The toaster oven that they got me is actually a toaster/convection oven. It doesn’t just toast… I can cook in it too. I can’t fit a whole meal it in, but I can do either a main dish or a side dish. This is a nice money-saver for us, because it means not heating up the regular oven for just one part of our dinner. I don’t mind turning on the oven if our main dish and potatoes are both being baked. I just can’t bring myself to heat it up if it’s just for 10 minutes of fish cooking. What a waste!
I’ve made three really delicious foods in my toaster oven recently. Here’s a picture of the cornbread I baked just last night.
I followed my regular cornbread recipe, but I used this pan I bought specifically for baking in a toaster oven. It’s sized to fit in the smaller ovens, but it works in my newer/larger one too. I think I bought my set of toaster oven pans from the company that made our first toaster oven, but I just checked on Amazon and found a similar set HERE.
I also sliced homemade bread, buttered it, sprinkled it with Tastefully Simple’s Garlic Garlic, and added some mozzarella cheese. It broiled in the toaster oven for a few minutes and was devoured by my family!
If you want to start cooking in a toaster oven, please be sure that yours was designed for cooking meats and/or for baking. Older/smaller toaster ovens are often just for toasting, meaning that they may not get hot enough to make it safe to cook meat. If you have an older/smaller oven, you might want to consider asking for a new one for Christmas. It’s not a glamorous gift, but I can tell you that it makes cooking a lot easier!
This year, I’m pondering the possibility of asking for a bit larger food processor. Do you think they’ll wonder if I’m seriously losing it???
For more great frugal living ideas, stop by Frugal Friday hosted by Life As MOM.