Justin Germino

So recently to save time and not always have to go into the yard to grill something I decided to pick up the Range Mate Pro Deluxe Microwave Grill which supposedly lets you actually grill foods in the microwave.  It was far too hot in the summer to turn on the oven as I don’t have an air conditioner here in Southern California so we also wanted something that will keep the pizza crust crispy when cooking microwave pizza or reheating takeout pizza.

What you get is a 5 in one cooking product that compliments and expands what you can cook in your microwave, this is really great for single people who want to cook more natural foods rather than frozen meals and yet still have the same simplicity without dealing with pans and a charcoal or gass grill.  The 5 in one set really only contains 4 pieces including the grill pan, a steamer tray, a baking tray and the lid.  The cooking instruction book which has 35 different meal instructions on what you can and how to cook the products in the Range Mate Pro grill is a helpful template on how to get started.  You will notice there is also a lot of blank and template lines for you to enter your own foods and timings, because this product does have a lot of “try it” and see how long it takes.

One thing to note is that some items you cook you have to preheat the Range Mate Pro grill before you place the items on the grill and actually cook them, this is to heat up the grill itself so that it cooks from surface temperature not just the microwave food and is necessary to create grill marks in foods and cook the surface.

Most items you preheat the grill for 2 minutes at full power with the lid on, then take the lid off and put your food in the grill and microwave.  It is best to microwave at 50 percent power for everything unless it says otherwise and then keep adding time as needed.  Cooking some left over pizza for example took some extra time, and a normal full frozen 3 minute individual pizza took 7 minutes with the Range Mate Grill but it had a perfect crispy crust instead of a soft chewy crust had I just tossed it on the plate and microwaved it without the grill.  

You can steam vegetables by using one of the inserts, putting water below and then having the steam completely cook the vegetables like broccoli (my favorite), spinach, mushrooms, or simply you can grill portobello mushrooms as well.  Some foods you can just cook one sided, others you have to flip and may want to grill the other side as well, like when I cooked a bison steak in this thing.  Overall I did find it was a bit harder to get internal temperature accurate and right, having rare or medium rare was difficult to assess and it was easy to cook it too little or overcook it to nearly well done by adding just 2 more minutes.  But once the experimentation was done, repeating written down notes for the same thickness level of steak yielded the same results so really it is just trial and error until you find the right timing and settings and then just remembering for next time.

Product was a little pricey but if you don’t have to buy a grill and replacement charcoal or gas, you probably would save money over the longer term if you used this Rangemate 5 in 1 Microwave Grill instead.  It can do nice chicken and cheese quesadilla’s as you can get the tortilla to be grilled as if it were pan fried as well.  

So I had one of those cheap 4 drawer dressers that you get from Amazon, Kohls, Walmart or Target fall apart, this is your typical white or black particle board based dresser that you typically use in a kids or guest room.  I wanted to replace it with something a little more functional, lighter and more specifically fit within a tight space.  I searched on Amazon and took a chance on the YUTING 4-Drawer Plastic Storage Organizer and was impressed enough I thought it worth a review to share my thoughts.

First, this is a fully plastic 6 drawer dresser system (4 drawers are 23″ wide and 2 are half size at top shelf).  The two half drawers at the top can be locked with a key, but as the entire system is plastic this is only a minor deterrent for maybe little kids if you wanted to hide stuff in the top drawers, maybe to lock away some toys during a timeout or something I don’t have any reason to ever use the locks on the top.  They work fine, it is just with a plastic dresser it isn’t sturdy enough to be a true protection type of locked drawer.

Assembly was easy and no tools are required at all, everything snaps together and quite securely in fact.  One thing to remember is to make sure the cosmetic back plates are properly attached while you assemble, I accidentally forgot to put the back on and it was very difficult to try and get this thing separated once it is put together.  It is very secure for plastic, far more than those cheap plastic dressers you find at Home Depot or Lowes that use tubes for the corners.  This thing is nearly as sturdy as a wooden dresser, and the top with the double drawer is sturdy enough to support 50 pounds of weight.  Plus the thing has rollers so you can make it portable or not install the wheels to leave it fixed.

So for a kids room, this makes a great dresser because the containers are actually one whole piece except for the front with handle, this means they can’t stuff too many clothes into a drawer and break it.  Which is what happened with particle board dressers that got overstuffed until the staples/boards started separating and crumbling apart.  Overall I have not used it for very long yet, so will update the post and review with durability tests when I learn more, but I am very satisfied with this product so far and even have very heavy printer on the top of it as seen in the picture.

The company offers 5 different options for the drawer style with the cheapest being $99.99 and some suiting younger kids vs being more generic.  For about the same price as a cheap particle board dresser I found the plastic quality to be good, durable and this to be a much lighter and easier option.  I was able to hold all of the clothes for my 14 year old and 11 year old without issue in the 6 total drawers.

So my son wanted to spend his earnings on a potato chip maker from Vat19, he loves Vat19 and previously bought a slushy maker and was very impressed with it.  Oliver loves potato chips and this was a way to somewhat get healthier versions that could be made at home in 4-5 minutes from a fresh potato without having to turn on the oven or use a dehydrator.

The Healthy Potato Chip maker is a simple premise, it has a mandolin slicer to slice out thin potato slices which you place on a circular rack and then microwave the slices until they turn into crunchy chips.  They say 4 minutes in the instructions but for me some of the chips were hard and some were still a little chewy after 4 minutes so you may have to play with the time a little bit to find the amount of time that gives you that crunchy chip.  Just remember to let them set for about 3 minutes after the microwave turns off so they can coast cook and cool down before you start eating them.

The first thing I will let you know is everything that comes with the kit, this is a clear plastic bowl with a red lid that has a mandolin style slicer.  A white potato slice holding tray and a plastic holder which is supposed to grab one end of the potato so you don’t risk your fingers.  I will tell you that the lid gets knocked off of the container too easily, the mandolin slicer isn’t stable and the plastic piece to hold the potato is not stable for large russet potatoes.  I think this product is way to risky for a kid under 13 to use and I would be the only one slicing the potato for my son Oliver.  I will say that while slicing a thick russet potato on the slicer it takes some force to slice it straight through and because the plastic lid is very light weight and the bowl is also light weight, there doesn’t appear to be enough of a sturdy structure to properly slice a heavy potato easily.

This means I wound up having to make sure I held the lid tightly while slicing quickly and I was always worried the lid would come off of the container bowl even though it fits and slots in place, it isn’t very sturdy.  It should have had some sort of clamp mechanism to hold it firmly in place in my opinion.  I personally think all mandolin slicers are risky though, so just know what you are getting with the slicer.  It does work and you get thin potato slices as you can see in the below picture.

Now after filling the entire chip holder with potato slices you place it on a paper plate or napkin and microwave it for 4 minutes to start according to the instruction and let it sit for 3 minutes to cool down after.  I found I had to microwave it a little longer and you do have to play with times to make sure it cooks the potato slices into chips.  Even Vat19 says you may have to adjust the times because microwaves don’t always all cook at the same wattage.

Before you microwave the chips you can add your flavoring, while the chips are wet from being freshly sliced you can add a little salt, black pepper, paprika or any seasonings or spices that you like.  They will stick to the wet potato chip and it is easier and better to add them before you microwave them into chips than after when they become dry and the spices would just fall off.