Chocolate Chip PB cookies. Low carb/THM style!

These cookies are just a quick tweak of my regular white flour choc chip recipe. They can easily be made dairy free using the palm shortening.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies  (S for THM)

2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1 T coconut flour
1/2 cup defatted peanut flour

2 sticks of butter (or 1 cup palm shortening for df)

3/4 cup Erythritol
Stevia to taste

1-2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Dark choc chips (i used about 1 cup for the whole batch)

Cream butter or palm shortening with Erythritol and Stevia. I used NOW brand extract... about 1/4 tsp. Just taste and see what works for you. 
Add eggs and vanilla and cream until light and fluffy. Mix all dry ingredients into the butter mixture, and then add chocolate chips. I like to refrigerate here for a bit to harden up that butter (if using) a bit, but if you are desperate for a cookie now, go ahead and make a dozen right away! 
 
Bake at 325 ish for 8 mins or until golden brown on the bottom. They will continue baking while cooling.

These will make approx 2 1/2 to 3 dozen cookies. 

This recipe is lower carb or an "S" dessert if you are following the Trim, Healthy, Mama Plan.....but I have not figured out the nutritional info for it yet. Leave me a comment if you do figure them out! 

Enjoy! 

3 years must be a record!

I havent blogged here in 3 years. Some things have not changed, and some have. I am almost sure I wont be consistently blogging again, but I am going to try!

I am looking forward to getting some posts back up to share. Soon.

Update on Homemade Soap

I gotta tell you, I am loving the homemade soap that I made with my friend, Kristi.  It really has made a difference in my skin! I can definitely tell that its improving the texture, look, and even clearing it up my skin a bit! I dont need to use anything else on my face, no moisturizer, nothing. I also ran out of soap the other day,while I was in the shower , I grabbed the baby's "natural" baby wash instead to use on my face, and it made my skin tight, itchy and red. Needless to say, I am using homemade soap on all the kids now, instead ;)

Gonna be making some more today and I am sooo excited!
Have a great day :)

Low Carb Noodless Lasagna

I tweaked a few recipes I found online and came up with this. Its really good. You dont even notice the noodles are missing. I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce last week as part of a bulk cooking session because I knew I wanted to make this. I also made one pan with noodles for my family the same night. Add a salad on the side and you have a great low carb meal!

So these pics were taken AFTER I dug into it, so not the best but I wanted you to see what it looks like as opposed to NOT having a picture LOL I made it into layers, just as I would regular lasagna. One layer of meat sauce, one of ricotta mixture.

Recipe: (makes an 8x8 pan)

Ricotta mixture:

15 oz carton of ricotta cheese
2 eggs
approx 4 oz of  mozzarella cheese

Mix all together and set aside.

Meat Sauce:

1lb of ground beef (I use grass fed sirloin)
whatever spaghetti sauce you use and however much you want LOL
Mix those together and put a layer on the bottom of your pan

Next layer with some of the ricotta mixture
and repeatt again with the meat sauce
Add the final layer of ricota and then add about 4 more oz of mozzerella and a bit of parmesan cheese to top it off.

Bake at 350 for about 40-50 mins and let cool a bit before serving. (I let mine overcook a little hence the reason the cheese is a bit dark, but that doesnt bother me.)

This makes generous portions, so can even be frozen in individual servings for meals later. I decided that since I had some busy days ahead of me that I would just leave it out in the fridge to eat for several meals.

Enjoy!

Almond Power Bars

So I found this recipe online the other day and was stokedddd! I haven't shared this here, but I am on a low carb diet, well most of the time, and need to eat in a way that keeps my blood sugar steady. I do fail quite often with this way of eating, but have been trying for the last couple of months to stay on it for the health benefits as well as the obvious- losing weight (lost almost 20 lbs so far!).

