Have you ever wanted to make a grilled cheese sandwich...without a pan? Or maybe you want to heat up a crispy sandwich without a countertop grill. Well, these Toast-It Bags may be just what you need. You can slip a sandwich in one of these bags and heat it without getting gooey cheese all over the insides of your toaster. We have to admit we thought these were a bit frivolous at first, but then we read about their original purpose and use. More on that, plus purchasing info, below.
These bags were actually created by a company that makes products for people with celiac disease. People who have celiac disease or a similar allergy to gluten can get very sick if they ingest any sort of gluten. So otherwise simple things, like using a toaster at the office, can be a hazard. These bags were designed to help people toast their gluten-free bread and sandwiches in non-dedicated toasters. Of course, they have a side benefit of making grilled cheese easier for the rest of us.
The bags are reusable and washable.
• Buy them: Original Toast-It Bags, $6.25 for 1 or $30 for a pack of 5 at Celinal Foods. Also, pack of 2 for $5.69 at Amazon.com.
Related: Good Question: Gluten-Free Baking
(Images: Real Simple; Amazon.com)
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Love it.
From the grilled cheese perspective, I prefer mine pressed, panini-style.
Very good idea
wouldn't all the melting cheese just schlooop on down to the bottom of the bag? you'd have a very lopsided sammich.
I don't see how anybody can reasonably make the case for a vertical toaster anymore. Even a cheap toaster oven does way more, much better than any traditional toast machine. You can make a perfectly even toasted cheese sandwich in a toaster oven. You can also make mini pizzas, tuna melts, and they are great for reheating any kind of fried food, that would sog and/or rubberize in a microwave. Butter too cold for your toast? The toaster oven can fix that too.
Throw out your stand-up toaster and get a toaster oven. No funny bags required, no more stuck, burning bagels.
Unless they're reusable, these bags are horrible for the environment.
Personally, I just don't have the space for a toaster oven in my kitchen and in general prefer toast from a vertical toaster (toaster ovens don't seem to toast as evenly? or maybe it's just the ones I've used...)
I think this is a great idea for an office where a toaster oven isn't available. I assume the results be subpar to a panini grill but definitely better than nothing! :)
You'd have to cut the bread too thin to fit in my toaster. And I agree with kdkaboom - all the cheese would fall to the bottom of the bad. It also wouldn't lend itself well to add-ins, like bacon or tomatoes and such.
Bottom line is a good satuee pan and butter is much more versatile.
Plastic, i assume. Not ok by me. Love my toaster oven, don't need anything else.
I've lost my mind. I just ordered them on Amazon, then remembered that I don't have a toaster.
where were these yesterday, when i plopped my (already) grilled cheese leftovers into the toaster at work to revive it and hoped no one would see me?
reusable and washable makes it even better.
Wouldn't plastic release its chemicals heated so much and so close to the food? And I wonder how many times, can they be re-used because it seems like this is yet another piece of plastic that will fill out the landfills just because we are looking for more convenience in making our paninis.
Excellent idea for those who suffer from celiac disease
cool idea for the original purpose, but would the bread get crispy though it?
gross.
*All* plastic off gasses, especially when heated. And do we really need another expensive gadget to substitute for real cooking? Ditto the landfill comment.
toastabags are made from a woven glass material coated with non-stick PTFE.
from http://toastabagsaustralia.com/tbaghealthyeating.php
These would be awesome for work! Because of the type of company I work for we have all sorts of safety regulations that apply to everything from dangerous flaming lab equipment down to the refrigerators and toasters... thus because of all the safety policies, it was much easier for our staff to obtain a vertical toaster. We did however put up a good fight with the safety team about how dangerous it would be for us to attempt toasting our paninis vertically and cramming our heavily topped pizza slices inside the metal grates... being engineers we're bound to try it... again and again and again, until we're successful of course. Perhaps this is what the safety team had in mind :-)