Solar Oven Eggs and Cheese

Solar Oven Eggs and Cheese

Today was windy but sunny. Too windy to work in the garden but a perfect day to get out the SOS Sport Solar Oven and make breakfast. I set the oven out to preheat and I added a brick. The brick is painted with black bbq grill paint and actually serves 3 purposes in the oven. It elevates the dish for more even cooking, and holds heat so the oven stays hotter if a cloud passes in front on the sun. The bonus is that it also keeps the oven from blowing off the table on windy days.

I used the same ingredients I use to make an omelette on the stovetop (1 whole egg, 2 egg whites, 1 oz grated cheese, 1 tsp non fat milk). Cheese is a must. I am trying to lose weight and live heart healthy so I try and keep cheese to a minimum. Trader Joe's carries interesting but inexpensive cheese and I picked up Cotswald Double Glouchester this week. It has a great flavor that goes well with eggs and I love the chives added in.

I mixed everything together and poured the mix into an old First Class cabin casserole dish that I found at the US Airways Company Store for about 50 cents. Buttering the dish makes for easy cleanup. The eggs and cheese took about 30 minutes in the preheated oven. I topped the dish with more fresh chives out of the herb garden. Breakfast for one without turning on the stove - gotta love it.

Getting Things Done

Breakfast from the garden - a baby watermelon

It is a beautiful morning, pretty hot but cloud free. Just perfect for making a roast in the solar oven which I've been trying to do since Tuesday. As soon as I woke up I looked out the front door then ran for the oven to put it in the back yard to pre-heat. I cut up the roast so it will cook faster. After sprinkling it with dry onion soup mix I poured about a teaspoon of bbq sauce on each piece. That's all you need to do and it makes a very flavorful roast with lots of juice you can use indoors on the stove to make gravy. Cooking times varies as do the cooking temperatures but it's usually about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

The garden yield has slowed to almost nothing after all the very hot days we've had here in Mesa. Ben went to visit family in Tucson recently and we were lucky enough to be able to send some crook neck squash, zucchini and heirloom tomatoes to his mom. The tomatoes have stopped producing and the zucchini are much smaller. If you're used to seeing zucchini in the supermarket, that's about the size of the vegetables I am getting now. No more super sized veggies that made my coworkers laugh. The baby watermelons are still on the vine and doing well. The cushion of weeds they are sitting on sure helps to keep them from rotting on the ground. At least, that's my excuse for not weeding. :-)

We plan to add another raised bed in a month. It will be in a perfect spot so we can grow lettuce and tomatoes all winter. Also on the "to do" list is to remove all the soil from the big raised bed. Grass has taken over and quite frankly, the 10 year old soil isn't producing like it did in seasons past. Even though we add compost and manure yearly, it looks like it's time to make a fresh start.


The roast ready to go into the SOS Sport Solar Oven

Another item on my list of things to get done was to get a good sour dough starter going. We love sour dough bread and liked the idea of making my own starter from scratch. I found everthing you need to know about sourdough here - http://sourdoughhome.com and I mixed my first starter on Monday night. It did well for 3 days, nice and bubbly with a good sour smell. Then it finally died yesterday. No bubbles, no rising, just mush. Our water isn't the best here in Mesa so I am guessing that it was the constantly changing chlorine levels that did it in. I'll have Ben pick up some Evian today and I'll try again. Ooh La La - French sourdough! :-)

Low Fat Blueberry Ginger Muffins in the Solar Oven

Low Fat Blueberry Ginger Muffins

2 envelopes Nature's Path Flax Seed Instant Oatmeal (or 1 cup quick oats)
1 cup lowfat buttermilk*
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg white
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees or preheat solar oven.
Spray the muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray or use cupcake liners.

Gently wash and dry the blueberries. In a small bowl, combine the oats and buttermilk, and let the mixture stand for about 5 minutes.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt; mix with a fork to blend and set aside.

In a large bowl and using a fork, beat the egg, add the applesauce, and brown sugar combine well.
Blend in the oatmeal/buttermilk mixture. Stir in the flour mixture only to combine, do not over mix. Fold in the blueberries. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and top with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar if desired.

In the oven - bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
In the solar oven - bake until done - it took mine about 30 minutes at about 275-300 degrees.

Makes a dozen muffins.

* You can use 1 cup of milk plus 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar if you don't have buttermilk. Let sit for 10 mins before adding to recipe. I use Fat Free Fortified Lactaid mixed with lemon juice and it works just fine.

Solar Oven Chicken Dinner

First Experience With Solar Cooking

When summer temps get over 100 degrees here I am always looking for alternative ways to get dinner on the table without heating up the house. I happened to see a posting on a message board at the Phoenix Permaculture Guild about solar ovens. I looked at solar ovens about 10 years ago but gave up on the idea because they were too expensive to purchase and the do-it-yourself projects were way beyond my skills.

According to the conversation, solar ovens have come a long way in the last few years. There are two models that are reasonably priced and seemed to be popular among the locals. The Sport Solar Oven (above) from the Solar Oven Society and the Sun Oven. The discussion said that both were well made and suitable for use here in the Valley. The main difference is that the Sport is large enough to bake on a cookie sheet, but the smaller Sun Oven will heat to higher temperatures. Since I like to bake, I opted for the Sport which my wonderful husband purchased for me as an early Christmas gift. Although many of the experienced users said they didn't need the optional reflector, I purchased it anyway.

The more I surfed the web for info on solar cooking, the more excited I got. Not only was solar cooking a great way to go "green" but the recipes sounded easy and delicious. Another Valley of the Sun resident has been blogging about using the Sun Oven every day for a year. If you're going to purchase a solar oven, the Solar Oven Chef is a great place to start for tips and recipes.

I probably didn't pick the best day for my initial leap into solar cooking, but it was my only day off. It had been raining all night and was only about 45 degrees outside. The yard was a mud pit and it was cold and windy outside. Since the weather wasn't the best I decided to preheat with the reflector on and see what happened. The oven temp reached 200 degress in a half hour so I decided to keep the reflector on and go for it.

I wanted to start with some easy dishes. Sprouts had sirloin tip roasts on sale and I purchased some of their wild rice blend from the bulk section as a side dish. I cut the roast into 4 pieces and sprinkled it with Lipton Onion Soup Mix. No need for any water when cooking meat in the solar ovens. To the rice blend I added the necessary amount of water, some Mrs. Dash Onion and Herb Seasoning, a dash of tumeric, a little bit of salt, and half a chopped onion. The Sport comes with an oven thermometer and two black cooking pots so it makes it easy to do a complete meal at one time.

At the 2 hour mark I checked on the oven and noticed that there was condensation building up on the door, an indicator that the food is done. Not bad! The roast was perfect and was swimming in lots of broth that I used on the stove top to make gravy. The rice was slightly overdone but still tasty. HuzBen was impressed and loved the meal. I liked the "set it and forget it" aspect of the cooking. I checked on the oven every 30 minutes but I found out quickly that I didn't need to reposition the oven at all. I can't wait to try chicken and potato dishes, and maybe some baking. Anyone for solar baked Christmas cookies?

The Roast


The Rice Pilaf