One thing that always causes me to slip up is my sweets. Gotta love em', but they don't love me ;) I almost have to have something sweet everyday or its torture. Not really, but close. I am leary of artificial sweetners, but will drink a diet Dr. Pepper if I am so inclined (and the headache that comes after is pretty crucial). I really prefer to eat a natural diet from things that God has made, since I know that is probably the best for me..I mean duh, He is the one who knit me so wonderfully in my mother's womb, so why would I listen to some moron person who tells me to eat foods low in fat, laced in chemicals over a yummy steak? Crazy!

Oh the Almond Power Bars!! YES! They are YUMMY and easy to make! I found the recipe HERE!







So of course, I tweaked the recipe a little, but not really alot...dont think it needed it at all..but I only had butter (*used all my coconut oil on my granola) and used all honey instead of the maple syrup since its lower in carbs per tablespoon.

Here's what mine looked like.....ahhh so good! I am going to cut them in little, tiny pieces and savor one each time I get a craving for something bad. I havent figured the carb content yet, but will update this post when I do. I am also thinking of trying this with peanuts next time because peanut butter and chocolate rocks!




Enjoy!!

Blueberry Cream Cheese Baked French Toast

Can you say that title really fast?

So I am in love with this recipe. I found a couple of baked French Toast recipes online last week after trying to find a solution to my busy Sunday mornings. I cook a big breakfast, since our church service runs into lunch time, but it can be overwhelming to do that plus get 4 kids ready...not to mention that I try to at least shower before church ;)

Anyways, all the recipes sounded good, but some seemed to have too much sugar, some not enough flavor...some too many eggs..you get the idea. So anyways, I concocted something pretty darn good and thought I would share it. This will be made the night before and baked in the morning or you could totally assemble this early on in the day and have for dinner. I'd do it.

So first I made an "Egg Bread" in my bread machine...any kind of bread will do. Just make sure its a heartier type bread. If you want the recipe, leave me a comment and I'll post it for ya.

So take your bread, cut it into cubes and put it into a well oiled or sprayed 13x9 pan like this (just put about half of it in there, your gonna make two layers):

Once you've done that, you add whatever fruit/s you happen to have on hand. My local Sprouts had an awesome deal on blueberries last week, so I stocked up! So after you add the fruit, you just strategically or not so strategically place dollops of cream cheese around.  Then put another layer of your bread and then more fruit and cream cheese till your out of both. I used a pound of blueberries and 8 ounces of cream cheese in mine. You don't have to be that drastic, if you dont wanna  :p

So after you've done that, take 6 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of milk, some vanilla extract we like alot) and a 1/2 cup of maple syrup  (not that yucky high fructose stuff either...reallllll maple syrup or use the other stuff at your own risk ;p) Mix it all up and pour evenly over the bread/ fruit mixture. Smoosh it all down really good into the pan so everything fits.

Stick this in the fridge overnight or for at least 6 hours or so for all the liquids to be sucked up by the bread. Then when you are ready to eat it, stick it into a 350 degree oven covered until the last 10 minutes or so (mine baked for 30-40 mins) so that the maple syrup in the recipe can get the bread sorta carmelized. I sprinkled mine with a bit of cinnamon when I pulled it out of the oven to rest for about 10 mins too.

Pour on a little more syrup and you are ready to go!

Enjoy!!!

And she finally sews something useful....

Yup, I did it. Finally. My machine cooperated and I was actually able to whip something up in a couple of hours today.
I have issues. I get bored and impatient very quickly...especially with crafts but this one was instant gratification. It was very easy to put together, and it helped that I found an excellent tutorial for beginners....this blog really had great step by step directions.  

For those of you who dont know what its called, its a Taggie blanket. This site sells them for a small fortune. I have lots of flannel on hand (for those diapers I am supposed to be sewing) and bought a few yards of coordinating ribbon. The total for this blanket was under $3.00 for me. Seems like a good deal, eh?

And here is the finished product!

Is this for me?

Oh, straight to the mouth, just like everything else when you are 7 months old :)

 Now that is what its for! Thanks, Mom.

Just another thing crossed off my list of to do's for July, but this one was far more rewarding than the rest. The closet just doesnt smile at me the way she does :)

Until next time..

