12 Things Your Microwave Can Do That Nobody Told You | Seniors Living Alone
Solo Senior Living
6,168 views
Twelve things your microwave can do that most of us never try — real dinners, not reheating. If
you're cooking for one after 60, that machine on your counter is probably the most underused tool in the kitchen. Fish in four minutes, poached chicken for the whole week, steamed dumplings without a steamer, polenta that doesn't need twenty minutes of stirring, genuinely crisp tortilla chips, and corn that slides straight out of its husk with the silk left behind. Plus the four safety rules that make microwave cooking work, which nobody explains when you buy one.
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01:35 ✅ #1 — Ginger Scallion Fish
Thin white fish fillet (cod or tilapia) — 170 g / 6 oz
Fresh ginger — a thumb-sized piece, in fine matchsticks
Scallions — 2, cut into lengths
Water — 15 ml / 1 tbsp · Soy sauce — 15 ml / 1 tbsp
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
03:32 ✅ #2 — Poached Chicken Breast
Boneless, skinless chicken breast — 170 g / 6 oz
Water — 60 ml / 1/4 cup
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
05:25 ✅ #3 — Frozen Dumplings, Steamed in a Bowl
Fully cooked frozen dumplings — 6 to 8
Water — enough to come 1/3 up the dumplings
Dipping sauce: soy · a little vinegar · a few drops sesame oil
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
07:15 ✅ #4 — Polenta With No Stirring
Cornmeal — 45 g / 1/3 cup • Water or broth — 360 ml / 1 1/2 cups • Pinch of salt
Butter — 15 ml / 1 tbsp • Grated cheese — a good handful
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
05:51 ✅ #5 — Savory Steamed Egg Custard
Eggs — 2
Warm broth — 1.5× the volume of the beaten egg (about 180 ml / 3/4 cup)
Scallion · soy sauce · a few drops sesame oil, to finish
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
12:15 ✅ #6 — Warm Tomato Sauce From Scratch
Chopped tomatoes — 1 can • Garlic — 2 cloves, sliced thin
Olive oil — 15 ml / 1 tbsp • Pinch of salt • Butter — 15 ml / 1 tbsp, at the end
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
13:37 ✅ #7 — Crispy Bacon Between Paper Towels
Bacon — 2 or 3 strips
Plain white unprinted paper towels — 3 sheets
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
14:57 ✅ #8 — Soft Spreadable Garlic in Eight Minutes
Garlic — 1 whole head, top sliced off
Olive oil — 5 ml / 1 tsp • Water — 15 ml / 1 tbsp, in the bowl
💡 Honest note: it doesn't brown and caramelize like oven-roasted garlic. What it is, is soft sweet paste in 8 minutes instead of 45. Use *50% power* or the cloves burst before they soften.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
16:29 ✅ #9 — Crisp Tortilla Chips, and Then Nachos
Corn tortillas — 2, cut into 6 wedges each
The barest film of oil • Salt
To load: grated cheese · black beans · shredded poached chicken from #2
Cold on top after: salsa · avocado · sour cream
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
18:02 ✅ #10 — Corn on the Cob, Still in the Husk
Corn — 1 ear, husk and silk completely intact
Butter and salt
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
19:25 ✅ #11 — Quick Pickled Onions in Ninety Seconds
Red onion — 1/2, sliced very thin
Vinegar — 80 ml / 1/3 cup • Water — 80 ml / 1/3 cup
Sugar — 5 ml / 1 tsp • Salt — 2.5 ml / 1/2 tsp
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
20:53 ✅ #12 — Baked Apple in a Mug
Apple — 1 firm one (Granny Smith or Honeycrisp), cored and chopped
Brown sugar — 5 ml / 1 tsp • Cinnamon — a good pinch
Butter — 5 ml / 1 tsp • A squeeze of lemon
=====================
Let me know in the comments which one you're trying first, and don't forget to subscribe for more easy, gentle made for one.
These recipes are shared for general enjoyment. Please adjust ingredients to your own tastes and any dietary needs, and check with your doctor about anything specific to your health.
7 Comments
I have a built-in oven with microwave and the instructions state that full power is mainly for heating drinks, with 600w or even 360w recommended for most dishes.
