Showing posts with label secura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label secura. Show all posts
Comparing Secura Nuwave Convection Ovens
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Hi,
Since my last post I purchased and am using a new Secura Halogen Convection oven and so far, I like it very much. Ive packed up my old Nuwave Oven and am giving it to a friend who has told me repeatedly that he wished he had one. Im a little embarrassed about the color of the plastic dome on the NWO but it cant be helped (as far as I know). Ive tried soaking it, and using baking soda on a scrubby sponge but it is simply baked into the plastic and wont come out. My friend wondered if CLR would work on it, but I had to remind him that it is plastic. Anyway, he will get the opportunity to own one and use it and see if he likes it.
I also included the original operating manual and the laminated cooking chart that came with the oven. I scanned the cooking chart so I would still have a copy of it for myself in case I needed it for the new oven. I really like being able to choose the temperature and time with the two little dials on the Secura. I did not want digital like I had on the NWO. I dont really have a reason for not wanting the digital except for maybe the readout was hard for me to see -- which is why I per the nice little dials: they are easier for my old eyes to read.
Ive only cooked some chicken sausage links and hamburger patties in the new oven so far, but it seems to work very well. Im still getting used to choosing the time and temp settings and have been using the manual as a guide. As I was shopping online I found an oven made by Deni with a design very similar to the Secura that had a downloadable owners manual so I printed out one of those to give to my friend, also. It had a few nice recipes which can be used as guides.
The thing about a convection oven is that it has a fan that forces the hot air to circulate and cook the food on both sides at once. You rarely have to turn anything over because it crisps on both sides at once as long as it is on a rack and not in a pan. It also cuts the cooking time by about twenty-five percent (I think.) That is why restaurant food comes to the table so quickly, they have high powered convection ovens to get the job done fast. So when using your favorite recipe in a convection oven you will need to either lower the temperature or shorten the cooking time or both. It should only take one time to experiment and see how it works on any particular favorite recipe.
The price you pay on the two ovens is nearly identical but you get a lot more "stuff" with the Nuwave, including a carrying case, a DVD to show you how to use it, a drink mixer and a food chopper and a nice recipe book. This makes me think the Nuwave is made more cheaply because how could they provide all that free stuff and make a profit if making the Nuwave took up all the profits? Thats not happening, or else they would not still be in business. But, I must certainly admit that it cooks just like they promise it will. You just have to be caul to follow the cooking instructions -- but that is true of any oven.
So why am I happy with my Secura if I didnt get any free stuff with it? I never used any of the free stuff I got with the Nuwave. The carrying case sat in a corner. The cook book got lost. I viewed the DVD when I got the oven and never needed to view it again. I dont mix drinks and I rarely chop up veggies as small as the chopper makes them, so they ended up not being of true value to me -- not that they might not be of value to someone else. I would just as soon have paid the real price for the oven and skipped the "free stuff." I suggest that the price might have been about a third of what is charged -- or half, at the very least.
And the Secura? You dont need a DVD to show you how to use it. You put your food on the rack. You set the time. You set the temperature. You turn it on. What is difficult about that? This is the same as any other oven youve used in the past. Of course there may be a few who have never used an oven before and need a little more instruction to build up their confidence. There is plenty of information on the internet if you just search for it.
The glass oven bowl in the Secura is solid, heavy and, so far, has no stains or discoloration. I am especially liking the halogen cooking device. The Nuwave has a conventional heating coil, but the Secura has a halogen light that does the cooking and it is hot almost immediately. There does not seem to be a noticeable warm up time that I can tell. As soon as it comes on, I can feel the heat through the glass bowl with my hand. And the thing that really delights me is that I can see what is cooking inside because it is completely bathed in a spot light!! Its like having a little camp fire on my counter top that glows!! I just like it. The light cycles off and on as it adjusts the temperature inside the glass oven bowl and it has a nice loud "ding" when it is done.
I did read one or two reviews of halogen convection ovens that caught on fire or broke more easily than the Nuwave, but I would imagine you should be able to get a replacement bulb from the manufacturer. So for dependability the Nuwave cooking coil seems like it will probably last longer. But I still like that little campfire on my counter top so much better!