Projects completed so far....

So if you remember, I posted this list in the beginning of July of projects I wanted to complete. I am still working through my list, and actually had another added that I forgot to list-- SOAP MAKING! I have been wanting to do this for a long time now, and just recently got the nerve to do it, thanks to having another friend that is like minded in these sort of endeavors. We had a great time making it today, and I will show the finished product as soon as its cut...but for now, here it is in it's current state...the gel stage:

I can't wait to use it. It contains lots of great oils- olive, coconut, palm and shea butter. There are NO chemicals or anything else added. The next batch we are going to add some essential oils...


Ok, so with only about a week and a half left in the month, here's my updated to do list...the things I have done are crossed off....and a few things were actually added in that will push a couple of my projects over to the next month's to do's...

*Get that garden planted! I dont know exactly how much time we have left to plant anything (as I am not green thumb inclined LOL) but we need to plant something this summer...going to do some searching on this but if anyone who reads this knows if I still have some time or a link to a schedule of things that can be planted in my zone and the dates that plant up until...leave me a comment! (finally got cool enough to plant the garden this past Sunday (the 18th) I am working on getting our projected harvest dates on the calendar also)

*Clean out school room closet- This has been a thorn in my side for a while and I am really looking forward to getting this done.**IN PROCESS I actually went ahead and started cleaning out the WHOLE school room instead..the closet will be done AFTER since moving things around seemed like a better idea :P I am creating a "teaching wall" where our maps, white board, and reference charts will go, as well as a place for a table and our bulletin boards. I'll share pics when I am finished with it.

*Clean out hall closet- I am hoping to convert this from a coat/storage closet to a toy closet. I plan on putting in some shelves and whatever fits in there stays, whatever doesn't, goes!

*Organize toys- see above- This was actually a great project for me...now all the toys are neat and orderly and ready to play with, without being in our school room or in the kids rooms only to be left out and readily accessible. With them put away in the closet, I can easily regulate them ;) This closet goes 3 feet back..so it holds a lot of stuff , and I havent gotten everything in it yet. The board games will all be out of reach of the 2 and 5 yr olds...I am really not liking stepping on monopoly houses ;p

 

*Sew fitted/pre-fold diapers for baby- she is growing out of her prefolds fast and I NEED to get these done this month. I will hopefully have my 2 yr old completely potty trained this month, and with that means saving money since I dont use cloth on him anymore.

**Paint Little Kids room. I have my youngest son moved in with his sister in her cotton candy pink room..nuff said ;)

          ** Sew Taggie Blanket for Baby A



So as of today, I need to finish up the school room...or at least put a big dent in the work in there....organizing books and getting things where I want them in there, and sewing is a big to do. Problem is, I am NOT an experienced seamstress and that will take me a while to figure out...but I have been practicing off and on and think I can get some of it done with no problem...we'll see. Will post pics of any of those completed projects as well!

Have a great day!

Update on Garden Plans!

I just found out that the septic system is on the other side of the house and that its safe to plant in the ground! It was going to be almost impossible for hubby to have time to make planter boxes for me, so I am sooo glad I can go ahead and start working the land to get it ready! We live on an acre and a half, so the septic is a good distance away from where our garden will be :)

Now, to figure out where to put this little precious thing while I do that work?

Any ideas? LOL

Menu Plan Monday

Here's what we are having for dinner this week (I am going to put what *I* am eating in parentheses since I am ditching carbs for a while.

• Monday- Leftover BBQ Ribs/Chicken, Potato Salad, Baked Beans (Grilled chicken salad)

• Tuesday- Shredded Beef Burritos, (Taco Salad)

• Wed- Crockpot chicken, Rice, Zucchini w/cheese

• Thurs- Chinese Chicken and  Fried Rice (mine will be fried cauliflower and veggies w/chicken)

• Fri- Pizza Night! (Mom salad and hot wings)

• Sat- Cheddar Burgers, Salad, Veggies

• Sun- Chicken Soup, Salad, Sandwiches

 Hope to see some other great menus this week!

