Isn’t it funny how much we all love the smell of cooking bacon, and no matter what, even if your vegetarian the one thing you miss most (and I speak from experience) is a bacon sandwich.

Well the smell of cooking bacon always brings sleepy heads down from their beds to breakfast in our house and my mother is no exception to this.

Shes loves cooking something simple for herself but hates all the hassel of using the big oven and all the  pots & pans etc, when she is only cooking for herself. We have recently made some exceptional purchases for mum, to assist her when she is at home and not staying with us. One item is a compact but versatile microwave which has touch buttons to assist with her arthritous.  I cook the meals, label & freeze them, then mum mircrowaves them as and when she needs them. Simple and no waste.  The other is a mini oven, we went for the De’Longhi EO1200W Mini Oven with Pizza Bulge, 1.4kW  for all of its features and again compactness as we did the microwave.

This De’Longhi Mini Oven gave my mum the chance to have a oven at the right height (on her worktop) and less expensive to run then switching on her full oven, to just cook for herself.  It also allows her choice to be able to still bake and cook as if she was using her full oven. With features like a large Internal Capacity of 12.5 litres (equivalent to a 6lb Turkey), 3 Cooking Functions: Convection, Grill and Lower Heating Element for Gentle Cooking , Adjustable Thermostat 60º to 230ºC  and a 120 Minute Electronic Timer with Automatic Shut Off and Bell. This I personally think is so useful for mum, as it is so easy for her to get a phone call or to be watching a film and to simply forget about what is cooking in the oven. This allows a fail safe for her and a auditable bell to remind her too. It also has a Aluminium Interior  and a Unique Pizza Bulge Shape. So I shall be getting one of these for my son (who loves pizza’s), while he is at university studying, as with this feature he can fit a pizza in this oven, as with other ovens you may have to cut it in half etc to get it in the oven. On top of all this it has a removable Crumb Tray for Easy Cleaning it is so versatile and has so many applications. As I said my mum have found this invaluable, we have peace of mind no more burnt cooking or alarm calls, as it switches itself off or rings a bell  when its finished cooking, as does the microwave for her.  Above all else they are cheap to run but allow my mum the choice of still being able to cook or bake if she wants too. Also ideal for students studying away from home with its features and compactness and I can see a use for this in holiday homes, even camping if you have electrics.

Items like this are invaluable for keeping someone cooking for themselves without costing a fortune! Do you own a mini oven? what do you cook in yours?