The only thing that I dont like about the Secura, so far, is that the little rack upon which the hot lid is placed seems a little flimsy and coated with plastic, so I wonder how long that will last. I have to pay close attention to getting it properly settled in the rack because if I miss it by a little it warps out of shape, becoming nearly impossible to correct, so I have to lift it up and start again. Did I mention the lid is heavy and hot? I may need to adjust the angle to make it easier for me to see. I never had to do that with the Nuwave. Their little rack is anchored under the bottom platform and I could even be a little careless and it would end up sitting in the right place. I could almost do it blindfolded, but that could simply be a result of experience with the appliance.
The Secura has a slightly smaller cooking area inside but I per it. I like to line the bottom with aluminum foil for fast cleanup but the foil that you can buy is not wide enough for the Nuwave so I always had to use two pieces and criss cross them to line the bottom. Fat and oil would often seep under the layers and I would still have a mess to clean up, but it was not a baked on mess, just an oily mess. With the Secura one piece of foil covers the whole bottom with no seeping space. When I lifted out the rack the foil came with it and there was absolutely nothing underneath that needed to be cleaned up.The bowl was as clean afterwards as it was when I started. That is a real plus!
I did like the racks on the Nuwave a little better than the ones on the Secura. The wires on the Secura racks are much farther apart and when I first looked at them as I was opening the package I wondered if food would slip down between the wide open spaces. So far, no problem. I suppose if you were cooking vegetables if you just cut them a little larger that would solve this minor problem. One advantage that I can see would be that you have fewer of those little wires to clean when youre done and you can get your sponge around them more easily, so, two checks for easier clean up on the Secura.
Here is a third check for easier clean up on the Secura. I have not tried it yet, but am looking forward to trying out the self cleaning feature. The instructions say to put about 1.5 inches of hot water in the bottom of the bowl, spritz in some dish washing detergent, put the lid on it, and turn it to "wash." I imagine the fan creating a small tornado inside which does the cleaning for you. You just empty the bowl and rinse it out and wipe it dry. Sounds easy enough. I dont have a dishwasher so I really like this feature. If you have a dishwasher you can always place the bowl and racks in there for cleaning, too.
Clean up was always a chore for me on the Nuwave. I live in a mobile home so my sinks are extra small and the Nuwave racks and lower drip pan just barely fit in the sink. I had to use the lower drip pan to rinse the racks in, too. It seemed to save on water. Anyway, I never really enjoyed the clean up on the Nuwave, but the Secura seems to be much easier to keep clean -- and the racks now fit in my sinks. Of course the glass bowl is much heavier than the drip pan in the Nuwave, but with the aluminum foil that fits, plus the self clean feature, I dont imagine that I will be lifting it all that often.
If someone has the idea of cooking pizza in either one of these ovens they will have a problem that I learned to solve in a novel way. Most any pizza you can buy is too large for either of the racks. I learned that when I occasionally bought frozen pizza, I could cut it before I baked it (still frozen) and cook only the number of pieces that I needed, one or two at a time depending upon the size. I dont eat pizza very often because of the healthier diet that I am eating, but for those who do indulge in pizza from time to time, this suggestion may be helpful. Of course if you have a large family and need to cook the whole thing at once, then your regular oven is the place to do that.
I will make another post to talk about the coconut oil experiment in the not too distant future.
Be back soon
Marcia
P.S. You can get either one of these ovens at Amazon.com for cheaper than at the manufacturers web sites. How do they do that? Glad they do!
Since my last post I purchased and am using a new Secura Halogen Convection oven and so far, I like it very much. Ive packed up my old Nuwave Oven and am giving it to a friend who has told me repeatedly that he wished he had one. Im a little embarrassed about the color of the plastic dome on the NWO but it cant be helped (as far as I know). Ive tried soaking it, and using baking soda on a scrubby sponge but it is simply baked into the plastic and wont come out. My friend wondered if CLR would work on it, but I had to remind him that it is plastic. Anyway, he will get the opportunity to own one and use it and see if he likes it.