Add another to the list..

See all those toys next to Baby A? See what she's playing with INSTEAD of those cute, colorful toys?

A Tag.

Yup, she'd rather play with, suck on, bite on that interesting little tag. Isn't that the case with every baby?

Guess I'll add  this project  to my list of to do's this month ; )

First Project for the Month of July

This month I plan to work on several projects, and planting a garden is the first on my list. Last year around this time things were much to hectic to get a garden growing (I was just getting over having morning sickness and hubs was trying to hold down the housework for me) but this year we are looking forward to getting something planted!

We actually have waited till now because there has been some apprehension in planting in our ground again. We have a septic system and were not sure of how that works with contamination as far as the leach lines, so we've just been searching into alternative methods instead of taking the chance of having our food be contaminated. We've planted on the land before, so not completely concerned, but thought we'd just use a different method this year while I still look into it.

Thanks to Kristi at Let This Mind Be in You, I learned yesterday that its not too late to plant a garden and now know WHAT we can plant and WHEN! I am hoping to get something in the ground this weekend and then again in Aug for cool weather veggies. Thanks for that info Kristi!

So the goal is to plant these things in July(and I am using SEED not plants, so we'll see if they produce in time!):

   ~Tomatoes (3 kinds- Roma, Beefsteak, and endless summer (cherry).

  ~ Eggplant

   ~Zucchini

   ~Peas

   ~Lima Beans  (my hubs fav- yuck!)

   ~Watermelon (this surprised me, I thought it was way too late..but I guess not!)
 Now whether I use an above ground square foot garden or pots is still undecided. I may just throw the seeds in the air and let them land and plant at will! LOL! THAT would be a real experiment!

Our Fall garden will be much larger (and better planned) and the kids and I will be starting some of the seeds indoors now as an experiment for fun : )

I am hoping we'll have some success, but if not, it won't be too much of a loss since I have some great info now to get us started for many gardens to come :)

Projects for the month of July

                                                         (picture of our garden the summer before last)

Wow, June flew by for us here! We had a birthday (my oldest turned 11), our annual vacation to "The River", and other family happenings. Thankfully, it doesn't seem that July will be as busy as June, so I have scheduled in some projects that I would like to be completed before I start with school things again in August.

Here is my list of things to do/complete in July:

*Get that garden planted! I dont know exactly how much time we have left to plant anything (as I am not green thumb inclined LOL) but we need to plant something this summer...going to do some searching on this but if anyone who reads this knows if I still have some time or a link to a schedule of things that can be planted in my zone and the dates that plant up until...leave me a comment!

*Clean out school room closet- This has been a thorn in my side for a while and I am really looking forward to getting this done.

*Clean out hall closet- I am hoping to convert this from a coat/storage closet to a toy closet. I plan on putting in some shelves and whatever fits in there stays, whatever doesn't, goes!

*Organize toys- see above

*Sew fitted/pre-fold diapers for baby- she is growing out of her prefolds fast and I NEED to get these done this month. I will hopefully have my 2 yr old completely potty trained this month, and with that means saving money since I dont use cloth on him anymore.

**Paint Little Kids room. I have my youngest son moved in with his sister in her cotton candy pink room..nuff said ;)

I really hope to accomplish these things this month so that I can effectively complete the goals and projects I have set for August. As a homeschooling family, the summer months are at a premium when it comes to having extra time to do these sort of things, so I plan to take full advantage of that!

Monthly Cleaning Schedule

So I have been working on our summer schedule, and of course, starting getting ADHD and am revamping our cleaning schedule a bit. I am still having a "room a day" of sorts, but am breaking down what is done in those rooms each week in addition to just basic daily cleaning. Here's what I have done so far (of course if we have something come up I will swap one day for another..but you get the idea) Everything is done in order to be useful for the following week as much as possible..so the deep cleaning will happen before I cook, declutter before I deep clean etc) I will be posting these in more detail through out the month and keeping them on my sidebar (just as soon as I reconfigure my template).


