I have never owned a microwave - not since we had one when I was growing up. We used it basically for defrosting and melting butter, and my dad referred to it as "the $400 popcorn popper" (that's when they actually cost that much). It just doesn't seem that suitable for real cooking.

So I don't have recipes. I do think there is some sort of chocolate cake you can make in a mug with cocoa powder that always sounded interesting. It's good at steaming veggies. Also good for starting a baked potato, which you can parcook and then stick into the real oven for final crisping.

Here's the cake thing.

I like my bacon super-crispy, and the microwave is perfect for that. That's about all I use it for. My husband makes tea, but that is what the kettle is for, as far as I am concerned.

I don't have a microwave but I've always wanted to try eggs in it. Do they turn all rubbery?

steaming veges. Apart from that I only use it for re-heating things (not chicken or pork though, makes it taste weird.)

I steam vegetables in mine. Broccoli, cauliflower and carrots particularly come out well. I use a Tupperware Multi-Serve that I was given as a wedding present 20 years ago, but any microwave vegetable steamer would do the job just as well.

I also use the Multi-Serve (without the inner drainage bowl) to cook rice in the microwave.

We don't cook in the micro so much as heat stuff up.

We buy frozen vegetables in bags. Cook them in Corning ware in the micro. Also, those bags of brown / wild rice that cook in 90 seconds. Its expensive but we don't buy it all that often and I figure my foremothers, who traveled to Texas by wagon would be so tickled by the idea of rice in 90 seconds, that I have to take advantage of it.

This site might be helpful.

Baked potatoes! Take your potato, wash it a touch, jab a few times with a fork, wrap in cling wrap, nuke for 10 minutes.

TV dinners, soup, cup o noodles... basically everything I eat that doesn't go in a toaster.

I'm pretty sure that I used the microwave ten times more often than the stove and a million times more than the oven which hasn't been fired up for six months as far as I can remember. Mostly for stuff that Eid said with the addition of Trader Joe's Burritos.

When I was a kid and wasn't old enough to use the stove without supervision, I could cook things in the microwave. Here's a recipe from my six-year-old self:

* Melted Cheese Sandwich *
2 slices white bread
2 pieces American cheese, individually wrapped
mayonnaise (Miracle Whip may be substituted)

1. Spread mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip) on one side of each slice of white bread
2. Unwrap American cheese and situate on the mayonnaise side of one slice of bread, making sure to cover the surface entirely (you may have to break the cheese into several smaller pieces to ensure full bread coverage)
3. Heat cheese covered bread in microwave for 45 seconds, power level 8
4. Top cheese covered bread with second slice of bread, mayo side down
5. Invert sandwich so heated slice of bread is now on top, let cool for as long as you can stand
6. Devour

All I use mine for is poached eggs - put about a tablespoon of water in a bowl, crack the egg into it, pierce the yolk with a fork (this step is KEY. KEY!) put a plate on top and nuke. 37 seconds for a runny poached egg; 45 or more for a nice rubbery one that you can make a simulacrum Egg McMuffin with. I also nuke fakon - soy bacon - to get it crispy but, other than reheating leftover, warming tortillas and softening butter, that's all I do with it. I have done baked potatoes but I don't like them that way - I wouldn't use cling wrap, either, sperose, nuking food in plastic turns out to be not so good for you.

Youngergirl- We make a similar sandwich in the microwave at work. We call it 'ghetto grilled cheese'.

I haven't had a poached egg in forever. I'ma try that.

and, wow! The lentils actually turned out ridiculously delish. I had some dried chickpeas (about a third or quarter of the amount of lentils) so I put those in first, covered in water, and cooked on high for 10 min. Then I took them out and rinsed and drained them, added the lentils, sauteed onions (a lot), some red bell pepper, and green bell pepper, some chopped Italian parsley, and a bunch of garlic powder because I forgot to sautee some garlic with the onion. There was olive oil in there, from the oil to saute the onions. I cooked it all for another 10 minutes on high, then added some more water, then another 10 minutes... and now I forget whether I did I did it once more at 10 minutes. So it took either 30 or 40 minutes altogether. Not exactly the speediest thing ever, but it would have been a lot longer on the stove. And no heat! And they are actually better than my usual stovetop lentils.

derail:

TAZ HOW TOTALLY BITCHEN TO SEE YOU POSTING AGAIN!

/derail

I actually use my microwave cookbook for real cooking of actual meals in it. Otherwise, we use it to make popcorn (not in bags, in one of these things), bake potatoes, and cook turkey bacon. And for the usual reheating and softening and melting of course.

DANF!!!

Yeppers. It's my rotation, you know; I go away, I come back, I go away, I come back. I go away, and then... and then... what was it again? Oh, yeah

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45 seconds to melt a single slice of cheese? I find 15 seconds sufficient.

This is fine microwave cooking - you don't want to rush the melting process on high power and risk making the edges of the cheese all crispy. Power 8 is the key.

I cook rice in a microwave rice cooker. It makes nicely steamed rice very easily!

You can easily make a variation on Miko's chocolate cake that leaves the centre runny, which is very nice too. Depending on the power of the microwave you can cook more than one at a time.

I like to scramble a couple of eggs and cook them in one of those plastic takeout containers. You know, the quart or half quart round ones? I use a single drop of oil to grease it. Then you can pop the egg out and it's the perfect size to fit on a roll or English muffin. No greasy pan to wash. I find that 45-60 seconds is all it takes. Of course it depends on you oven's wattage.