Smart cooking tips:

• Don't preheat your oven longer than necessary. Ten minutes is sufficient. (And it's not necessary to preheat if you're roasting, broiling or preparing foods with a cooking time of over an hour.)
• If you use a glass or ceramic pan, set the oven 25 degrees lower since glass and ceramic retain heat.
• Cook as many dishes as you can at one time to make the most of the heat from your oven.
• Take advantage of residual heat by using the self-cleaning feature in your oven right after you have used the oven for cooking.
• Heavy gauge, flat, smooth-bottom metal pans with straight sides and tight-fitting lids allow you to cook with less energy.
• Whenever possible, use your microwave oven. It uses from 50 to 70% less energy than a conventional oven.
• Clean the reflectors under your stove-top burners so they can reflect heat well and save you money.
• Select single-dish meals that can be prepared in a slow cooker rather than meals that require simultaneous use of the oven plus surface burner units.
• Begin cooking on the highest heat until liquid begins to boil. Then lower the heat control setting to allow food to simmer.
• Consider cooking in one of the small portable electric appliances such as a frying pan, grill or toaster/broiler. They use much less electricity than the oven.
• Prepare double portions of food and freeze half for another meal. It takes less energy to reheat food than to cook it.