Homemade laundry detergent – for $3!

This easy DIY recipe will make you enough laundry detergent for 64 loads of laundry! And costs $3. And is done in 5 minutes.
Yes. That's insane. Insanely awesome.

Ingredients:
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1 bar of soap

(yes, a whole box of borax and washing soda costs more. but you only need one cup of each! split it with 4 friends.)

Ok, ready? Gather your ingredients and tools. (you’ll need a grater, bowl, stirring spoon, and one cup measure-er)


                                                                      Get ready for the super hard 4 steps:
                                                                                                                                                                                                    
            1. Grate bar of soap into a bowl                                                                        
                                                                                                                                            2. Pour in one cup of borax

3. Pour in one cup of washing soda

4. Mix for a couple of minutes until all the grated soap breaks up and the mixture looks like regular dry laundry detergent

Steps altogether for homemade laundry detergent:
1. Grate bar of soap into a bowl
2. Pour in one cup of borax
3. Pour in one cup of washing soda
4. Mix for a couple of minutes until all the grated soap breaks up and the mixture looks like regular dry laundry detergent
And that’s it. It’s so easy. Now I feel kinda dumb that I have been buying expensive laundry detergent this long! Oh well. Start saving money now!

I keep mine in an IKEA tupperware. I use one tablespoon per load, maybe 1.5 for huge or extra dirty ones.

And instead of buying fabric softener? Use vinegar. So cheap and it acts as a fabric softener AND a static cling reducer! What! Why am I just now learning all of this….

DIY Dishwasher Detergent

     
Facts about me:
 1. I hate rinsing dishes. I always just put them in the dishwasher with all that food gunk on 'em. What's the point of having a dishwasher if you have to wash the dishes before the dishwasher washes them...?
2. I hate long projects.
3. We eat a lot of food. And have a lot of dirty dishes. I need to save money on dishwasher detergent.

Facts about this project tutorial diy homemade dishwasher detergent whatever thing:
1. One tablespoon of this magic makes my dishes shine... WITHOUT having to wash them before they get washed in the dishwasher.
2. This takes 15 seconds.
3. This is cheap. 4 cents a load or something ridiculous like that. Plus, now that you have borax/washing soda, you can easily make your own laundry detergent! (Or vice versa! If you’ve already made your own laundry detergent, then you already have the ingredients for this!)

So get ready for the super complicated project. You’ll need a lot of paper to write this down:

Step 1: Combine equal parts washing soda and borax in a container. (I used my old detergent container!)
Aaaaaand that’s it. I combined one cup washing soda and one cup borax. Stir. Then, I put one tablespoon in my dishwasher.

Some notes:

-You might need to play with the amounts in your own dishwasher. Every dishwasher is different and has it’s own emotional baggage.
-We add two drops of dish soap each time we put the detergent in the dishwasher. Supposedly that can help with cloudy glasses or something.
-USE VINEGAR AS A RINSE AID! So stinkin’ cheap and it works like a charm. If your dishes have a film or scum, add vinegar to the rinse aid compartment thing.

And check out how clean all my dishes are! So simple.

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe for Bread Machine

Servings: Makes 1 12 inch pizza crust
Serving size: This will depend how you cut and serve it. Please see the nutritional information below then adapt to your serving.
Approximate nutritional information for entire recipe (1 12 inch pizza crust).
Calories: 1145 * Carbs: 22 * Protein: 4 * Fiber: 1

Ingredients:
3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
**Special note** instant yeast and bread machine yeast are the same thing and can be used interchangeably. I found instant yeast in bulk from my local warehouse store so you can get it a lot cheaper than bread machine yeast. However, use what you can find.
Directions:
Step 1: Take the pan out of the bread machine and place all the ingredients into it. Water, honey, and salt go first then the flour. Make a well in the flour and add the yeast. The yeast cannot touch the water or salt or it will die before it gets a chance to work its magic.

Step 2: Place pan into bread machine. Select white dough cycle and press start. After everything is mixed and kneading has begun it will look like this. Go ahead and touch the dough at this point. It should have a sticky feel to it though not so much that it is sticking to your hands. If this happens add a little more flour in about 1 tablespoon at a time. Once the dough is in the rise cycle do not open the machine because this could interfere with the rising process.

Step 3: After the cycle is complete take it out. It will look something like this.

Freezer instructions: At this point you can freeze it or you can use it. Let me go over the freezing instructions first. This recipe is so easy to prepare and then freeze making it so that you will always have pizza dough on hand for pizza night, quick dinners, or even calzones.

To freeze just wrap in plastic wrap then place in a freezer bag and put in the freezer. You may notice it rises a little bit but don’t worry that is normal and will not effect the dough when you go to use it.

Reheating instructions: Take the dough out the day before and let it defrost in the refrigerator or take it out a few hours ahead of time and let it defrost on the counter.

Spray a 12 inch pizza pan ( I have a Wilton pizza panand LOVE it) lightly with cooking spray and form and stretch dough to fit in the pan. I did not have to roll this dough out because it easily stretched to the shape of the pan.

Next put your topping on. We just did basic cheese and turkey pepperoni.

