Energy Saving Kitchen Tips

1. Use the right size pan for the job, and the right sized burner. It may sound silly but you can waste a lot of time and energy trying to boil a giant-size pot of potatoes on a tiny burner.  And you can waste a tremendous amount of energy warming up a small pan of sauce on a giant burner.  If you can see more than a half inch of overlap, either the pan overlapping the burner or the burner overlapping the pan, see if there’s a better fit.
2. Don’t preheat oven. Have you ever been pressed for time and just shoved that tray of chocolate chip cookies in an oven that hasn’t been preheated?  What happened?  Presumably you may have had to add one or two minutes to the cook time but it certainly didn’t add ten minutes or more to the cook time.  With many ovens it takes 10-15 minutes to warm up to 350 degrees, and that’s wasted energy.
3. Use smaller appliances for smaller jobs. If you’re making an open-faced sandwich, warming up leftovers or eating those frozen and ready-to-cook cookies, then skip the oven and use your toaster oven instead.  It uses less energy to heat up.  Additionally, your microwave can be used to steam, reheat and even to make eggs, melt chocolate and warm up canned foods in much less time and with much less energy.
4. Use a Slow Cooker. When you are making soups, stews and even roasts, consider using a slow cooker instead of cooking them for hours on top of the stove.  Slow cookers use less energy and you can cook your meals during low energy times in your home.

You can save TONS of energy focusing your attentions and habits on JUST your kitchen habits!

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So, What exactly are green bags anyway?

Have you ever put fruits or vegetables into your refrigerator only to come back the next day to get them and they have already turned a yucky color or have soft spots in them where there should not be soft spots? There are many refrigerators that have special compartments in them that are supposed to be for the preservation of these types of foods, but they still never seem to keep the freshness of the foods the way that they should. Now there are green bags that you can purchase in order to allow your fruits and vegetables to last longer when you put them into the fridge.

These green bags are a revolutionary bag that was invented by a lady named Debbie Meyer and they are revolutionary due to the fact that they make your fruits and vegetable last days and even sometimes weeks after other fruits and vegetables that were not put into the bags last. Green bags come in medium and large sizes in order to hold your food so that there is no more waste of your food. With the cost of food nowadays, it really pays to find a product that could make your fruits and vegetables last a lot longer.

Green bags help to control the humidity that would make your fruits and vegetables go bad along with keeping away any mold, bacteria, fungus, and decay that may occur. Green bags will save you money in the long run due to the fact that they make your fruits and vegetables last so much longer and you can reuse them up to a total of ten times which also saves you money. Many people can’t even stock up on fruits for their kids because they go bad so fast but not with these bags.

You can go to the store and buy apples, oranges, melons, carrots, peaches, and many other types of fruits and vegetables and store them in green bags so that whenever you or anyone in your family wants to have a fresh bite, they know that what they choose will not be rotten or bad. Green bags work really great when you have a green vegetable garden growing because usually you grow more than what you can eat in a week.

Green bags are a way to make sure that none of your hard work with your garden goes to waste.

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Natural Uses for Baking Soda

Baking soda is GREEN! Well, actually it is white. However, it is Eco-friendly!  Baking Soda has more uses than just cooking. It is also an awesome NATURAL product that has many versatile uses!

Below are several natural ways that you can use baking soda in your home:

• Fresh Smelling Carpet. Say goodbye to carpet odors the green way. Sprinkle baking soda liberally on your carpet or rugs. Let stand for 30 minutes. Vacuum.

• Dishwasher. Add some baking soda to your dishwasher cleaner. The baking soda will give your cleaner an extra boost to help get your dishes super clean and green.

• Counters and Floors – Green Stain Remover. Mix equal parts baking soda and salt.  Use the same way you would any other scouring powder. Another option is a baking soda and water paste.  Use it to remove stains from laminate counter tops.  Apply paste. Allow to dry, then rub off and rinse.

• Bites and Sting Relief. Mix 2 parts baking soda to 1 part water. The goal is a paste. Slather on bug bite or sting and immediate natural relief ensues.

• Chicken Pox Soother. Add two Tablespoons of baking soda to lukewarm bath. This is a great way to sooth skin from the irritations and pain of chicken pox.

• Put out the Fire. Most of us know that when the stove catches on fire to throw some salt on the fire. However, baking soda is just as good!

• Pet Odors Be Gone. Sprinkle baking soda in your cat’s clean the litter box. Sprinkle it on pet beds and in crates as well. Anywhere your pet spends a lot of time. It is a natural deodorizer that is safe for your pets.

• Frugal Laundry Soap. Add an equal mixture amount of baking soda to your laundry soap. So that you have 50% baking soda and 50% laundry soap.  This will stretch your detergent AND make your clothes smell fresh and fab!

• Fridge Odors. If you are one of those people like me, who often has items growing green fuzz in your refrigerator, you may want an Eco-friendly deodorizer to place in your fridge. Just open the box top and put the baking soda in the back of your fridge and smell the odors disappear! Make sure you change box once a month or so to KEEP the odors at bay!

• Say Goodbye to Toxic Draino! Baking soda is an Eco-friendly product you can use to  unclog your drain.

Here’s what you do: Pour one cup of regular table salt, one cup of baking soda, and half a cup of plain white vinegar down the drain. Let it do it’s green thing for about 15-20 minutes. Then, pour one gallon of boiling water into the rain. Finally, allow your hot tap water to run unto the drain for a few minutes.

Baking soda is a multi-use green and clean item that is sure to become a must have in your home! This is just the tip of the iceberg to the Eco friendly uses of baking soda! Please take a moment to leave baking soda tips!

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