Cook less: Serve more salads, sandwiches, cold soups (such as gazpacho), raw vegetable and fruit and cheese plates (hey, this actually sounds pretty healthy!) Alter your menu to use the same ingredients to make a dish that doesn’t require the oven, such as making tostadas rather than enchiladas.

Use solar power. Make "sun tea" by putting a few teabags in a glass pitcher of water, then setting it out in the hot sun for a few hours. Store in the refrigerator for iced tea, as a more ecological alternative to bottled teas or waters or cans of soda. You can also use the sun to make sun-dried tomatoes and fruit leathers.

Reduce cooking times. Soak beans overnight. Cook oatmeal by pouring boiling water over the oats and waiting 20 minutes. Don’t overcook: use a meat thermometer, lightly steam your veggies and cook pasta al dente.

Capture heat. Instead of heating up several pots of water for tea or keeping a coffee warming burner going, heat that water or coffee once and put it in a thermos for use throughout the day.

Use a more energy-efficient cooking method: Microwave ovens are about 33% more efficient than convection ovens and 66% more efficient than conventional ovens. Specialty cookers, such as pressure cookers, crockpots and electric frying pans, are often more efficient than the stovetop.

Use flat, heavy pots and pans that fit the burners, thus absorbing more energy and reducing heat loss. Use the smallest amount of water necessary when boiling water for pasta, potatoes, etc. Don’t automatically fill to the brim, keep the lid on while the water is heating and reduce the heat after the water boils.

Know your equipment: Buy an oven thermometer and test your oven. I found that mine was 25-50 degrees hotter than what I dialed (no wonder my cookies always baked so quickly!). Adjust temperatures accordingly. Don’t open the oven door more often than needed, and don’t leave the oven light on more than necessary.

Learn how long it takes your oven to preheat and don’t preheat for longer than that. Although preheating is needed for baked goods such as cookies, cakes, and breads, it is not necessary for most other uses. Experiment with shorter preheating or with reducing the oven temperature near the end of the cooking time. Use a preheating oven to toast nuts or seeds or to melt butter used in your recipe.

Think small: Smaller portions cook more quickly. My kids loved tiny meat loaves cooked in muffin tins. Try to use a toaster oven rather than the large oven whenever possible.

Think big: If you need to heat the big oven, make a double batch and save leftovers in small containers that can be reheated in the microwave or toaster oven. You may need to cook the double batch for slightly longer than a single batch; try to stagger the pans to maximize air flow in the oven. Bake several batches of cookies one after the other while the oven is hot, then freeze the extras.

Plan ahead: If you’re heating the oven for a meat main dish, then plan to serve it with baked potatoes or roasted veggies or oven-fries, rather that also heating a pot of water for mashed potatoes. If several dishes are to be cooked in the oven, at slightly different temperatures, pick the average temperature to cook them all.

Every household has its own cooking habits. Have fun finding ways to make yours more energy-efficient!