Nu Wave Oven

I've been watching infomercials on tv about this product for over a year now, We finally decided to get one.

Of course it looks great on Tv,  but I wasn't sure how it would work in real life.  I've been reading customer reviews and the consensus seems to be that it works well and people seem to love it.  We thought it might be something good for the motor home, but we were concerned about space.   As you all know, space is at a premium in an rv.

They were on sale at Kohl's department store, so we headed to Tallahassee.

It cooks with convection, infared, and conduction heat, and cooks faster than a regular oven.  The infomercial shows them taking meat directly out of the freezer and right into the oven. It's fairly large, and takes up a good amount of  counter space. We're hoping it'll help us to eat healthier and cheaper, and earn it's place on the counter.

I'm not one to plan meals ahead of time and frequently have nothing prepared, so we head out for some fast food.  That's not good for our health, our budget,  or our weight.   My friend Carol has dinner planned by the time she wakes up.   I tend to plan my dinner when we're starved and can't wait much longer.  My meal planning strategy is not very successful :)

We got home with our new oven and I took a package of boneless chicken breasts out of the freezer, rinsed them, coated them with a mixture of Panko and Vigo bread crumbs and put them  in the oven.  The directions said 8 minutes a side.  You hit three buttons and it starts cooking.  No preheating, nothing. The outside of  the oven gets warm, but not enough that you'd burn yourself if you touch it and it doesn't heat up your kitchen.  They say it's smokeless, so hopefully no more setting off the smoke detector!   After 8 minutes the oven shut off,  I turned them over and cooked them another 8 minutes.  When  I cut into them and they were raw!

These breasts were very large and evidently needed more cooking, but I wasn't exactly sure how much more.  I pulled out my meat thermometer and cooked them a few more minutes on each side.  Well, it turned out my meat thermometer wasn't working and I overcooked the breasts a little.  They were a little tough, but I blame myself,  not the oven.  They browned up nice and were crispy, even though a little over cooked.  I expected I would need to "tweak" the cooking times a little.  I think I need to get another meat thermometer.   I've always had problems cooking chicken the correct time and this was no exception!

What I like about the Nu Wave oven is that I can cook something and not worry that I have to stand there and watch it.  I particularly worry about the gas stove in the motor home,  so I stay very close to the stove when I'm cooking there.   There's something about that little blue flame that makes me nervous!  With the Nu Wave, I can walk away and it will stop cooking when the timer goes off.  I really like that.  I won't have to worry about defrosting meat and can pull it out when we want it.  We frequently defrost something in the morning and our plans change by evening and it doesn't get cooked.

I think after a day out kayaking or hiking,  it'll come in handy.  We think we may do a lot of cooking outside, so that'll save some counter space.  In the past when we were camping, we ate quick and easy meals...camping food.  Since we'll be living in the motor home, we need to eat better, and we're hoping this will help.    You can cook your meat, vegetables and potatoes together and not have to worry ahead of time about defrosting the meat.

I bought some bacon and I'm making us some bacon and eggs this morning in the new oven.  I just want to see how bacon does in the Nu Wave.  We don't eat it often, partly because of the mess and partly because it's not good for us.   This evening, we're going to cook a turkey breast and see how that works.

While in Tallahassee yesterday, we hit the Petsmart store for some kitty food and ended up getting "Little Noogie" a pet bed for the motor home.  She's very timid and frequently sleeps under the brake/gas pedals in her little hiding spot.  The pet bed will go there so she'll be more comfy.  Of course when we're traveling, she rides in her kitty condo.

We then headed over to Sam's Club and I found my brand new camera for $368!   I paid $429 at Walmart a few weeks ago.  Walmart has a 30 day return policy, so if they won't honor that price, I'm returning it.  That's a $61 difference!

Before we headed  back home, we stopped at Red Lobster and had an early dinner.  Boy was it good!  By the time we got home, we had spent all of our profits from our garage sale the day before!

Today, we need to clean the house.  We've just about got it messy enough that will bring out someone to come see it!  We had some plant damage from the frosty nights so Al needs to cut them back.  It's supposed to hit 70 today and then upper 70's the rest of the week, so our cool snap is over for now.