Budget Buster - Laundry Soap

Anyone nervous about the inflation issues that are being predicted?  I am.  We have been planning ahead just to be on the safe side.  One thing we are thinking about it is how to do things on a leaner budget.  Laundry soap was one of the first things we thought about.  My mom and sister have been making their own laundry soap and they inspired me to give it a try.  So I thought I would look into the homemade laundry soap issue.  This is what I came up with.

I needed to pick up a few things in order to get started.  I needed a bucket to store the laundry detergent in as well as the ingredients to make the laundry detergent. 

Batch 1:
Bucket - $3.97 + Fels Naptha - $.99 + Borax - $2.99 + Washing Soda - $2.99 = $10.94

• 144 loads of laundry for a little over $.07 per load

Batch 2:
Fels Naptha - $.99 = $.99

• 144 loads of laundry for $.0068 per load

This is not so much an exact calculation of the cost, but more of a break down of your initial investment costs compared to the product you can produce.


So, to get started, you need to grate the Fels Naptha soap.  I grated mine on the largest holes on my cheese grater.  You can see the grater in the background. 

Next, add soap curls and 4 cups of water to a pot on the stove.  Cook over medium low heat until the soap melts completely, stirring occasionally. 

As the soap melts the liquid becomes a pale yellow.  (You can see there are a few more soap shavings in the bottom left that need to melt yet.)

Turn the heat off.  Add the Borax and the Washing Soda to the melted Fels Naptha.  Stir until the Borax and Washing Soda are melted.  The mixture will probably be very thick. 

 
Then pour it into a five gallon bucket. 

Then add enough hot/warm (not boiling) water to fill half of the bucket. 

Give it a good stir until everything combines.  It will not be thick at this point.

Then you add enough cool water to bring the level up to about 4.5 gallon mark.  This is not too technical.  Just guesstimate. 

Give it all one more stir and then cover it with the lid.  You need to wait 24 hours for it to... magically turn into the laundry soap of your dreams. :-)  It will/should settle and thicken. 

A day later, the soap will have settled.  You need to mix it up before you use it or pour some off into a smaller container. 

This is what it looks like after you give it a stir.   

I am turning an old plastic bowl, an old plastic mixing spoon and a orange juice container into permanent laundry soap supplies.

And viola!  You have a lovely container of laundry soap ready to go for just pennies a load.  Give the bottle a shake before you use it each time.

I am just thrilled with my new soap.  We have been using it for a months and so far I am delighted.  Here is the recipe I am using.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Ingredients:

1 Bar Fels-Naptha Soap, Grated
1 Cup Washing Soda
1 Cup Borax

Instructions:

1. On your stove top, place grated soap in a large pan with 16 cups ( 1 gallon ) of water and heat until the soap melts.
2. Add washing soda and borax and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat.
3. Pour 16 cups ( 1 gallon ) hot water into the 5-gallon bucket. Add soap mixture and stir well, then add 2 1/2 gallons of water and stir again until mixed well.
4. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours; it will congeal into a gel.
5. Stir the soap before each use.

Note* Use 1/4 cup per load in high efficiency machines. Use 1/2 cup per load in regular machines.

Note* This is a low-sudsing soap, so you will not see bubbles or suds in the water. The suds aren't what do the cleaning - it's the ingredients!

Note* Amount of ingredients may be adjusted depending on your own preference. For
example, some people prefer to use 1 1/2 cups of borax and washing soda.

Scented Soap: You may scent your laundry soap if desired; use 1/2-1 oz essential oil or fragrance oil. DO NOT use soap scents as they will ruin your batch.

For a printer friendly version of this recipe click here.

Shrimp & Spinach Salad

The sun is moving farther North everyday and we have had a time change. We are getting more sunlight and I am loving it. Winter still has us in it's clutches, but spring is just around the corner...I can tell. I have been trying to prepare for the arrival of spring.  I have made my spring cleaning list. More about that later. I have been thinking and dreaming about gardening as well. I have also started thinking about spring foods. We are starting to get sick of the standard winter fare of soup and stew. Lighter, fresher foods are starting to sound much better than the warm comfort foods of winter.



While I am very ready for spring to get here, there is nothing I can do about the weather.  I thought I would make a spring inspired salade for my lunch today. This is one of my all time favorite lunches. It is so simple and delicious, but it also does not need a pile of summer ingredients to be at it's best. Spinach is good year round these days as well as the avocados. The board of ingredients is perfect for a fresh salade during a time of year when local fresh ingredients are not available.

To start, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Add a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper to the raw shrimp.  Toss the shrimp in the bowl with the oil and seasoning. 




