Environment
Make Your Kitchen and Cooking Eco-Friendly
by Lisa Smith
Maybe you’re looking to do as much as you can when it comes to being sustainable and saving the environment. If so, know your kitchen and cooking methods could likely use a green overhaul. Before preparing your next meal, use these tips to become a more environmentally friendly cook.
Buy Local When You Can
Before heading to the supermarket, check to see if what’s on your list is available at your local farmer’s market, food co-op or food stand. Not only will you be getting fresher, organic food, you’ll also be supporting your local community and small business owners. What’s more is you don’t have to worry as much about your food being transported by massive trucks and planes, which can clog up the ozone’s arteries.
Purchase Long-Lasting Utensils and Cooking Tools
If you do a lot of cooking, you owe it to yourself to use long-lasting materials, cookware and the like. Cast iron and stainless steel make for great investments sure to last for quite a while. Not buying cheap utensils means you don’t have to worry about them breaking at inopportune times or throwing them out soon after you buy them, which is essentially wasting money. On a related note, rather than buying paper towels, opt for cloth towels instead that you toss into the washer rather than the trash.
Heat Up the Right Way
Pay attention to the burner you use when cooking. When you choose a large burner for a small pot, pan or skillet, you waste heat, which means you’re wasting electricity, which means you’re wasting money. If you cook with gas, check to make sure the flame is below the pot so you aren’t wasting energy and money.
Invest in an electric kettle if you boil a lot of water for tea, cooking, French press-prepared coffee and the like. Electric kettles are more efficient than boiling water in a pot, saving you time as well as money.
Another way to use cooking heat efficiently is to cook with residual heat. It’s okay to turn off the over a few minutes earlier than the recipe calls for. The heat remaining in the oven will finish the job and save you money while still delivering a great-tasting dish (as long as you followed the recipe).
Invest in Energy-Efficient Appliances
While you shouldn’t immediately ditch your kitchen appliances if they still work, you should explore your options for energy-efficient appliances if your current ones are a few decades old. That way, you have an idea of how much you can expect to pay so you can slowly start putting money back now and can pay for appliances in full when your current ones no longer work. Not only will you be saving energy and money, but you also don’t have to worry about financing and the interest fees that come with them. Companies like Cadiz Water Project and Consumer Reports may be able to point you in the right direction for viable options.
Try To Use All Your Leftovers
Before you throw away food that’s still good, ask yourself if there’s a way you can avoid wasting it. Leftover meats go great in sandwiches, pastas, soups, fajitas and the like. Any vegetables you have left over can make for a great stock for soup. Remember, casseroles, lasagnas and other such dishes can be frozen and enjoyed later.
Planning your meals also goes a long way in ensuring you don’t waste food. Another great thing about meal prep is that it can remove a lot of the stress that comes with cooking when you’re tired after a long day. There may be a way to donate your unwanted leftovers to the homeless in your area. Just make sure anything you donate is still viable and edible.
Cook up some sustainability and environmental friendliness with these tips. Doing your part to save the planet never tasted so good.
About the Author
Lisa Smith is a fitness freak as well as a health adviser. Finally, she decided to share her experience through health and fitness blog writing so that it can help the other readers around the world. She basically writes to spread the health consciousness among the audience.
