Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Micro'waved Out

Several of you joined us and UNPLUGGED your microwaves for the Wave Challenge. Here is what some of the participants had to say:
 

"Just recently I bought an electric kettle for my tea before I use to make it in microwave. Now me my mom & her we are all trying to cut it down but thanx to u. Ohh & one more thing I have stopped using any plastic containers & ziplocks in the microwave & instead of using a plastic microwave cover to cover the food I am was using an old dish glass lid. I am giving kids lunch in glass containers instead of those plastic ones, it's little heavy for them but not that bad & steal water bottles...letting u know so then maybe some other moms can get some ideas :D  "
- Maria Battla

"To tell you the truth 4 days ago I used to do the easy way, t.v dinners for me and the kids. Now I make home cooked meals. I know it does take time but after all the info that you have gave us really the most important thing to me is my childrens heath above all"
-Amira Zureiq

I'm trying now though.. still didn't write a note lol... but I am inshallah going to buy a toaster oven this week inshallah to reduce the micowave usage inshallah! jazakillah khair for your efforts!"
-Aasiya Qasim

 Pulling out my pots to heat up lunch on the stove! 
Carrots, blueberries, celery, kale. 
I decided to incorporate some raw cuisine into our day so we did not need to depend on our microwave. You could blend this up and make a smoothie or you could juice it. 


To be totally honest- my day without the microwave was not much different. It was only around lunch when I found myself a bit lazy to warm up leftovers. I blame the laziness on my default habits. Change does not come easy but its almost always the best thing a person can do for themselves. It took me about a minute and thirty seconds longer than usual to warm up my food but it stayed warm for awhile. Have you ever noticed with microwave cooking you are constantly reheating your foods? 

At the end of the day there were some extra pots in my already piled dishes to wash.... so for the benefits- a couple of extra minutes spent at the sink is a decent trade off for me. 

The one thing I did have issues was with my chamomile tea. It took my three tries before I got it just right! I think a lot of moms can agree with me on this one, every time I would start making my tea something would come up. On any other day I would have warmed my tea up in the microwave... but this time I reheated the kettle so it took an entire minute longer. The way I look at it is, I rather give up a minute of my life to save a minute of my life down the road- ya know what I'm saying?

For now I have left the Out of Order sign on our microwave and will decrease the use as much as possible. I can see myself totally eliminating it over time Inshallah. I will post updates about this Inshallah ;)

A big thanks to everyone who participated! Especially those of you who took the time to post about your experiences. Feel free to post your thoughts/advice/tips for others if you took part in the challenge. If this is a lifestyle change that you already adapted, you can still enter to win. Simply post a comment and tell us a little about your life without the microwave and how you have managed.

Nadoona and I will be announcing a winner as soon as everyone has posted their comments. Please post about your experience and enter to win the grand prize! 





4 comments:

  1. does anyone have any suggestions for working mothers and fathers? How do they reheat their lunch at work without a microwave?

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  2. I failed miserably, and I'm not proud of it :( But my excuse is my baby was sick and I had to eat super fast to take care of him.

    ...I never even used a microwave until I got married, and I can't believe how much I rely on it now.

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  3. I have been weaning off the microwave for some time now. I usually heat up foods on the stovetop except for grains. I find that the food just tastes different when it's microwaved, especially chicken will get an unpleasant smell to it. I did find it challenging not to nuke rice and other grains when I wanted to. The challenge did encourage me to make a more conscious effort of utilizing the stove top for all food items. i would like to rid myself free of the microwave because I hardly use it however, it gives me comfort to know that it is there. It's purpose is like having a back up generator in Pakistan. Not so much so that my stovetop might shutdown but, inscase I do.

    A work in progress....

    JazakAllah khair for making our lives less toxic!

    Mediha

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  4. asak,I have suggestion to the sis question above about working moms & dads reheating their lunch without microwave at work...well maybe you can try to take sandwich,panini,subs,roll or salad etc..things which you dont need to heatup...that's what I started doing for my kids lunch & when I found out that they were using microwave in school to warm up their food...I explained them that their food does not need to be warmed up b/c these foods can be eaten easily with out warming it up..I hope this works for u too..inshallah :)

    ReplyDelete

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