"But what about leftovers?" is the first question I get every time I tell someone we ditched the microwave. Here's what I use instead, and honestly, food just tastes better this way.
We've been microwave-free for about two years now. I never really planned it, the old one died, and instead of buying a new one I tested life without. The result? Food tastes infinitely better, I'm not nuking my plastic-adjacent containers anymore, and reheating is genuinely just as fast once you have the right tools.
I get the question constantly on Instagram, so here's the breakdown of every tool that replaced our microwave. Watch my video here to see how I use each one in real time.
For leftover dinners: a quality sauté pan.
This sounds obvious, but a good stainless or ceramic sauté pan is the workhorse of a microwave-free kitchen. Splash a little water, cover with a lid, low heat for two minutes. Pasta, stir fry, rice, roasted veggies. All come back to life better than they ever did in a microwave (no rubber-y reheated chicken).
My pick: Our Place Sauté Pan. Nontoxic, gorgeous, doubles as a serving piece.
For crispy reheats: a stainless toaster oven.
This is the unsung hero. Pizza, leftover roast veg, fries, chicken nuggets, toasted sandwiches. Pop it in at 350°F for five to seven minutes and it tastes like it was just made. Game-changer for kid lunches.
Shop the stainless toaster oven I use →
For frozen-to-table: a stainless Instant Pot.
The other absolute MVP. Frozen soup → hot bowl in seven minutes. Defrost rice. Steam veg. Hard boil eggs without thinking. The stainless interior is the only kind I'd buy now (no Teflon, no aluminum, no nonsense).
Stainless Steel Instant Pot
The only kind worth buying. Stainless interior, no nonstick coatings, and it handles every reheating job a microwave used to.
For crispy weeknight wins: a nontoxic air fryer.
An air fryer feels like a microwave replacement when you're heating up anything you want crispy. Five minutes to crispy. Zero soggy. The one I love is plastic-free on the inside.
Nontoxic Stainless Air Fryer
The only air fryer I trust. No Teflon, no PFAS, no mystery coatings touching your food. Reheats are crispy, cooks are fast.
"Once I stopped microwaving, I realized how often I was eating food that tasted vaguely the same and vaguely sad. Real reheating tastes like real food."
The bottom line.
You don't need a microwave. You need two minutes. The flavor payoff alone is worth it, but it's also one of the easiest ways to reduce plastic-on-hot-food contact in your daily routine.
If you're working on a clean kitchen, you might also love Better Options: Cleaning Edition for swapping out everything under the sink.
xx Aneesa
