I usually use my porcelain kitchen dishes, but the small plates (luncheon or bread and butter) rather than the dinner plates. The rimmed soups do fine too when full of soup or pasta--with a vented MW lid.

OTOH, there are some things that just don't seem right for a proper dish, like a single sausage, but for which a plate, rather than a baking dish or pot, seems the right thing, so I have some open stock plain white Corelle which I was given just for the purpose. It works great! I mostly use the luncheon and bread and butter plates, again, and have five of each. I also have a dinner plate, serving bowl, soup bowl and compote, which I use occasionally (the guy who gave them to me believes in variety and completeness). I recently used the soup bowl to melt shortening in. :)

I think the rule of thumb is to match your dish as best as you can to the size of the thing you're zapping. And don't use too heavy a dish. That way the dish itself won't be the thing heating up the most.

If your plate gets hot it may not be microwave safe. Melamine soaks up all the heat and the food doesn't heat properly.

I can heat things in my everyday dishes which are microwave safe or Pyrex or many other glass and ceramic dishes.

Primarily glass. A go to for oven dishes too. For hot dogs, breads or sometimes leftover reheats, I use paper plates or napkins.

My Pyrex glass containers heat up much faster than the food it contains. I wonder why? I don't think it has much to do with the microwave itself, as I've had similar results with several different microwaves.

I got my Pyrex collection from Costco in early 2008. Maybe the old ones are better made? Wonder when everyone got theirs?

This post was edited by ILoveCookie on Fri, Apr 25, 14 at 15:16

I microwave in glass only. Mostly the glass rubbermaid containers we have.

I love using Littonware in my microwave.

ILoveCookie- my Pyrex is a mix of wedding gifts from 2002 and my grandmothers Pyrex from the 60s.

My stuff is not as good as my grandmothers. Now, if I am in an antique store, thrift store or garage sale and see classic Pyrex, I snatch it up!

I got rid of two sets of dishes that would get hot when used in the micro. Both sets were supposed to be microwave safe. That was when I got my Hotel Collection white bone china (Macy's) Never had a problem with them in the DW, Micro, chipping, etc.

I use my Corelle dishes in the microwave and thick paper plates to heat leftovers. I stopped using plastic as it discolors.

Lascatx, I looked up your Hotel Collection White Bone China (Macy's) and they are very pretty.

Texas_Gem -- thank you for the detailed information! I am going to keep my eye out for vintage Pyrex!

I tested my Pyrex today. I put an empty Pyrex glass bowl, and a coffee mug filled with cold water, into the microwave, with them a few inches apart. Then I ran the microwave for 1.5 minutes. When I took them out of the microwave, the empty Pyrex bowl was warm (not hot), and the handle of the mug was also slightly warm, less warm than the Pyrex bowl. Hmm.

Only made in America glass..or my dinnerware is "stoneware" that is from France.
I refuse to nuke in "china" made products or plastics.

I also have a few Pyrex lunch dishes..always remove the "plastic" tops though. But those are not used often.

lynn2006, thanks. I really like the look and the feel of them. They go on sale regularly and you can often find them at about half price -- sometimes with an additional coupon. We bought them on a sale like that and opened a new account when they were giving 20% off for one day of shopping. They were a great buy, and we've enjoyed them so much we've added some of the other pieces (dipping bowls and berry bowls - also great for food prep
and espresso cups).

I had an old set of dishes that used to get really hot in the microwave and burn you if you didn't use a pot holder to take it out. I always thought it was probably because they were not microwave safe.

Last year we changed to Fiesta dishes and they are supposed to be microwave, dishwasher, and oven safe to a certain temperature. They do not get hot. If you microwave something a long time, it will get warm. The reason I bought Fiesta dishes, is because the company makes it known that their dishes are lead free. Some other companies that I was interested in, would not tell you whether they had lead or not.

I also use anything glass and ceramic ramekins are a frequently used container for small items. We will put wax paper over anything that I don't want to dry out.

Won't use plastics at all in the microwave and I'm trying to phase plastics out of our kitchen entirely. I am slowly replacing plastic storage containers with glass containers with locking lids that go in the freezer and microwave.

Lascatx, I have a $60 gift card (was a $50 gift card + $10 dividend but I bought and returned sheets that were too deep and got a $60 Birthday Gift Card back) for Macy's and maybe this is what I will buy with it. I then bought my sheets at JCPenney as I like their sheets better and they fit so I was not sure what else I needed. I have no pretty dishes and only gave the bone colored Corelle dishes so maybe it is time I get a classic pretty set. I had many very heavy dishes that were not my taste (blue and green flowers all over them and the others were brown) that I gave away.

When I have time and Macy's is having a great sale, I will visit the store and check out these dishes as I love dishes that a pretty and can be used in the microwave and dishwasher. Thank you!

Macy's has the 12 piece set for $139.00. Regular price is $232.00.

BE CAREFUL!! You should never heat water in Pyrex in the microwave without a disturber in the water. A bamboo skewer is a good choice. If you don't have something with an irregular surface that the bubbles can form on, the water can look like it's not boiling at all, and can get superheated. The superheated water can explode out of the cup. Pyrex is too smooth. Fine for pie or even soup, but put something tall enough to go from the bottom to the top of the cup in it, if you're going to heat water, or put a spoon in it before doing anything else with it, to let the bubbles out.

Pyrex used to be borosilicate glass. You can still get Pyrex branded borosilicate in other countries, with the name licensed by the makers. In the U.S. (PA), it's now made by a separate company from Corning, and is tempered soda-lime glass, which is supposed to be harder to break but less heat resistant. It's not inferior in quality, just different in properties, and Corning was also selling tempered soda-lime glass, besides the borosilicate, for decades before they spun off Pyrex, so age doesn't tell the whole story.

I had that happen, the water exploding out of the pyrex measuring cup. No injuries, but it gave me quite a scare.

Thank you Peke! I must get to Macy's as my replacement Gift Card after I returned the sheets seems to be in the store only.

glass and corelle ware only. Never plastic even if it says it's mw safe...