The Sun Oven

About a year ago, my aunt showed my mom how useful and effective a sun oven is, and last week Mom and I got to try out her new Sun Oven for ourselves. We made stuffed peppers in it and they were delicious.

Solar cooking is such a smart way to cook for your family if you live in a place with lots of sun, like I do. Instead of heating up the house to cook dinner or bake bread (particularly in the summer), you can take the food outside and let the sun cook it for you! This is helpful to the environment and easy on your pocketbook (after the initial investment). Plus, the Sun Oven has other really cool points, as listed on their website:

• They are ideal for everyday use in your back yard, at picnics, while camping, or in the event of a power failure.

• Even though it is called an oven, food can be baked, boiled, and steamed at cooking temperatures of 360° F to 400° F. There is no movement of air in the oven, allowing food to stay moist and tender and flavorful. Sun-baked roasts are tastier and more succulent, and sun-baked bread has unparalleled taste and texture.

• Temperatures in the oven rise slowly and evenly, allowing complex carbohydrates time to break down into simple sugars, emanating subtle natural flavors. The even temperatures prevent burning, so you do not need to stir your food while it is cooking.
  
  And one of my very favorite discoveries: a sun oven can be used like a natural crock pot!:

• There are two ways to cook with this great tool. If you refocus the oven to follow the sun every 25 to 30 minutes, cooking times and methods will be very similar to cooking with a conventional stove or oven. Or it can be used for slow cooking, much like a crock-pot. You can prepare your dinner, put it in the oven, point it where the sun will be approximately halfway through the time you will be gone. Leave, and come home to a tasty, slow-cooked dinner. If you run late, there is no need to worry; it will keep your food warm, moist, and fresh for hours.

If you're interested, check out the above website for a demo video, prices, and more information. (Too bad they're not paying me to be a commercial, eh?)

Another Favorite Product

I'm going to sound like a commercial here, but I am seriously enamored with this new SolarLite flashlight my parents gave to my husband for his birthday. We always have a regular (big batteries) flashlight on hand in case of a power outage, but we also always keep the batteries out of the flashlight, since battery power drainage occurs even when the flashlight isn't in use. But that means if it's dark, it's kind of frustrating to get the flashlight working. (Who am I kidding? It's frustrating anyway.) But this flashlight is a totally different story:

• Only 4 Ounces
• Floats
• Waterproof to 80'
• 10 hours of Light--On one charge!
• Solar Charge Holds for 3 Years
• SuperBright 40 Lumen LED
• Recharge with any Light Source--This one amazes me!
• 7 Year Lithium-Ion Backup Battery
• No Cranking - No Shaking
• Environmentally Friendly
• Guaranteed for Life!

Honestly, anyone wanting to be prepared for emergencies (and I want to take it camping too) should have one of these!

Freeze-Dried and Dehydrated Meals

Our family has recently been working on getting our 72-hour kits up-to-date, and in the process my husband found a food storage company online from which he ordered a sample.  I was skeptical to begin with, just knowing that these meals are supposed to have a shelf-life of 25 years.  I've heard ads from a similar company on the radio and have wondered about their preserving technique and why those foods taste so good, according to all accounts.  My reasoning was how could something manufactured and pre-prepared that lasts that long possibly be good for the human body?  And is MSG the reason these foods taste so "delicious"?  But I was willing to give it a try, since we needed to figure out what our options are, beyond the regular staples of food storage.

Well, we received that sample in the mail last week and tried it over the weekend.  I haven't made Rice- or Pasta-Roni for so long (it all contains MSG) that it was weird to just boil water and pour the stuff in.  It also didn't smell very palatable to me as I was stirring it up.  And as I read the ingredients I found four MSG ingredients: hydrolized soy protein, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, and disodium phosphate.  There were also three probable others: yeast extract, "natural flavor," and spices.  As I complained about what we were about to eat, my husband teased me about it, so I stopped talking and just tried it.  I wasn't a bit surprised that it tasted better than it had any right to or that I wanted more after my first helping.  I knew that both sensations were fake.  After a small second helping I had to have a helping of some real food to stabilize myself, which helped me feel better.  My husband, on the other hand, was looking a little green around the gills.  It tasted good to him too and he had a hard time not eating more of it, but even before he finished eating he could tell it wasn't making him feel good.  Then he was the one complaining--and no more teasing.

Thus, we have learned an important lesson: Prep-prepared freeze-dried or dehydrated meals really are packed with MSG (which also acts as a preservative).  I suspected as much, but it took this experience for us (my husband especially) to realize that we would rather have food storage staples with which to make simple meals that don't make us feel gross, than have "gourmet" pre-prepared meals that have lots of flavor.  Of course, in the case of our 72-hour kits, we may have to fudge a bit, but as that is a limited amount of meals, I'm okay with that.  If it came down to it, I'd rather eat some MSG-laden food than die of hunger.  But not for the long term!

Interesting note: The owner of the company who sent us the free sample called for feedback and when I told him about the MSG thing, he acknowledged unfortunately that will always be the case with such foods.  I wonder if a brilliant person down the road will discover a way to prepare and preserve foods for very long term without the use of harmful additives and chemicals...

Hand Grinders

I love our electric wheat grinder and use it weekly.  But in the event of a long-term power outage, we would need a hand grinder to continue using our wheat.  So, those of you with hand grinders: What brand do you have and use?  What style is it?  Do you like it?

In my online research I've seen that there are a lot of options in type and price and don't know what would be best.  I'd like to get as much feedback as possible so as to make an informed decision for our family.

Thanks in advance!