Hello hello hello. Continuing with my Ten Good Reasons Why....series. This one saves me money, which is a good enough reason for me to adopt this little foible, and make it part of my life. A lot of the things we do on a daily basis become habits. Some of them bad habits like eating the wrong crappy food, or good habits eating healthy food. I like to think that this little habit puts me on the right road to saving money, and giving me a healthy diet, therefore I see it as a good habit.
1. I don't like cleaning it. Anything that cuts down on housework is a plus for me, I don't want to spend time and effort in cleaning my oven, so I don't use it.
2. I don't want to bake cakes, bread, or biscuits. Why? Because I am weak willed and would scoff the lot as soon as it came out of the oven. I regard these as treats, so it's better for me to not have piles of sweet stodgy food in the house, and to buy the occasional treat from a shop.
3. I don't want to roast meat, or make pies and pasties, or lasagna, or anything else that needs to be bubbling away in a pot in the oven.
4. An oven uses too much gas for one person's food, and adds to the cost of the meal. To use it efficiently it needs to be full, and I am never going to fill mine.
5. I don't need to use the oven. I have a four ring gas hob, a grill, and a microwave. I can make everything I want to eat on those appliances.
6. I don't want to cook my food to death, the least amount of time it is on the heat the better. I don't want to be opening the oven door several times to check if it is done, too much of a hit and miss affair for me. Over cooking ruins it and costs money. Under cooking and it needs to go back in for a bit longer. I have no patience when it comes to waiting for food to cook. I want to look in the pan on the top, prick the food with a fork, turn the veggie burger over under the grill, or watch my food through the microwave door.
7. I want quick to prepare meals, the kitchen is not my favourite place to be. I like eating simple food which is not mucked about. I have no recipe books, have no need for them. No cooking meals are even better., put things on a plate straight out of the fridge. Take the oven out of the equation and it frees up preparation time to do other things.
8. Most dishes which are baked, roasted or casseroled in the oven need some kind of oil, fat, lard, sugar, salt, or sauce added, all things I want to cut down on. I try to avoid those in my diet.
9. I don't prepare huge amounts of food in one go, I only cook for one person, me. I will make a pan of veg stew on the hob, using one gas ring, but this can be done quickly. Chuck everything in, stir, ten minutes and it's done. Test with a fork, remove from heat asap.
10. I don't want to spend time scrubbing food off baking trays, roasting pans, and burnt food stuck on casserole dishes. Waste of time and money. Heat some water, use pan scrubber and wash up liquid. I don't do that.
So there it is. Ten good reasons why I don't use the oven. Why don't you try not using your oven for a month? Use your imagination to think of other ways to cook food. Reduce your time in the kitchen and spend it doing something you like doing. Of course, if cooking is your hobby and you enjoy it, then carry on.
Thank you for popping in. We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip
I'be got to buy oven Cleaner! :( x
ReplyDeleteWhile I do enjoy cooking with my circotherm oven, Ilona, baking and roasting and all the things which are supposed to be bad for us, I almost agreed with you tonight because my oven packed up half way through roasting a chicken! Mind you, while it's nice and clean (it has a steam clean facility but I only found out about this after I'd had the oven professionally cleaned and the cleaner said, "Don't you know you can steam clean your oven?" That will teach me to read the manual, won't it? Or if not, it should do!) it is 16 years old and I dare say that the element in the fan part of the oven has gone. That, or the thermostat! Something you won't have to fret about if you don't use your oven!
ReplyDeleteMy cousin doesn't use hers for the reasons you state, you are not alone!
Margaret P
My friend who does up furniture for a living keeps paint in hers!
ReplyDeleteArilx
Ha ha, that made me laugh. They do have other uses.
DeleteI do not use mine that often for all the above reasons you stated, but when I do I make 3 or 4 things at once. If I were just cooking for myself I would use it even less. I like to roast a whole batch of veges on a cookie sheet, especially in winter. Warms the tummy and the kitchen at the same time, haha.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't use the oven either if it was just me. We use ours to bake bread and the occasional quiche/pie. I have found my bench top convection oven brilliant for doing roasts and also my slow cooker gets a lot of use for stews etc. I have been looking for a small bench oven that I could use to bake the bread. The smaller the space the less volume has to be heated and less surface needs to be cleaned. The oven is a costly appliance to maintain. I am very lucky mine is not one of those mega ovens people like to install for when they "entertain".
ReplyDeleteI use Remoska. It is a 'one pot oven'. It cooks fast it is easy to clean and uses tiny amounts of electricity. It is a very simple technology just on off button and only one pot to wash.
