Solar Pineapple Upside Down Muffins

txazlady — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:08:46 +0000

I love pineapple upside down cake so today I decided to make individual muffins so that I could better control the portions. Yes, I admit I used the large muffin pan, but still there is a limit and I can’t fudge the size of the piece I cut. This is a rich, thick, but spongy cake batter. And, next time I go to a potluck, I’m taking these – only made in the regular size muffin tin. When I want a quicker, and not so sweet a treat, I make pineapple upside down biscuits.

Solar Pineapple Upside Down Muffin baked in a Solar Oven

Solar Pineapple Upside Down Muffins

Place the solar oven out to pre-heat while preparing the topping. I used the SOS Sport.

Solar Pineapple Upside Down Muffins

TOPPING:

1/2 stick butter (4 TBSP)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 can crushed pineapple, drained, but reserve juice ( or 1 can pineapple rings if you prefer)
6 – 12 maraschino cherries, chopped (depending on how much you like – I used 2 chopped cherries for each muffin)

Spray the muffin tin with Pam. Chop the butter into 6 pieces and place in the bottom of each muffin. Divide the brown sugar equally between the tins. Place into the hot solar oven to melt the butter and sugar. This took about 15 minutes for me.

CAKE:

In a mixing bowl, add & blend:

2 eggs
4 TBSP pineapple juice
2/3 cup of white sugar

In a separate bowl, combine the following dry ingredients:

2/3 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt.

When the butter is melted, bring in the muffin tin and stir the melted butter and brown sugar to blend. Add the chopped cherries (or whole cherry if you prefer). Cover with the crushed pineapple.

Preparing the pineapple upside down muffins to bake in the solar oven

When the muffin tins are prepared, add the dry ingredients to the egg & sugar mixture, and beat for about 2 minutes. Pour the batter evenly into the tins. Bake in the solar oven uncovered. My muffins baked for 2.5 hours at 250°

Next I’m going to try these delicious muffins

Related articles

Pina Colada Muffins (kimmiecats.wordpress.com)
Strawberry Crumb Muffins and Haphazard Baking (suaspontelife.wordpress.com)
Mr.CBB’s Strawberry Cheesecake Streusel Muffins (canadianbudgetbinder.com)

Filed under: Cake, Desserts, Pineapple, Solar Oven Tagged: Butter, Muffin, Muffin tin, pineapple, Sugar, Upside-down cake

Easy Solar Pasta with Spaghetti Sauce

txazlady — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 02:50:29 +0000

After a busy month that included out of town company, a graduation, and vacation, I finally found time to test my newest solar cooker, the Solar Flare Parabolic Cooker. This little gem comes with a reflector,a cooking jar, a cooking bag, a bucket, and a small plastic bowl. The reflector is easily rolled and stored. When time to use, the opened reflector is set inside the bucket. The bowl is placed in the bottom the bucket. And finally the cooking jar, filled with dinner, is placed inside the cooking bag, and set on top of the small bowl to lift it up off of the floor of the bucket. (Ok, this is really easier to do than it is to write about).

Easy spaghetti pasta cooking the in Solar Flare Parabolic Cooker

I decided to make an easy pasta with spaghetti sauce. A spaghetti recipe comes with the system, and I decided to start with that and adjust to my own liking.

Easy Solar Pasta with Spaghetti Sauce

pasta ( macaroni, spaghetti, spiral noodles, etc)
2 cans (8 oz) tomato sauce
3 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 TB dried onion

These were the ingredients in their recipe, but we like it a little spicier, so I also added the following:

1/4 tsp red pepper

1/4 tsp oregano

1 tsp chili powder

salt to taste

So add as much or as little as you like. Add all ingredients together and stir to blend.

The original recipe called for cooking the pasta and the sauce separately, but when solar cooking, I don’t like the extra steps involved. I want to cook everything in one pot. In the case of uncooked pasta, it needs extra water to absorb and make the pasta tender.

