• Home
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog
  • Prep-Ahead Meals Cookbooks
  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle
  • Gardening
  • Kid’s Activities
  • Gluten-Free Recipes
  • Budgeting Tips
↑

Premeditated Leftovers™

Prep-Ahead Meals, Cooking Tips, and Frugal Living

  • Cookbooks
    • Prep-Ahead Breakfasts and Lunches
    • Prep-Ahead Meals From Scratch
  • Recipe Index
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Recipes
  • Gluten-Free Recipes
  • Lifestyle
  • Garden
  • DIY
  • Kids
  • Budget

You are here: Home / Recipes and Cooking Tips / Surprising Uses for Kitchen Appliances

Surprising Uses for Kitchen Appliances

October 27, 2014 by Christine T 4 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.
130 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Surprising Uses for Kitchen Appliances

Most of us have the common kitchen appliances such as a coffee maker, high powered blender, dishwasher and microwave. You use them for their intended purpose, but doesn’t it sometimes seem like with the amount of money you spent on them you should be able to use them for more? Here are some awesome and surprising uses for kitchen appliances you never even thought of!

Surprising Uses for Kitchen Appliances

Coffee Pot– Use your coffee pot for just about anything that needs hot water without having to boil some in a kettle or pot on the stove. This is perfect for quick oatmeal in the morning or even hot chocolate.

Food Processor or high powered blender– You can make awesome pizza dough in your food processor  and you can make amazing homemade peanut butter in either the blender or food processor. Peanut butter is very simple to make and only really requires peanuts and a little bit of honey to taste. Just puree until it reaches the desired consistency.

More Creative Uses for Your Blender:

How to Use Your Blender as a “Smoothie Maker”

How to Use Your Blender as a Mini-food Processor

How to Make Oat Flour in Your Blender

How to Make Powdered Sugar in a Blender

Microwave– You can sanitize your kitchen sponge in the microwave. Just place it in (damp) and zap it for around 30 seconds. You can also use the microwave to make juicing citrus fruits like lemons and limes for recipes a lot easier. Just microwave for 15 seconds and you will find that getting all the lemon juice out is much easier.

Slow Cooker/ Crock-Pot– A crock pot is perfect on a low or warm setting for a little while to proof your bread. You can also make your own soap like Chickens in the Road did!  Love Fondue? Use your slow cooker as a fondue pot!

Dishwasher– Use it to clean caps. You can actually get a baseball cap cleaner made just for this purpose! You can also use your dishwasher to clean your refrigerator shelves and produce drawers. Instead of wasting time scrubbing by hand, just stick them in for a cycle!

Waffle Maker– Cook up breakfast for one. Just stick some bacon on one half and some hash-browns on the other and you will have breakfast in no time. How to make hash browns in a waffle maker.

Stand Mixer– Did you know you can shred meat in a mixer? It’s true! Just shred cooked and slightly broken up meat like chicken on a lower setting with your beaters. Make sure you keep an eye on it, but no more wasting time shredding by hand! You can also make an awesome whipped Mint and Green Tea Body Butter, Too!

Rice Cooker– You can make oatmeal in a rice cooker! A rice cooker is essentially a small crock-pot so it will work just fine for things like oats. Poach fruit like pears or apples for a delicious dessert!

Immersion Blender– Make any meal you are eating into baby food by placing some in a pot and adding a little bit of liquid and blend to a puree! This makes making baby’s food so simple every night! Here are more tips for making homemade baby food.

Coffee Grinder– Use a coffee grinder for quick mincing herbs. You can also use it to chop up nuts for recipes that require small pieces or an ice cream treat!

What are some of your favorite uses for your kitchen appliances that may not be the typical use? 

Would you like to save this article?

We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!

130 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Comments

  1. Mary Grabow says

    April 27, 2016 at 7:36 am

    I use my “second” microwave as a bread/bun storage – no air leaks

    Reply
  2. Patricia says

    November 12, 2014 at 5:37 am

    Hi
    Apparently, you can cook fish in the dishwasher – double wrap in aluminium foil and put in the top rack when doing a normal hot wash; make sure the fish parcel is properly sealed so you don’t end up with fishy dishes or dishwasher detergent in the fish.

    Reply
    • Alea Milham says

      November 12, 2014 at 8:27 am

      Now, I have got to try that! Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
  3. Sherri says

    October 27, 2014 at 5:04 pm

    From scratch mac and cheese in the rice cooker is pretty awesome.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Search

Recent Articles:

Homemade Sour Cream

homemade honey baked ham recipe

Honey Baked Ham

Pizza made from Homemade Pizza Dough

Homemade Pizza Dough

BROWSE:

  • Blog
  • Cookbooks
  • Recipe Index

ABOUT:

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure

Welcome. I'm Alea!

On Premeditated Leftovers I share simple recipes made with whole foods, practical shopping tips, time saving techniques, and meal planning strategies. I also share tips for minimizing food waste, so more of the food that is purchased ends up on the table.

While volunteering as a budget counselor, I realized that food is the element of most people’s budgets where they have the greatest control. I set out to develop low-cost recipes from scratch to prove it’s possible to create delicious meals on a limited budget. Eating well while spending less is about more than just creating recipes using inexpensive ingredients; it’s about creatively combining ingredients so you don’t feel deprived and are inspired to stick to your budget.

Copyright ©2026, Premeditated Leftovers™. All Rights Reserved.
Design by Pixel Me Designs

Share anywhere