Recently, it's all about the food. About three months ago, I decided to give up frozen dinners. As a single girl, this was a major decision for me, as the frozen dinner had become a really easy go to dinner during the week. However, I was having various issues and one of the things I decided to really try and eliminate, or drastically cut down on, was preservatives. Frozen dinners often use them as well as a ton of sodium.
So far, it's been good. I thought I'd do a lot of freezing, but basically I do things that can be built upon, either for lunch or dinner during the week. I'm basically using leftovers in the planning. I've also switched from an egg breakfast that I ate for years (home cooked) to a greek yogurt with a morning snack of a home made muffin. Cooking wise, I've done a few things that have really pleased me, but in other ways I'm still learning how best to cook for one person, which means I'm learning a lot.
It's a joy to be baking again. Muffins are my passion and I've started to try my hand at scones. So far so good. However, my apartment complex upgraded the smoke alarm in the hall outside of my kitchen to a combo carbon monoxide detector and smoke alarm a few months ago. Apparently it's very heat sensitive. Running the oven at 450 degrees sets it off. Apparently 400 degrees does as well, as I discovered today while baking muffins. I'd even covered the thing with aluminum foil. Seems that's not good enough. I'll give it a go with a plastic bag as well when I do dinner tonight as that will require 450 degrees. It's nerve wracking. I know covering it isn't a good idea (of which it appears I fail at since it still went off), but I'd rather the thing not go off when I'm using the oven. Others in my apartment complex have the same problem and I believe some have simply disconnected them. I know this isn't ideal. A friend has strongly suggested I talk with the apartment management, but I don't think these things can be adjusted. I've done some research and am at a loss. I've cleaned the oven and checked everything I can think off. Running the fan doesn't help. It'll be okay for a while, then bam, the darn thing is going off. And, it's not like I'm going to give up using the oven. Until I can talk to management though, I'll experiment with ways to cover it up so kitty and I can keep our nerves in tact.
2 comments:
I can't believe they would install something that was so sensitive that just using a household appliance would set it off. Hoping they get it figured out for you.
And go you on the no frozen meals challenge!
Congratulations on moving on from frozen dinners (tho I do love frozen dinners!).
Have you tried Crockpot? I find you can throw almost any combination of meat, beans, veggies, and box soup into a crockpot and it turns out ok (not brussels sprouts, though).
Christina
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