(If there is a week 5 in any month I will spend it doing a project/decorating that room)

Monday- Kitchen Day

• 1st week- Deep Clean (wash outside of cabinets, wipe out insides, clean oven, stovetop, bleach counters, wash floors on hands and knees, etc etc)
• 2nd week- Bulk cooking
• 3rd week- Declutter drawers/cabinets
• 4th week- Organize Fridge/pantry

Tues- Office Day

• 1st week- Menu Plan/Grocery List for the MONTH (divided by week, store etc)
• 2nd week- Organize personal files in filing cabinet
• 3rd week-Organize top of desk/clean out computer inside and out
• 4th week-Organize school files in filing cabinets/get things ready for the following month

Wed- Laundry/Catch up day/Health Food Store (this day is double ad day so I can get 2 weeks of deals..will go twice a month)

• 1st week- Kids Sheets/Organize closet and drawers/put away things outgrown into closet tub/inventory any clothes needed for following season, make laundry detergent, fabric softener
• 2nd week-Our sheets/straighten drawers and closet/put away things seasonally/make a list of things needed for next season.
• 3rd week- Kids sheets, sewing projects for kids, store to buy clothes for kids if needed
• 4th week- our sheets, sewing project for us, store to buy clothes for us if needed

Thurs- Errand Day This will be divided by week as well with activities, appts and such.

Fri- Cleaning Day (this day is for deep cleaning rotating rooms in the house as well as a general cleaning of the whole house like vacuuming etc but that is on my daily schedule)

• 1st week- Bathroom(we do a daily wipe down as well as a weekly cleaning of floors and tub) this includes walls being cleaned, floors on hands and knees, wash shower curtains, rugs, windows, decluttering cabinets, linen closet in hall
• 2nd week- All Bedrooms Dust, wipe walls, etc etc..basic deep cleaning of rooms
• 3rd week- Family Room/Dining room/living room Deep clean all surfaces, vacuum couches, dust walls, wash windows, de clutter any surfaces, put things back where they belong
• 4th week- School room/entry way/porch /dust, sanitize surfaces/bookshelves, vacuum cobwebs/corners, clean windows, prepare new bulletin board for following month, put away supplies for next month, organize work done for month, sweep entry, wash door in entry and floors, sweep porch, cut any plants overgrowing.

Saturday- School Planning/Garden day/Misc

• 1st week- (depending on pay period)Yard sales, Big Grocery Shopping, ,Car clean out (inside), weed garden, plant new seed or plants, sewing projects..
• 2nd week- Big Grocery shopping Or Car Wash (outside), weed garden, sewing projects..
• 3rd week- Clean out car inside, Baking Day
• 4th week- Car washed outside, School planning, school room decorating (adding bulletin boards, new art projects done and hung)

So this is just a rough draft of how I would like things to go, will get more detailed as I figure it out. I am needing to have things a bit more orderly with my time out of the house for errands and within the house for our new school year.

It's getting hot outside, so my menu will now start reflecting that. Long gone are the days where soups and stew sounds good...bring on the salads, BBQ, and sandwiches!



Here's what we are having this week:
Monday- Pizza, Hot Wings, Breadsticks, Salad

Tuesday- Taco Salads w/shredded beef, HM refried beans

Wednesday- Grilled Chicken over linguine w/ olive oil, parmesan, broccoli, salad

Thursday- Chili (made in the crockpot) w/ homemade cornbread

Friday- Grilled Cheeseburgers, potato wedges


For more menu planning ideas, visit Organized Junkie here.

Happy Menu Planning!

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

My kids are chocolate milk freaks..they love the stuff! I like to buy the Trader Joe's brand because it doesnt have any questionable ingredients, but its expensive and its far from my house. One day we ran out, so I made some homemade and it is really good! Once its sat in the refrigerator overnight the consistency is really close to store bought...here are the ingredients:

Just mix the first first 4 ingredients in a saucepan till its bubbly and starts getting thicker, like a syrup...but do it on low or that stuff will burn you and make a mess on your stove! Once its done, add your vanilla and put it into a container of some sort. I used a jar from some jam that I recycled.