Spread the shrimp out on a cookie sheet and bake it for five minutes in the oven.  Please trust me when I tell you that it is so worth buying raw shrimp and cooking it yourself. 

Now for the dressing.  This recipe makes enough for two salades.  I find it too hard to make a single serving of this dressing, so I make a double batch and keep it in the fridge for another salade the next day.  Add the orange juice concentrate, olive oil, Dijon mustard, a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper to a small bowl.

Then whisk the oil into the dressing.  It should thicken rather quickly.

You are making an emulsification, which is a fancy way of saying you are making a thick dressing.  :-)

The shrimp should be just about done by now.  You are looking for milky white shrimp.  If you overcook shrimp it gets tough, so you almost want a bit of a translucent look...but not grey.  Grey is still raw and you don't want that at all. 

Now we can assemble the salade.  I like grated carrots, diced avocados, green onions and mandarin oranges, but you can use anything you like. 

Just start layering your ingredients onto your spinach.  I start with the grated carrot...

then the avocado....

mandarin oranges...

green onions....

and the shrimp. 

Finally top it all off with the dressing.

I think of this as spring on a plate.  I LOVE this salade.  I hope you enjoy it too.  If you are totally opposed to shrimp, then some bite sized pieces of chicken breast would be a good substitute. 

Shrimp and Spinach Salade

Ingredients:

1 Teaspoon Olive Oil - For the Shrimp
Salt and Pepper
8 Medium Sized Shrimp, Peeled and De-veined
1/4 Avocado, Diced
1/2 Cup Mandarin Orange Segments
1 Green Onion, Sliced
1 Large Carrot, Shredded
1 Tablespoon Thawed Orange Juice Concentrate
1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil - For the Dressing
1 Cup Spinach Leaves

Directions:

1. Pre heat oven to 400°F. Place shrimp on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch each of salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes or until shrimp are no longer opaque.

2. In a small bowl, add orange juice concentrate, Dijon mustard, pinch each of salt and pepper, and two teaspoons of olive oil. Mix vigorously with whisk until dressing is combined.

3. Place spinach on a plate. Add avocado, shredded carrots, sliced green onion, orange segments and cooked shrimp to plate.

4. Pour dressing over salade. Serves 1. Enjoy immediately.

For a printer friendly version of this recipe click here.

I am linking this recipe to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum.

2011 Goals

Look at what I did. I took a huge mess of papers, computer discs, CD's, DVD's, receipts, catalogs, office supplies and turned the chaos into this beautiful display of order and organization. I am so proud of myself. I wish I had taken a before picture so you could see what an awesome job I did.



Okay, I might be more impressed with my project than I should be, but I have been inspired. It also made me think about a few other things...

Fact: I am a busy Mom of four kids, homeschooling one of them, keeping house, cooking for three teenage boys and a hubby as well as blogging and a few other things. :-)

Fact: Some things slide.

Fact: I have a few messes that I need to clean up.

Fact: I want them cleaned up, I just don't want to be the cleaner upper.

Fact: No one is going to do it for me. :-(

Now that we have established a few things, let me show you what I am talking about. Behind door number one...



We have a terrible waste of space here. Yoga mats and three of hubby's coats do not need their own closet. I would like to store extra dishes, napkins, serving dishes, and glasses. I need some storage for things that I use, but not on a daily basis.



I think that his coats can get relocated to his clothing closet. The extra drapes can find a new home too.




Behind door is two is...okay we can't even get to door two. We have a few totes of bed linens that do not have a home. There is also a big box of clothing waiting to be sorted and sent off to a donation center.



Behind the door is actually another waste of space. The clothes on the floor are too big for my daughter yet. The assorted odds and ends do not need a closet of their own. What a mess.




And this is my beloved ribbon. I love ribbon. I have a passion for ribbon. Ribbon makes everything better. The problem is right now it is such a mess that I just don't use it. I either go buy a new spool every time I need ribbon or I do without. I need to organize this. I would like to be able to:

• see the ribbon
• get to it
  
• add more ribbon spools as needed
• store the ribbon in a condensed manner that is user friendly.
  
  

While I am very fortunate to have lots of closet space, I do not have lots of wall space. So anything that I come up with cannot be wall mounted. I think I have established that totes are not working out too well. Any ideas?

Stay tuned for the solutions.

Tea Time

We recently decided to have a special little celebration for our daughter with a tea party which is Alyssa's favorite way to celebrate anything. She is such a special girl and she recently faced a major change in her life. We are so proud of how well she has adjusted and how hard she is working at her new situation.





