This we are really trying to get into the swing of our “Summer Electric Plan.” The goal of the “Summer Electric Plan” is to focus on cooking methods that don’t heat up the interior of the house. Primarily, using Grilling, Crock Pot, Quick Stove top, and Microwave cooked dishes.
In last weeks post I mentioned that the goal of this is to save money by not heating up the house because it costs so much to Air Condition a house. Well, unfortunately we discovered some unfortunate budget impacting things this week that will undoubtedly negate our efforts. Both involved our A/C unit. One was some maintenance that needed to be done, we were low on refrigerant and needed to clean the filters. We also discovered that our thermostat is defective and have reported that to our electric company
That being said we probably won’t see our efforts to save our budget reflected in a lower electric bill for this week (I get a weekly summer of energy usage from them). However, there is no doubt that our efforts to save energy resulted in a better outcome regardless.
Here is what we did to save try and save our budget this week.
Quick Stove Top dishes
Strawberry and Snap Pea Salad (a quick blanching of the Sugar snap peas was all that was needed for this dish.)
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Organic Tomato soup, condensed
Crock pot dishes
Slow Cooker Meatball Sandwiches
Grilled dishes
Grilled Honey Garlic Pork Chops , Grilled Summer Vegetables, and Chicken Black Bean and Avocado Salad (using grilled chicken)
Microwave dishes
No cook dishes
Cucumber Bagel sandwich, and Carrot and Celery Sticks
Jaques Kitchen 