Using a Microwave Oven to Cook My Breakfast

Tagged with breakfast, cooking, home appliances, microwave oven on March 7, 2024

I’ve used some type of microwave oven for more than 43 years, but only for heating things up, or reheating things previously cooked. Until today, that is. My first attempt at actually cooking something in a microwave oven, back in 1980, resulted in something I couldn’t eat.

I was living in an apartment, with only the microwave oven, out of all the home appliances available to me, that I’d never used before. My parents didn’t buy their first microwave oven until more than a decade later.

Our First Microwave Oven

From 1987 to 1988, I was stationed on the island of Okinawa in Japan. It was an unaccompanied tour, which meant my wife, Josie, couldn’t be with me. I don’t remember which base had the largest base exchange, but it was the one I visited on the weekends. The home appliances they sold were way less expensive than in the United States, for the same products.

That was because we didn’t have to pay any taxes on them, and the exchange’s markup was lower than most retail stores in the United States. I don’t know why, but they were less expensive overseas than in the United States base exchanges.

Shortly before having the transportation office ship my household goods to the United States, I bought a large microwave oven with the “Goldstar” brand name on it. You may know it today as “LG”. We used that microwave oven from 1988 until shortly before moving to the Philippines in 2006. It lasted 18 years, and it still worked when we gave it away. Not bad at all.

Our Second One

Josie bought our second microwave oven in the Philippines in 2006, shortly after our house was built. It was a little larger than the one we currently own, made by Whirlpool, and it had keypad settings. I don’t remember what happened, but it stopped working about a month before we left for the United States in 2018. It only lasted 12 years, but still not bad.

Our Third One

Josie bought our third microwave oven in the Philippines, shortly after we returned in 2022, made by American Home Appliances (a strange name since it’s made in the Philippines). It was very inexpensive. It has a knob on the front, with no LCD or LED lights of any kind on it. A large plate will barely fit inside of it. I have no idea how long it will last.

Until this morning, I’ve only used it for reheating leftovers and heating up frozen food items.

Cooking

As I’ve probably mentioned elsewhere, I won’t normally cook anything using regular pots and pans, especially if it’s only for me. It’s not just me being lazy. I have to smell what I’m cooking and by the time I’m done cooking, I no longer have an appetite. If Josie doesn’t feel like cooking, and I can heat or reheat something in the microwave oven, I’m good to go.

Josie’s Aunt Sarah is here visiting from the United States. Yesterday, she described how she cooks scrambled eggs in a coffee mug in a microwave oven. She doesn’t like to cook for herself, either. I thought about it and decided I would try it this morning, but more than with just eggs. The hash browns and spicy beef franks we buy are precooked.

The reality is that I was just heating up the hash browns and franks, even though Josie normally cooks them in a skillet. I scrambled two eggs in a mug and cooked it for about 20 seconds, took the mug out and scrambled them again. I put them back in for another 40 seconds to finish cooking. They didn’t taste like scrambled eggs. They tasted like hard-boiled eggs.

I suppose the eggs would have tasted a bit different if I had added milk or cheese, which is something I don’t have to do when cooking them in a skillet. I’m sure fried eggs taste a bit different regardless because we cook them in oil. Anyway…

It took me less than five minutes to cook my breakfast, and another two minutes to make a cup of coffee. Worth it.

Image by Mrbeastmodeallday, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons