Green Kitchens
An environment friendly green lifestyle isn't just that you eat organically grown food. In the kitchen only part of the equation is the food you prepare and eat. Going green in the green kitchens means that you utilize environmentally friendly appliances, pots and pans and utensils. Being eco-friendly means that you cut out the caustic toxic chemicals that you may use to clean up after preparing all of that good food. Here are some easy to follow and get along with tips that will truly turn your kitchen green.
? Make it last Green Kitchens
When you are buying green kitchen utensils consider sustainability and survivability. Non-stick coatings are nice but non stick coatings don't last and the pans get tossed. Consider stainless steel non coated pots and pans when you are out shopping for new cookware. Even better look into cast iron cookware. Properly seasoned cast iron cook ware is easy to cook in, practically non stick and is even better for your health to cook in. When you cook in cast iron, molecules of the iron transfer into your food reducing your iron deficiency. Look into sturdy commercial quality utensils. They will last longer and even give you better performance when used.
? Gas or Electric the Green Kitchens great debate
What heat source are you going to use for your cooking needs? Natural gas or electric? Yes natural gas is a fossil fuel, however the chances are pretty good that your green kitchens electricity came from a coal fired power plant so which method you use is a tossup. When it comes to cooking many chefs prefer natural gas over electric. Natural gas is easier to use to control the temperature of your cooking.
If you like cooking with a gas range, and you are out shopping for a new one remember that the lower the BTU output is the lower your energy footprint will be.
The most efficient electric ranges utilize induction elements to heat. These induction elements transfer electromagnetic energy directly to the pan, leaving the stove top relatively cool. These efficient heating elements use less than half the energy of standard coiled calrod units. The only downside to an induction heated range is that you need to use stainless, cast iron or enameled iron cookware. Glass or pyrex or aluminum pans won't transfer the energy. Induction heating elements are relatively new and generally only found on high end stoves and ranges makng them somewhat pricey.
Another relatively new technology is ranges that utilize ceramic glass cook tops. These ranges utilize halogen elements to heat and are a good if not great choice from the efficiency standpoint. These units heat quickly and are similar to gas in that they are easily controllable. The only downside to these units is that your pans have to have an absolutely flat bottom. If the pans you now use have any kind of convex shape on the bottom they won't heat well and the energy will go to waste. Calrod units are the standard coiled heating elements you know and see on most stoves. These are the least efficient way of cooking. If you are looking for a new electric stove look for the most efficient one in your price range.
When you purchase a new stove, you are making a long term investment. Make sure that the one you purchase will fit your lifestyle and is one that you will be happy with for an extended period of time.
? Does It Green Kitchens Really Need To Be Replaced?
It seems like every time you turn around, some manufacturer has come out with a new energy saving appliance that is touted as being friendly to the green kitchens environment. The manufacturers have recognized that being environmentally friendly allows them a bigger market draw. However if your dishwasher isn't washing or your freezer isn't freezing, do you really need to replace it? Remember that there is a cost to the environment in the manufacture and transportation to the retailer for a new appliance. A call to your friendly repairman may result in finding that you simply need a new pump for your dishwasher or a new fan for your freezer. The environmental cost of a new pump or fan is far less than a whole new appliance to replace your old one. If your old appliance has truly lived it's life of faithful service, many communities offer "take back" programs or offer recycling services for appliances. When purchasing the replacement for "old faithful", make sure you look for the Energy Star rating on the new appliance. The Energy Star rating is available for all major appliances and will give you an excellent idea of the energy cost for that appliance.
? Preheat or not Preheat, That is the Green Kitchens Question
When your grandmother or great grandmother cooked on a cast iron wood green kitchens or coal stove, preheating was mandatory. It took a long time to get all of that iron heated up to the proper temperature. With today's modern stoves and ovens pre heating isn't really necessary. Today's ovens heat in a very short amount of time and unless you are baking something really delicate like a soufflé, turn the oven on and put the food in. Most roasts and baked goods have some flexibility in the amount of time and temperature that they cook at. You can even turn the oven off when the baking is almost done and allow the residual heat that resides in the oven to finish the cooking for you.