SO–

I put 1 1/3 cups of spiral spaghetti into the jar (the package said 2/3 cup dry was one serving), then covered the spaghetti with water. Then I added the sauce mixture above and stirred it well. This cooked for 2 hours in the Solar Flare. I don’t know how hot the oven got, but the internal temperature of the food was 190° when we took it out. The pasta had cooked perfectly. All of the extra water had absorbed into the pasta, making it tender, but not mushy. Some of the sauce had been absorbed into the pasta as well, giving it a great flavor all of the way through. On top, I added a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Delicious. It made a great lunch. Next time, I think I’ll add some ground beef!

Easy Solar Pasta with Spaghetti Sauce in the Solar Flare

If you would like a Solar Flare Parabolic Cooker of your own, use my discount code ADVSLRCK to receive a 10% discount off of any solar kit – single or double – plus free shipping in the USA.

Filed under: Dinner, Pasta, solar cooking, Solar Oven, Spaghetti Tagged: Pasta, recipe, solar cooking, Solar Flare Parabolic Cooker, Spaghetti, Spaghetti sauce, Tomato sauce

Solar Flare Parabolic Cooking System

txazlady — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:19:59 +0000

A few weeks ago, my husband and I went to an Emergency Preparedness Show. Each new show gets bigger and better, and this was no exception. There were hundreds of vendors selling everything from long term food storage to guns to solar cookers. Yes, solar cookers! At the The first show we attended, about 2 years, the only solar oven on site was the Global Sun Oven. If you were interested in solar cooking, that appeared to be the only option, short of making your own. But this year, things have changed and there are new solar ovens on the market. I fell in love with the Solar Flare Parabolic Cooking System, by Solar Zenith. It is small, it is portable, it is easy to set up, and easy to use. So I bought it to add to my growing collection.

The Solar Flare comes individually or in a set of two. Each set consists of a plastic pail with a lid; a black painted mason jar with lid; plastic riser cup; a cooking bag; and the parabolic reflector. To set up, the parabolic reflector is set into the pail. Then the mason jar in enclosed in the cooking bag and put inside of the reflector on top of the riser. The set up reminds me of my homemade window screen cooker, but is much more efficient.

This cooker is great to cook beans, soup, chili, oatmeal, spaghetti.

If you want to give this a try, use my discount code ADVSLRCK to receive a 10% discount off of any solar kit – single or double – plus free shipping in the USA.

Picture from Solar Zenith

Filed under: solar cooking, Solar Oven Tagged: Cook, Parabolic reflector, Solar, solar cooker, Solar Flare, Sun

Solar Stroganoff over Rice

txazlady — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 03:39:41 +0000

Solar Beef Stroganoff

One of my favorite things is beef stroganoff. I have a great little slow cooker recipe that I have been using for about 30 years. It is hearty enough to serve for supper on a cold winter’s night, but light enough for supper on a hot summer’s eve. It is down home enough for a family supper but can be elegant enough for a company dinner. It is soft enough to serve to convalescents recovering from all manners of ailments, yet gives a full firm meal. It is easy, cheap, and delicious — and it also converts to solar cooking with absolutely no adaptations. I cut this wonderful recipe out of the newspaper, from an article on favorite dishes that local firemen were cooking at the fire station.

Solar Beef Stroganoff
1 lb beef stew meat, or roast cut into chunks
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg of dry onion soup mix
1/2 can (about 3/4 cup) of water

Pre-heat the solar oven while preparing the recipe. Cut the meat into small chunks and put into a pan. Add the cream of mushroom soup, the dry onion soup mix, and water. Cover and place in the solar oven. I like my meat very tender, so I put this out early and let this simmer for a long time, perhaps 4 – 5 hours, or even longer depending on the sun.

Remove from solar oven. Use forks or a potato masher to separate the chunks into small pieces of meat, and stir to combine all of the meat into the sauce. Serve over cooked rice or noodles. Leftovers are delicious served over a baked potato.

If you like it chunky, leave the chunks.

If you like it saucier, add another can of cream of mushroom soup with a little water.

If you like it meatier, add another 1/2 pound of meat.

Chicken can be substituted for beef.

Slow Cooker Beef & Mushroom Stroganoff (redtri.com)
Crockpot Beef Stroganoff (cantstayoutofthekitchen.com)

Filed under: Beef, Rice, Solar Oven Tagged: Beef Stroganoff, Cream of mushroom soup, Meat, Mushroom, slow cooker, Stew

Guest Blogging on Solar Breeze

txazlady — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 03:45:09 +0000

Wow, I’m really excited. I just wrote my first guest blog.