Bake for 18- 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

And here is a picture of a pizza slice so you can see what the dough looks like cooked. YUMMY!

That is it with making your own pizza dough in a bread machine. See nothing to be scared of at all. Only five ingredients, press a couple buttons, then freeze or cook it. Once you start making your own dough I promise you will never go back to store bought.

If you already make your own pizza dough using a bread machine what tips do you have. Also, feel free to share your pizza dough recipes.

Thanks to http://www.skinnymomskitchen.com/recipes/

Grilled Pizza Pockets

Servings: 6 pizza pockets

Serving size: 1 pizza pocket

Approximate nutritional information:

Calories: 307 * Carbs: 43 * Fat: 6 * Protein: 17 * Fiber: 2

 

 

Ingredients:

1 recipe pizza dough (enough for a 12 inch crust pizza)

3/4 cup pizza sauce

1 1/2 cups of mozzarella cheese

16 slices turkey pepperoni

Set your indoor grill to about 375 -400 degrees.

Step 1. Separate the dough into 6 pieces.

Step 2. Form each piece into a circle approximately 7 x 7 inches.

Step 3. On one end of the circle place 1/4 cup of cheese, 2 tablespoons of sauce, and 4 slices of turkey pepperoni. I started and ended with the cheese this way as it melts it forms a barrier between the dough and the sauce.

Step 4. Fold over the dough and pinch it closed all the way around.

Step 5. Grill on each side until dough is cooked all the way through about 5-7 minutes on each side.

Step 6: Remove from grill and rest for about 3 minutes. The inside is very hot so be careful.

*** Please note you can easily make this pizza pocket recipe in an oven. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or so depending on your oven

Make Ahead and Freezer Instructions

The pizza dough can easily be made ahead of time and frozen for this meal. Additionally, these pizza pockets can be made completely and then frozen. After they cool wrap in plastic wrap, store in freezer bag, and place in the freezer.

Reheating Instructions

This pizza pocket can be taken from the freezer and reheated in the microwave. To do so, take out of the plastic wrap, place paper towel around it, and microwave on high for about 2 minutes or so. If you like a crispier crust you can reheat in toaster oven or regular oven at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes or until hot.

Thanks to Skinnymomskitchen.com

easy homemade brown sugar

That picture describes it all. You need:
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of molasses (mine was a heaping tablespoon! If you want dark brown sugar, put in 1.5ish tablespoons.)
And just mix them together! You can just use a fork. It’ll look scary in the beginning and you’ll think that it will never come out right. BUT IT WILL! Just keep mixin. I actually used my kitchen aid mixer and then a fork to get out super small chunks.

And then you’ll have fluffy and fresh brown sugar!

I even did the math – a 2 lb bag of brown sugar costs $1.83
and 2 lbs of white sugar + 2 tbsp of molasses costs $1.32
that’s 50 whole cents I’m saving. woohoo. That money can go towards that helicopter you’ve been eyeing.

Keep it in a sealed container … or just make when you need it for a recipe

Caramel Apple Cheesecake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Time: 56 min

Prep 20 min

Cook 36 min
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 1 (21-ounce) can apple pie filling
• 1 (9-inch) graham cracker crust
• 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup caramel topping
• 12 pecan halves, plus 2 tablespoons chopped pecans (If want them)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Reserve 3/4 cup of the apple filling; set aside. Spoon the remaining filling into the crust. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Add the eggs and mix well. Pour this over the pie filling.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the center of the cake is set. Cool to room temperature.
Mix the reserved pie filling and caramel topping in a small saucepan and heat for about 1 minute, or until spreadable. Spoon the apple-caramel mixture over the top of the cheesecake and spread evenly. Decorate the edge of the cake with pecan halves and sprinkle with chopped pecans. Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve.

Enjoy

Thanks to Paula Deen

Fresh Quinoa Salad

I have a desire for this to be a food blog. SO - sometimes there's just some things I gotta share with you! I eat this dish at least once-ish a week. It's so tasty. And healthy. And easy. And gluten free. And vegan (if you don't put in goat cheese!). And easy to change to your tastes! I named it “fresh quinoa salad”.

Fresh Quinoa Salad Recipe-

Ingredients: (what’s awesome is that you can put whatever you currently have in your kitchen or what fits your taste! I didn’t list any amounts below because it just depends on what you’re wanting.)

Black beans
Corn
Zucchini
Yellow squash
Grape tomatoes
Dry Coleslaw mix (pre-dressing. it’s comes in a bag near the lettuce. it has shredded carrots & broccoli & cabbage)
Green bell pepper
Cooked quinoa (mine was a mix of regular and red quinoa)
Lime juice (I use one whole lime)
Salt, garlic powder, onion flakes
Goat cheese!

Other things that you could put in but I didn’t this time:

Red, orange, or yellow bell pepper
Olive oil
Chicken
Cilantro
Chick peas
Spinach
Onions / Green onions
Avocado!!

Instructions:

Cut all the veggies and mix it all together. No really. That’s it. I just get a massive bowl and put it all the cut up veggies, beans, corn, quinoa, & lime juice. I sprinkle the goat cheese on top. Leave it off and it’s vegan!

Thanks to The Burlap Bag