distributedlife

Since the start of June I have been living in my new place. It’s my first house, it’s all very exciting and I love it. One of the decisions I made when moving into my new place was the decision not to buy a microwave.

It’s been five months now since I moved in and it’s time for me to review and share my thoughts on a Microwave Free Lifestyle.

My original reasoning was that I wanted to improve the quality of the food I ate and therefore the quality of life. This meant not eating microwavable food and quite possibly using a saucepan if the need arose. Generally speaking I was making a conscious effort to produce and consume food that is both better for me and tastier.

There were many detractors; reheating food that has been frozen, preparing baby’s milk, people who like their coffee hotter than it should be, cooking popcorn and the biggest one of all, convenience.

How have I found it? Excellent. I’ve not missed the microwave at all. I have an espresso machine which I use to make delicious coffee or to warm babies milk should the need arise…it hasn’t yet.

Now this isn’t to say that I’ve not used a microwave altogether since moving into my new house. There just isn’t one there. At work, for lunch, there is no stove top for me to reheat my food so I microwave is the only choice.

My partner likes warmed muesli and coffee that is too hot for its own good. So there are some detractors going around saying it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I will agree remembering to defrost chicken in the morning is much harder than shoving it in the mic.

One of the things I like most of all is making popcorn on the stove. It’s like a childhood memory, the popcorn pops and you get all giddy with delight. Except we had a hot air powered popcorn maker as a child. This would have been way better. A lack of butter one day forced us to use olive oil drizzled over the popcorn to help the salt stick. Olive oil tastes supremely better than butter on popcorn.

If you have the chance I recommend you try it. Food always tastes better when it’s cooked properly and not having an easy way out forces you to cook some interesting creations when supplies get low.

When my partner moves in with me next year, a microwave will inevitably return so these halcyon days can’t last forever.