I heard a commercial for this about 3 or 4 times one evening, and I finally paid attention after barely listening to it the first few times. Once I saw that it had interchangeable, *dishwasher-safe* plates, I told my husband that I wanted it for Christmas. I popped over here to amazon and ordered it right away. It got here before Christmas, but since it was my gift, I had to leave it alone until afterwards ;-)A few things attracted me to the grill. Interchangeable plates, dishwasher safe, and the waffle plates. I had been looking for a new wafflemaker, and in fact had looked at the store the night I saw the ad for the G5. The one we've had for 11+ years is too small for our family now, and I wanted something bigger. However, it seemed silly to spend a lot of money on one since I don't make them that often. Imagine how happy I was to see the size of the plates on the commercial!
Let me tell you, I was not disappointed with my first waffle go-round a couple of days ago. It makes 2 waffles that are each just about the size of 2 typical square freezer waffles. That's what I'm talking about! I made up a batch of Bisquick waffle batter, and set to cooking. It was trial and error as far as learning cooking times. I like my waffles softer, my husband likes them crispier. I would say on average they needed to cook 5-7 minutes. I pre-heated the grill as directed, and poured about 1.5 ladles of batter on each side. I didn't get them perfectly full each time, but close enough, you know? We ate them, we liked them! I didn't have any issues with them cooking unevenly; each batch turned out just fine.
Yesterday my husband made grilled cheese using the steak plate and the baking tray (upper & lower). He tells me that he flipped it over so he'd have the same design on each side *insert rolly eyes here*, but otherwise it cooked just fine.
Last night I made chocolate chip cookies using the recipe from the cookbook that came with the grill. So cool! They were virtually impossible to screw up! I did cook them longer than the recipe called for after the first batch; cooking times I think are are things that will have to be judged individually for each recipe. There are guidelines in the cookbook and the instruction manual, but I don't think they're hard and fast. Experiment and see what works best for you :-)
This morning my husband was at it again, this time making scrambled eggs. I didn't get any (he ate them all while I was asleep!) but he says that they cooked the eggs in about 1/3 of the time as our gas stove. He was pretty happy with that.
I was pleased with the 2 drip trays and the better spatulas (also 2) that came with the grill, in addition to the cleaning sponge. I don't know how often I'll use the sponge, since the plates clean so easily by hand (and once again, they are dishwasher-safe!), but it's nice to have. I liked the other Foreman grills, but cleaning them stopped me from using them as often as I might have otherwise. They were just kind of a pain; if you've used them you know what I mean.
Get this grill :-) If you have realistic expectations and are willing to experiment to get just the right cooking times, then I don't think you'll be disappointed. I'm not!
Buy George Foreman GRP90WGR Next Grilleration Electric Nonstick Grill with 5 Removable Plates Now
We had never been interested in the GF indoor grills before already had too many kitchen gadgets cluttering up our counters. Then we saw this and thought it might be great to get a grill plus be able to eliminate other small appliances we use often. As a result, this grill has become a counter staple-we use it every day.It replaced a toaster oven, two waffle makers (one regular, one belgian) and a grill someone gave us eons ago (not a GF). We're even getting rid of the rotisserie oven (we never used it much anyway). With the baking pan we've been able to toast bread, english muffins, toaster pastries and reheat pizza and meat patties. The grill plates cook great sandwiches, bacon (really great and drains a lot of fat), steaks, hambergers, franks, sausage, shrimp (we did kebobs with vegetables). Grilling is especially fast. A 1" thick dry rubbed london broil steak took only 5-6 minutes for medium rare! Although the waffle plates make only two at a time, they are LARGE waffles-we've even made some with blueberries!
While fairly easy to clean, we definitely recommend a thorough clean up after each use (particularly the top grill plate) and ordering the extra grill scrubs. Make a copy of the cooking time chart in the manual and post it by the grill or on your fridge for easy reference. Only quibble-must be sure to get the plates on just so, sometimes they can be a little difficult to click in place. Low profile is great on the counter if they could make this stand upright when not in use and had a built in or attached timer it would be too perfect for words. For us, this has been a great gadget value for the price!My wife and I were looking for a panini maker and couldn't find one with removeable grates (that we wanted to pay for). We had a GF grill in the past (one of the smaller models) and were pleased with it so we decided to give this a try (despite some of the bad reviews). We love it.
Set to high, allow to preheat and 4 minutes later a great sandwich. Used it the other morning to make waffles for my 2 girls, and they gave it a huge thumbs up (you do need to wait for the unit to heat back up after the first batch, but almost all waffle makers have that issue).
Made ready to bake Chocolate chip cookies the other night and they turned out OK (should have used the toaster oven, but wanted to see how the George did).
And of course, grilling meats works great.
All in all a wonderful purchase that allowed us to get rid of our waffle iron and replace our old George, while adding a panini press.Some people seem to have had problems with the "Next Grilleration" Foreman electric grill. I haven't.
The removable plates are a HUGE plus: simply snap them out, wipe off the grease with a paper towel, rinse the plates off (removing any cooked-on crust with a plastic scrubber), and into the dishwasher they go. The previous Foreman grill I used always bothered me, because cleaning it seemed an iffy--and potentially unsanitary--proposition.
I've also had no problems cooking thicker cuts of meat perfectly. HELLO! Just turn your (e.g.) steak around (so that what WAS the front side now faces the hinge) half-way through the grilling time. If you don't have time to do that, you don't have time to cook in the first place. If you can't remember to do that, you should stay out of the kitchen, because you could hurt yourself.
One word of advice: ANY grill of this sort works best with boneless cuts of meat, simply because bone and meat shrink at VERY different rates when heated. (DUH!)
I haven't tried to cook waffles on it. I use a waffle iron for that task. But the new Foreman grill makes GREAT grilled cheese sandwiches.
I LIKE the control of temperature on this model; the older models were either full blast or nothin'. With this one, you can experiment and find your personal ideal grilling temperature. It's pretty clear that grilling a hunk of meat is best accomplished at a higher temperature than making a grilled cheese sandwich (though you're welcome to your own conclusions).
In short, this seems to me to be a well-planned, well-built, and very useful kitchen gadget. It's also cheaper than some alternatives folks have suggested. It grills quickly and well. It even LOOKS nice sitting on the counter.
Save 49% Off
No comments:
Post a Comment