Each and every day, I “cook up some love” in the kitchen by way of plenty of home cooked meals. While they may not be gourmet, they are loving prepared to keep my family healthy and nourished.
But there are also some very simple ways to cook up some conservation too… by way of not overconsuming energy and resources. At first glance it may not seem like much, but add it up over time and you’ve also cooked up some conservation! Give these simple tips a try:
- Skip preheating the oven – if you are roasting, broiling or baking for an hour or more, don’t preheat. It simply isn’t necessary. You can also shut off the oven 5 minutes before your cooktime is complete… the oven still holds the heat and keeps on cookin’!
- Use the right size pots and pans – small pots and pans on large burners waste energy and resources.
- Use lids – yes, a covered pot of water does reach boiling quicker than one that is uncovered. And crank it up (as long as the flames aren’t escaping the sides). Water doesn’t need to slowly reach a boil, so get it rollin’!
- Use the microwave – whenever a microwave can be used for cooking or to do the early steps, use it! Microwaves use 4-5 times less energy than your oven.
- Prepare only what you need – while cooking up a tremendous batch of whatever you’re serving may sound like a good idea at the time, make sure it will actually get consumed instead of eventually winding up in the trash or disposal. If not, food obviously goes to waste but all of the resources to produce that food got wasted as well.
See… simple! Happy cooking and conserving!…
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Excellent! But remember that it can be advantageous to cook more than what you need if you save the leftover food. For example, in terms of energy consumption, it generally requires less energy to prepare and cook one meal than two meals. So, increasing the volume isn’t necessarily a bad idea, as long as you are willing to eat that same meal more than once. I love knowing that I get one night “off” if I prepare dinner with twice as much food as my family will eat in one sitting.
One more tip for everyone: consider investing in an induction cooktop. Induction cooking is 90% efficient, about 20 – 30% more than conventional gas or electric cooking. Learn more here: http://theinductionsite.com/
I really like my induction cooktop and the way I can easily control the heat delivered. Great investment!
.-= Melissa King´s last blog ..Dad’s and Virtual Learning: The Cat’s in the Cradle =-.
Thanks for the great tips! I always enjoy your posts and I feel as though our journeys are very similar.
I did want to offer the suggestion of skipping the microwave altogether. Like gmo’s (genetically modified organisms), the impact of microwaving our food is yet to be determined. Of course, I could cite study after study eschewing the horrors of microwaving food, but I’ll skip the drama and just speak from my heart.
Safest is best, in my book, and that means the good ol’ fashioned stove-top. I haven’t had a microwave in my home (besides the impact on our food, who knows what is does to our bodies as we hover nearby, waiting for the ding!) in years. There may be an adjustment period at the beginning, but the peace of mind is so worth it. And just like everything else in the going green realm, it just takes a little thought and effort to incorporate it into your life.
Thanks for making the planet healthier!
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