I posted about needing to let go of our French Press, for health reasons. Unfiltered coffee, like that brewed in a French Press, can increase cholesterol.
We've enjoyed coffee made in our French Press for a really long time, but our bodies are changing, and in the hopes of not allowing those changes to become debilitating, we're making different lifestyle choices.
Switching to a coffee brewing machine that uses a filter was one of those.
After looking around for a couple of weeks, and visiting both high-end kitchen stores and big box stores, and hemming and hawing over what we wanted to get, I just made the decision to purchase a silly Mr. Coffee. It was cheap, and I brought it, and a big pack of unbleached coffee filters, home that day.
It's proven fast and easy, and it has an automatic turn off after two hours. It's my favorite feature of the appliance.
I used to have very few appliances. Lack of counter space and so very few cabinets in my very small, galley-style kitchen really dictated what we owned. We made room for hand tools (like a hand-crank apple peeler corer) and the like, but simple, electricity-sucking tools, like a rice cooker. Nope. No room, and I can make rice on the stovetop with a sauce pan that can be used to cook other things, also.
Fast forward many years, and things are different. Convenience has become a necessity, not a luxury, and ... ah, yes! I have invested in a rice cooker.
And I do love it!
It's not just convenient, and it actually does do more than just cook rice. It also cooks quinoa - probably better than what I could make in a pan, and not only can I cook rice (or quinoa), but I can STEAM vegetables at the same time.
Sure, with the correct pots and pans, I can do that on the stove top, but ... wait for it ... the rice cooker actually uses a lot LESS electricity than the stove top.
So, it's a win/win, for me. I save electricity and meal prep is easier.
I can put rice in the bottom and broccoli in the steamer, chicken in the air fryer, and go fold some laundry while it all cooks. It's a multi-tasker's dream!
The ability to cook a "homemade" meals while working a full-time job isn't a luxury. Even with our double-income and no kids at home, we can't afford to eat out for every meal, and neither do we want to. Frankly, what I cook here at home usually tastes better, and the food ingredients are a higher quality. I mean, when Kraft Mac&Cheese is an actual menu item, I'm not thinking the chef attended culinary school, and my decades of home cooking experience and experiments is better than anything he probably learned flipping burgers at Wild Willy's.
Plus, we have a food allergy and finding really good food that isn't contaminated with gluten is a challenge. Even restaurants that offer gluten free menu options rarely promise that what they serve isn't contaminated, but I can ensure that what we eat has no gluten.
So, yeah. Coffee maker. Rice Cooker. Air Fryer.
I'm not ashamed.
And Deus Ex Machina and I are well fed.
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