Our Little Baby Blog

Cooking Green

I haven't always been very green. In fact, it's only recently (like last two years) that I started really recycling. Don't hate me, we just never had recycling where I lived and I was extremely lazy and didn't want to drive my recycle items to a dumpster somewhere. Plus, I didn't really have much room for the bins. All poor, hideous excuses. I'm very glad I got my act together. In fact, I'm wildly ashamed that I didn't do it sooner.

Reading about environmental issues is actually something I really enjoy now and I'm trying to make our household more socially conscious. I've been trying to incorporate useful practical advice into my daily life. It's hard when so much of what I read has to do with eating local and organic, which gets difficult in a Chicago winter.

Any-hoo, I picked up the book Cooking Green at the library and thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned, just in case any of you are trying to do the same in your own homes. You can check out this book at the library or read more about it on amazon (link above).

Three Quick Tips:

• Skip the garbage disposal. They are energy hogs (no energy star ratings exist for these puppies) and they do nothing but dump junk into our waste water streams. Put your food in the trash can. This is somewhat good news for us because we recently learned we should not be using our disposal because the old pipes can't really handle it.

• Use the stove - not the oven - as much as possible. Again, energy savings.

• Turn the oven off for the last 5 minutes of your baking time. The oven will stay hot and you can reduce your energy usage. Also, don't preheat the oven until right before you put the item in. If you do it when you start the recipe you'll have a hot oven for way longer than you need it. I'm the worst at this. I always preheat and continue heating forever.