5 Microwave hacks that make your meal healthier

Are you still using your microwave to reheat leftovers or nuke frozen dinners? It is much more useful than that. Besides reheating food, it can do many things that require the oven, but faster and with fewer dishes to wash. Read on to learn some microwave hacks that help you make a healthier meal.

Reduce prep time

Microwave is really friendly to the “project” meals like spaghetti squash and baked potatoes. Just pierce the skin with a knife and then microwave the squash for about 12 minutes. As for the potatoes, you may also need to flip them over at the 5-minute mark, in order that the potatoes will be cooked through entirely just within 10 minutes.

Dehydrate herbs

Dehydrated fresh herbs have longer shelf life and they contain plenty of health benefits, too. Now, you can make it at home. Pick the herb you like, say, basil. Remove the leaves from the stems and microwave them for about 10 seconds. Make sure the leaves don’t overlap. Finally, you’ll get dry, green leaves that can be used to finish or season a dish.

Get more juice out of citrus

You may never have thought about microwaving lemons and limes. Heating just 10 seconds will help coax out more juice. The juice can be used to replace salt to enhance flavor in your meals. In addition, it can also be added in plain water — that jazzes up the flavor and encourages you to hydrate more.

Defrost food

You might not think of the microwave when it’s time to defrost something, but it is an option. You can easily defrost frozen veggies and meat in your microwave. Just keep the power under control (try setting the microwave to 60% power) so that the veggies won’t get over-dehydrated or the meats won’t get tough.

Build a better breakfast

If you want a healthy breakfast rather than grab-and-go, use the microwave. You can choose the oatmeal that’s packed with fiber and protein. All you need to do is add the instant oats to a microwave-safe mug with milk and zap! Or, you can cook eggs in your microwave: just crack the eggs into the mug, whisk it and then nuke. It is a perfect way to get enough protein and vitamins without preservatives or other additives.