Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Definitely. The average person spent 100%+ more time cooking 30+ years ago. So yes, things have changed.
Quote:
The average American spends 27 minutes a day cooking, which means they spend three hours and nine minutes a week preparing meals. If we use your example of two people living in the home we find over six hours a week being used to cook in that house.
You are making a huge assumption here. You are assuming that each person's 27 minutes is pooled into community meals. Lets say a husband goes to work at 7am - he gets up, spends
7 minutes making some sort of instant breakfast and leaves by 8am. The wife needs to be at work by 9am, so she gets up and spends 10 minutes scrambling a few eggs. Now, both husband and wife get work breaks at 12:30pm - the husband spends 5 minutes making a sandwich and some coffee while the wife spends 5 minutes mixing up a salad and peeling an apple or two. At the end of the day, both have spent nearly 15 minutes preparing meals. Now add in dinner and snacks throughout the day and it's clear that 27 minutes isn't that long.
Quote:
You can go out twice a week (although I have no idea how $24 - 30 will get you four nutritious satisfying meals)
Where do you go out for "nutritiously satisfying meals" and how much do you spend?
Quote:
Man does not live on frozen pizza alone, in fact most adults don't want to eat frozen pizza. I would guess the OP's food diary for the past week would horrify a dietician. I wonder where he has spent the last five Thanksgivings.
See my article from the UK which spends about the same time as us preparing meals.
I will quote some of the relevant information for you:
Quote:
Amount of time spent cooking in UK has HALVED since 1980s and most people survive on diet of sandwiches
Quote:
[SIZE=5]The average time spent cooking an evening meal is now only 34 minutes [/SIZE] [SIZE=5]This is compared to people spending a full hour in 1980
[/SIZE] [SIZE=5][/SIZE]
Quote:
[SIZE=5]And at the same time, sandwiches have become the most commonly eaten meal, with almost 6.4billion devoured every year in the UK. Some 889million of these are scoffed in place of an evening meal.[/SIZE] [SIZE=5]Ready meals are the second most popular choice, with 1.6billion consumed every year.
27 minutes per person per day times 2.55 persons in the household equals just under ten hours of cooking per week per household. Thanks for the data.
Which is much less than the time spent cooking in the past. How does much less = same? Is winning $100 on a scratch off the same as winning $10M in the Powerball? You sound like a good person to barter with.
Quote:
Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that’s less than half the time that we spent cooking and cleaning up when Julia arrived on our television screens. It’s also less than half the time it takes to watch a single episode of “Top Chef” or “Chopped” or “The Next Food Network Star.” What this suggests is that a great many Americans are spending considerably more time watching images of cooking on television than they are cooking themselves — an increasingly archaic activity they will tell you they no longer have the time for.
Look for someone who doesn’t enjoy a piece of pizza and you’ll be hard pressed.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) indicates 1 in 8 Americans consume pizza on a given day, and 1 in 4 males between the ages of 16 and 19 consume pizza on a given day. Needless to say, it’s one of the most highly-consumed foods in the country.
Quote:
The findings indicated that approximately 20 percent of children were eating pizza on a given day, taking in extra calories and high levels of additional sodium.
I'd pay money to see you try to cook a 15 pound turkey in a $100 toaster oven.
I get a chuckle from all the "I'd like to see you cook a 40 pound pig's butt in a toaster oven" type of comments. It's kinda like the guy with a Corvette saying - "I'd like to see you do a 200 foot burnout in that Prius".
I'm wondering if you're trying to take the mickey out of people by arguing ad infinitum?
We've had over 200 posts on this thread. What are you trying to prove or demonstrate? That home ovens are obsolete and should be tossed out into the dustbin of history along with the butter churn?
If so, you've received plenty of feedback and the resounding answer is no. So, where exactly are you going now?
I'm wondering if you're trying to take the mickey out of people by arguing ad infinitum?
We've had over 200 posts on this thread. What are you trying to prove or demonstrate? That home ovens are obsolete and should be tossed out into the dustbin of history along with the butter churn?
If so, you've received plenty of feedback and the resounding answer is no. So, where exactly are you going now?
It's simple...
1. A lot of people never use more than the capacity of a toaster oven.
2. We've been trending toward spending less time cooking for the last ~100 years.
I theorize that if time spent cooking continues to decrease and the birthrate continues to fall (smaller households, more single people, single parents, etc) - smaller ovens may become more common in the future. How long? I don't know...maybe 20-30 years from now. I also think homes in general will be drastically smaller, but that's another subject.
1. A lot of people never use more than the capacity of a toaster oven.
2. We've been trending toward spending less time cooking for the last ~100 years.
I theorize that if time spent cooking continues to decrease and the birthrate continues to fall (smaller households, more single people, single parents, etc) - smaller ovens may become more common in the future. How long? I don't know...maybe 20-30 years from now. I also think homes in general will be drastically smaller, but that's another subject.
Yes it is simple. In your original question you asked if IN A REMODEL it would be a reasonable idea to replace a conventional oven with a toaster oven. And you got your answer. A resounding no.
Have you convinced people the need for "huge ovens" will disappear in a generation? Perhaps, but that's irrelevant to the problem posed. We were asked if you should consider REMODELING a kitchen without a conventional oven. My answer to that would be, fine, if you never plan on selling your house to the day you die. Personally, I plan on selling mine eventually, so it has, and will continue to have, a conventional range (stove top and a normal-sized oven) in it, even if I never plan to use it a day in my life.
You can get a new electric range for as little as $400. If you never use it, it won't break. If you choose to remodel your kitchen without buying that, you are free to leave a blank space in the remodel so one can be added later. In the meantime you can use that space for shelves on which to place your microwave and toaster oven.
Yes it is simple. In your original question you asked if IN A REMODEL it would be a reasonable idea to replace a conventional oven with a toaster oven. And you got your answer. A resounding no.
And the why was a resounding "you'll kill your resale value" as you pointed out.
Thus, I am left to reason that if one can simply leave their gas connection and configure their new cabinets so that an oven can be slipped in (very easy) - there's no reason to have a conventional oven if you don't need it. If you don't plan on moving even better...you'll never have to use that gas connection. If smaller ovens become more acceptable in 20-30 as I theorize - none of this matters (if you're still alive at that time).
Do what you will, but I'd recommend against it if you ever plan to sell your home. Buyers will expect an oven. Our family eats out all the time, but my toaster oven, which while probably sufficient for a one-person household, just won't cut it for more than that when I prepare meals at home. I'm very much a minimalist, but I'd sooner get rid of the toaster oven than the range. It's just more flexible for meal preparation.
Last edited by randomparent; 01-24-2015 at 07:16 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
