I’m Embarrassed to Admit How Many Meals I Cook in the Microwave Thanks to Anyday Cookware
- By Sydney Bueckert, NASM C.P.T., C.E.S., F.N.S., G.P.T.S.
- April 11, 2024
Being a food snob is, unfortunately, time-consuming. My obsessive need to whip up a low-and-slow cooked omelet generously heaped with fresh herbs (rather than the perfectly fine bowl of protein overnight oats already in my fridge) has made me late to work on more occasions than I can count. But I also loathe the amount of time I spend in the kitchen on a daily basis. That’s where Anyday comes in.
Anyday cookware is a line of non-toxic, microwave-safe dishes that promise to cook literally anything and everything—including eggs, raw chicken, and banana bread—in the microwave. If your record just scratched, same. One desperate mug cake gone wrong is enough for anyone to swear off microwave cooking for good, save the occasional bag of frozen rice or popcorn. However, in an effort to gain back some precious hands-off cooking time, I decided to give Anyday cookware a shot. After several months—and countless one-pot meals, main dishes, sides, and desserts—here are my honest thoughts.
Our Experience
Like any foodie and nutrition editor, I take my meals seriously. I spend a ridiculous amount of time hunting down the best ingredients, experimenting in the kitchen, and searching for new ways to upgrade my at-home cooking experience. Though I’d love nothing more than to swap my excessive kitchen time for more reps at the gym, or to binge Selling the OC, I’d never consider any kitchen time or effort-saving tool that significantly downgraded the quality of my meals. I’ve spent hours testing Anyday cookware and repeated recipes time and time again to be sure what could be cooked without fail using Anyday, and what couldn’t.
What Is Anyday Cookware?
Anyday is a cookware company with a mission to make the microwave a central part of any home cook’s arsenal. Anyday’s microwave cookware line-up includes an array of airtight, leakproof, non-toxic, dishwasher-safe, oven-safe (up to 500 degrees for the bowl, and 400 if you use the lid), and freezer-safe microwavable containers and lids.
The main appeal of Anyday is its lids. Each glass lid is designed with a microwave-safe, stainless-steel rim, ribbed with silicone—which traps steam, resulting in moist, evenly cooked food. What separates Anyday from your average Pyrex is the pop-up knob built into the top of each lid, which vents steam while cooking (AKA no surprise explosions) and vacuum seals for convenient fridge storage.
There are several options available, from a Complete Set ($170) and a College Dorm Set ($100) to a snazzy black io Collection Set ($185) designed by chef David Chang. I chose to test the Everyday Set ($135) which comes with four dishes: a medium and large “shallow” dish, and a medium and large “deep” dish. Individual dishes run from $40 to $60 depending on the size, and range from small to extra large which might be a smart add-on if you’re cooking solo or for a large family.
What’s Good About Anyday Cookware?
Toxic-free microwave cooking
Most microwaveable meals are housed in plastic containers and sealed with plastic film—which leaches toxins into your food as it cooks in the microwave. Embarrassing truth: Sometimes I really don’t care. Don’t get me wrong, I care about toxins (enough to replace my non-stick pans with Caraway and Greenpan) but I simply cannot bring myself to cook rice in my Instant Pot for 20 minutes, when I could throw a bag of frozen Trader Joe’s rice in the microwave and have perfectly good rice on the table in three minutes. Though it takes absurdly long to cook dry rice in Anyday, too (more on that later), you can pour frozen rice straight into your Anyday and it cooks in the same time you’d expect if you left it in the plastic bag—without a side of toxins.
Versatile meal prep
Anyday handles everything I hoped it would (grains, veggies, sweet potatoes) and a few things I didn’t expect (poached eggs, chicken, mashed potatoes) surprisingly well. With a little trial and error, it consistently produces fluffy rice, perfectly poached eggs, and tender asparagus in a matter of minutes.
Will I cook chicken in the microwave every time? Absolutely not. But it’s nice to know that I can throw some Trader Joe’s pre-marinated chicken shawarma in the microwave and have tender, juicy chicken you’d never even know was microwaved on the table in under ten minutes. (And yes, I have a Trader Joe’s problem. Sue me.)