One thing I find disappointing here in the UK is how difficult it is becoming to buy borosilicate glass with lids. Far too many either have no lids, or plastic lids only useful for storage.
12 Things Your Microwave Can Do That Nobody Told You | Seniors Living Alone
Solo Senior Living
6,168 views
Twelve things your microwave can do that most of us never try — real dinners, not reheating. If
you're cooking for one after 60, that machine on your counter is probably the most underused tool in the kitchen. Fish in four minutes, poached chicken for the whole week, steamed dumplings without a steamer, polenta that doesn't need twenty minutes of stirring, genuinely crisp tortilla chips, and corn that slides straight out of its husk with the silk left behind. Plus the four safety rules that make microwave cooking work, which nobody explains when you buy one.
=========================
01:35 ✅ #1 — Ginger Scallion Fish
Thin white fish fillet (cod or tilapia) — 170 g / 6 oz
Fresh ginger — a thumb-sized piece, in fine matchsticks
Scallions — 2, cut into lengths
Water — 15 ml / 1 tbsp · Soy sauce — 15 ml / 1 tbsp
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
03:32 ✅ #2 — Poached Chicken Breast
Boneless, skinless chicken breast — 170 g / 6 oz
Water — 60 ml / 1/4 cup
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
05:25 ✅ #3 — Frozen Dumplings, Steamed in a Bowl
Fully cooked frozen dumplings — 6 to 8
Water — enough to come 1/3 up the dumplings
Dipping sauce: soy · a little vinegar · a few drops sesame oil
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
07:15 ✅ #4 — Polenta With No Stirring
Cornmeal — 45 g / 1/3 cup • Water or broth — 360 ml / 1 1/2 cups • Pinch of salt
Butter — 15 ml / 1 tbsp • Grated cheese — a good handful
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
05:51 ✅ #5 — Savory Steamed Egg Custard
Eggs — 2
Warm broth — 1.5× the volume of the beaten egg (about 180 ml / 3/4 cup)
Scallion · soy sauce · a few drops sesame oil, to finish
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
12:15 ✅ #6 — Warm Tomato Sauce From Scratch
Chopped tomatoes — 1 can • Garlic — 2 cloves, sliced thin
Olive oil — 15 ml / 1 tbsp • Pinch of salt • Butter — 15 ml / 1 tbsp, at the end
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
13:37 ✅ #7 — Crispy Bacon Between Paper Towels
Bacon — 2 or 3 strips
Plain white unprinted paper towels — 3 sheets
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
14:57 ✅ #8 — Soft Spreadable Garlic in Eight Minutes
Garlic — 1 whole head, top sliced off
Olive oil — 5 ml / 1 tsp • Water — 15 ml / 1 tbsp, in the bowl
💡 Honest note: it doesn't brown and caramelize like oven-roasted garlic. What it is, is soft sweet paste in 8 minutes instead of 45. Use *50% power* or the cloves burst before they soften.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
16:29 ✅ #9 — Crisp Tortilla Chips, and Then Nachos
Corn tortillas — 2, cut into 6 wedges each
The barest film of oil • Salt
To load: grated cheese · black beans · shredded poached chicken from #2
Cold on top after: salsa · avocado · sour cream
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
18:02 ✅ #10 — Corn on the Cob, Still in the Husk
Corn — 1 ear, husk and silk completely intact
Butter and salt
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
19:25 ✅ #11 — Quick Pickled Onions in Ninety Seconds
Red onion — 1/2, sliced very thin
Vinegar — 80 ml / 1/3 cup • Water — 80 ml / 1/3 cup
Sugar — 5 ml / 1 tsp • Salt — 2.5 ml / 1/2 tsp
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
20:53 ✅ #12 — Baked Apple in a Mug
Apple — 1 firm one (Granny Smith or Honeycrisp), cored and chopped
Brown sugar — 5 ml / 1 tsp • Cinnamon — a good pinch
Butter — 5 ml / 1 tsp • A squeeze of lemon
=====================
Let me know in the comments which one you're trying first, and don't forget to subscribe for more easy, gentle made for one.
These recipes are shared for general enjoyment. Please adjust ingredients to your own tastes and any dietary needs, and check with your doctor about anything specific to your health.