YOUR HOME AWAY 
Ninety percent of American households now own a microwave, but what do they do for food when traveling? The typical family of four spends $132 a day on food alone, with a potential extra $50-100 for snacks and drinks.
While many hotels and towns have plenty of options to feed your family, they can be costly and unhealthy. It’s best to find a way to make your own food, and you can do so even with a small kitchen.
Microwave meals have a bad reputation for being cheap and low-quality, but they don’t have to be if prepared correctly. In fact, they’re one of the first things you should consider when deciding how to eat well in a hotel room or vacation spot.
Read on for 7 delicious meals you can make in the microwave of your hotel room.
There are a surprising number of things you enjoy at home that you can still have when making food in a hotel room. This includes pasta dishes, as heat and water are all you’ll really need.
Start by buying a nice bag of pasta. Place a small handful in a microwave-safe bowl, and cover it with water.
You can add any extra ingredients you like to your pasta dishes, such as meats and cheeses. Watch the timing, because not all ingredients take the same amount of time to finish microwaving.
Make sure to microwave the pasta for 3-4 minutes longer than the packaging recommends. Don’t forget to stir and rotate the bowl every so often for even heating.
For other pasta-making ideas, check out these one-pot recipes.
Baked potatoes may seem too fancy to be microwave meals, but they’re not as difficult as they seem.
The first step is to wash it and pierce the potato with a fork on all four sides. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to start cooking.
Begin by microwaving the potato for about 5 minutes. Then, turn it and microwave it for another 3-5 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the center is soft when you touch it with a fork.
Loaded baked potatoes are another popular meal, and you can still create one when making food in a hotel room. Warm some cheese, vegetables, or other extras to create a truly special microwave meal.
While many hotels offer complimentary breakfast, knowing how to make food in a hotel room ensures you get the exact kind of meal you want to start your day. Mugs let you cook muffins, cakes, and other sweets, but there are heartier options to choose from as well.
Scrambled eggs are easy to make in the microwave. First, melt butter in a microwave-safe container for a few seconds. Then, crack a few eggs over the container.
The best way to ensure your eggs come out fluffy and thoroughly cooked is to take them out and stir them regularly. Check them every 30 seconds and don’t stop until they’re just the right consistency.
Frozen pre-cooked seafood lets you make delicious, healthy microwave meals. It’s easy to create a shrimp and broccoli mixture with just a few steps.
First, put the shrimp in a microwave-safe bowl. Next, add at least a tablespoon of butter. Microwave the mixture for at least 2 minutes, until you’ve got a delicious broth, and add lemon, salt, pepper, and other seasonings if needed.
Now it’s time to cook the broccoli, which should also be frozen and pre-cooked if possible. Microwave it for 2 minutes, and season it.
Once you’ve got your two components, combine them together for a delicious meal. You can also swap out the shrimp and broccoli for another meat or vegetable if you prefer.
Tortillas are a critical part of so many meals because they’re easy to customize and don’t take a long time to heat.
There’s an almost endless variety of meals you can make in the microwave with a tortilla base. First, warm them between two paper towels. After that, you can add any meats and vegetables you like.
If you haven’t brought along enough ingredients to create microwave meals from your tortillas, check the salad bar or other hotel amenities. They might just have the lettuce, cheese, or other ingredients you need to make tortillas into delicious, filling microwave meals.
Check out more tips on how to make your hotel living experience the best it can be.
Both meats and grains tend to get dry if they’ve been sitting for a while. That’s why you need to rehydrate them before using them in microwave meals.
There are plenty of options for how to create your marinade. Any liquid, from broth to juice to wine, usually does the trick. Experiment to see what makes the most delicious meals for the microwave.
It is possible to make a delicious, filling meal out of nothing but vegetables, even if all you have to cook them with is a microwave.
When cooking vegetables on a stovetop, you need a large amount of water. Microwave meals don’t require as much. To avoid drowning the veggies, try to only add a few tablespoons to a microwave-safe dish.
It’s best to cover microwaved vegetables to keep flavors in and ensure even cooking. Remember to leave the lid ajar for green, acidic vegetables like broccoli and kale.
Microwave meals have an unfairly negative reputation. One of the main reasons they don’t always come out appetizing is that most people don’t know how to use the appliance correctly.
Microwave meals require care and regular check-ups, but there’s a wide variety of delicious options if you take the time to make them correctly. They include vegetables, meats, pasta, seafood, tortillas, breakfasts, and more.
It’s important to know how to eat well in a hotel room or other living quarters where kitchen appliances may be limited.
We have a variety of affordable extended stay hotels where you can always make delicious microwave meals and a variety of other great food. Check out our locations and contact us today for more information.