We met Paul & Karen from Solar Pool Technologies Inc at the 2013 Glendale AZ Solar Day in March. Karen was kind enough to ask me to write a guest blog and I eagerly accepted. So check it out. It is posted at www.solarpooltech.wordpress.com and at www.solar-breeze.com/blog

Solar Breeze

Solar Breeze is a solar robotic pool cleaner. Apparently, you can be relaxing poolside while the sun cleans the pool and cooks dinner. Doesn’t get any easier than that!

Filed under: Misc, Solar Oven Tagged: Energy, Renewable, Solar, Technology

Glendale AZ Solar Day

txazlady — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 04:18:10 +0000

Today Rod and I joined fellow solar cookers, Tom & Mike, at the Glendale [Arizona] Solar Day held at the Glendale Library. Our intent was to set up the cookers and – well – cook. However, the weather did not co-operate. It wasn’t just cloudy. It was raining. We get so little rain, and we need it so badly, that I wasn’t about to complain. So we moved on to Plan B. We set up inside the Library with no cooking. And it still turned out great. Our group was the star of the show. Because of the rain, I prepared a PowerPoint presentation with pictures of many of the delicious foods I have cooked, and hooked up my laptop with the presentation running. The pictures were really helpful. I set up the GSO, the Sport, the new SunFlair, the CookIt, and the windshield screen ovens. Tom brought his homemade oven. And Mike brought a GSO on a turntable. We talked to a lot of people. Different people were drawn to different ovens for different reasons, but the SunFlair drew a lot of interest. If I had been selling solar cookers, I would have sold a lot today, despite the rain. Do you think GSO, Sport,or SunFlair will give me a commission? We also spent a great deal of time explaining you don’t have to have a fancy store bought solar oven, that there are many ways to make one at home. Tom’s homemade cooker, painted bright blue, was certainly an eye catcher. Mike mounted his GSO on a turntable to make it easy to turn the oven to track the sun. Although we were rained out, we still had a great time showing off solar ovens and bragging about the benefits of solar cooking. See you next year at the Glendale Solar Day.

: Glendale Solar Day presentation March 2013

Here’s another Solar Cooking event:

31st Solar Potluck and Exhibition, Tucson, AZ Saturday April 6, 2013 in Catalina State Park

The Great Solar Cookout, Tempe, AZ, Saturday, April 13, 2013, Daley Park

We set up last year at the Great Solar Cookout and had a really great time. Come out and join us this year.

: Great Solar Cookout

Where There Is No Kitchen: Cooking When The Grid Goes Down (survivalsherpa.wordpress.com)
How To Make A Solar Cooker From Recycled Materials – Romania (missionintothefuture.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Events, Solar Oven Tagged: Arizona, Cooking, CooKit Solar Oven, Energy, GSO, Renewable, Solar, solar cooker, solar cooking, Solar Oven, SOS Sport, SunFlair Solar Oven

Solar Ranch Potatoes

txazlady — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:13:12 +0000

Here is a very simple recipe to add some excitement to your potatoes. I originally found this slow-cooker recipe in an old church cookbook. But I often cooked this out on the barbeque grill. Now I am back to slow cooking, only this time in my solar oven.

Solar Baked Ranch Potatoes

Solar Ranch Potatoes
2 lbs small red potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 (1 oz packet) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix (seasoning & salad mix), dry

Pre-heat the solar oven while preparing the potatoes. Place the potatoes in a heavy duty, resealable bag, and add the oil. Seal the bag and toss to coat the potatoes. Add the dry seasoning mix, and toss again until coated. Bake in the solar oven, covered, for 2 – 3 hours.

Here are some other recipes you might like:

Cheesy Potatoes

Solar Baked Potatoes

Filed under: Potatoes, Solar Oven Tagged: Bake, Potato, Ranch dressing, recipe, solar cooker

Easy Banana Bread baked in a Solar Oven

txazlady — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:40:35 +0000

Easy Banana Bread

I love banana bread. Do you? I have baked banana bread in the solar oven before. But now I have found a really easy recipe. It only has 4 ingredients – 5 if you count the nuts which are optional for every one except my husband.

