by Texas Homesteader ~ 

Summer months in Texas are hot & humid that’s for sure. So I’m employing tactics to use FREE solar energy to replace some of my kitchen cooking to keep that cooking heat outside where it belongs. Things such as outside sun tea, dehydrating produce or even solar cooking! 

(Note: Some links in this post will take you to other related articles for further information. But links preceded with * are affiliate links. If you click and buy something I could receive a tiny commission.)

How To Keep Utility Bills Low

There are easy ways to cut that utility bill that don’t involve just trying to keep unused lights turned off.

How about using the energy of the sun to do what some of your kitchen appliances do for you?

Heat for cooking, heat for baking, heat for dehydrating – it’s all digging into your wallet in those hot summertime months!

But there’s an option that often we don’t even think of that can save us some real cash. That’s absolutely free solar energy! 

Here are a few ways I enjoy using this amazing free resource to not only fill a need, but also save a few bucks.

How Does The Oven Affect Utility Bills?

One of the most energy-intensive tasks in a home is producing heat, whether using HVAC, water heater or cooking.

When you fire up the oven for instance, here are the effects:

• • • Operating the oven costs a large percentage of your home’s utility bills,

    • Heat from oven transfers to inside space,

    • Air conditioning has to attempt to lower inside temperatures to compensate.

So during the hot summertime I’m trying to keep cooking heat outside. Why not save the heat-producing chores for the sun – a free, natural resource. 

Benefits of Cooking With Solar Energy

There are several benefits of using the sun to prepare and cook food outside:

Save money on heating fuel.

Save money on re-cooling your home

Uses a natural resource.

Environmentally Friendly.

Keeps heat outside instead of your living space.

Helpful when dealing with power outages.

Brewing Sun Tea For Free Outside

There’s nothing quite as refreshing as enjoying an icy cold glass of sun tea. 

I fill a large repurposed picante sauce jar with water and add a tea bag, then set it in the sun for a few hours. And there ya go – Sun Tea brewed using only the power of the sun. 

There’s no plastic to throw away or recycle like other drink options. My sun tea jar is simply washed & put away, waiting to be used again. The tea bag is put into the compost bucket. It makes my crunchy-green heart happy.

NOTE: Some say if there are ‘toxins’ in the tea leaves that only boiling them will destroy those toxins. So if you have any concerns, skip the sun tea and opt for brewing it with boiling water instead.

For my family, I’ve made sun tea for years now and will continue to do so. But to each their own!

Dissolving Honey Crystals Using Only The Sun

It’s not uncommon for the bottom of a honey jar to start crystallizing before it’s used.  

I use free solar energy to heat & dissolve honey crystals.

A little time spent in the sun on my picnic table and this honey reverts back to it’s sweet pourable self with no further interaction from me!

Sometimes I use the dashboard of my car parked in a sunny driveway to melt those honey crystals. Now THAT’S what I call lazy smart! 

Note: Keep Your Honey In GLASS Jars!

If your honey is sold in those cute plastic squeezy-bear dispensers, it’s more difficult to melt the crystals safely. Only buy honey in glass jars or immediately transfer from a plastic container to a glass one.

That way when it does crystallize (and real honey DOES crystalize!) it’s easy to use the sun to melt it back down to it’s liquidy sweetness again.

Using The Sun To Dehydrate Food Outside

Several years ago I bought a * Sun Oven and I’ve been having a blast with it ever since. Mine came with the accessory package. 

So I use my solar oven to dehydrate garden veggie overages like these tomatoes. And who doesn’t love sun-dried tomatoes?

No more wasted garden produce when it’s producing faster than we can eat it! I simply dehydrate the excess in my solar oven and store it in glass jars in my pantry. 

Dehydrated vegetables take up just a fraction of the space they did when they were fresh. And they take no additional energy to store like I’d have to use if I froze or canned them. 

I love to use this dehydrated produce during the winter when I’m making hearty stews & soups.

And in true lazy-cook style, when adding to simmering soups the dehydrated veggies rehydrate right in the stock pot as my soup is cooking.

Solar Oven Uses The Sun’s Energy To Cook!

Of course the main purpose of the solar oven is to cook food. 

It doesn’t take the heat of summer for the solar oven to work, food can be cooked beautifully no matter what the outside temps are as long as the sun is shining. All you need is a shadow.

So as long as the sun is shining, you can use a solar oven to cook – spring, summer fall or winter! 

There’s a more complete list of solar cooking recipes following this post. But I use my solar oven to make:

• • • • Gluten Free Sweet Potato Brownies

      • BBQ pork

      • Baked bread

      • ‘Boiled’ whole eggs (right in their cardboard carton!)

      • Baked potatoes 

Use Solar Energy For FREE!

There are lots of ways for us to use this free resource all year long!  What are some of your favorite ways?

~TxH~

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Looking For More Solar-Cooking Recipes?

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Solar Cooked Meat Dishes

• Meatloaf In A Solar Oven
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• Brewing Tea With The Sun

You can see all our SOLAR cooking articles here

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