Can A Toaster Oven Replace A Regular Oven?

Being environmentally friendly is incredibly important for me. I’m always looking for ways to cut down on my carbon footprint. Kitchenware doesn’t escape that treatment. I noticed that my oven was expending a lot of energy, so started to look around for alternative options. That’s why my toaster oven is my new favorite piece of kitchenware.

Similarly, I also have quite a small kitchen. Because of that, I want to keep my kitchen space clutter free. For people like me, that means making difficult choices about whether we need large, clunky appliances like ovens and full sized fridges. In order to cut down on as much space as possible, I’ve recently become obsessed with finding devices that can perform as many functions as possible without taking up much space.

I decided to write up a guide explaining why, maybe, you may want to replace your regular oven with your toaster oven. Although I own both appliances, I’ve noticed that I am using my regular oven a lot less these days. For that reason, I really suggest looking at my breakdown for why toaster ovens are fantastic appliances and can make your kitchens a bit more environmentally friendly and space friendly.

Table of contents

• Are toaster ovens more energy efficient than regular ovens?
• Are toaster ovens capable of cooking what a regular oven is?
• Does a toaster oven cook with the same quality as a regular oven?
• Can I replace a regular oven with a toaster oven?
• Conclusion

Let’s do numbers. Toaster ovens generally expend around 1200 watts to 1700 watts per hour of cooking. Compare this to a regular oven and you will find that the 2000 watts to 2200 watts of most middle range home ovens are quite an energy greedy. For a lot of people, this increase isn’t a huge amount of difference.

But if you are thinking in an environmentally friendly way, you know that those 500 to 800 watts per hour of cooking add up over the course of a year. This means you need to make a difficult decision – is a wasteful regular oven useful enough to use regularly?

I’ve found that I’m using my full size oven less and less these days. Thanks to the toaster oven’s versatility, it can perform similar tasks to what a full size oven can perform. This means that I don’t need to burn an extra 500 to 800 watts per hour of cooking and I can make my wallet and the planet happier.

If you are as environmentally conscious as I am, you will want to invest in a toaster oven. Investing in and using a toaster oven has been fantastic for our electricity bill. I can save on average $25 a month, which really adds up at the end of the year.

As I’ve already mentioned, toaster ovens are great for performing similar tasks to a regular oven. If you can fit it in, it can probably cook it just as well as a regular oven. Obviously, because toaster ovens are always smaller than regular ovens, you will need to consider what kind of dishes you are cooking. Don’t expect to fit an entire turkey into a toaster oven.

But you can expect to fit all of these dishes into a toaster oven:

• Casseroles
• Cakes
• Roast chickens
• Pizzas
• Toast
• Bagels

And many more. So there are a lot of things that toasters ovens can cook. We know that now. That fact has made my life so easy recently. I have been able to put food into the toaster oven and know that I can get the best results, regardless of what I am cooking.

Because of a range of settings on most modern toasters, you can easily plug in your device and get your favorite dishes from one convenient, energy efficient source. If you don’t have pre-settings on your appliance, you will need to set them on your dial or buttons.

As a rule of thumb, you can use regular oven settings with a small difference. You will need to set the heating 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher and leave the dish in for about 5 to 10 minutes longer. Using a food thermometer can make this job easier, especially when you are cooking meat.

Similarly, you can use a toaster oven to reheat food. In that way, you can use it to replace a microwave and a regular oven! This makes it especially useful for families who often have to cook in batches and store it away for later.

This depends on your type of toaster oven and what you are trying to cook, but yes. I believe you can replace a regular oven with a toaster oven without sacrificing quality. Toaster ovens come in two main types – regular and convection.

Regular toaster ovens use at least one element to heat up the space in the cooking cavity. If there are any cold spots, the toaster oven heats up and makes sure the food is fully cooked. Because the elements are superheated, you can get crisp finishes on dishes like chicken by setting it high.

For a more even cooking process, convection toaster ovens might be better for you. They can actually give better quality cooks than conventional ovens by using convection air flows. This is just a fancy name for “fanning the heat” around the cavity.

Yes, to some extent. Because they are more energy efficient and can cook a range of dishes, they can reasonably replace a regular oven with a toaster oven. Thanks to the versatility of the toaster oven, the higher energy efficiency, and the ability to still deliver high quality cooks, toaster ovens are actually my number one pick.

If you can only afford one device, you might want to actually get a toaster oven. They are more energy efficient, can do everything a regular oven can do, and they’re usually cheaper too. It only makes sense.

If you’re like me, you want to spend less money on actually cooking your food. There’s no reason to waste money cooking, so you have nothing to lose by using cheaper cooking appliances. This makes toaster ovens very attractive to me.

With the addition of environmentally friendly energy demands and excellent versatility, this makes toaster ovens are really excellent choices for people working on a budget. If you only have enough money for one appliance, my recommendation is for you to get a toaster oven. If you shop around, you will find one with the perfect settings for you to get the most out of your device.