I also included the original operating manual and the laminated cooking chart that came with the oven. I scanned the cooking chart so I would still have a copy of it for myself in case I needed it for the new oven. I really like being able to choose the temperature and time with the two little dials on the Secura. I did not want digital like I had on the NWO. I dont really have a reason for not wanting the digital except for maybe the readout was hard for me to see -- which is why I per the nice little dials: they are easier for my old eyes to read.
Ive only cooked some chicken sausage links and hamburger patties in the new oven so far, but it seems to work very well. Im still getting used to choosing the time and temp settings and have been using the manual as a guide. As I was shopping online I found an oven made by Deni with a design very similar to the Secura that had a downloadable owners manual so I printed out one of those to give to my friend, also. It had a few nice recipes which can be used as guides.
The thing about a convection oven is that it has a fan that forces the hot air to circulate and cook the food on both sides at once. You rarely have to turn anything over because it crisps on both sides at once as long as it is on a rack and not in a pan. It also cuts the cooking time by about twenty-five percent (I think.) That is why restaurant food comes to the table so quickly, they have high powered convection ovens to get the job done fast. So when using your favorite recipe in a convection oven you will need to either lower the temperature or shorten the cooking time or both. It should only take one time to experiment and see how it works on any particular favorite recipe.
The price you pay on the two ovens is nearly identical but you get a lot more "stuff" with the Nuwave, including a carrying case, a DVD to show you how to use it, a drink mixer and a food chopper and a nice recipe book. This makes me think the Nuwave is made more cheaply because how could they provide all that free stuff and make a profit if making the Nuwave took up all the profits? Thats not happening, or else they would not still be in business. But, I must certainly admit that it cooks just like they promise it will. You just have to be caul to follow the cooking instructions -- but that is true of any oven.
So why am I happy with my Secura if I didnt get any free stuff with it? I never used any of the free stuff I got with the Nuwave. The carrying case sat in a corner. The cook book got lost. I viewed the DVD when I got the oven and never needed to view it again. I dont mix drinks and I rarely chop up veggies as small as the chopper makes them, so they ended up not being of true value to me -- not that they might not be of value to someone else. I would just as soon have paid the real price for the oven and skipped the "free stuff." I suggest that the price might have been about a third of what is charged -- or half, at the very least.
And the Secura? You dont need a DVD to show you how to use it. You put your food on the rack. You set the time. You set the temperature. You turn it on. What is difficult about that? This is the same as any other oven youve used in the past. Of course there may be a few who have never used an oven before and need a little more instruction to build up their confidence. There is plenty of information on the internet if you just search for it.
The glass oven bowl in the Secura is solid, heavy and, so far, has no stains or discoloration. I am especially liking the halogen cooking device. The Nuwave has a conventional heating coil, but the Secura has a halogen light that does the cooking and it is hot almost immediately. There does not seem to be a noticeable warm up time that I can tell. As soon as it comes on, I can feel the heat through the glass bowl with my hand. And the thing that really delights me is that I can see what is cooking inside because it is completely bathed in a spot light!! Its like having a little camp fire on my counter top that glows!! I just like it. The light cycles off and on as it adjusts the temperature inside the glass oven bowl and it has a nice loud "ding" when it is done.
I did read one or two reviews of halogen convection ovens that caught on fire or broke more easily than the Nuwave, but I would imagine you should be able to get a replacement bulb from the manufacturer. So for dependability the Nuwave cooking coil seems like it will probably last longer. But I still like that little campfire on my counter top so much better!
The only thing that I dont like about the Secura, so far, is that the little rack upon which the hot lid is placed seems a little flimsy and coated with plastic, so I wonder how long that will last. I have to pay close attention to getting it properly settled in the rack because if I miss it by a little it warps out of shape, becoming nearly impossible to correct, so I have to lift it up and start again. Did I mention the lid is heavy and hot? I may need to adjust the angle to make it easier for me to see. I never had to do that with the Nuwave. Their little rack is anchored under the bottom platform and I could even be a little careless and it would end up sitting in the right place. I could almost do it blindfolded, but that could simply be a result of experience with the appliance.
