Reducing cooking fuel costs II

 

 Hello All

Continuing my reducing fuel cost posts....

This next piece of equipment that is sparing on fuel is a no-brainer. 

The trusty Slow cooker.

I have three slow cookers. Two large and one small. I frequently have all three on at once if I am preparing for a busy few days and want to be on top of the game.  This weekend I have a large one cooking vegetables (carrot, swede, celery and red pepper) that I don't want to spoil from the fridge with a bag of frozen tomatoes from last year's crop, a cup full of lentils and three pints of veggie stock ( lidl veggie cubes) I will blitz this when cooked and have soup for  lunch for several days,. Obviously this will be heated up a dish at a time as needed in the microwave. The small slow cooker  has a couple of pints of milk I have extra plus a frozen pint of semi skimmed from the freezer, with three ounces of sugar and four and a half ounces of pudding rice. The rice pudding made in a slow cooker is just like the tinned ones ( young people prefer ) If you want to turn it into an old fashioned rice pud, when the pud is cooked turn it into a dish and put it into the oven to get a skin ( best bit) mind you this only makes sense if your oven is already on for something else. The third slow cooker has some neck of lamb with carrots, onions, potato. stock and a generous dollop of mint sauce. I put plenty of stock in this ( lidl beef) so that I can add dumplings later, which will suck up quite a bit of juice.

Using your slow cooker means "one pot cooking" which reduces washing up too. When your slow cookers are simmering away you might consider if there is any heat you can " borrow" . They will certainly heat your kitchen and also produce just the right amount of heat to rise bread or keep your soda bread culture jiggling along. Any other ideas?

So enough of saving energy for this post. A dry subject I know, but things are getting serious with regard to fuel bills and even if you can afford the high bills, considering the impact on the environment  is now leading us to be more careful.

Received  texts from APHA today and yesterday. Four new cases of Avian flu  - Somerset, Devon, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. For goodness sake ! Will those poor hens ever get out of lockdown !?

I'm resisting posting about Ukraine, but goodness it's difficult not to have a view isn't it?

All for now, off to prick out seedlings in the back greenhouse.

Back Soon, now I'm on a roll

Love Gillx