What Do You Make in Your Toaster Oven Besides Toast?

Updated on June 20, 2011
D.C. asks from Fresno, CA
22 answers

The other day I made little pizzas for my kids in the toaster oven and they loved it. It was great because it is getting hot here and it didn't heat up the house like my oven does. I hardly ever use my toaster oven except for making toast. I need some quck healthy kid friendly recipes. Can you mammas help me out?

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C.T.

answers from San Francisco on

Yep, frozen foods! My rave thing is I make waffles every weekend and freeze the leftovers, then straight from the freezer put in the toaster oven and they taste fresh! Also, leftover take out french fries/onion rings broiled in the toaster oven taste pretty good (microwave both these things are just gross)...
Also tuna melts, cheesy garlic bread

1 mom found this helpful
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M.R.

answers from Phoenix on

Sweet potatoes and baked potatoes
Brownies
Pie - mine holds one
Cookies - use the small toaster pan that came with
Quesadillas...cheese toasted on top of corn tortillas
Tuna melts
Roasted garlic cloves
Roasted pumpkin seeds after carving the halloween pumpkin

Anything you would make in regular oven, just smaller portions.

Don't over crowd though, it will definitely take longer to bake if too much is in the little oven.

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R.L.

answers from Los Angeles on

I haven't seen anyone mention non-starchy veges yet, except the vidalia onion. Our toaster oven has a broil setting, and we use it to broil all kinds of veges, especially tomatoes, onions, zucchini, summer squash, portabello mushrooms, and asparagus. You can brush the veges with a little olive oil and sprinkle on some fresh or dried herbs for extra flavor, if you like, but really, no extra oil is needed for things to cook well. We also use the oven to cook vege nuggets and burgers, and I like to broil tofu sprinkled with herbs or marinated with different sauces in it.

Yesterday, I broiled a large portabella, sliced tomatoes, and onion slices. I sprinkled the portabella with fresh cut herbs, layered it with the tomatoes and onions, more herbs, added a slice of low-fat Edam cheese and popped it back under the broiler until the cheese was bubbly and a little brown on top. It was so yummy, and made for a great <100 cal lunch/snack.

Fresh herbs can be expensive, but I grow my own in pots. If you don't have room for a vege garden, you can do this with your kids, and teach them the joys of gardening and growing their own food (what kid doesn't like to dig in the dirt?!). I have a manicured flower garden (came with the house), so I do all of my fruit and vege growing in pots. Besides several types of herbs, I also grow tomatoes, peppers, raspberries, blueberries and cucumbers in large pots, and strawberries and summer squash in 3' diameter plastic wading pools with holes punched in the bottom. It can get pretty hot in Fresno (like the area I live in in L.A., so make sure you keep things watered and in a partially shaded area.

BTW, a great fun thing for kids to make in either a toaster or toaster oven is rainbow toast. Pour a little milk or water into small bowls (I like to use the individual cups of a mini-muffin tin -- no spill!) and add some food coloring to each bowl. You can mix the colors for greater variety. Let your kids use Q-tips or clean water color brushes to paint the bread with milk/food coloring, then pop the bread in the toaster and toast until the unpainted areas are very light brown. The colors in the painted areas become quite vibrant when toasted. My kids loved to do this when they were small, and the milk added a little extra protein and calcium to the bread.

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T.R.

answers from Orlando on

I love the toaster oven! It's only my 3 yr old daughter and I here, so I use it for almost everything. One quick, fun and healthy thing I make is quesadillas. Lay half the flour tortilla in the tray and fill with cheese, refried beans (what ever your kids like).. and fold over, and pop into oven for a few minutes. I usually wait until it's done to top w. cheese, or I leave plain. Then use a pizza cutter to cut triangles. serve w/ sour cream and salsa (if your kids like it) Yum! and healthy!

3 moms found this helpful

J.S.

answers from Hartford on

Chicken nuggets and fries. Melt cheese on Triscuits. Sometimes I'll have an enchilada leftover from a meal and wrap it up in foil, then reheat it in the foil and it makes a nice quick meal and reheat. I've baked apples and pears half-wrapped in foil with a little brown sugar in the core in there too.

Hmmm... what else... oh halve a Vidalia onion and wrap it in foil BUT leave the flat side open to the air. Drizzle olive oil, salt, and pepper on it and then broil it until it's as done as you want it. I do this for my husband so that it looks like it would until it's done being grilled.

EDIT: I should also state that ours is ALSO a convection oven, so we can actually bake in it. It's a real toaster so I do toast things in it but it's an actual oven as well. :-) Very handy. Anything you can bake in the large oven you can do in the convection oven slash toaster as long as it has the settings for it, but in smaller portions.

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C.K.

answers from San Antonio on

I am assuming that all toaster ovens are also convection ovens. My husband bought me one for my birthday in April and I absolutely love it and use it for everything. Well, almost everything. The only thing I don't use it for is making toast!

Any thing that I would have used the big oven for is now cooked in the toaster oven/convection oven.

