Are you looking for a really cool project to chase away the winter blues? Why not make a solar oven? It is an easy project that you can make, possibly with materials you already have on hand. When spring comes around, you will be ready to set your new solar oven outside and see what you can cook with it!

Making a solar oven is not hard. You need a few simple things such as a two large cardboard boxes that can nest in one another, aluminum foil, black paint, perilite, tape, an oven thermometer and an old window.

Begin by taping the aluminum foil to the inside of both boxes. We used clear tape to do this so we did not cover any of the aluminum foil with dark tape that may have interferred with the solar cooker working well. As you can see from the first photo, over time, the clear tape begins to yellow. We chose to use duck tape on the outside of the box because we thought it would hold better than the clear tape.

Then cut enough one inch strips of cardboard to put every couple of inches inside the bottom of the larger box. Bend these strips so they zigzag, then lay them on their skinny sides in the bottom of the box. What you are doing is creating air space.

Pour in the bag of perilite. You want about an inch of this in the bottom of the box. Sit the smaller box into the bigger one and fill the sides equally with more perilite. Tape the two box flaps together and trim off the excess. You now have your oven assembled.

The next step is to cut a large piece of cardboard the size of the bottom of the smaller box. Cover it with aluminum foil, then paint it black. The black side will face up when it is set in the bottom of the oven and your pans as well as the oven thermometer will sit on top of it.

The old window will go on top of the box to seal it. You can use plexiglass if you prefer.

Your solar oven is now ready to try out. Recipes will be coming soon so keep a watch on this site for them!