ReplyDeleteI do use my gas oven (it gets cleaned once a year!)but much prefer cooking on our 2 ring calor gas stove with grill when we go camping. It's amazing how we can manage perfectly well with limited means and still produce good good.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I never thought of not using the oven although I detest cleaning it too and you are right that most of the things that get cooked in there I could probably do without! Jane
ReplyDeleteNo thanks. I'm not doing your challenge. Lol
ReplyDeleteI love cooking and my oven is in use almost daily. No, not for oven chips or frozen pizzas or any of their processed ilk, but for baking bread, slow roasting pork belly, yes lasagna, any kind of stew, pie, quiche....
I don't have to clean my oven very often, but if I do it's bicarb of soda with vinegar. Does the trick every time.
I used to have a 2 ring cooker with a grill and oven combined. It was fine. Then hubby decided we needed a "proper cooker". I can't reach the back of the oven to clean it unless I lay on my belly on the floor and then my arm only just reaches. FORGET IT ! ha ha. I use my microwave more now.
ReplyDeleteFor your lifestyle this all makes perfect sense except
ReplyDelete"Because I am weak willed " -this from the strongest minded, most disciplined person on the Internet! I had to smile when I read that... JanF
Hi. Yes, that does sound a bit daft, but I am weak willed when there are cakes and sweet stuff in the house, but strong willed enough to not put temptation under my nose.
DeleteI wrote that tongue in cheek 'cos I remembered how you'd responded to someone's idea of you making your own wine!
DeleteJanF
I love my oven!.
ReplyDeleteSaves me money can batch cook 20 plus ready home meals to freeze !.
Hi. Great, that's the way to get the best from your oven. Planning ahead.
DeleteHello. I so enjoy reading your wonderful blog post each night. But I have to say, I can't live without my own. In fact, it's a double oven and many times I use both of them! That's what happens when you like to play with dough and all the mess included with cleaning up. The new oven in the Turkey house wasn't working and I felt lost but it was soon repaired and I had a great time with flour and all the other ingredients. Baking is my hobby but you do point out many good reasons not to use the oven. Have a great day, Pat ;)
ReplyDeleteGlad you are enjoying your hobby. Maybe I could pop round and enjoy one of your scrumptious cakes, ha ha.
DeleteWot no slow cooker?
ReplyDeleteHello. I do have a slow cooker, but I very rarely use it, that's why I didn't mention it. They can be very useful for setting up in the morning so you have a hot meal when you come home later. Good for those with a busy lifestyle, energy efficient as well.
DeleteI do love your take on things however along with traveling, cooking and baking fill me with joy and passion. We have six kids and two grandkids another on the way and I love it when the house is full and everyone is enjoying all the goodies I've prepared. On the other hand I cook healthy mostly organic food which does cost more but it's worth it. Each to their own hey lol
ReplyDeleteEveryone to their own; I begrudge putting my oven on, electric, as it takes 20 minutes to 'warm up', but when I do, I make sure that I have 'batch-cooked' i.e. it is full of casseroles, stews etc and the food can be frozen in portions. I usually do this throughout the winter months every month or so but really, for about 9 months of the year, I manage with gas hob, microwave and grill. It has saved an awful lot of money not switching the oven on every evening but I do understand for some families it is a lifestyle. I cannot be bothered to cook from scratch every day so this method works well; spend a morning in the kitchen making a mountain of cooked food for the freezer (and I know what the ingredients are, little junk food eaten here). During the winter months a hot supper is comforting, so it's easy to de-frost and re-heat something in the microwave. Amanda
ReplyDeleteMy sister once told me that she has NEVER cleaned her oven. I was of course shocked and horrified until she quickly told me that is because she has never used it. She also lives on her own and prefers pan cooking.
ReplyDeleteI am a lazy cook so I use my oven!
ReplyDeleteAlways cook more things than just one.
My main form of cooking in the winter....warms up the kitchen as a bonus!
Summertime I use the micro or BBQ.
I could not use it everyday.
barb
I think if I lived alone I may feel the same! However I have a houseful of children so it is easy to fill the oven - and easy to eat up a tray of biscuits - and we do eat meat (6/7 of us) and a roast is actually a very cost-effective cut of meat. In summer I try to use it minimally as it gets very hot here. In winter I actually like to use it to warm the house whilst also cooking a meal and baking things for school lunchboxes and afternoon tea. Although it doesn't get really cold here that does mean houses don't have central heating and if the oven is on in the afternoon I don't need to run the electric heater in the family room.
ReplyDelete