Toaster ovens -- do you use yours for anything but toast?

[Anonymous]

Our toaster died, and I'm thinking of replacing it with a toaster oven, mostly so that the kids can make themselves snacks without using the oven. (We don't have a microwave.) I didn't realize there was such a wide range in price. Are the more advanced ones useful enough to justify the price? (Would it be good for more than just snacks?) Or should I just get the cheapest one?

[Anonymous]

I have a pretty basic one from amazon. I use it to make quesadillas for my kids. Also if I am making them some chicken nuggets or something like that I don't heat up the whole oven for it. Mine gets use every day (for toast and other.)

[Anonymous]

Mine is ancient (was my grandmothers for who knows how many years, and she's been dead for 7 years.)
I use it for a lot of stuff -- anything frozen that gets baked like fish sticks, french fries, or pierogies. Also make garlic bread in it every time we have spaghetti, and toast french bread with olive oil, s/p to make tomato mozz sandwiches. And reheat pizza. Bottom line: I use mine daily.

[Anonymous]

We use ours pretty often. If I can fit something in the toaster oven rather than the big oven, I'll cook it in there (saves energy and keeps the kitchen cool). As PPs have mentioned, it's especially good for frozen foods, but I've also baked things like fish wrapped in foil and blueberry crisp. We warm up half loaves of bread in there pretty often and also use it to bake potatoes.

Ours is a hand me down with a tendency to burn everything, but it still gets a lot of use. I'd love to have a nice one and imagine I'd use it even more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We use ours pretty often. If I can fit something in the toaster oven rather than the big oven, I'll cook it in there (saves energy and keeps the kitchen cool). As PPs have mentioned, it's especially good for frozen foods, but I've also baked things like fish wrapped in foil and blueberry crisp. We warm up half loaves of bread in there pretty often and also use it to bake potatoes.

We use ours a lot, too. Actually, I pretty much never use it for toast. But I use it several times a week instead of the big oven.

[Anonymous]

We use ours almost daily. We make toast, we reheat many leftovers in it (basically anything with a starch which would get soggy and disgusting reheated in the microwave), frozen mini pizzas work much better in the toaster oven than those microwave oven trays) and chicken nuggets for the kids. And like other PPs, we will cook things in the toaster oven to avoid heating up the big oven in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Chicken cordon blue because I don't want to use the entire oven to heat up a 2 x 4 item.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We use ours pretty often. If I can fit something in the toaster oven rather than the big oven, I'll cook it in there (saves energy and keeps the kitchen cool). As PPs have mentioned, it's especially good for frozen foods, but I've also baked things like fish wrapped in foil and blueberry crisp. We warm up half loaves of bread in there pretty often and also use it to bake potatoes.

We use ours a lot, too. Actually, I pretty much never use it for toast. But I use it several times a week instead of the big oven.

+1

I use the big oven almost never, save for temperamental baked goods and finishing off steaks at 500+ degrees

[Anonymous]

Pay about $50 for a new one. Anything more and you're wasting your money, anything less and it'll break sooner.

[Anonymous]

We bought one big enough to bake a personal pizza. Downside is that it is pretty lousy at actual toast. But is great for chicken nuggets, a few break & bake cookies, warming leftover quiche or pizza, broiling hot dogs, etc. Baked apples are good in there, too.

[Anonymous]

Anything I want to come out crispy: Chix patties, pizza, fried dumplings, fries, etc.

[Anonymous]

Mine is big enough for a 9 inch square pan..I use it very often..make chicken, brownies...

[Anonymous]

We use ours all the time-- far, far more often than the regular oven. It heats up faster than the regular oven, and the kitchen doesn't get hot. You can use for it almost anything you want to bake or broil.

My favorite appliance.

[Anonymous]

This clip from ATK makes me laugh b/c some of the toaster ovens couldn't even make toast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SV7xoeOD4o

[Anonymous]

They're great for reheating pizza. I only wish mine was a little bigger. It's only about the size of a regular toaster. When this one breaks, I'm getting a bigger one for similar reasons the pp's have said.