cookprint

In preparation for my class, I have been reading a book titled Cooking Green and it is written by Kate Heyhoe. In this book it talks about reducing your "cookprint". Many of the techniques are easy to do. It also talks about being an "ecovore" which basically means eating with the environment in mind.

At first, we started our journey into sustainable living not because of the environment as much as we needed to conserve money where ever possible. Our youngest daughter has many medical challenges and I had to quit working even on a part-time basis. I had read from various sources some of the techniques mentioned in the book before and had already incorporated many of them on an economic basis. One thing that I have found about decreasing your carbon footprint through my research is that the added benefit is that it saves you money. This applies especially in the energy consumption area. Even if your not buying all the environmental reasons, the economic reasons may be worth it.

Some simple "cookprint" suggestions are fairly easy to do. Here are a couple of basic ones to get you started.

-boil water and cook on the stove top using lids on your pans
-use your oven for more than one thing (I usually do 2-3 baking things at a time or use it for supper and then throw something in to bake when supper is done)
-only preheat oven when necessary. Several items can be put in a cold oven and started especially casseroles and baked potatoes.
-learn how long your oven takes to preheat. If preheating is needed, preheat your oven only when you are close to putting the item in the oven.
-Thaw frozen meats, etc ahead of time in the refrigerator. It helps cool down the frig some.
-Use your oven sparingly in the summer. Not only does it use energy to heat the food but if you are using A/C it adds heat to the house that your A/C must then use energy from in order to take the heat back out of the air.

Happy cooking!