I stole these from www.care2.com, added a few in myself, and hope to continue compiling ideas like this in the future!
1. Cover pans while cooking to prevent heat loss.
2. Make sure your pan covers the coil of your range. If you can see coil peeping out from the sides of your pan, you are losing energy and you need a bigger pan!
3. Try one-pot cooking. Stews, soups, and other great peasant meals only take one burner to cook and they are so nourishing and satisfying!
4. Just before your food is cooked completely, turn off the oven or burner and allow the heat in the pot or pan to continue the cooking process for you.
5. The less liquid and fat you use, the quicker the cooking time.
6. Always make more food than you plan to use and freeze it for your own “fast food.”
7. Leftovers take less energy to reheat on top of the stove rather than in the oven.
8. Most of us eat a lot of pasta. Make extra, toss with olive oil, and keep in the fridge so you don’t have to heat an entire pot of water to the boiling point every time you want some.
9. If you have one, use a pressure or slow cooker. It really saves on energy.
10. Don't open your slow cooker until you absolutely have to!!
11. Look for baking recipes that only use one bowl, or tailor your recipes so that they use as few bowls as possible. Add the dry ingredients first with your glass measuring cup/jug, then add the wet. This allows you to use the same measuring cup (provided it shows all the measurements you need) and prevents the dry materials from sticking to the sides of the cup!
12. Put foods that you are warming up in the oven in as soon as you turn the oven on. In general, pre-heating is not necessary (except in the case of baking). What's the point of spending a half hour heating an oven just to open the door and reduce the heat again when you put the food in??
13. DON'T OPEN THE OVEN DOOR unless you are taking food out or putting it in!! Keep the heat in there and save the energy it would take to reheat it after every time you let the heat out.
1. Cover pans while cooking to prevent heat loss.
2. Make sure your pan covers the coil of your range. If you can see coil peeping out from the sides of your pan, you are losing energy and you need a bigger pan!
3. Try one-pot cooking. Stews, soups, and other great peasant meals only take one burner to cook and they are so nourishing and satisfying!
4. Just before your food is cooked completely, turn off the oven or burner and allow the heat in the pot or pan to continue the cooking process for you.
5. The less liquid and fat you use, the quicker the cooking time.
6. Always make more food than you plan to use and freeze it for your own “fast food.”
7. Leftovers take less energy to reheat on top of the stove rather than in the oven.
8. Most of us eat a lot of pasta. Make extra, toss with olive oil, and keep in the fridge so you don’t have to heat an entire pot of water to the boiling point every time you want some.
9. If you have one, use a pressure or slow cooker. It really saves on energy.
10. Don't open your slow cooker until you absolutely have to!!
11. Look for baking recipes that only use one bowl, or tailor your recipes so that they use as few bowls as possible. Add the dry ingredients first with your glass measuring cup/jug, then add the wet. This allows you to use the same measuring cup (provided it shows all the measurements you need) and prevents the dry materials from sticking to the sides of the cup!
12. Put foods that you are warming up in the oven in as soon as you turn the oven on. In general, pre-heating is not necessary (except in the case of baking). What's the point of spending a half hour heating an oven just to open the door and reduce the heat again when you put the food in??
13. DON'T OPEN THE OVEN DOOR unless you are taking food out or putting it in!! Keep the heat in there and save the energy it would take to reheat it after every time you let the heat out.