Size does matter. When you are cooking on the stove top, you probably have burners of two different sizes. Putting a small pot on a big burner doesn't make sense nor does putting a large pot on a small burner. Either way you are wasting energy heating the food. If you are using the oven, plan your meal to have the oven filled. You are using the energy to cook one dish, why not cook two with the same amount of energy? A roast, baked potatoes and a vegetable casserole will all fit in the oven space and all cook equally well. If you are re-heating leftovers consider using the microwave or a toaster oven. You will use less energy than firing up the oven in your stove. When you are heating water, soup or a sauce on the top of the stove, use a lid to keep the heat where it belongs and not escaping. Those dials that control the amount of heat the burner puts out: they are there for a reason. There is no earthly reason to cook on "high" unless you are going to boil water. Turn the dial down to medium and control the amount of heat that you are going to use. A truly efficient way to cook is to use no heat at all. Cold soups, salads and raw vegetables can make an entertaining meal.
? Try it Green Kitchens You'll Like it
As you wander through the grocery store, you look at all of the pre-prepared, pre-packaged, "ready to eat" meals that are produced. This includes all of the boxes of "just add" food stuffs. Skip all of that and buy your food fresh. Get a cookbook, Good Housekeeping, Fannie Farmer, Southern Living all provide excellent guides to cooking. If you can read and follow instructions you can cook and make food taste good. Buying the pre-packaged foods means that the food has been prepared by chefs who are catering to the taste of the masses. They aren't taking into consideration how it is going to taste to your individual desires. Add to that the preservatives and other chemicals that go into them and you have a recipe for dietary disaster. Cooking from fresh ingredients means that you know what you are putting into your body. green kitchens Cooking from scratch doesn't take much more time than purchasing pre-prepared food. If you are making a dish like green kitchens or Turkey Tetrazzini, you can buy pre-prepared and put it in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour. If you make it from scratch you boil your water and cook your pasta, which takes about 20 minutes. While the water is boiling you make your sauce on another burner and chop up the left over chicken or turkey. Drain and rinse the pasta and combine the ingredients and bake for 1 hour. It took 30 minutes or so longer to cook from scratch but you know what you are green kitchens eating and it will taste better. Try it you might like it.
When it comes to vegetables or herbs, nothing beats garden fresh. Even if you live in an apartment in the city you can still grow your own vegetables and herbs in window boxes. Leafy vegetables like leaf lettuce and spinach can be grown in window boxes or pots. Herbs have almost always been grown in pots and provide unsurpassed taste to your own cooking.
If you drink bottled water because of that "designer" label, shame on you. You can achieve the same product using a filter that fits on your tap or a pitcher that filters the water for you. You don't harm the environment that way because you are using a refillable container and not buying a (shudder) plastic bottle that isn't going to bio-degrade along with all of the transportation costs inherent in that bottled water product. There are even products available that will provide that seltzer fizz to your water if you prefer that option. If having the label on your water bottle is important to you buy one bottle with t he label and then clean and refill it.
? Local is Better than Imported Green Kitchens
You may love fruit and summer time vegetables in the winter, but where did they come from? If you live in the northern hemisphere, you generally can't grow grapes in December or January. That means that the grapes on the supermarket shelf came from the southern hemisphere. To keep them fresh they had to spray them with a preservative to keep them fresh in shipping. Additionally since you don't know where they came from, you don't know what pesticides or fertilizers were used on them when they were growing. An additional factor is that there was an environmental cost in shipping them to the grocery store near you from far away. Look into buying locally grown fruits and vegetables. During the growing season in your area, purchase vegetables in quantity, blanch and freeze them. Most household product stores offer vacuum sealing devices for home use. This keeps the fresh taste in the food. Fruits like apples and pears can be cored, sectioned and vacuum sealed fresh and tossed in the freezer to be brought out in the winter. When you purchase your vacuum sealing appliance, chances are it will come with instructions on how to preserve different fruits or vegetables. There are also cookbooks that deal with this particular subject.
? Think Big Green Kitchens
When you go to the grocery store buy the green kitchens biggest container there is of the product you desire. Bring it home and break it down into the quantity that you will prepare for a meal and put it into reusable storage containers. You won't pay for the packaging of a smaller quantity and will permit fewer trips to the supermarket. Buying in bulk is generally not only eco-friendly it's also pocket book friendly. When you are cooking a meal, plan the week's meals ahead of time and prepare two or three main meal dishes at one time. Cook them all in the oven at once and serve one and put the other two in the refrigerator or freezer to be brought out and reheated. This saves energy in cooking and also allows the flavors of the food you prepared to "marry" and taste better when you serve the dish.
When it comes to cleanup time don't even think about paper towels that you throw away after each use. Your local auto parts store has bulk packages of shop towels that are intended for car washing and auto detailing. Just because that is what they are intended for, doesn't mean that it's their only use. They are sturdy, cheaper than kitchen towels and reusable.
