Homemade Hand Soap - Update!

Yay!  I finally did it!  Homemade Hand Soap! 

I posted recently about not being able to find the liquid "glycerin" in the recipe which I got from

The Farmer's Nest and she told me I could use soap with glycerin in it.

I found some Dial soap with glycerin~it worked PERFECTLY!!  It also smells really, really good too!

Viola'!! 

She was right-after it sits...it has a "snot like" consistancy!!

Homemade mixes, etc.

After dealing with major health issues for over a year, along with trying to save money, I began a quest to try to make as many things as I can from scratch.

I have collected some very good recipes along the way.  These definitely save  money AND as an added bonus don't have all of the unwanted YUCKY ingredients in them!

Here is a list of recipes that I've tried:
(Click on each one and it will take you to the actual recipe!)

Dry Onion Soup Mix

Dry Ranch Mix

Taco Seasoning - this one is a little spicy for our tastes.

  I have a couple of other recipes I'm going to try.  I'll update as I try them.

Homemade "Cream of Something" Dry Soup Mix

The Mixes, I put in a canning jar with a label, and any instructions on how to use them. 

Homemade Fabric Softener - I store mine in an empty milk jug.

Homemade Laundry Soap - this is amazing.  Seriously.

It lasts a long, long, time.  I made the first batch in February.  I had approx. 1/3 of it left when I made another batch.  It really does get your clothes very clean, even though it doesn't "suds" up!!  My son's girlfriend is now using it, as well as his co-workers at the bank!  GREAT investment!!

Homemade Fabreeze - another AMAZING. 

I bought the ingredients to make this in February, have made it COUNTLESS times (I'm a bit of a Fabreeze freak), and STILL have ingredients left!  I use an empty spray bottle.

Homemade Swiffer Cloth Pads - Ok, not a recipe.

But I thought I'd throw this in there because I made a bunch.  I made mine out of an old towel.  Worked perfectly!

Here is a list of recipes I'm going to try soon:

Liquid Hand Soap - I'm having a heck of a time finding the "glycerin" ingredient!

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk

Homemade Swimmer's Ear Drops - my grandson gets bad earaches after swimming,

so I am going to try this soon!!

Homemade Bread Crumbs 

Chili Seasoning Mix

Hamburger Seasoning Mix

Vegetable Seasoning Mix

Italian Seasoning Mix

Seasoned Salt

Cajun Seasoning Mix

Enjoy!!

Zucchini Bread

Holy Squash!

Look at the size of my Squash & Zucchini!  Now please don't look at the weeds which I desperately need to get rid of.  But I am amazed at the size of my Squash & Zucchini!  It's only June!

Which lead me to thinking....I still have frozen shredded squash and zucchini in the freezer.  From last year.  Maybe a few from the year before too.  So despiste the fact that it's been in the high 90's with a head index of over 100, I thought I'd better get rid of those.  Before the hubby sees them.   So although he doesn't like BAKING going on.  In the summer.  With the air on.  I thought What he doesn't know won't hurt him.  So don't tell him.

This is the best Zucchini Bread recipe I've tried.  The best part??  You can also use Yellow Squash.  Yep.  I've tried.  After doing it, someone told me You can't do that.  Well, I did.  And it worked.  So there!  The best part is you can't tell.  The trick is making sure you drain the zucchini OR yellow squash really well before adding it to your ingredients.  I know this from experience.  Although it will taste the same, it will leave a huge dip down the center of your bread.  Trust me on this.  

Zucchini/Yellow Squash Bread

Ingredients

3 eggs            1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups white sugar        2 cups grated zucchini OR yellow squash

2 teaspoons vanilla extract                3 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon            1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder     1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts-optional

3 T sugar (in addition to the above sugar)

1 t ground cinnamon (in addition to the above cinnamon)

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Spray two 8x4 inch loaf pans with non-stick spray.  Mix the 3 T sugar and 1 t ground cinnamon together.  Lightly sprinkle in the bottom of each of the loaf pans.