We wanted to give her a little treat to show her how happy we are with all of her efforts lately. So we planned a tea party for her this weekend. When I asked her what would make her tea party extra special she immediately said that she wanted cucumber sandwiches and she would like to bring her dolls, Gabrielle and Chloe. God Bless little girls. How sweet is that?



Alyssa dressed her dolls up in her two favorite party dresses made especially for her dolls by Nana. Nana makes the most amazing doll clothes ever. I don't know who gets more excited about Alyssa's amazing doll clothes collection...Nana, Alyssa or me.


I found a bouquet of flowers that was perfect for the occasion.





So we all went to work making little treats and decorating. We also spent a little time in the kitchen making a few tea time sandwiches and treats. We had so much fun making the food. It was hilarious to see teenage boys doing their best make dainty little tea sandwiches which we eventually decided to use as tasting samples.





Some of Miss Alyssa's tea time favorites are:

Fruit Salad



Shrimp Salade Sandwiches



Tomato Sandwiches



Egg Salade Sandwiches



Cucumber sandwiches



Radish sandwiches



Also, gillettes. Gillettes have been a family standard for a long time. When I was a little girl, my mother would take the left over bits from a pie crust and put them on a cookie sheet sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. They were baked in the over for a few minutes and out popped flaky goodness. I don't make pie all that often, but I will make a pie crust and roll it out just so we can have our gillettes.



I used the demitasse spoons from my silver set. They are so small and dainty. I thought they were perfect for the occasion.



I have loved cucumber sandwiches ever since I was a young girl. Alyssa loves cucumbers so this sandwich has always been a favorite of hers. The rest of the crew is not crazy about cucumbers, but they sure do enjoy this sandwich. Finding cucumbers at the farmer's market in the summer always means we are having cuke sandwiches for lunch. The board of ingredients below is so simple and fresh.




First lets get some cucumbers sliced for the sandwiches. I use one of these handy little slicers. I don't use a lot of gimmicky gadgets in the kitchen, but this is something I really like. I can get a nice pile of cucumber slices in a matter of a few seconds.




Like this. Please ignore the knife.




Now for the first green onion. They need to be minced finely. I do this by slicing a green onion in half, lengthwise. The each half gets cut in half lengthwise. So basically you are quartering the onion length-wise.




Then you cut them cross wise.




The second green onion is going to be cut on the bias. That means it is going to get sliced at a 45 degree angle. These are going to be garnishes on top of the cucumbers so that people know there is green onion in this little sandwich. So I try to make these as neat and even as possible.




I love little piles of ingredients. Also a side note...I have a cutting board that I use every time I cut onions. Onions, garlic and peppers have a tendency to leave a little flavor behind when they are chopped up. I have a special cutting board just for that purpose. So when I use my regular cutting board to chop up some chocolate it does not become the slightly onion-y, pepper-y and garlic-y chocolate...which would be so gross.




Fresh parsley.




Chop the parsley into small bits.




Now for the bread. We need to cut the crusts off first.




To get a clean cut you will need a bread knife. A bread knife blade is serrated it is rather long. I love my bread knife.




When I am cutting bread into a rectangle, I try to use the sides and bottom of the bread to help me frame the rectangle. I cut the sides and bottom off first.




Then cut the top off and give the bread a diagonal cut to make triangles.




Flip one pile of triangles upside down and line the triangles up to assemble the sandwiches.




To a small bowl add the mayo, salt, pepper, minced green onion and chopped parsley.




Stir it up so it is well combined.




Then neatly spread it on the triangles of bread. I do not go all the way to the edges so that when you pick the little sandwiches up, your fingers stay as clean as possible. But you can do this however you want to.




Then grab a handful of cucumber slices and start putting them on the sandwiches. I usually put three slices on each sandwich, but if you cut different shapes or sizes you may need to adjust accordingly.




Here they are.




Then add two or three slices of green onions on top of the cucumbers to advertise that there is green onions in the sandwich. Also sprinkle some chopped parsley on top to make it pretty.

Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Ingredients:

18 Thin cucumber slices
2 Green onions; 1 finely minced (white part only), 1 finely sliced
Salt and Pepper
1 Teaspoon fresh parsley, finely minced, divided
2 Tablespoons mayonaise
3 Slices of white bread

Directions:

1. Mix mayonnaise, minced green onion, 1/2 teaspoon of parsley, pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper in a small bow.

2. Cut three sliced of bread into 6 triangles.

3. Spread mayo mixture on bread. Put 3 slices of cucumber on each sandwich. Sprinkle sandwiches with remaining parsley and sliced green onions.

4. Makes 6 tea sandwiches. Enjoy.

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