Saving in the kitchen

I do all of these, but I personally never thought about them as energy saving. We have other little ways we try to save on money and energy, like not rinsing the dishes before they get put in the washer, putting all the electronics on powersaving mode, only running the dishwasher when it is full, etc.

 

I've been cooking larger portions as well, not only does it save money, it more importantly saves a lot of time the next day when you don't have to cook.
Also try to see if you have any ingredients that are approaching the expiration date, then plan your meals around that, this way you can avoid ever throwing any food away because it went bad.

 

One thing that I do is turning off the automatic drying cycle on the dishwasher. The dishes are somewhat warm at the end of the rinse cycle anyhow - if you open the dishwasher a crack and let the steam out and let the dishes sit, you will have clean dry dishes without the heating element being used to dry them. This actually can save a fair amount of power.

Another energy savings can be from not putting hot foods into the fridge directly. Letting them cool for a short period of time before putting them in the fridge is actually safer for the items already in the fridge as the fridge air will warm up if hot foods are added.

 

I cook multiple meals at once. I try to plan meals so I can do that. For example, plan a few meals you need rice for. Cook all the rice at once. Some foods don't hold up well, but many will keep for a few days or longer.

I also bake several meals at once if they have similar degree requirements and freeze them.

Another thing you can do is turn the oven off 10 minutes before the food is done. Don't open the door, the temp will stay hot enough to finish the food. This doesn't work as well with cookies, cakes and bread. But works great with meats and casseroles.

 

I do all of them myself, and since I'm running such a huge household, large portions is kind of the standard around here. I would also recommend using the hot water tap to pill your pots, because even if it's only a tiny amount hotter, that's a little less energy you have to use every time.

 

I do some of these. I am trying to save on the cost of electricity at the moment. It occurred to me that when I cook a few different vegetables I cook them all in separate pans, each of which has to be heated separately. I realized that I could cook the vegetables in one pan using only one hob. If the vegetables have similar cooking times I put them all in at the same time. If some cook quicker I add them later.

 

I don't really pay much attention to how much gas or electricity I am using in my kitchen, because I feel the difference in my bills will be negligible. My gas bills are already so low, that even when I am away from home for a week or two and not cooking, my gas bills aren't that much lower. Same goes for my electric bills. I inadvertently save money on them in other ways I suppose. For example, the reason I rarely run the gas to heat my place is because cooking with the oven as well as the dishwasher both give off a lot of excess heat already. The lights around my place give off heat too.

That said, if I was looking to lower my energy consumption, a high quality toaster oven is a great way to cut back on wasted energy, especially if you are just cooking for yourself. It heats up much faster and uses less energy to stay at temperature during the cooking process. Electric food steamers are also a great choice because they start steaming the food within 15 seconds, instead of waiting 10-15 minutes for a pot of water to start boiling. Electric pressure cookers are another great choice since you can cook stuff that would normally take several hours, in about an hour or less. Plus the heat is all self contained, as opposed to all the wasted heat your burners give off.

 

I would say yes. I mostly plan all of my food cooking and buying around saving money. I try to make a few portions at once, I wrap up leftovers instead of wasting, and I try to use up all food items. I don't really focus on saving money with gas/electric.