The Secura has a slightly smaller cooking area inside but I per it. I like to line the bottom with aluminum foil for fast cleanup but the foil that you can buy is not wide enough for the Nuwave so I always had to use two pieces and criss cross them to line the bottom. Fat and oil would often seep under the layers and I would still have a mess to clean up, but it was not a baked on mess, just an oily mess. With the Secura one piece of foil covers the whole bottom with no seeping space. When I lifted out the rack the foil came with it and there was absolutely nothing underneath that needed to be cleaned up.The bowl was as clean afterwards as it was when I started. That is a real plus!
I did like the racks on the Nuwave a little better than the ones on the Secura. The wires on the Secura racks are much farther apart and when I first looked at them as I was opening the package I wondered if food would slip down between the wide open spaces. So far, no problem. I suppose if you were cooking vegetables if you just cut them a little larger that would solve this minor problem. One advantage that I can see would be that you have fewer of those little wires to clean when youre done and you can get your sponge around them more easily, so, two checks for easier clean up on the Secura.
Here is a third check for easier clean up on the Secura. I have not tried it yet, but am looking forward to trying out the self cleaning feature. The instructions say to put about 1.5 inches of hot water in the bottom of the bowl, spritz in some dish washing detergent, put the lid on it, and turn it to "wash." I imagine the fan creating a small tornado inside which does the cleaning for you. You just empty the bowl and rinse it out and wipe it dry. Sounds easy enough. I dont have a dishwasher so I really like this feature. If you have a dishwasher you can always place the bowl and racks in there for cleaning, too.
Clean up was always a chore for me on the Nuwave. I live in a mobile home so my sinks are extra small and the Nuwave racks and lower drip pan just barely fit in the sink. I had to use the lower drip pan to rinse the racks in, too. It seemed to save on water. Anyway, I never really enjoyed the clean up on the Nuwave, but the Secura seems to be much easier to keep clean -- and the racks now fit in my sinks. Of course the glass bowl is much heavier than the drip pan in the Nuwave, but with the aluminum foil that fits, plus the self clean feature, I dont imagine that I will be lifting it all that often.
If someone has the idea of cooking pizza in either one of these ovens they will have a problem that I learned to solve in a novel way. Most any pizza you can buy is too large for either of the racks. I learned that when I occasionally bought frozen pizza, I could cut it before I baked it (still frozen) and cook only the number of pieces that I needed, one or two at a time depending upon the size. I dont eat pizza very often because of the healthier diet that I am eating, but for those who do indulge in pizza from time to time, this suggestion may be helpful. Of course if you have a large family and need to cook the whole thing at once, then your regular oven is the place to do that.
I will make another post to talk about the coconut oil experiment in the not too distant future.
Be back soon
Marcia
P.S. You can get either one of these ovens at Amazon.com for cheaper than at the manufacturers web sites. How do they do that? Glad they do!
Secura Oven Chocolate Syrup and BPDown
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Hi,
I just have a few things on my mind. One, I wanted to say how surprised I am that my new Secura Convection oven still does not have any stains of any kind on the upper fan compartment. I remember the first time I used my Nuwave Oven how it already had stains from the food on it and I was never really able to get them out because that is the electrical part that you cannot submerge in water to let it soak or get it clean. I dont know if oven cleaner would have worked because the housing is plastic, so I never tried it. But the Secura is, so far, still without spatters and sparkling clean.
Two, the chocolate syrup made with coconut oil does seem to be keeping my cravings at bay. I had to have it twice yesterday, but, other than that, Ive not gone off the program due to cravings at all. I think I forgot to mention that I am also chewing Orbit gum which I believe is sugar free (Im not absolutely sure), and yesterday I used that three times. None so far today. I did postpone my breakfast and did not eat until about two. I was getting really famished and used the chocolate syrup to tide me over until I got some salad made and cooked a couple of eggs to garnish the salad. Feeling full now, and I could tell when the "full" signal went off. I still ate two more bites (hard to break a lifelong habit) but left the last one in the bowl.
