Awareness in the kitchen
My first thought over the energy expenses in the kitchen was as simple as to eat as much cold food as possible. I usually don’t eat breakfast, which conveniently helps me for my body storm journey, however, I always prepare lunch and dinner, the last one being less elaborate than the first one, as you can see in the picture.
For lunch, as I said before, I tried to reduce the use of the stove and the microwave on the days I stayed at the dorms. I’m not going to pretend I enjoyed having a cold lunch instead of a warm one, though they can be as delicious and beneficially simple for saving time if you are in a rush, sometimes, the cosy feeling of eating after a long week can just be given by a warm homemade dish.
Among the food I prepared under the cold limitation were:
- A simple salad with cheese, sausage and a side bread I forgot to capture in the picture.
- The classic jam and cheese sandwich.
- One fancy tuna sandwich with mayo, tomato, avocado and a side salad.
- Another tuna sandwich
Well, I can keep on going about the amount of sandwiches I got to eat, which I’m going to clarify that I didn’t try something extravagant because I didn’t have the time either and I don’t want to waste food along the way of saving energy, just for the sake of experimentation.
After being tired of the quick solution, I started to go for integral activities in the kitchen that can reduce the waste of energy without relying exclusively on one main action such as abstaining from the stove.
The waiting for cooling and warming food in natural temperature for building patience.
I have this practice implemented in my daily routine from childhood, though, I’ve been doing it because I was told by my parents that hot food in the fridge can be spoiled easily. So, thinking about how this frequent tip from the internet is related to saving energy, it just seems that maybe my parents lied to me, to prevent raising the household’s bills and to teach me patience.
The same goes for frozen food. It’s enough to let the room temperature to defrost our food. If you force the process it can lead to spoiled food (according to my parents), also, it wastes more energy to cool down with the microwave or stove.
Cooking large portions in an efficient way
To save time during the week, I tried to make as much food as possible that I could portion through three days, specifically for lunch.
According to all the blogs I’ve read in the last three weeks, using energy efficiently is related to knowing when to use a large appliance or to heat a small portion in the microwave instead of the stove.
These are some of my predilected options for large portions for the week:
- Lentils with carrots, potatoes, some sausages and a bit of curry. If you let them soak all night in water, they will take less time to cook.
- Plain white rice can be the perfect companion for proteins and salads when plating. It can take less than 10 minutes to cook, even after turning the stove off, without removing the lid of the pot, the steam is hot enough to keep cooking the rice for another few minutes.
- Pasta in general is perfect, too!
- Chicken stew, it’s easy, it has potatoes and corn, and takes less than 20 minutes to have it all done!
Just about 20 minutes of cooking large amounts can prevent me from touching the stove for 3 days straight!
After thoughts of my kitchen sidequest for the journey…
The little actions that are repeated by the enthusiasts, as well as experts on saving energy, are the ones that we tend to take for granted, and though we may not save the planet from them, we could ease our consciousness knowing we are giving our best towards a better future.
