Simple Ideas to Green Your Kitchen

Between energy, water, and garbage, the kitchen is perhaps the most wasteful room in any house. But in my opinion, it's also the best. So what are some easy ways to make it a more efficient, less wasteful room without spending thousands on new Energy Star appliances or installing solar panels on the roof?

Buy Quality Cookware
It doesn't mean you need to throw out every pot and pan you own and spend hundreds on a new set, but next time you're in the market for a new skillet, make the investment in a quality piece. Poor quality cookware doesn't last very long (maybe a year or two until that Teflon coating is scratched?) so the obvious implication is that it ends up in the landfill, creating more garbage. But it also doesn't conduct heat nearly as well. A high quality piece of cookware will provide even and efficient heat distribution, as well as better heat retention, which means less energy wasted on heating and keeping the cookware hot. Whether you use gas or electric, there should be a noticeable difference in the amount of heat that's needed for equivalent cooking in cheap cookware and high quality cookware. As an added bonus, your food will cook much better.

Reduce Food Waste
Food waste is a tremendous problem in this country. Various reports have estimated food waste in the U.S. to be anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of all the food produced for domestic use and consumption. The average family tosses out 14 percent of food purchased, or an estimated $600 per year. Here are three ideas for reducing what you throw out.

Buy Smart
One of the obvious solutions to reducing personal food waste is better purchasing strategies. I tend to shop for fresh produce every day or two, so I tend not to plan too far in advance. But for people who shop once a week or less, it makes sense to have a plan about what to buy.

Store It Right
If your food is stored properly, it will last longer and taste better. Do like restaurants do, and move older foods to the front and put newer foods in the back. It ensures you'll see that item that's about to expire, and allows you to use it soon rather than throw it out if you don't find it until two weeks later.

For greens and herbs, wash them and wrap both the leaves and stems in a damp cloth or towel. You wouldn't just leave a bouquet of flowers sitting out, so treat your greens with the same love!

Save Scraps, Save Money
Composting is a great solution to reducing waste, but not necessarily practical for everyone. A great alternative is to save those extra pieces of vegetables and keep them in a bin in the freezer until it fills up. Than boil everything with water in a large stockpot, and make a delicious broth for use in soups or other dishes. You're saving money, reusing potential food waste, and eliminating packaging waste from the broth you would have bought at the store.

A famous chef once said that if you want your stock to taste like scraps and bones, use scraps and bones to make it. But that's not what I'm talking about. Think about chopping the end off a carrot. There's probably a lot of good, usable carrot still on there, so just slice a small sliver off the very end, and put the rest into the stock bin. The green parts of leeks and bits of onion are also good examples.

We're not going to solve the climate crisis by saving our vegetable scraps, but if everyone made some small changes in the kitchen, we could have a real impact on food and energy waste. Please share your ideas below!

Photo credit: tandemracer