Microwave vs. Air Fryer vs. Toaster Oven

At home one of the cheapest routes to a good cup is bulk ground coffee (recommend Sam's Club over Costco) using a standard coffeemaker like Mr. Coffee, but all I'm willing to rinse daily in the truck (or truck stop) is my mouth, so Mr. Coffee, huge plastic mugs, massive metal thermoses, etc. are all out. This leaves disposable hot cups as the only option, and since microplastics are probably safer to drink than styrene, paper is worth paying a little extra for. The coffee needs to be instant or K-cup. The easiest, quickest option for heating water is a microwave. Like everyone else I recommend the little Walmart one. I use a glass measuring cup - gets "rinsed" automatically with every use. Walmart's GV instant arabica is inexpensive and OK in my opinion. Starbucks Via is better, but it costs pretty much what you'd pay at a Starbucks, so Walmart wins. Not sure I've ever tried running a K-cup coffeemaker in a truck so can't comment on that option, but agree totally with the commenter(s) who recommend truck stop coffee. I usually fill a 24 oz. cup to the brim in the morning whenever I park at one, but truck stops aren't my first choice for overnight parking.

 

I’m late to this discussion, but I’ll throw in my two cents. I’ve been using a toaster oven for the last seven years. I cook/prep food for the week on Sundays at home. Aluminum pie plates work great for reheating or cooking from scratch. I know, it looks a lot worse than it really is.

As for coffee, I use a hot water kettle and a stainless steel French press, and buy good ground coffee beans.

 

Not pristine but not that bad either. I like the zero-maintenance kettle. Not as fast as a microwave, but way faster than those plastic water heaters that plug into the lighter. I keep one of those on hand as a backup in case the microwave doesn't work.

 

I can vouch for the Walmart cheap microwave. It is bullet proof, it has lasted for 3 years with heavy usage. I used it often to cook raw pasta in a glass bowl. I got the pasta to water ratio down good enough that the pasta is done when all the water is evaporated. That was really hard on the microwave but it never failed. I did upgrade to a higher wattage microwave because it took forever at 700w

I also have a pizzaz pizza maker, it can work as an oven depending on what you are cooking. I mainly just use it for what is was designed for, frozen pizza. The good thing about it is that I takes up a small footprint so it is easy to store with the lack of space you are dealing with in a sleeper.