About Toaster Oven Love
Hey there and welcome!
My name is Brie and around here, I’m the resident kitchen mess maker, food photographer, and toaster oven tinkerer.
The handsome fella next to me is my husband of 17 years, Tim.
He helps out with recipe testing, creating videos, and is the rugged hand model in our step-by-step tutorials.
We started Toaster Oven Love in 2015 as a place to share our adventures in learning to cook with a toaster oven.
Over the past 4 years, we’ve explored the in’s and out’s of toaster oven cooking (it’s easier than you think!) and some of our 100+ toaster oven recipes and tutorials have been featured on sites like Buzzfeed, CNET, MSN, Greatist, and more.
We know that cooking a nutritious meal for yourself (+ someone else) is challenging:
- Leftovers,
- Wasted ingredients,
- Ugh – the drama that is resizing recipes!
So nowadays, we no longer focus solely on toaster oven recipes.
Instead, we create a variety of perfectly-portioned recipes and share helpful tips to make cooking for two (or just for you) a little easier and a lot tastier.
What You’ll Find On Toaster Oven Love
Meatless Meals For Two or Just You!
All of the meals on Toaster Oven Love are meant to feed just one or two people and are vegetarian (like these seriously tasty spaghetti squash burrito bowls).
In addition to meatless meals and veggie sides, you’ll also find lots of small-batch treat recipes for muffins, cookies, and cakes.
Help To Waste Less and Cook More
Food waste is a BIG problem for smaller households (including our own!).
To help, we’ll be sharing quick tips and ideas for:
- Shopping smart
- Storing food so it lasts longer
- Ways to use up leftover ingredients
- Easy ingredient swaps
- Resizing recipes
- And finding the motivation to cook
Lots of Toaster Oven Love
There are plenty of smart appliances to use if you’re cooking for one or two people.
The toaster oven will always be our favorite.
You’ll find recipes, tutorials, and more to help you get the most out of cooking with your little oven!
Want To Know More About Us?
We’re self-taught home cooks, though both of us have worked in food service. My stint as a sandwich maker was the inspiration behind this popular vegetarian sandwich recipe.
Tim’s super into weight-lifting and learning about nutrition. I’m more of a long walk kind of gal.
We share an unapologetic love for our 5-year-old nephew, sriracha sauce, dogs (especially our sweet Benji ↓), and these addictive sweet potato rounds.
When we’re not working our day jobs or in the kitchen developing new recipes you can usually find us:
- Exploring Southern California
- Reading anything by Fredrik Backman
- Playing board games
- Binge-watching episodes of Psych, Bob’s Burgers, Parks and Recreation, or anything featuring a Marvel superhero (that last one’s mostly Tim)
If you have any questions, comments, or board game recommendations, you can always reach out using our Contact page. We LOVE hearing from you.
Thanks so much for visiting!
Stay toasty,
~ Brie (&Tim)
Hi,
I love your articles, tips, etc.
I have an old, Hamilton Beach toaster oven with a convection setting, which I use, along with the regular oven.
I have small, rectangular pans, but haven’t found a round one I can use for pizza 🍕. The interior is about 12-1/2” x 10”. Do you know where I can find one that will fit in this oven?
Btw, I’ve noticed lately that Target carries the small, rectangular pans for toaster ovens. I got mine elsewhere (don’t remember where) several years ago.
Thanks for your help.
I’m in Fountain Hills, AZ (Phoenix/Scottsdale area).
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for the kind words and for the Target pan tip – it’s great to hear more stores are starting to carry smaller pans!
Does your oven have a small bump-out in the back? If it does you might want to measure and see if you could fit an 11-inch pizza pan, a lot of manufacturers like Cuisinart and Breville sell 11-inch pizza pans.
If 10-inches is your max, I did see some at Walmart and Amazon when I Googled. Also, you might want to try stopping by your local pizza place to see if they have any smaller pans you could buy.
On our pizza tips post, a reader just left a great pan alternative – using a splatter screen! The only hitch is you’ll need a way to remove the handle (they used a hacksaw).
Hope that helps and happy cooking!
I have one more idea for you, Nancy 🙂
We just picked up a 9.25-inch round cast iron serving griddle. https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/round-serving-griddle?sku=L7OGH3
It’s not big enough to make a large pizza but we made a quarter of a frozen thin-crust pizza with the pan preheated and it turned out great.
Even though it’s cast iron, it’s not too heavy because it does not have a handle.
I’ve tried to subscribe three time for your email letter and no response yet. Like your recipes and am looking forward to enjoying them for a time to come.
Bummer, I’m sorry you’re having trouble subscribing to the newsletter, Beth.
