How essential is an oven for fulltiming?

Desert Captain wrote:
I guess for a lot of us it comes down to how you actually use your RV. We prefer to camp, having AC is not a need, merely an occasional luxury. Many others just have to have AC 24/7 and they seem to be the folks that prefer the convection ovens vs gas along with the toaster ovens, crock pots etc. Not having a gas oven pretty much leaves you hanging any time AC is not available and we like to keep our options open. Like the man said different strokes.

Probably because we were boaters for 35 years but I just cannot imagine having to plug in or fire up a genny just to cook something including that pot of coffee first thing every morning. Getting back to the title of this thread "essential" obviously means different things to different folks. For me "essential" is the ability to prepare healthy, delicious meals without disrupting the peace and quiet of a nice CG.

As always.... Opinions and YMMV.

:C

Well said and thank you for bringing the point forward.

For those of us that boondock for extended periods I'd have to think would make use of their oven.

I guess for a lot of us it comes down to how you actually use your RV. We prefer to camp, having AC is not a need, merely an occasional luxury. Many others just have to have AC 24/7 and they seem to be the folks that prefer the convection ovens vs gas along with the toaster ovens, crock pots etc. Not having a gas oven pretty much leaves you hanging any time AC is not available and we like to keep our options open. Like the man said different strokes.

Probably because we were boaters for 35 years but I just cannot imagine having to plug in or fire up a genny just to cook something including that pot of coffee first thing every morning. Getting back to the title of this thread "essential" obviously means different things to different folks. For me "essential" is the ability to prepare healthy, delicious meals without disrupting the peace and quiet of a nice CG.

As always.... Opinions and YMMV.

:C

We have no oven- just the convection microwave. Our previous unit also had an oven and I never used it. I've also never used the stove top. I pretty much cook in the convection microwave, electric skillet, electric pot, and outside gas grill.

Those little ovens in RVs are useless. Our first fiver had one. Wife cooked some big casserole. It took till midnight for the air conditioner to catch up. Our MH doesn't have one used it seven years. Last three we're part timing. Don't miss having an oven one bit. We have a convection/microwave and a toaster oven/convection. Between the two, we are happy. Oh, yes I also burn flesh on the grill. Wife prepares food and freezes it. We have a small freezer in the basement. Between the frig/freezer and the basement freezer, we brought back food from a 2 1/2 month snowbird trip.

We wouldn't go without the convection / microwave combo. Traditional Gas oven is not necessary.

simsfmly wrote:
Convection oven and Microwave is good for a lot of things, but there are certain things (like the pizza we baked tonight) that the oven is just better.

Au contraire, pizza stone works great in convection oven too!

Another vote for convection oven, but that may be because we don't have a gas oven.

However, I can't imagine that a convection oven would be the choice of someone who boondocks as convections draw mucho power and they can be on for long periods.

NOTE: This is NOT Moonlightrunner... just posting on her account as she's bumming my laptop while doing her laundry in my machines....

I think the oven issue is a lot like the washer & dryer issue. If you don't bake, then you don't really need an oven. On the other hand, I do bake in my oven (and bread machine) a lot. That's part of the reason we put a 30" residential oven in our conversion. I have lived with a tiny, crappy RV oven and hated it. But I also have a full size residential freezer that I cook two to three family sized entrees at the same time in the oven to freeze in either individual or two person meal portions. It's my version of "TV dinners". I have baked 6 lbs baked chicken thighs, 6lbs oven BBQ chicken, 6 meatloaves (roughly 6oz each), 24 cajunchiladas (wrap & freeze individually for both lunches and dinners) all at the same time for freezer entrees (can't do that in a crappy RV oven). We also buy the 3 pack boxes (remove box) of DiGorno frozen pizzas from Sam's Club. Right now I have 6 in the freezer and that will last us two weeks. This all keeps us from spending our dollars at a restaurant where it would cost us a lot more to eat out than it does to cook the same food at home. Having it all cooked up and sitting in the freezer just waiting to be thawed and reheated for a fast meal saves up lots of money. It's hard to scale a family sized recipe down for two and just freezing the "rest" of the recipe makes a lot of sense to us. Besides, we would not have my cajunchiladas more than once every other month as they are messy to make. Easier to make the mess (for any recipe) once than several times a month. On my next day off I will be baking up and freezing a double batch of cupcake sized coffeecakes to freeze as someone has been eating them up while she's been doing laundry! I do love my oven. :)

Lorna

All three of my fulltime rigs had both an oven AND a convection/microwave. I used them all. In my opinion, some things are just better baked/roasted in a conventional oven.

doxiemom11 wrote:
I think you will find that people who have an oven think that is the only thing to have , and that people who have a microwave / convection (myself included) know that you can do anything you want in the convection including baking bread. Everything browns just like it does in a conventional oven. I have never met anyone who had a regular oven and a microwave/convection in their rig. I'm not sure if any even come with both. I know some people we have met are afraid of a micro/convection just the same as they are afraid of computers. They will not even try one to see how it works or if they like it. I do not have a toaster oven as I haven't found the need for one, not even for frozen garlic bread.

We have both because the original owner ordered both. As far as I can tell they never used the propane oven and we certainly don't - have been using convection ovens for years and wouldn't want a regular one. Our propane oven stores our griddle/panni maker and a couple of other things.

Barb