Three, Ive received my "BPDown" program in the mail and have used it twice in the evening to try to assist in lowering my blood pressure. It consists of two red heart shaped squeeze toys for your hands and a CD with timed breathing instructions. It also has written instructions but is easier to "time" with the CD.
At first I thought the lady on the CD was simply going too fast for me. I tend to take long slow breaths when Im doing my own BP lowering exercise just before I test my BP, but she was going at a pretty fast clip, in my estimation. I measured my BP after the first session and it was higher than usual. I was a little disappointed with that, but remembered that some folks dont see results for about four weeks, so I simply forged ahead. During the morning of the second day (yesterday) I thought about it and decided not to resist her speedy breathing rhythms and simply followed them as close as I could. I figured that my idea of how this is "supposed" to go, may be in error and it just seemed to make more sense to follow it obediently. After all, they have said that many other people have done their program and lowered their blood pressure.
I read a few of the research articles on both the breathing techniques and the isometric hand squeezing exercises and it seems to be confirmed that these two methods do, oddly, lower blood pressure. I noticed in the reading that the breathing exercises seem to affect the upper BP number and the squeezing affects the lower number, so a combination of the two of them should be effective. I also remembered reading in one of the research papers that the measurement of import was the one taken in the morning after having done the exercises the night before. I was actually quite surprised that my BP this morning was 138 over 88 which is considerably lower on the upper number, but a little elevated on the lower one. I also noticed that my pulse was faster than usual by about 20 points. So, something seems to be happening. Of course you cannot tell with one reading, but Im taking it as a good sign, and will keep going with it.
I have a doctors appointment on June 28th and I want to be able to show that my blood pressure is under better control than it has been recently. When I went to my new doctor, my nurse practitioner made me increase my Losartan by double the dose I had been taking because my BP was something like 160 over 90 in her office. That is a lot higher than it usually is when I measure it myself at home every morning but she would not take "No" for an answer. I had not yet found the BPDown program at that time so had no recourse.
I was compliant and started to double the dose immediately but did not see any affect on my home BP readings at all over a couple of weeks time. They continued to be the same as usual, so when I found the BPDown program I hopped right on it. I am really not interested in taking any more BP medications after all the trouble Ive had with them before from suffering from asthma for three or four weeks after taking one dose of Lisinopril to having the symptoms of a small heart attack with another one. When I tried Amlodipine I had a bad chest cold for four months which did not clear up until I stopped taking it. I really hope the BPDown program works.
Ive also been surprised that after all this time of exercising in the pool that that has not helped with my BP readings, either. I go three times a week, unless Im sick, and have gotten myself up to just under an hour of time spent doing the exercises my therapist taught me plus a regimen of simply "keeping it moving" in the water. Ive added a couple more things on my own that I do, too. I feel overall much stronger and have more stamina for having kept going, but it just has not made my BP come down at all. Again, I really hope the BPDown program works.
Well, anyway. Im currently making my salads and following my original program. I dont think about cheat days, yet. Maybe later. Maybe not. I dont know. I put on a pound this morning but figured Im not going to sweat it unless I see a trend. I did eat four meals yesterday, so that might be the source. But that is part of my original program: if Im hungry, I eat. I just make sure I eat fresh raw salad, and some cooked animal protein, and I am on my program.
Write a comment and let me know how you are doing. Would love to hear from you.
Be back soon,
Marcia
Note: Link to BPDown web site: http://www.bpdown.us/
I just have a few things on my mind. One, I wanted to say how surprised I am that my new Secura Convection oven still does not have any stains of any kind on the upper fan compartment. I remember the first time I used my Nuwave Oven how it already had stains from the food on it and I was never really able to get them out because that is the electrical part that you cannot submerge in water to let it soak or get it clean. I dont know if oven cleaner would have worked because the housing is plastic, so I never tried it. But the Secura is, so far, still without spatters and sparkling clean.
