Feeling under-the-weather? Too exhausted to cook something good? Still wanting tasty food? There's a quick solution and its two feet away from a possible frying-related accident: the oven. Thanks to oven recipes, steaming, hot food is now often readily available, and can be reused for an amount of times.

Oven recipes have been around for as long as the oven itself. In 3200 B.C., settlers among the Indus Valley Civilization were already reported to have had ovens in their mud and brick houses. However, the Greeks initially utilized the oven for bread-making, so you could say that the first oven recipe was one for bread, As a result, over seventy different kinds of bread had been developed in Ancient Greece alone. After the Greeks progressed onto making various cakes and pastries, the oven became popular around the world. Nowadays, no kitchen is complete without a standard cardboard box-sized oven, and no food results from it without an oven recipe.

Oven recipes have no clear-cut definition, but naturally they require the usage of an oven. It is often assumed that oven recipes do not involve any other technology used for cooking, but most of the time, that is not the case. One may fry, grill, boil or use any other method of cooking for the ingredients, as long as using an oven is the last step before achieving the final, tasty product. Ovens are used for roasting and heating food; therefore, most oven recipes cover either pastries (most of which are baked) or meat products, such as casseroles.

The highlight of oven recipes is the wide range of food one can produce from just one kind of technology. A common misconception for oven recipes is that they are all difficult to make, as well as time-consuming. When thinking of them, people usually think of cakes, pies, roast beef, and casseroles. However, most do not realize that a lot of them are simple. In fact, some oven recipes include recipes for toast, brownies and even covers food made from leftovers, such as fish and chips. A roast beef may be expensive to cook, but simple toast for breakfast, thanks to the toaster oven, costs less than a dollar to make.

Another advantage to oven recipes is the reusability factor. As mentioned earlier, leftovers are common ingredients for the easiest recipes. Extra beef or pork can just be thrown into a casserole, while other foods can simply be reheated in a microwave oven. If a dish can't be consumed entirely, leaving it in an un-operated oven will keep it safe from ants, and it won't rot quickly. Oven recipes are easy ways to save money, especially when on a tight budget. One of the few disadvantages is that, with leftovers, the quality of food may not be as good as before. Also, ovens require a lot of grease, vegetable oil or butter to operate, and most results of oven recipes are quite oily. However, oven recipes cover their fair share of healthy food. You just have to find the right recipe!