Put into the fridge over night and mix into your milk, pour over ice cream...or however you like to eat chocolate syrup.

Enjoy!

Bulk cooking day...

So much for blogging every day in May..lol...however, I have been very productive outside of this blog. One thing that I have been doing is planning a bulk cooking day. I am learning to eat a more balanced diet, also known as the Insulin Resistance Diet, but its hard when I am in a hurry to make sure that I have a fast protein on hand to eat along with some fruit or whatever carb I happen to grab, so freezer cooking seems to be the answer for me at this time.  Today, I started doing some of my cooking, but since I have a pretty full plate during the day as it is with homeschooling and 4 children, I decided to break down my cooking into chunks. I also have a friend that will be joining me at the end of the month (hopefully!) to share meals with and ideas!


This is what I have done so far this morning:
 
*Stuck 2 lbs of beans into the crockpot this a.m to freeze into 2 cup portions for lunches and to add to dinners.

*Baked 10 lbs of potatoes to shred and dice and stick into freezer bags for those big Sunday morning breakfasts, middle of the week days that Daddy's off work and wants food ;p, and stews, soups, and whatever I might need. Just saves me a lot of time when things are already busy.

*Baked chicken breasts. These will be chopped up and used in things like chicken fried rice, salads, and chicken tacos during the week for lunches for the kids and I.

*Boiled a dozen eggs. Used a few for egg salad sandwiches for lunch today, but the rest will go into the fridge for myself when I need a quick source of protein when I am hungry or needing some for a snack that contains carbs. Also, will be handy when out and about.

Still have left to do:

*Brown Rice. Going to cook a whole bag (think its a lb?) and freeze into half cup portions for individual servings.

* Yogurt- need to make a half gallon today to strain into greek yogurt and will make another half gallon on Wed for more. We go through a lot of yogurt when its strained so I am up to making about a gallon a week. Its really good for a mid day snack when you I am starved and has lots of needed protein.

*Chop up veggies for salads for half the week. I will probably need to go out and buy more produce and milk soon, so will just chop up what I have here now.

All of that is being done in the middle of school, baby nursing, phone calls from hubby etc, so you can tell its simple and easy and isnt taking me a ton of time. I will say that just having these things done will definitely SAVE me more time than it did to make it and that is going to be great.

Have a great Monday!

Eating healthy takes effort.

So to challenge myself even further in the month of May, I decided to give up fast food for the month. Of course, if my hubby wants to stop and grab something, I wont disagree with him, BUT that is such a rare occurrence since he prefers to eat at home that I am not even going to think twice about it. The problem I have is when I am out running errands or have to go to a function like a homeschool group park day. We are starved by the time we leave, so we often pick something up afterwards. Again, this is only an occasional thing, but i have been finding myself doing less planning lately and that means more convenience (and less healthy) foods creep in. I will be allowing for special occasions and such at restaurants...just gonna avoid drive thrus as much as possible ;)

Still havent decided if that will include Starbucks tho. That may be taking it too far. I'll update later on that one ;)

So what do I plan to do to replace this habit? Get into a NEW habit, of course. I am hoping that with a little planning and some ideas I have for a bulk cooking day, this will be a successful goal to meet and something we'll stick to for the long run!

What do you do to avoid eating out? Any good snack ideas that will be quick to grab on a busy day of running errands?

Hope your day is blessed!

Menu Planning

 This post is part of the May challenge that I have given myself.

In order to continue feeding my family good, healthy food- on a budget, I have to menu plan. If I dont menu plan, I run into several problems.

