As we all try to save money wherever we can, one way to reduce our energy bills is to look at the way we cook our meals and whether we are using our ovens to their optimum efficiency. By batch cooking, which is making enough of a dish so that it provides meals for a few days, the oven or hob is only being used once rather than multiple times. Dishes can be kept in the fridge and reheated in the microwave when needed or frozen and defrosted and reheated as required.
Main meals such as curries, chilli and stews are popular for batch cooking but desserts such as rice pudding, suet puddings and stewed fruit can all be batch cooked as they take a long time to cook meaning that the oven will be on for a prolonged time.
Another way of saving energy when cooking is to maximise the use of the space in the oven. For example, if the oven is being used for a roast dinner so a chicken or joint of meat is being cooked for a couple of hours then a rice pudding and a fruit cake could be cooked at the same time or a casserole to be eaten later in the week, a quick and easy meal after a busy day at work.