? Waste not Want not to the Green Kitchens
All of that individual sized, small sized packaging in the supermarket is plain and simple waste. That waste includes those plastic or paper bags that your purchases were stowed in for you to bring home. Buying in bulk cuts down on the excess product packaging and bring your own reusable totes to bring your purchases home cuts down on the other side of the waste. Think about it, how many plastic grocery bags do you have hanging (literally) around the kitchen? If you do bring home the plastic bags, many grocery stores have recycling containers for them. Bring them back and deposit them in those containers.
If after you are finished with your meal, you still have food on your plate, you took too much the first time around. Cut down on your portions and you will feel better and eat healthier. As the sign in the military mess hall said "Take all you want, Eat all you take". Think about secondary uses for the inedible parts of the meal that you created. Chicken and beef can be saved and made into stocks or soups. Instead of throwing the chicken bones away from that chicken dish you prepared put them into the freezer and save them to make chicken soup or chicken stock. Ham bones can be saved to be put into a pot of beans. There is still an amazing amount meat left on the bone after carving or slicing. When preparing vegetables, take all the scrapings and cuttings and compost green kitchens them. If you don't have a garden, your flowerpots or window boxes will love you for it. If it came in a glass jar, figure out a way to reuse the glass jar. If there isn't any reuse, recycle it. Most communities have recycling programs. Before you toss anything in the trash, ask if it can be reused or recycled.
? Clean the Green Kitchens
You really don't want to know (or use) how many petrochemical products go into all of the cleaning products that you commonly use around the house. Two simple products, vinegar and baking soda, can clean almost anything that you need them to clean. Plain white vinegar and water put into a spray bottle makes an excellent window and mirror cleaner. Vinegar and baking soda make an excellent scrubbing agent. Clean green and it will be non toxic, biodegradable and environmentally friendly.
? Want a Green Kitchens Change?
Even the most environmentally conscious will eventually look at their kitchen and think "I'm tired of looking at this, I want something different". When that time comes, don't go running down to the local home improvement store looking for example new cabinets. Instead, you can do what you did when you furnished your first apartment and use "Early American Roadside". If you know of an old house that is being renovated or about to be renovated ask what they are going to do with the kitchen cabinets for example. Chances are they are going to wind up in the dumpster and hidden under those 47 layers of paint you just might find a treasure. This Early American Roadside acquisition policy includes plumbing fixtures, flooring and paneling. One excellent place to look for flooring is an old warehouse that is being torn down. Chances are the floors were oak planks and when cleaned and refinished will provide a beautiful floor for your home. If it is old and still usable, even if it's dirty and stained or covered in multiple layers of paint, it's a quality product and has survived many years of hard use. Something like that doesn't belong in the dumpster. Before you say good bye to the cabinets, flooring or appliances that you are replacing, put them at the curb with a "For Free" sign on them. You'll be surprised at how quickly they will disappear to another "Early American Roadside" aficionado. Another alternative is to offer them on Freecycle or Craigslist before sending them to a much less appealing future at the landfill.
Green Kitchens: By the Numbers
- $12 billion: Money saved by Americans using ENERGY STAR appliances, lights, and windows in 2005, saving the energy equivalent to emissions created by 23 million cars.
- 70 percent: The amount of household and yard waste that can be composted rather than thrown in the trash.
- 70 percent: The reduction in cooking time and energy use from using a pressure cooker to cook your food.
- 12 percent: The percent of household energy use that comes from cooking in Western Australia; compare that to 67 percent in Ghana.
Sources: ENERGY STAR, Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority, Fagor Pressure Cookers, Government of Western Australia's Sustainable Energy Development Office, Government of Ghana's Ministry of Energy
How they work
Pressure Cookers are sealed cookware that increases the pressure inside of the pot. Because the pressure increases the boiling point of water also increases. Food cooked inside a pressure cooker cooks faster because the water in the pot gets hotter. Additionally less water is required to heat the food which allows the food cooked to retain more of the nutrients in the food and not allow them to be leached away in the water.
Solar ovens are like miniature greenhouses on steroids. A transparent cover on an insulated box that may contain reflective surfaces to concentrate the sun's heat cook the food by increasing the temperature inside of the box. Solar ovens are promoted by humanitarian groups in undeveloped countries but are gaining acceptance in developed portions of the world.
Chest Freezers are inherently more efficient than their more modern upright counterparts. It's a fact that cold air descends while warm air rises. When you open an upright freezer, all of the cold air falls out of the bottom of the door and you simply have to replace it again. When the lid of a chest freezer is opened, all of the cold air stays in the bottom of the freezer.
