Green ideas for your Home

Add Eco-Friendly Cooking to Your Green Living

Ways to save energy in your kitchen go a long way to making your lifestyle and your home eco-friendly. Many of us are concerned about the big problems but there are dozens of smaller things you can pay attention to in your kitchen to live as green as you can. We want to reduce our carbon footprint and our ecological footprint.
To start reducing that footprint in your kitchen, think how you cook your food, the type of energy you use for your range, dishwasher and refrigerator and for your oven.
Here are some ways you can reduce your cook print each time you prepare a meal.

•   Shop locally. Look for locally grown produce at farmers markets, farm stands and food coops. You get fresher food, support your community and help reduce fuel waste and emissions from long-distance shipping.

•    Microwave water for tea or use a hot water pot instead of turning on the stove.
•    Use passive boiling whenever possible. This means not boiling pasta or potatoes as long as a recipe says. Boiled water takes a long time to cool. Turn off the burner soon after you hit a boil, put a lid on the pot, and the cooking will be done fuel-free.
•    Grill it. Outdoor frills take less energy than your stove and heat out of your home in the summer.
•    Use cooking lids that fit. Cooking food in an open pot or pan is wasteful because so much of the heat is lost.
•    Save leftovers in glass containers rather than in plastic containers or bags.
•    Consider purchasing a convection oven if you do not have one. Convection ovens cook 25 to 30 percent faster which means your meal is ready using less energy than a traditional oven.
•    Try cooking with a slow cooker when possible. Sow cookers also use less energy than a traditional oven or a large burner on your stove.
•    Run your dishwasher at midnight instead of during peak hours.
•    Skip the garbage disposal and try composting instead.

Awesome website of the week:

Going Green in Africa

http://www.goinggreen.co.za/

Going Green started out in 2005 as a real-life experiment in sustainable living. We loved the idea of “going green” in this hectic, stressed world. We wondered whether such a lifestyle was possible in our modern day and age – in an age where values and ideals had apparently taken a backseat to money. We wondered whether it was possible to survive – forget survive – to live well and enjoy life while “doing the right thing”. Our question was: Is it possible to live in the “real world” of today while still pursuing your ideals?

Food Joke:

Butter
The other day, I dropped a piece of bread and it fell butter side up. I was convinced that I'd buttered the wrong side of the bread.

The Wickedfood Team

Wickedfood Cooking School runs  classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cooking lessons are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking courses are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes, these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.