We’ve just tested the boxes and they are working so it might be something with your browser or email address.
I’d love to help you get set up. If you still want to subscribe can you send me an email at [email protected] so I can troubleshoot the issue with our newsletter service?
Thanks!
Brie
NEW TO CONVECTION TOASTER OVEN WORLD. WHEN SET ON “TURBO”, IS IT NORMAL FOR SILENCE AND NO HOT AIR FLOW FROM SIDE VENTS? PERHAPS DEFCTIVE OVEN?
Hi Marilyn,
It depends on the oven. Our larger convection ovens are very loud but I do remember our old medium-sized Oster being pretty quiet on the Turbo setting.
Inside the oven, on the side with the fan vents, can you see the fan moving when you have it on the turbo setting? If your oven doesn’t have a light and it’s too dark to see, you might want to try pointing a flashlight at it.
Usually, with a convection toaster oven, you can hear the fan (even if it’s quiet) and catch a glimpse of it through the side vents. If those things aren’t happening and you’re not happy with the results of the oven’s cooking, I’d definitely reach out to the manufacturer for assistance/troubleshooting.
Good luck!
~Brie
New to using a toaster oven. The problem I’m having is the top starts to burn before middle is done. Could it be that I’ve been using aluminum pans for cakes and cornbread
Hi Tonia!
We primarily cook in aluminum pans and the only issue that’s come up is that darker pans brown food more than lighter color pans.
Your issue may be a few different things but I’d start with the temperature, which could be too high.
If you’re using a boxed mix, I find they tend to over-brown more than a regular oven.
To combat that, I usually reduce the temperature by 25 degrees. This post for how to make half a cake mix has an example under the Oven vs. Toaster Oven section: https://toasterovenlove.com/half-a-cake-mix/
Also, if you’re cooking with a convection toaster oven the temperature inside the oven is usually about 25 degrees higher than the oven temperature displayed. So if you set it to 350F with convection, the oven is actually cooking at 375F. You can read more about convection in this post: https://toasterovenlove.com/7-things-you-should-know-about-convection-toaster-ovens/
Lastly, you might want to toss an oven thermometer in your toaster oven and see how accurate the temperature is the next time you’re cooking. You may find it runs warmer than expected. If that’s the case, reducing the temperature should help a lot.
Thanks for stopping by! ~ Brie
Do you have a list of recommended toaster ovens? My gas stove died and I don’t want to replace it. I’m currently using a small toaster oven but will probably replace it soon with something a little larger. Can you recommend affordable models for a budget conscious empty-nester? Thanks.
Hi Linda!
I’m sorry to hear about your gas oven quitting – what a bummer.
So our policy is to only share about tools and appliances that we’ve used ourselves. Unfortunately, testing a lot of different toaster ovens isn’t currently in our budget.
In my experience, no single oven will check ALL the boxes (capacity, budget, features) but if you know what’s most important to you before you buy you’ll be pretty happy with your selection.
Reading through these Tips for Choosing a Toaster Oven and thinking about what you wish was different about your current toaster oven will help.
With the holiday sales coming up I’m sure you’ll be able to find the best one for you and at a great discount 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
Brie
been a home baker for a long time. now 63y/o and using a Breville Toaster Oven for awhile. Always checked conventional oven temp but neglected my toaster oven until now. Added a stone and checked temps.
Big thing was the time it took to come up to temp with added stone.
Added about 20 min.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention and making my muffins just right.
ericZ
Thanks so much, Eric, I’m glad we could help and happy to hear your muffins are turning out just how you like them!
Happy Cooking 🙂
Brie
When I first bought my toaster oven (a Sunbeam Pizza/Toaster) I found no sites on how to cook little dinners! I only found yours yesterday when I wanted to bake a spud just for me! Hubby and I are meat eaters but only in a more minor way as we get older and I am loving some of your ideas which can incorporate our taste ‘wants’. I have been unsure of how to cook biscuits (cookies to you) and scones (biscuits to you) until now. My challenge here in Perth, Western Australia, is to find a good pan to fit my oven instead of using the supplied pan which doesn’t allow air circulation. Thanks for a great site!
Welcome, Janet! I’m so glad you found us and hope that spud turned out delicious 🙂
We’re actually working on an update to the toaster oven pans section right now. I just picked up this great Cuisinart Toaster Oven Pan at our local Bed, Bath & Beyond. Their lighter-colored pans are perfect for baking cookies. I’m not sure if they have a BB&B in Australia?
If you need a smaller pan, check out this 1/8th sheet pan by Nordic Ware.
If you none of those are good options, let me know the interior dimensions of your toaster oven, I’d be happy to help you find some more 🙂
Thanks for stopping by,
Brie