1. I dont have all the ingredients on hand for meals. I end up with pasta, but no tomato sauce.  Salad, but no dressing...you get the idea. I do have a pretty basic list that I work off of for groceries, but since I dont buy a lot of canned things or boxed food, its harder to keep things on hand for later without planning.
2. I'm making less than healthy foods, like hot dogs and fries for dinner, because I am rushing to find something to make that is quick and easy. Not completely unhealthy since we eat only all beef, kosher hot dogs and the fries are homemade, fried in coconut oil, HOWEVER when I make these kinds of foods, my children are less than willing to eat the broccoli I set before them the next night. Nothing wrong with these foods occasionally, but I'd much rather have a roasted organic chicken in my crockpot and some sweet potatoes ready to go...just takes a little planning ahead
3. A lot of food goes to waste. We end up with wilted lettuce because I forgot it was in the fridge, for example. This is one of my main problems and the way I try to remedy it is by cutting (that wont get strange on me) and getting them ready for dinner ahead of time. I have found that cutting up my romaine and spinning it in the salad spinner and then tossing in a ziploc with a paper towel is very time saving on me when I just need to grab a salad for lunch or dinner.

Those are just a few examples off the top of my head of problems that a lack of menu planning have caused here (and recently LOL!) so I am making sure from now on that I stay on top of my menu planning, even if I have to resort to eating the same thing every week to retrain myself back into that habit. Something tells me that my family will help me with this one ;)

So with that said, here's next weeks dinner menu:


~Monday- Chili and cornbread
~Tuesday- Roasted Chicken, Brown Rice, and Green Beans (Make stock on Wed for Thurs dinner)
~Wednesday (Cinco De Mayo)- Cheese Enchiladas, homemade refried beans, Pan Dulce
~Thursday- Crock pot Chicken Noodle Soup, hm dinner rolls, salad
~Friday- Homemade Pizza Night, salad, cookies (we try to bake something on Friday afternoons together)

I will plug this into my Microsoft Works Calendar (been doing this for a few years now) and just keep adding each week's menu to it. After a month, I have a full 30 days worth of menu ideas and just rotate them the following month...the planning is done for me for the most part, and if I decide to do some bulk cooking, It makes it just that much easier.

Have a blessed Monday!

May- A Challenge for myself.

I decided to challenge myself this month. I have gotten into the trap of easy and convenient lately. Of course, I have a new baby, but feeling back into the groove of things and honestly, when you stop doing something (like sticking to a cleaning schedule, or cooking from scratch) its easy to fall into new habits. Unfortunately for me, those haven't been GOOD habits. So I decided to challenge myself. Each day in May, except Sundays, post something (which in my case since I am posting, I must "do" something) that is going to be money saving or healthy for my family. For me, those two things go hand in hand.


So for today's post...

Use Homemade Detergent.

I made some last week after not using it for at least a year and its working great.  Here's the recipe I used: (Its powdered, I prefer it to the gel kind):

Powdered Laundry Detergent (adapted from this recipe)

Use 1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup per load (I use 2 TBSPs usually).

Equipment:
Food processor (optional — you can use a cheese grater)
Large plastic tub or bucket (preferably with a lid — you could also recycle an old cardboard box of detergent)

Ingredients:
2 cups Borax
2 cups washing soda
1 cup baking soda
1 bar soap (I used an Oatmeal soap that smells yummy!)
Essential oil (optional — if the soap is scented, you may not want to add this)

1. Cut the soap up into large chunks with a knife.

2. Throw the chunks into the food processor and blend into a powder (or as close to a powder as possible).

3. In a large plastic tub or bucket, stir together the Borax, washing soda, and baking soda. Be careful not to breathe in the powder while you mix. Let it settle first and then continue stirring.

4. Stir in the grated soap.

5. Stir in drops of essential oil if you like.


I have been using this on our clothes and the baby's cloth diapers(prefolds). I do an extra rinse with vinegar on my diapers, so not worried about build up or anything. I am going to experiment a bit with this recipe and use a different soap such as Dr Bronners and if you have allergies to soaps you can definitely use something better like a homemade soap.

Have a blessed Sunday!