1. Keep a thermos flask near your kettle and put any excess heated water in it to use later, either back in your kettle, saucepan or anything which might need warm water. The water will heat up much quicker if it’s already warm.
2. Turn off your oven or saucepan before the end of cooking as the food will continue to cook if the saucepan lid is left on and the oven door is left shut. Don’t do this when cooking cakes though, as they may spoil.
3. Bulk cook if using the oven: e.g.; cook several dishes and freeze them or use the next day or cook a desert and main course.
4. Keep your oven, microwave and saucepan clean so the fuel only has to heat the metal not the dirty film.
5. Open the oven door when cooking has finished to allow the remaining heat to warm up your room.
6. Keep well fitting lids on saucepans enabling them to keep hot at lower temperatures by turning the heat down.
7. Use the right size pan for the amount of food you are cooking.
8. Use the right size ring for the pan. If the pan is smaller then the ring there is a lot of energy lost.
9. Cook all your vegetables on one ring. You can use a steamer or use a collapsible steamer which fits inside your saucepan or even a metal colander.
10. If you have a steamer where the parts fit together securely, you can put your plates on top to heat them up, even putting food which has just cooked on top. Cover the food with a metal lid to keep it hot.
11. Defrost food in your fridge. It takes longer than the microwave, but you are saving energy.
12. Cook more food in a microwave as it uses much less energy than a conventional oven.
13. Turn off standby indicators when your appliance is not in use.
14. Use a slow cooker. This cooks slowly but use very little energy
15. Even better, make yourself a hay box or a heat retention cooker which continues to cook very hot food with no energy. The insulation retains the heat so the food continues to cook very slowly and, like slow pots, the food does not spoil. The internet has lots of ideas for doing this including YouTube videos.

Basically it involves plenty of layers of insulation packed around a metal, Pyrex or earthenware container with a well fitting lid. The food needs to be boiling hot, simmered for 10 minutes, placed into the insulated container and covered well so no heat can escape. Insulating products can be blankets, layers of newspaper, shredded paper or hay. Leave it undisturbed for twice the usual cooking time to enjoy the fruits of your labour. You can cook stews, curries, rice, potatoes, root vegetables, soups etc.

It can be done in cool box, especially if it has a well fitting lid, a cardboard box, a wooden box or no box at all. Just ensure there is plenty of insulation under, over and on top of your hot food whichever container it is or isn’t  in.

                                                            Happy cooking