While you see tourists making trip after trip, carrying supplies for their barbeques, you can sit back and laugh while your solar cooker harnesses the Santa Cruz sunshine for your meal. The best part is that you will barely have to lift a finger to put this cooker together; it can be made with materials most people can find around the house.

Do you have these things?

- a large bucket or pail
- a turkey bag leftover from your nonvegetarian days
- a small metal baking/grilling rack
- a silver reflective car shade
- dark-colored, lidded pot

Besides the food, THAT'S IT! That is all you need to cook a meal.

For complete free instructions, see:
solarcooking.org/windshield-cooker.htm


Not sure what to fix?

Try....

ChapPatti's Santa Cruz Rice and Beans

Ingredients:

*Beans (Black, pinto, kidney or pink.)

*Rice (Brown, please. Longrain for a fluffier product; short grain for more condensed.)

*Onion (at least one), chopped.

*Garlic (how about several good cloves?), mashed.

*Red (cayenne) pepper - to your liking.

*Bragg's Liquid Aminos - at least a 1 T.

*Organic Molasses - at least 2 T.

*Fake Chicken or Vegetable Broth Powder - at least 1 t. for every cup of water used.

*Tomato Paste or Organic Ketchup - at least 2 T. (if you use paste, use more molasses; if you use ketchup, less molasses.)

*Water

*Olive Olive - plenty.

Optional, but potentially fun additions:

* Fresh peppers, such as jalepenos, Anaheim, California - chopped.

* Chipotle peppers - These are smoked hot peppers and they taste delicious in a dish like this. If you use them, omit other peppers. - chopped.

* Fresh herbs, such as (Mexican) Oregano, Cilantro and/or chives - chopped

* Nutritional Yeast - makes it more nutritious and more "yummy". At least 2 T.

* Spike seasoning. 1-2 t. if you like it.

Adjust your quantities based on the size of your pot. Roughly, the beans will expand to at least four times their volume; rice to about 2 1/2 times. That should help you gauge how much you need. Visually, it is nice to have equal amounts of rice and beans, but it will not really affect the taste.

Clean and rinse your beans. Soak the beans overnight or precook the beans before the rice for approximately 45 mins. (more time for a greater quantity; less for less). Add rice and enough liquid for it (more if it looks like the beans need more; they will continue to expand while cooking.) Add all other ingredients. (Onions, garlic and peppers could be sauteed before adding, but it will be fine to add them raw as long as they are chopped finely.) Add plenty of olive oil (at least 2 T.) and stir well.

Cover and cook away! The longer you cook, the better it will be. It could be done as soon as a couple of hours, but 4-5 hours is a more realistic time frame.

Suggested quantities are for a batch that would yield approximately 4 large main dish servings.

Enjoy and share it with your nonvegan friends. Relish their shock when they learn that it was made from completely vegan ingredients using the power of the sun!