I have made cookies, cakes, muffins, breads, chicken, pizzas, baked potatoes, casseroles, corn dogs, garlic bread, fish, french fries, and so much more in it. I use it to toast hamburger and hot dog buns. Mine has a keep warm setting, so any time I need to keep something warm while the rest of the meal finishes up I put it in there.

I don't have a microwave so we use it to re-heat leftovers too.

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D.S.

answers from Dallas on

I don't know how old your kids are, but they can use the toaster oven at a rather young age with supervision. I buy the Tollhouse tub of cookie dough and allow my girls to bake cookies. They've been doing that since around age 6. It is so much easier, and you don't feel the need to make as many. They usually just make half dozen at a time. You also don't feel the need to eat as many!

We also use it for just about anything that says it is microwaveable as an option. Other items include: egg rolls, pizza rolls, frozen fries, garlic bread. If you can bake it on a cookie sheet, you can cook it in a toaster oven.

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R.D.

answers from Kansas City on

Quiche! Mine is not convection. It does hold a nine inch round or square pan, so I have made casseroles that can fit in a 9" x 9" pan, and we love quiche, so I make it in a round pie pan. I guess you could make pies too, but I haven't because we prefer brownies and cookies. And yes, I have made both in the toaster oven. I have also baked fish, lasagna, sweet potatoes (slice or dice them thick, then drizzle in olive oil, Kosher salt and a little pepper and bake - yummmm - or sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar instead), and more.

Reheated leftovers taste great from the toaster oven....MUCH better tasting than using the microwave!!

I have the several Pampered Chef stoneware pieces that fit in it, including: mini bar pan, deep dish pie plate, deep dish mini baker, 9" square baker, and small round stone.

Anything you make in your oven can be made in your toaster oven, just less of it. It even says "oven" right in the name. ;)

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E.M.

answers from Honolulu on

Anything you make in the oven can be made in the toaster oven. In fact I move my toaster oven onto the covered porch so the little heat it does make is outside!!!

1 mom found this helpful
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K.M.

answers from Chicago on

I only use mine to reheat pizza or heat hotdogs and sausages. I've never used it for toast.

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V.M.

answers from Cleveland on

nuggets and english muffin pizzas,

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A..

answers from Kansas City on

My mom used to make us mini pizzas that we loved!! She took a hamburger bun, spread pizza sauce on it and sprinkled mozzarella cheese on top and then baked in the toaster oven. They were fun little pizzas to eat. :)

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A.P.

answers from San Francisco on

it's more like what cant you cook in your toaster oven. You can pretty much make everything you would in a regular oven except on a small scale. I pretty much do all frozen foods, nuggets, taquitos, etc. you can even make smores in it. i like to make hot sandwiches in there too.

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K.M.

answers from Memphis on

We use it for frozen chicken nuggets, fish sticks and fries as well but we have also used it for cooking pork chops and baked fish fillets. I actually don't use it for toast. I don't like the way it makes toast so I still have a separate toaster.

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M.B.

answers from Austin on

We cook fish sticks, chicken nuggets, other breaded type frozen meat patties....

My son does quesadillas, also... lots of ways to do those.

Here's a link to cooks.com with a bunch of toaster oven ideas...

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,toaster_oven,FF.html

Good luck! It is great to use during the summer, since you aren't heating up the kitchen with the full-size stove.

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N.P.

answers from Mobile on

We cook small frozen pizza, corn dogs, poptarts, make grilled cheese. you can make lots of stuff with it!

T.C.

answers from Austin on

Today for lunch we had frozen fish sticks, chicken fingers, and french fries cooked in the toaster oven. Yesterday I made toasted cheese sandwiches. We have a larger toaster oven with a rotisserie so we can cook pork loin or roasted chicken.

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M.P.

answers from Portland on

I use the broiler part of the oven the most and rarely make toast. It's great to melt cheese on top of things. I've heated frozen entrees that come in an oblong package that fits in the oven. Yes, to frozen chicken nuggets and french fries as well as fish sticks and tator tots.

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A.R.

answers from Boston on

pizzas on english muffins....soo good and u can top them with whatever you want so everyone can have a different topping and you dont have to order or eep your oven on forver baking all different kinds....

for breakfast i like homemade breakfast pockets with scrambled eggs and whatever i feel like putting in it wrapped with the pillsbury itallian bread ...the dough is in a tube you just crack open and roll out

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S.K.

answers from Sacramento on

I bake chicken in the toaster oven. You can make homemade chicken nuggets for the kids in the toaster oven.

M.M.

answers from Tucson on

I put chicken nuggets, fish sticks, bagels, and stuff like that in it.

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S.C.

answers from Des Moines on

Pizza (home made! -- flatbread or tortilla crust, sauce, leftovers for toppings and cheese. Our FAVORITE pizza is BBQ-- leftover chicken, pork or beef, BBQ sauce and cojack cheese. It works best if you crisp the tortilla for a bit before you top it), chicken nuggets and fish sticks are a ton better in the toaster oven than the microwave

Mine has a built in Rotisserie and does AWESOME chicken too!

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