Sun Oven Fun!!

I am SO excited about our giveaway this month in honor of National Preparedness Month. These past few weeks we have had our Sun Oven I have fallen in love this with this product (and so have my kids)!! I have had my eye on these ovens for a LONG time and we finally decided it was time to make the investment. Sun Oven's are not cheap and that is probably why it has taken me 13 years to own one. However, I can say the peace of mind this oven has brought is well worth the price. I love knowing I could cook food (especially bread) in this oven without using fuel. We could even make cookies in an emergency..how fun is that! I wish all of you the best of luck with this giveaway--visit our recent post to find out how easy it is to enter to win.

Here's a little more info on the Sun Oven and a few family experiments to show you how easy the Sun Oven is to use! Using the oven couldn't get simpler (even my 4 year old has figured it out). You simply place the oven in direct sunlight, open the flaps, let the oven heat up to the temperature you want to bake your food at, place the food in, and away you go! The food cooks so quickly, evenly and even browns nicely---all without any power. SO cool!! I always wonder if we are storing enough extra propane, gas, etc. to cook our food. This Sun Oven has relieved my anxiety about storing enough fuel. One of my fears was having hundreds of pounds of grains, rice, dried beans, etc. and not having enough fuel to cook them. I don't know about you, but hard dried beans don't sound too appetizing?

(I cooked dried white beans for 3 hours & made delicious White Bean Chicken Chili)

The Sun Oven has been the answer to this dilemma for me! It is amazing that I can put a pot of dried beans in the Sun Oven and under 3 hours later I have perfectly soft cooked beans. That is faster than a crock pot! The great thing about the Sun Oven is it works even on a cloudy day. One overcast evening I put in a pot of rice to see how the Sun Oven would work on a partly cloudy day and within an hour, the rice was cooked to perfection. I have found that on cloudy/colder days, the Sun Oven works just like my crock pot on medium heat. It may take a little while longer for the food to cook, but if I plan ahead like I would for a crock pot, it works perfectly!

(I cooked 1/2 white & 1/2 brown rice for one hour and then made a simple rice pilaf)

The other great part about this Sun Oven is it is so simple to use, even the kids will love it! My children have been fascinated at how this oven works. They sat for nearly 25 minutes and watched the cookies being cooked. All day I kept having the thought...'I need to go outside and turn that oven off'. Duh! There is not an on/off switch. How cool is that?

(Our favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies worked perfectly in the Sun Oven baking for 25 min.)

The Sun Oven is also my solution to making bread. Our family goes through about 5-6 loaves of bread a week and in an emergency situation I have always wondered how we would survive without wheat bread ;) We could cook on our camping stove, butane stove or on the grill but none of those options would produce a very pretty loaf of bread. I thought for sure the Sun Oven couldn't make a golden brown loaf of bread, but I was once again proven wrong. I baked up a batch of Herb Tomato Foccacia Bread and it came out perfectly golden, cooked all the way through and more moist and soft than any loaf of bread cooked in doors. How does it do that?? One more reason this is now my favorite preparedness item!

(Herbed Tomato Foccacia Bread came out golden brown in only 35-40 minutes)

*Remember, if you are interested in purchasing a Sun Oven of your own, they are giving a discount to our readers, so visit their website and enter DealstoMeals when checking out to receive the $50 discount. This is the lowest price on the web we have been able to find. This would make an awesome Christmas gift!!