• Use cool water to rinse vegetables—even better, fill one side of the sink with a few inches of water and wash all the produce for your meal at once. 
• Choose your appliances wisely: slow-cookers, pressure cookers and your microwave all use less energy than your range.
• In hotter months, avoid using the range.  Opt for your microwave instead—it won’t heat up the house.  Microwaves use from half to 1/5 the amount of energy as your range.  Hint: for maximum efficiency, cook smaller rather than larger pieces of food.  A whole meat loaf, for example, takes longer to reheat than the same weight of sliced meatloaf thanks to more surface area.
• Use your toaster oven if you need to bake something in the hot summer months,.  It takes a lot less energy to heat a small space than a large one.
• Allow leftover food to cool completely before putting it into the refrigerator—it will take less energy for the refrigerator to maintain a cold temperature.

Recipes for Earth Day

More Earth-Friendly Ideas