steamer basket costs around $5. Steaming preserves more nutrients than boiling, particularly if you only steam the veggies until they are warmed through and still crisp. You can steam-cook fresh veggies and warm through frozen vegetables.

Popcorn

Getting rid of your microwave does not mean the end of popcorn. A decent quality air popper costs around $20. Plus, if you want butter, you can use real butter from a cow, not the artificially butter-flavored oils on microwave popcorn. If you’re watching your figure, you can do one better than the 94% fat free “light” popcorn and snack on 3 cups of air-popped popcorn (without butter) for a filling 100 calorie snack.

Frozen Foods

The microwave was great for defrosting meat or frozen vegetables. Without a microwave, defrost frozen foods in the fridge. Countertop defrosting can allow harmful bacteria to thrive. Frozen vegetables can be defrosted in a steamer or by dunking the veggies in water for a few minutes prior to adding them to the dish. Save water by using a bowl of water to defrost rather than running tap water, and pour the water on houseplants, or use it to cook pasta or grains.

Water, Tea and Coffee

A minute in the microwave, and a cup of water is ready for tea, cocoa or instant coffee. A kettle on the stovetop does the same thing without taking that much longer. To save energy, heat only what you need; don’t boil a full kettle for one cup of tea.  For even more energy savings, dig out the old hot pot or electric kettle from college.

Butter and Chocolate

When a recipe calls for melted butter or chocolate, the microwave made quick work of the prep. Melting butter in a saucepan is trivially easy. Just keep the heat low enough to not burn the butter. Chocolate needs to be protected from burning, s consider a double boiler or a pan nestled into a larger pan of water to prevent burning.

Honey

Honey is a great natural sweetener, but the lower grades of mass-market honey have an unfortunate tendency to crystalize. The package directions to microwave the honey to re-melt it aren’t helpful. In the pre-microwave days, one used to be able to sit the honey jar in a pan of boiling water to get the nectar flowing again, but when microwave ovens became a kitchen staple, honey manufacturers moved to using bottles that don’t stand up as well to higher temperatures. After nearly melting a bottle of honey, I learned to transfer my honey to clean glass jars as soon as I purchased it.

Marshmallows

The only food that doesn’t have a satisfactory non-microwave workaround is marshmallows. While you can certainly toast marshmallows under a broiler or over a gas burner flame, no conventional cooking method makes marshmallows puff up the way they do in a microwave. Not that marshmallows are the kind of food a person should be eating anyway, regardless of the cooking method.

Recycling Your Old Microwave

When you do decide to take the plunge and get rid of your microwave, don’t just toss it in the trash. The magnetron that generates the microwave contains some compounds that are safe enough when encased in your microwave, but should not be disposed of in a landfill. Take the microwave to your local hazardous waste collection facility. Some e-waste recyclers who accept electronics will also take microwaves. Earth911 lets you search for e-waste disposal facilities in your area.

Another option is to donate your working microwave to a charitable organization, but this presents an ethical dilemma. Domestic violence or homeless shelters might be able to use a microwave, and other charitable organizations can resell it to raise money, but should you donate something to a charity that you’ve decided is too dangerous for your own family?

The Green Tradeoff

Aside from question of whether to dispose or donate a working microwave, getting rid of your microwave presents another green living quandary. Microwaving food isn’t as healthy as stovetop or oven cooking, but it is more energy-efficient. A microwave uses around half the energy of a conventional oven and doesn’t heat up the whole house.  Green living isn’t a simple calculation.

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Posted under Home Environment, Kitchen & Bath.