Doubles as food storage
A big bonus of Anyday is that it’s designed to functionally shift from your microwave or oven, straight to your table, and into the fridge or freezer with any leftovers. For this reason, I’ve found myself saved from doing the dishes on numerous occasions.
I frequently meal prep quinoa or farro to throw into salads or breakfast bowls throughout the week. Typically that process involves boiling the grains in a pot, draining them in a colander, and then storing them in a separate container. With Anyday, it all happens in one container. I simply throw the grains and some water in a dish. Once they’re finished cooking and resting all I have to do is fluff them with a fork, throw the lid back on, and they’re ready to stash in the fridge.
Looks great
The frosted glass, stainless steel rim, and fun color options make Anyday’s dishes look put-together. This detail may sound frivolous, but as someone who takes pride in the presentation of my food—especially when guests are over for dinner—it’s nice to not feel like I have to transfer rice or veggies to a separate serving bowl after cooking.
What’s Not So Good About Anyday Cookware?
Not foolproof
Anyday aims to make cooking as easy as popping your ingredients into a dish and pressing a few buttons, but there’s a little calculation that goes into making some of your microwaved concoctions a success. For items like veggies and proteins, the brand offers a minute range for the weight of the item you’re cooking. Grains are a little more complicated, with charts to help you adjust the amount, water level, and power level based on the wattage level of your microwave.
I found out the hard way that adjusting the power level makes the difference between perfectly fluffy rice or a hardly edible hockey puck, so it’s worth taking a minute or two to figure it out. This isn’t Anyday’s fault, it’s just a side-effect of microwave cooking, albeit an annoying one when you’re in the mood to set it and forget it. Luckily, the brand saves you the math and offers the correct settings for a microwave of any wattage for literally every recipe on their website.
Not ideal for cooking everything
Anyday’s M.O. is that you can cook anything in the microwave—but that doesn’t mean you should. While Anyday has reinstated my appreciation for microwave cooking, I’m still a firm believer that salmon is just better crusted in the pan (though, Anyday did impressively delete any existence of microwave-fish stench). And any baked good deserves to be actually baked (the peanut butter lava cake exploded out of the center of the lid and was every bit as foamy as I expected it to be).
The brand also shares a range of complete meals on its website. I’ll admit, I’m intrigued by the ease of a one-pot meal, and in all fairness, the ones that I did try (Chicken and Black Bean Taco Bowl and Salmon with Braised Peppers) weren’t terrible. But like any one-pot dinner, each ingredient wasn’t given the attention it deserves (in my opinion). Think: Slightly undercooked versus caramelized onions, or wilted versus crisp bell peppers. I’d rather use my Anyday to free up some stovetop space and throw a single item in at a time like bok choy or rice, and cook the other elements of my meal exactly how I want them.
Takes longer than I want it to sometimes
Using Anyday has saved me time more often than not. The ability to perfectly poach an egg in exactly two minutes and thirty seconds has completely changed breakfast for me. But some things simply aren’t worth hogging the microwave for 22 minutes (ahem, rice). Yep, it takes 22 minutes to cook a half cup of white rice using Anyday. You could cook rice in basically any manner of ways in that amount of time. Which means if you’re fine with pulling out the old Instant Pot or cooking rice on the stove, it’s all kind of the same.
The Bottom Line
Anyday cookware is a great option for saving time and effort in the kitchen. The combo of microwave-safe dishes and lids simplifies the meal prep of elements like veggies, rice, grains, and even chicken, freeing you up to be hands-on with more complicated elements of your meal or do something else with your time entirely. It also offers a toxin-free alternative to plastic containers and films on most frozen food items. If you want a hands-free option that helps put dinner on the table fast, Anyday cookware is well worth the $135. That said, Anyday isn’t your best option for making full meals, grains, desserts, or any food item where you have a strong crisp preference (i.e. a little char on your broccolini, or a crispy crust on your salmon.)
