Stews and casseroles can be cooked slowly and zapped quickly with small kitchen appliances
As we bunker down for a cold January and February, many will be concerned about keeping warm without breaking the bank. This is a notorious time for electricity bills to rocket up – so here are some tips for staying out of the red without turning blue.
Although hot food can be comforting in long dreary evenings, using your oven or cooker too often can rack up bills in no time. Instead, why not take the advice of energy expert Adrie Roberts, writing for the Times-Tribune, and invest in some small kitchen appliances? "Portable frying pans, electric grills, crock pots, microwave ovens and toaster ovens are great alternatives," Ms Roberts advises.
Microwaves can defrost meats and poultry quickly, and can be perfect for zapping a quick meal. You can use it for rice, oats and vegetables – and another great way of both saving energy and keeping cosy is making large meals like stews or pasta, freezing the leftovers, then using your microwave to nuke a second round of your favourite dish.
Toaster ovens are the base for one of the world’s "most awesome snacks", as Mark Mackay writes for Know Your Mobile. The traditional meal of tea and toast, which can be dripping with butter, loaded with cheese or sweetened with jam, needs just three thing to make it work – a kettle, a toaster oven and some bread. And if you decide to go this route, you are not alone – Mintel reported last week that between 2005 and 2009, two-thirds of the population bought a new kettle.
But toaster ovens can be used for much more – why not try making garlic bread or mini pizzas?
Crock pots – or slow cookers – can be ideal appliances for those with little time and rising bills. Simply throw some ingredients in before leaving for work or running errands and return later to find a yummy and filling casserole or stew waiting for you. You can also create chillis con carne, pasta dishes and lasagnes – the possibilities could be endless and it could turn out to be much cheaper than keeping you oven on for the requisite amount of time.
The trick for the perfect slow-cooked meal, according to Judith Finlayson, author of The 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes, is to add as many flavoursome ingredients – like garlic or thyme – as you like, because the constant steam and heat can really bring out the best in these basics. But meals don’t have to be expensive – canned tomatoes and dried pasta are staples, along with other simple ingredients like cheese.
Another tip, she told the Independent, is to leave a few things until the end – the meal is nearly cooked and you will have done all the preparation hours before, leaving plenty of time for last-minute details.
"Add spices such as fresh chillies at the end of the cooking time and just cook them long enough for the flavours to meld," she advises.
Another suggestion for cutting bills from Ms Roberts is to use the dishwasher, even if washing plates by hand seems a lot more economical.
Filling the sink repeatedly to scrub your pots uses more water than one fully-loaded dishwasher any day of the week. So while keeping an eye on your water supply in other ways – showering instead of taking baths and never running the tap if you are not actively using it – can help cut your costs, whacking your full dishwasher on its shortest cycle and lowest temperature is much more cost-effective than you may think.
