Eating Healthier in Today's World

ECO-FRIENDLY COOKING

Many of us are more aware nowadays, of just how much energy we consume daily doing our everyday chores.  I would like to focus today on how to save a lot of this energy ( and money) by using heat-efficient appliances and cookware to prepare our food and still retain the nutrition and flavour.  Being Eco-Friendly is a conscious choice that we all need to make and think about whenever we are using our precious energy resources such as electricity and gas.

Kuhn Rikon Hot Pot -  How would you like to be able to cook your food without using the stove.  Our Kuhn Rikon Hot Pot cookware will let you do that!  We simple bring the pot to steam on a medium setting on the stove and then remove it and place it in it's colourful shell and let it finish cooking taking off 3/4 of the energy it would normally take to prepare the food.  The Hotpan's unique design seals in flavour, moisture and color and allows you to hold dishes for much longer than with ordinary cookware. The pans consist of two separate pieces--a super-efficient stainless steel cooking pot, and the colorful melamine shell that acts as an insulator and a decorative serving sleeve when slipped over the cooking pot.  When you put the stainless steel pan into its colorful holder, it creates an insulating double wall that traps heat!   Nothing ever burns and the food stays hot for over 2 hours.  No need to warm anything up if the family is late for dinner.  We can make a great Penne with Shrimp dish or just a simple Quinoa breakfast cereal.

 Zojirushi Thermal Vacuum Cooking Pots - These work similarly to the Hot Pans but are most useful for food that needs Slow Cooking, so in other words the take the place of a Slow-cooker that you have plugged in all day.  The Zo Thermal Pans will also hold more than the Hot Pans so they are perfect for doing a Pork Roast for Pulled Pork or a whole chicken or a hearty Slow-Cooked Chili or a Creamy Chicken Stew.  The Stainless Steel Thermal Vacuum Cooking Pot is a non-electric appliance that slow cooks foods using the food's own heat. Just heat the inner cooking pan on the stove, then place the pan directly into the vacuum insulated outer container to complete cooking.   The smallest Thermal Pot will hold 6 litres and keep the food hot for up to 6 hours. 

What I haven't said about both these pieces of cookware, is that for our summertime activities, they are perfect.  If you have a live on your boat for a lot of the summer, they require very little energy (which usually is in short supply) to prepare your food.  For camping trips,  your food again can be prepared in advance and be cooking will you are enjoying yourself and your family.  Not to mention the fact that less heat is produced so your home and environment are not over-heating.

 Nesco Portable  Induction Stovetop - For years (since 1988) we have been using inductions stovetops.  We first had portable ones, like Nesco's (we still are using the older models) and we have also had the in-counter, built-in models for over 20 years.  These are probably the most fuel efficient appliance we own.  Induction stoves cook with using heat.  They produce a magnetic reaction with the molecules in the cookware (your cookware has to have a magnetic property) by speeding the molecules up and then the cookware produces the heat.  Inductions stove use about 1/2 of the energy to run because they are not producing the heat.  The Nesco Portable Induction Cooktop is one the best ones we have used as it is easy to control and lightweight.  They work anywhere with just a regular plug in outlet.   They are great to take camping or in an RV or Boat, outdoors to cook so you don't heat up the kitchen, and even to cook something in a remote setting like community functions.  We have even used ours for parties where we want our guests to cook like a Chinese Hot Pot or a Fondu.  The are faster than gas, are completely safe as they don't produce heat and are really easy to clean.