How to Be Environmentally Conscious When Cooking

Going green seems to be on everyone’s mind nowadays. There are a lot of ways to help conserve energy and be environmentally conscious. Here are some suggestions to help save the world in a small way by being environmentally conscious while cooking.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Fresh food
• Canvas bag
• Linens
• Real plates and silverware

1. Shop organic. Organic fruits and vegetables don’t use dangerous chemicals that pollute the environment. The trick to shopping organically is buying produce that is grown in your area. If you are paying for organic fruits grown in Hawaii, the gas used to fly the fruits here is probably more detrimental to the environment than the pesticides and fertilizer used on the fruit.
2. Skip prepackaged items. Most food items are packaged for freshness with obscene amounts of cardboard, plastic wrap and flashy packaging. By using fresh ingredients, you will get optimal nutrition from your food, and help cut back on excess waste.
3. Bring your own bags. Buy hauling your own canvas bag; you will stop wasting plastic bags. Although most stores offer recycle stations for their plastic bags, most people don’t take advantage of it. In one month I collected over fifty bags from various shopping trips.
4. Use all parts of your food. Most people use choice cuts of meet or cut away parts of vegetables that are starting to brown. Instead of wasting this food, use it to make stock for soup or gravy.
5. Cut down on beef. Excessive red meat is not only bad for your heart, but the environment. Cow manure is one of the leading causes of air pollution. Limit your intake of red meat.
6. Shut off your oven. One of the biggest wastes of energy is people preheating their oven before necessary. If your oven takes five minutes to preheat, turn it on five minutes before you plan to cook. Turning it on thirty minutes before you plan to cook your roast won’t make it any warmer. When you are done, turn it off immediately.
7. Hand wash items or wait for a full dishwasher. When cleaning up, don’t waste energy by using the dishwasher to clean a few items. Unless you have a full load, leave it until tomorrow or wash by hand.
8. Use linens. Paper napkins and paper towels are extremely wasteful. Get in the habit of using linens for your meals. They won’t take up much extra room in the wash.
9. Use real plates and silverware. Using paper plates and plastic silverware is unnecessary.
10. Invest in reusable plastic storage containers. Wrapping pans and dishes with foil and plastic wrap is an unnecessary expense and unkind to the environment. Spend $10 to purchase a cheap set of plastic storage containers that you can reuse.