Make sure your zucchini or yellow squash is drained really well.  I stick mine in a colander and just let it sit in the sink for a while. 

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini or squash and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

These freeze great too.  To freeze mine:  I wait until they are completely cooled.  Wrap with plastic wrap tightly.  Then wrap with freezer paper OR place inside a gallon sized ziplock bag. 

Frozen Peanut Butter Oreo Pie

I dearly love ALL things Peanut Butter. It's a weakness. Especially when I am trying to diet. But I just had to make this recipe for Father's Day as the kids would be there.

Great excuse, huh?!?

I didn't have all of the ingredients I needed for my Frozen Peanut Butter Pie recipe.

So, per normal, I improvised. What I came up with is JUST as delicious as the original!

FROZEN PEANUT BUTTER OREO PIE

24 Oreo cookies, crushed.

I put mine in a gallon size zip lock bag and crush with the rolling pin. You can also use generic Oreo type cookies. You can also use your food processor for this.

5 T butter, melted.

1 (8 oz) package Cream Cheese, softened

1 c creamy peanut butter

3/4 c sugar

1 T vanilla

1 (8 oz) whipped topping, divided

Mix cookie crumbs and butter. I reserved just a few of the cookie crumbs to sprinkle on top. Press onto bottom and up side of dish. Original recipe calls for a 9 inch pie pan, but I use my square Tupperware dish.

Beat cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Stir in 1 1/2 cups whipped topping. Spoon onto crust. Top with remaining whipped topping. Sprinkle cookie crumbs on top (optional). Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Remove from freezer about 30 min before serving. Let stand at room temp to soften slightly. Cut into squares.

This is a VERY rich pie, so you can get away with cutting the squares fairly small.

Here is the ORIGINAL Peanut Butter Pie Recipe in case you'd like to try that one. They are both amazing! The only difference is the type of cookie used.

FROZEN PEANUT BUTTER PIE

24 peanut butter sandwich cookies, crushed.

I put mine in a gallon size zip lock bag and crush with the rolling pin. You can also use generic Oreo type cookies. You can also use your food processor for this.

5 T butter, melted.

1 (8 oz) package Cream Cheese, softened

1 c creamy peanut butter

3/4 c sugar

1 T vanilla

1 (8 oz) whipped topping, divided

Mix cookie crumbs and butter. I reserved just a few of the cookie crumbs to sprinkle on top.Press onto bottom and up side of dish. Original recipe calls for a 9 inch pie pan, but I use mysquare Tupperware dish.

Beat cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Stir in 1 1/2 cups whipped topping. Spoon onto crust. Top with remaining whipped topping. Sprinkle cookie crumbs on top (optional). Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Remove from freezer about 30 min before serving. Let stand at room temp to soften slightly. Cut into squares.

This is a VERY rich pie, so you can get away with cutting the squares fairly small.

Enjoy!!

Radishes

• Radishes...not too much you can do with them.  Salads, eating them raw.  We were actually getting a bit tired of radishes, so I thought I'd see if there was anything else I could do with them.  Sure enough, I came across several recipes.  This one looked very appealing to me, as I love cooking veggies on the grill.
• 
  
• Here is the original recipe I came across.
• 
  
• 
  
• My "tweaked" version:
• 
  
• Grilled Radishes
•  
• 
  
  Ingredients
  • 20 ounces radishes, sliced
  • 1 t garlic salt
  • 1 t parsley flakes
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 t lemon pepper
  • 1 cube ice
  • non stick cooking spray
  • 
    
  
  
  Directions
  1. Spray non stick cooking spray onto piece of heavy duty aluminum foil, large enough to wrap contents.
  1. Place radishes on foil.  Top with butter, seasonings and ice cube.  Wrap foil up tightly.
  1. Place foil packet on the grill, about Medium heat and cook 20 minutes, or until radishes are tender.

