Homemade Dishwashing Detergent

Josh & I decided a little over a month ago that we wanted to do Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.  We are sick of debt.  We bought our house and want to have it just the way we picture it in our heads.  Which will take A LOT of money.  I was spending $10 every 2/3 months on 90 Finish dishwashing tabs.  And that's at the local bargain store, NOT at the grocery store.  Not bad.  But I knew it could be better.  I'm on my third bucket of laundry detergent after a year of making it myself.  I found ingredients to make dishwashing tabs and got to work.  

I spent $11 on my things at Walmart.  I had the ice cube trays at home.  I made two batches, or 56 tabs this go around. 

You use:: 1 cup Kosher Salt, 1 Cup Washing Soda, 1 Cup Baking Soda & 3 Packets of Lemonade Mix.  Mix all of your ingredients into a bowl.  You CAN leave it as a powder OR add 1 cup of water, let it fizz and settle and mash the tabs into the ice cube tray.  Let the tabs dry and harden overnight before putting into the container of your choice.  I chose my now unused candy jar ;)  I have pictures of the process and end result below.  

I will keep you updated to see how far the boxes of soda and salt went.  I'm estimating that the detergent will be around $1.50 for a batch of 56 tabs. 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

So, another thing I thought would help my budget would be making my own detergents.  I saw a bunch of friends posting pictures of their 5 gallon buckets full of detergent that they made for next to nothing.  Last night, I made 5 gallons of laundry detergent based on the Duggar family's recipe.  SUPER easy, smells like heaven & did I mention CHEAP??

First you start out with your ingredients:

 5 gallon bucket with lid (obviously) ($5.00)
4 cups hot tap water
1 bar Fels-Naptha Soap ($1.25)
1/4 cup Borax ($5.00 for the box)
25 drops Lavender Essential oil (optional) ($11.00)
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda** ($1.00 for box)

**If you can't find Washing Soda, I found a way to convert baking soda into washing soda.  You measure out your Baking Soda, pour it into a glass dish & bake for 30 minutes on 400 degrees. It crystalizes & works every bit as well.

Grate Fels-Naptha & add to saucepan with water. Constantly stir over medium low heat until soap dissolves & melts.

Fill 5 gallon bucket halfway full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda & borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top, stir, cover & let sit overnight to thicken.

Stir & fill a used, clean laundry soap dispenser half full with soap & rest of the way with water.  Shake before each use (will gel).

Yields 5 gallons. 
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The bottle I'm going to use to fill with detergent is a 1.75 gallon bottle.  I'm estimating it's gonna save me somewhere in the neighborhood of $100+ because I buy detergent in the large bottles at Sam's and i'll only have to fill it halfway each time.

By the way, I used the Lavender and it smells like heaven.  I loved making this detergent & am looking forward to putting it to use shortly ;)

My 1st Attempt @ Chicken Pot Pie

One of my absolute FAVORITE foods ever is Chicken Pot Pie.

I found a recipe that seemed simple enough.  Again, my food isn't Pinterest quality as far as looks go but was devoured in no time.

1 box refrigerated pie crust (on a Monday I have NO time for made from scratch)
1 1/2 lb rotisserie chicken, shredded
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
3/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 medium potatoes, peeled & diced
3 large carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1/3 cup butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a pot, boil water and add potatoes & carrots. Cook until tender.

Next, in a seperate saucepan, saute onion with butter.

Add garlic & celery, cook until tender.  Then stir in flour, whisk until well-blended.

Slowly add & whisk chicken broth.

Add seasonings & continue to mix.

Add milk & keep on medium heat until you have reached your desired thickness.

Add carrots, potatoes, peas & chicken.

Roll crust into 9 inch pie pan. Add filling & then layer with other piece of crust.

Bake 50 minutes.  You may want to let the pie sit for a few hours to keep it intact when you cut.  I wasn't so patient ;)

Ooey Gooey Bars

Okay, I'll be the first to admit it. Something I tried off Pinterest that looked flawless wasn't so hot looking coming from my kitchen but BOY is it yummy! Anywho, here's the recipe.

Crust::

1 box butter-recipe cake mix

1 egg

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling::

1  8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1  16 oz. box powdered sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Light grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.  In a bowl, combine cake mix, egg & butter with an electric mixer.  Mix well.  Pat into the bottom of prepared pan & set aside.  Still using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth; add eggs & vanilla.  Dump powdered sugar & beat very well.  Reduce the speed of the mixer & slowly pour in the melted butter.  Mix Well.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Pour filling onto cake mixture & spread evenly.  Bake for 40-50 minutes (closer to 50 so it's not too ooey & gooey).  You want the center to be a little gooey, so don't let it stay in too long.  Remove from oven & allow to cool completely.  You can add chocolate & drizzle it on top after cooling for 15 minutes.  Allow to cool for at least an hour & then cut into bars and enjoy!

Homemade Chicken Quesadillas & Hot Salsa

Quesadillas are hands down one of mine & my husband's favorite foods.  But of course, cutting back on our grocery portion of our budget isn't going to allow us to splurge to go eat mexican anymore.  So this week, I got a rotisserie chicken to stretch out over two meals for us (I will also add that this was SUPER easy to make). I decided to try my hand at making homemade quesadillas.  I SUCCEEDED! My hubby loved these more than our local mexican restaurants! And it runs roughly $10 to make 6 of them =)

To make them, I used::

1-1/2 lbs rotisserie chicken
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 tomato, diced
1 onion, diced
1  16 oz tub of goat cheese 
Flour Tortillas

Start by dicing all of your veggies.  Then put them in a frying pan with some EVOO on medium high heat to saute.  While your veggies are on, tear your rotisserie chicken & heat up your goat cheese.  When your veggies are done, make a thin layer of them across your tortilla.  Then make a layer of chicken on top.  And then add your cheese.  I also choose to pour cheese on top of my tortilla once i've folded it up (My name is Amanda & I'm a cheese addict.) Then enjoy ;)

I also made my hubby a tub of homemade hot salsa as an added bonus!

To make my salsa, I use::

1  12 oz jar of hot jalapeno slices, not pickled!

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tsp cumin

1 onion, diced

1 tbsp garlic

Add all of these in your blender, mix & enjoy ;)