Two, the chocolate syrup made with coconut oil does seem to be keeping my cravings at bay. I had to have it twice yesterday, but, other than that, Ive not gone off the program due to cravings at all. I think I forgot to mention that I am also chewing Orbit gum which I believe is sugar free (Im not absolutely sure), and yesterday I used that three times. None so far today. I did postpone my breakfast and did not eat until about two. I was getting really famished and used the chocolate syrup to tide me over until I got some salad made and cooked a couple of eggs to garnish the salad. Feeling full now, and I could tell when the "full" signal went off. I still ate two more bites (hard to break a lifelong habit) but left the last one in the bowl.
Three, Ive received my "BPDown" program in the mail and have used it twice in the evening to try to assist in lowering my blood pressure. It consists of two red heart shaped squeeze toys for your hands and a CD with timed breathing instructions. It also has written instructions but is easier to "time" with the CD.
At first I thought the lady on the CD was simply going too fast for me. I tend to take long slow breaths when Im doing my own BP lowering exercise just before I test my BP, but she was going at a pretty fast clip, in my estimation. I measured my BP after the first session and it was higher than usual. I was a little disappointed with that, but remembered that some folks dont see results for about four weeks, so I simply forged ahead. During the morning of the second day (yesterday) I thought about it and decided not to resist her speedy breathing rhythms and simply followed them as close as I could. I figured that my idea of how this is "supposed" to go, may be in error and it just seemed to make more sense to follow it obediently. After all, they have said that many other people have done their program and lowered their blood pressure.
I read a few of the research articles on both the breathing techniques and the isometric hand squeezing exercises and it seems to be confirmed that these two methods do, oddly, lower blood pressure. I noticed in the reading that the breathing exercises seem to affect the upper BP number and the squeezing affects the lower number, so a combination of the two of them should be effective. I also remembered reading in one of the research papers that the measurement of import was the one taken in the morning after having done the exercises the night before. I was actually quite surprised that my BP this morning was 138 over 88 which is considerably lower on the upper number, but a little elevated on the lower one. I also noticed that my pulse was faster than usual by about 20 points. So, something seems to be happening. Of course you cannot tell with one reading, but Im taking it as a good sign, and will keep going with it.
I have a doctors appointment on June 28th and I want to be able to show that my blood pressure is under better control than it has been recently. When I went to my new doctor, my nurse practitioner made me increase my Losartan by double the dose I had been taking because my BP was something like 160 over 90 in her office. That is a lot higher than it usually is when I measure it myself at home every morning but she would not take "No" for an answer. I had not yet found the BPDown program at that time so had no recourse.
I was compliant and started to double the dose immediately but did not see any affect on my home BP readings at all over a couple of weeks time. They continued to be the same as usual, so when I found the BPDown program I hopped right on it. I am really not interested in taking any more BP medications after all the trouble Ive had with them before from suffering from asthma for three or four weeks after taking one dose of Lisinopril to having the symptoms of a small heart attack with another one. When I tried Amlodipine I had a bad chest cold for four months which did not clear up until I stopped taking it. I really hope the BPDown program works.
Ive also been surprised that after all this time of exercising in the pool that that has not helped with my BP readings, either. I go three times a week, unless Im sick, and have gotten myself up to just under an hour of time spent doing the exercises my therapist taught me plus a regimen of simply "keeping it moving" in the water. Ive added a couple more things on my own that I do, too. I feel overall much stronger and have more stamina for having kept going, but it just has not made my BP come down at all. Again, I really hope the BPDown program works.
Well, anyway. Im currently making my salads and following my original program. I dont think about cheat days, yet. Maybe later. Maybe not. I dont know. I put on a pound this morning but figured Im not going to sweat it unless I see a trend. I did eat four meals yesterday, so that might be the source. But that is part of my original program: if Im hungry, I eat. I just make sure I eat fresh raw salad, and some cooked animal protein, and I am on my program.
Write a comment and let me know how you are doing. Would love to hear from you.
Be back soon,
Marcia
Note: Link to BPDown web site: http://www.bpdown.us/
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