Easy Banana Bread

5 ripe bananas
1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Pre-heat the solar oven while preparing the ingredients.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add the eggs, and vanilla, and mix until blended. Add the cake mix and again, mix until blended. Add the nuts and — you guessed it — mix until blended.

Pour the mixture into a greased 5 x 9 inch loaf pan.

I used two 4 x 8 bread pans so that the bread would bake faster. I also raised the bread pans off of the flour of the solar oven using metal canning jar rings. The bread took 2 hours to bake.

Pans of Banana Bread sitting on canning jar rings in the solar oven

Easy Banana Bread baked in the solar oven

Here are other recipes that you might like:

Banana Bread

Pumpkin Bread

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Filed under: Banana, Bread, Solar Oven Tagged: Banana, Banana bread, bread, Bread pan, Cooking, Nuts, solar cooker

Solar Chocolate Cake Baked in a Mug

txazlady — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 03:35:03 +0000

Several years ago, there was a little recipe floating around for an individual sized chocolate cake baked in a mug for 5 minutes. I found this recipe yesterday in a stack of clippings that I had saved. Only now, my first thought was not microwave oven, but solar oven. The recipe is the same — only the cook time is different.

Chocolate Cake baked in a Mug

Solar Chocolate Cake Baked in a Mug

4 TB flour
4 TB sugar
2 TB cocoa
1 egg
3 TB milk
3 TB oil
3 TB chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract

1 large coffee mug (microwave safe if using the microwave; solar appropriate if using the solar oven)

Pre-heat solar oven while preparing the recipe.

Add dry ingredients to mug; and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.

Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.

Add the chocolate chips (if using) and the vanilla extract, and mix again.

Bake uncovered in the solar oven. Mine baked for 1 1/2 hours.

Cool and tip out onto plate if desired. (This can serve 2, if you’ll let it!)

The red mug is 15 oz. The white mug is 10 oz. When baked, the cake came just to the top of the white mug, and was about 1/2 inch from the top of the red mug. (Also, I sprayed the mug with PAM so that the cake would come out easily.)

(If cooking in the microwave, cook for 3 minutes on High. The cake will rise over the top of the mug.)

Chocolate cake batter ready for the solar oven.

Other recipes you might enjoy:

Brownies in the Solar Oven

German Chocolate Upside Down Cake

Chocolate Lover’s Cake in A Mug (thedomesticfringe.com)
Myrna Chocolate Mug Cake (bigbasslakemi.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Cake, Chocolate, Desserts Tagged: cake, chocolate, Chocolate cake, Chocolate chip, dessert, Mug, recipe, solar cooker, Solar Oven, Vanilla extract

Solar Chocolate Pecan Bars

txazlady — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 20:10:12 +0000

Last week, I was looking for a simple dessert recipe to cook in my solar oven when I came across a recipe for CHOCOLATE PECAN BARS. With a few simple adjustments, it went together easily and cooked quickly. They are as easy as Brownies, but a whole lot richer.

Chocolate Pecan Bars

CHOCOLATE PECAN BARS.

Mixture #1

2 c. flour
2 c. quick rolled oats
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c butter, melted

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the melted butter and mix together.

Layer half of the mixture in the bottom of an 11 x 8 baking pan.

1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. chopped pecans

Layer half of the chocolate chips and half of the pecans in the pan.

Mixture #2

14 oz. light caramels
1/2 c. evaporated milk

In the top of a double boiler or in the microwave or in the solar oven, melt the caramels and evaporated milk and stir to combine. Pour the melted caramels and milk over the chocolate chips and pecans.

Layer the remaining crust mixture on top of the caramel/milk mixture and finally add the remaining chocolate chips and pecans.

Bake in a pre-heated solar oven for about 2 hours. Let sit to cool. Cut in small squares as it is very rich.

Gluten Free Caramel Pecan Tart with Chocolate Genache & Mascarpone Drizzle (vegetarianventures.com)
Chocolate Caramel Pecan Thumbprints (deliciousonadollar.com)

Filed under: Cake, Chocolate, Desserts, Solar Oven Tagged: Bake, bars, Caramel, Chocolate chip, cookies, Home, Pecan, recipe, solar cooking, Solar Oven