The Galveston County Daily News

Of all the rooms in the house, the kitchen offers the most opportunities for “going green” — saving energy, using recycled products and reducing the need for more landfills.

Efforts for a greener kitchen and a greener planet come in all sizes, from making one small change to a complete environmentally friendly makeover.

The biggest changes, not surprisingly, will bring the most visible results. People who have replaced all their appliances with Energy Star, high-efficiency models after Hurricane Ike saw their energy usage decrease dramatically, using a third to even one half less power this summer.

There are plenty of smaller ways to go green in the kitchen as well, thanks to new products.

Aluminum foil made from 100 percent recycled aluminum is one of the most intriguing. According to its maker, Reynolds Wrap, the foil is made from old stadium seats, gutters, siding and scraps from industrial cable. That might not sound like stuff that should be touching food, but Reynolds assures consumers that melting down the recycled aluminum at 1,200 degrees purifies it far beyond food-safety standards.

Plastic zip bags have gone green, or at least a little greener, as well. The Evolve brand has positioned itself as the zip bag for the environmentally conscious, because it is made with 25 percent less plastic and biodegrades.

We’ve all seen the reusable grocery sacks at the checkout lines, and now a similar replacement for plastic produce bags also is available. The mesh bags come in sizes for everything from a few cloves of garlic to a dozen grapefruit and are designed to be machine-washed and reused.

Alternatives to plastic dinnerware will biodegrade in a matter of weeks. Cutlery made from cornstarch is sturdy, withstands temperatures up to 220 degrees and is an easy substitute for disposable plastic picnicware.

Despite the wave of new, environmentally friendly kitchen products, one of the greenest devices is that old standby, the slow cooker.

Because all the heat generated by the slow cooker goes to the food instead of to the surrounding air, it is much more energy-efficient than even the highest-rated Energy Star oven.

Cooking in a slow cooker for six to eight hours uses only about a fourth of the energy that cooking the same dish in an electric oven for one hour would.

According to the California Energy Commission, if just 10 percent of U.S. households replaced one oven-cooked meal per week with a slow cooker meal, the energy saving per year would total 900 million kilowatt hours. While that’s an impressive statistic, it’s just one of several surprises slow cookers now hold.

The first generation of slow cooker cookbooks emphasized convenience and sometimes overlooked flavor, but several new cookbooks expand the slow cooker repertoire in interesting directions.

Beth Hensperger stakes her claim in the title of her cookbook. “Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook” features recipes that combine the ease of slow cooking with fresh flavors.

Liana Krissoff’s “Secrets of Slow Cooking: Creating Extraordinary Food with Your Slow Cooker” puts international flavors in the slow cooker, using it for duck confit and risotto, as well as for traditional American dishes like collard greens.

Collard greens cooked in an energy-saving slow cooker — could it get any greener than that?

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Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken

1 (3- to 4-pound) broiler/fryer chicken 2 cubes chicken bouillon 1/2 large lemon or 1 small lemon 1/4 teaspoon Paprika 3 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley 2 medium or 1 large onion, cut into wedges 2 cloves garlic, chopped 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 6-12 small Yellow Finn or Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled

Rinse and dry the chicken thoroughly. Reserve the giblets and neck for another use. Cut off any lumps of fat.

Put one bouillon cube inside the cavity. Squeeze the lemon, reserving the juice. Put the lemon rinds in the cavity.

Put the chicken in the slow cooker, breast side up, and sprinkle with the paprika and parsley.

Distribute the onion wedges and garlic around the chicken.

Pour soy sauce and lemon juice over the chicken and season with the salt and pepper. Crumble the remaining bouillon cube over the chicken. Top with the potatoes.

Cover and cook on high until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 180 degrees. (3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours).

To serve, discard the lemon halves.

— Recipe from “Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook,” by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann

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Collard Greens

2 pounds collard greens 1 large smoked ham hock or smoked pork neck bone 1/2 small onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, smashed 2 dried hot chiles, stemmed

Wash the greens. Pull off and discard any tough, thick stems. Tear the leaves into pieces about the size of your palm.

Put the greens, ham hock, onion, garlic and chiles in a 6-quart slow cooker and add about 5 cups of water, enough to come halfway up the side of the cooker.

Cook, covered, on the high setting for 6 to 8 hours, until the greens are soft and the meat is tender.

Using tongs, remove the ham hock and pull off the meat, discarding the bones and fat.

Return the meat to the cooker. Cook, uncovered, on the high setting for another 30 minutes.

Season generously with salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot.

— Recipe from “Secrets of Slow Cooking: Creating Extraordinary Food with Your Slow Cooker,” by Liana Krissoff

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Carné Adovada

4 pounds boneless country style pork ribs 3 tablespoons oil 4 tablespoons flour 6 tablespoons New Mexico chile powder 5 cloves garlic 1 tablespoon cumin seeds 2 tablespoons fresh oregano 1 tablespoons chipotle pepper flakes 1 ½ teaspoon sea salt 3 cups water

Cut ribs into 1½-inch cubes and set aside.

In a spice grinder, grind cumin and salt to a powder. Add garlic cloves, chipotle pepper and oregano, and grind to a paste. Add to flour mixture.

Heat oil in a small frying pan, add flour-spice mixture and cook until light brown and fragrant. Add chile powder, and cook a few minutes more.

Turn off heat and slowly whisk in the water to make a smooth marinade. Cool, add meat, and marinate up to overnight.

Cook for 6 hours in a medium crock pot. Remove meat, skim fat and reduce sauce by half by cooking uncovered. Return meat to the sauce and serve.

— Recipe courtesy of Amazon.com