Let The Sun Do The Cooking!

Use the free heat of the sun to cook your food. It is easy and energy efficient. It saves on fuel cost and  in the summer helps to keep you cool by not having to heat up the house with your stove. With solar cooking it is cooked with lower temperatures that will not burn the food and makes it easy to just let it cook away without stirring or checking all of the time. Set it in the heat of the sun and come back after a few hours to a well- cooked meal.

A great idea is to set it up on a table that can spin so that you can make it follow the sun during the day. Makes it easy for us with bad backs, also. Don't have to pick up the whole cooker, just spin the table the bit that it needs turned.You can easily cook all year long with a All Season Solar Cooker.  You can bake bread, cookies, and cakes in a solar cooker. The best thing to make , since it is set and cooking all day, is stews, beans, soups, and casseroles.

You can easily make one. The links below have plans for making them and recipes.

• http://www.solarcooking.org
• http://cookwiththesun.com

Having a solar cooker is great for kids , also. They can learn to use one easily and be cooking in one in no time. My son was 7 years old when he made one out of a pizza box. It worked pretty good. He baked cookies in it and did some hot dogs. It was fun for him and he learned a lot about the sun and how it works.
Get the whole family involved.

COMMENT BELOW WITH YOUR FAVORITE THING TO COOK IN A SOLAR COOKER>>>

Bake A Cake In A Jar

This is such a cool idea. Bake the cake in the canning jar and then you can store it. You can use box cake mix or make your own cake.

• Always use the wide mouth straight sided glass canning jars.
• Lightly coat the inside with vegetable oil or cooking spray.
• Fill the jars only about half way to give the cake room to rise.
•  Keep the mouth clean to ensure a good seal.
• Be careful when removing the jars from the oven. 
• Store in the fridge or the freezer for up to 6 months.

Dollar Tree Stockup

Wow! Found another great item at dollar tree! They had other flavors, but, i think i can do more with these. Canned roast beef would be great to add to this!

Food Storage Recipe - Creamy Vegetable Soup With Dumplings

Eating by oil lamp light!

It is getting to be that time of year to be making soups that will keep you warm and satisfied all day long. This is a hearty soup that will stay with you all day and keep you coming back for more.

NEED:

For Soup ~

3 cups of water or broth

2 medium onions, chopped

2 celery stalks, diced

2 cups of canned tomatoes , chopped up and include the sauce.

2 carrots, sliced

2 potatoes, diced

1 or 2 cups of any other of your favorite vegetables

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of whole wheat flour

salt and pepper to taste

For Dumplings ~

2 cups of whole wheat flour

3 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup of minced parsley

1/4 cup of shortening

1 egg, slightly beaten

3/4 cup of milk

SOUP:  In a large covered pot, cook the vegetables in the broth until the firmest ones are barely tender. This should take about 30 minutes. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the flour to form a smooth paste.Mix in 1 cup of the broth from the vegetables to make a lump free sauce. Gradually stir it into the large pot of soup.

DUMPLINGS: Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the parsley and the shortening until it looks like coarse meal. Mix in the egg and milk. Blend it until all of the dry ingredients are just dampened. Drop the batter by spoonfuls on top of the boiling soup, cover the pot , and simmer for about 15 minutes before serving.

Organize The Food Storage

I have this shelf in my kitchen where I have food storage items that we use daily. It helps with keeping track of dates and what we need more of, etc. But, this past week it was used so much and dug thru so much that it needs reorganized. Plan on doing it tomorrow. Think it will be a day of free time. Hope to get a lot done that was put off the past week. When your food storage is organized it is easier to keep track of.