Believe it or not, they were actually quite good and a nice change from raw radishes!  Would love to hear your thoughts if you end up trying them!!  

New Blog!

I've spent the morning creating the new blog for the Babies! I hope you will follow me there too!

Littie Babies

Making babies!

No, not the real kind!  The clay kind!  I am totally obsessed with making clay babies (and monkeys and monsters, etc).  I've had this obsession off and on for about 3 years now, but recently have become totally obsessed!

What I truly find hilarious, is my daughter and husband will come home and see trays of "body parts" lying around and just act as if it is nothing!  Do I have them trained or what?!?

I will be starting another blog soon dedicated to the clay babies.  Hopefully you will join me there also!

Awesome Smoothie!!

I came across this recipe for a Chocolate Banana Smoothie ~ and since I've been "trying" to eat healthier, thought I'd try it. This version was pretty good.

Here is the original recipe:

Chocolate Banana Smoothie

1 cup (8 oz) fat-free plain yogurt, partially frozen.

3/4 c fat-free milk

1 banana-broken into pieces

1 T unsweetened cocoa

3 packets artificial sweetener

Combine yogurt, milk, banana, cocoa and sweetener in blender. Blend until smooth.

Makes approx. 2 1/2 cups

Now, I didn't have any unsweetened cocoa, but I did have some sugar free hot chocolate mix, which I used instead. Worked out fairly well.

To get my yogurt "frozen", I popped it into the freezer the night before. I got it out of the freezer the next morning, and let it sit out for about 20 minutes. It popped right out into the blender! Perfect!!

Now, I've been trying a few variations. All of the fruit varieties I've tried so far have been great!

When using the fruit yogurts, I've omitted the bananas and the cocoa. My favorite, by far, has been the plain vanilla yogurt. It almost takes like a vanilla milkshake! I also prefer using vanilla Soy milk instead of regular milk.

Home made Granola!

Because I am "thrifty", (not cheap..thrifty!) I love making homemade versions of things and saving lots of money by doing so! A while back I came across this version of Granola: Megan's Granola Recipe. I haven't actually done the math to see how much I've saved by making my own versus buying it. However, I do know it lasts much longer than the store bought kind. My husband loves eating it by handfuls right out of the container!

As always, I have to tweak recipes here and there and this is MY variation.



MY GRANOLA

8 cups quick cook oats
1 cup slivered almonds
1 teas. sea salt
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c lite syrup
3/4 c honey
1 c canola oil
2 T ground cinnamon
1 T vanilla extract
2 cups raisins

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment or aluminum foil.

Combine the oats, and almonds in a large bowl. Stir together the salt, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, oil, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to coat. Spread the mixture out evenly on the baking sheets.

Bake in the preheated oven until crispy and toasted, about 20 minutes. Stir once halfway through. Cool, then stir in the raisins before storing in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

It's been a while!

Sadly I realized I had not kept this blog up to date. However, one of my New Year's resolutions was to do that very thing. Since it's only the end of February, I'm not too behind schedule!

One thing I love on a cold winter day like today is COMFORT FOOD! Of course, if it's in a casserole form, than it's even better.

This is a recipe I came up with that is really good on a cold day, and fairly easy too!

CHICKEN NOODLE CASSEROLE
1-12 oz package egg noodles
1-16 oz package California blend frozen veggies
2-10.5 oz cans cream of mushroom soup
Approx. 6 or 7 chicken breast tenderloins-cooked & cubed
Milk
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Prepare egg noodles according to package directions. Drain. In a mixing bowl, add both cans of cream of mushroom soup. Fill 1 of your empty soup cans with milk. Add to mixture. Stir until combined. Mix in noodles, frozen veggies and chicken. Transfer to casserole dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake at 350F for approx. 30 min. Remove from oven and sprinkle cheese over top. Place back in oven and back about another 10 min. or until cheese is melted.




Unfortunately, I took the picture BEFORE I added the cheese, but hopefully you get the idea!