Not only does microwave cooking save energy, but foods cooked in the microwave generally retain more vitamins than foods cooked more slowly.

Plus, the microwave won’t heat up your kitchen like the oven can.

Here are some external links to microwave recipes and tips to get you started as a microwave chef. Please remember to make sure you’re using microwave-safe cookware.

General Microwave Cooking Tips

USDA’s guide to Cooking Safely in the Microwave Oven

On Food and Zapping (with tips on hot foamed milk for coffee and non-erupting polenta)

Microwave Iced Tea

Veggies, Rice & Snacks

Corn on the Cob

Rice

Potatoes Lyonnaise

Squash

Cheesy Cracker Melts

Breakfast

Breakfast Casserole

Banana Muffins

Desserts

Krispie Marshmallow Treats

Double Chocolate Brownies with Sweetened Whipped Cream

Chocolate Cookie Bark

And for a Nice Hostess Touch

Aromatherapy Hot Towels for your guests

Do you have any favorite microwave recipes?

Image via flickr.

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Post from: Tree Hugging Family

These snacks have many advantages over boxed fruit snacks.

Healthier – while this is more a fun food, than a “meal” food, they still have less sugar than store bought fruit snacks and have no weird chemicals, colors, or preservatives.

Less packaging – the fruit snacks in stores come in little bags that come in little boxes. It’s a ton of packaging.

Better taste – hands down, these treats are more flavorful than store bought.

You need to gather:

• Dried fruit. Assorted. I get mine from the local co-op. Try to find unsweetened, organic, bulk dried fruit. We’ve used pineapple, cherries, papaya, apricots and more. We don’t use crunchy dried, like bananas though. I’m not sure that would work. Grab a pound or so. If you have a dryer, you can use that to make your own dried fruit instead.

• Organic orange juice. You can use real fresh squeezed which offers great flavor, and you only need a little, so it’s not too much trouble. Kids like to squeeze oranges anyway. Cedar, my son, is allergic to oranges but can have mandarin oranges and lemons so we make ours with those instead of orange juice. It works fine. It’s a tad more tart.

• Orange rind (or lemon, mandarin, etc.). You need a good amount – maybe all of the rind from a medium sized fruit.

• Nuts – optional. If you use them you can use any kind, they just need to be finely chopped or ground up.

To make fruit snacks:

1. Grind up all the fruit – we use a blender on chop, then grind. A food processor might work better if you have one. I just don’t want an extra appliance around.
2. Add the orange rind – grind more.
3. Add enough juice to form a sticky mass – one that’s held together. Don’t add too much or it will be too watery a consistency.
4. Everyone grab a mound of sticky mass and roll some little balls out. Alternatively, we’ve rolled ours out with a slightly juiced rolling pin, then cut into squares. Make them about bite sized.
5. If you’re using nuts, roll the balls/squares in the nuts.
6. Eat!

It’s sticky cooking – but still a good time.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family