recipe swap

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Homemade Laundry Detergent

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This is not a food recipe, but I wanted to share it anyway. Hope you’re not too disappointed.
 
If you have not tried using homemade laundry detergent, you need to! Not only does it save you lots of money, but it smells good (without all the added perfumes) and it cleans well! I started using homemade detergent on January 1, 2009, and I’m not about to go back. It’s easy to make and even easier to use. Give it a try! I can pretty much guarantee you that you’ll never go back to buying store bought detergent again!
Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent
Ingredients:
  • 4 cups hot water
  • 1 bar Fels-Naptha soap
  • 1 cup washing soda (not baking soda)
  • 1/2 cup Borax
  • 1 clean 5 gallon bucket
  1. Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
  2. Fill a five-gallon bucket half full of HOT tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

    3. Stir well (You can stir it best with a paint stirrer drill attachment. It does an excellent job of mixing everything up.) and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (It will gel.)

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Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per two gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil. (I have not tried this yet because I love the smell of the detergent itself.)

Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons. Top-load machine: 5/8 cup per load (approximately 180 loads). Front-load machine: ¼ cup per load (approx. 640 loads).
**If you cannot find Fels-Naptha bar soap, you could use Ivory, Sunlight, or Zote bars. Don’t use heavily perfumed soaps. I really prefer to use Fels-Naphta (did not like Ivory) and I bought mine (a full case) online here, but you can also buy it buy the bar here. Washing soda and Borax can normally be found in the laundry or cleaning aisle. Just remember that you want WASHING Soda not Baking Soda. I could not find washing soda locally but later found a place to buy it in the future, but I did order that online as well with free shipping!**
Recipe cost works out as follows (prices will vary):
  • 1 bar Fels-Naphtha = $1.37/bar
  • 1 cup washing soda = $6.49 or $0.93/ 1 cup needed per batch (about 7 = 1 cup portions/box)
  • 1/2 cup Borax = $3.66 or $0.19/half cup needed per batch (about 19 = 1/2 cup portions/box)

Total: $2.49/10 GALLONS of detergent (I’ve only used about 1/3 of my 5 gallon bucket in 6 months!!) .

That’s approx. 640 loads for front load (1/4 cup/load) or approx. 180 loads for top load (5/8 cup/load.

That equals out for $0.004/load for front load or $0.0138/load for top load.  I used to use Gain detergent and was paying about $15 for the largest container (cheapest I could find it). This would last me about 6 weeks. I do roughly 10 loads of laundry per week for my family of 5.

Gain Detergent/year: Approx. $135/year or $0.25/load

Homemade detergent/year: $2.49/year or $0.004/load

Savings: $132.51/year or $0.246/load

I have a front load, so this is a HUGE savings for me! Now, instead of adding Clorox 2 or Clorox to really our dirty clothes (anyone with kids knows that there can be quite a few of those) I’ll add about 1/4 extra Borax or Washing Soda directly to the load. This really helps get the really ground in dirt out of the clothes.

I pretreat clothes by pouring a tiny amount of the detergent on the stain itself, rubbing it in with my finger, and letting it set overnight. You can also treat stains by dampening them and rubbing them with Fels-Naptha soap.

If you have hard water, you can also vary the amounts of the Borax and Washing Soda by adding more to the batch of detergent. You can play with these amounts to suite your needs.

I hope you’ll give homemade detergent a try. It’s well worth it! Don’t forget to check out The Grocery Cart Challenge for more great recipes this week! And please remember to check out Life As Mom for more great frugal tips!

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Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

I have been asked to share my alfredo recipe. I hope you won’t be too disappointed when you find out it’s made with Magic Mix. For those of you that don’t know about Crystal at Everyday Food Storage, you need to check it out. She has lots of yummy recipes to make with Magic Mix. It’s great to have on hand. I usually triple the recipe and keep it in a #10 can with a lid in the refrigerator.

Here’s the recipe for the Magic Mix:

Magic Mix

  • 2-1/3 cups dry non-instant powdered milk
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

Combine all ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Using a wire beater attachment, mix ingredients together slowly and gradually increase speed until incorporated. Keep mix tightly covered in refrigerator for up to 3 months.

**I put all my ingredients into the food processor and pulse until mixture is combined (will look like coarse cornmeal). **

Magic Mix White Sauce

  • 2/3 cup magic mix
  • 1 cup water

In a saucepan combine all ingredients. Stir rapidly using a whisk over medial heat until it starts to bubble, remove from heat immediately.

To Make Alfredo Sauce

To ingredients, add:

  • 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
  • 1 Tbs. garlic powder
  • White pepper to taste (can use fresh ground pepper)

Continue with recipe as directed, combining all ingredients in saucepan.

Magic Mix is very versatile. You can use it to make cream soups:

Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

  • 1 4.5 oz. can Mushroom pieces and stems (SAVE THE WATER!)
  • 1/4 C. Water
  • Dash of Onion Salt
  • 1-2 drops Kitchen Bouqet,optional (check the previous video to see what this is)

Combine all ingredients over medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture begins to bubble and thicken. Remove from heat immediately.

**I coarsely chopped my mushrooms and added them back, & I used the juice from the mushrooms as part of the water required. **

**You can make any cream soup that you need with this recipe. **

You can also make Pudding:

Magic Mix Pudding

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup Magic Mix
  • 2-3 Tbs. cocoa (optional)
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 tsp vanilla (don’t add until the end)

Combine dry ingredients in saucepan and mix well. Add water, stir over medium heat until pudding bubbles. Remove from heat and add vanilla and beat. Cover and cool.

Check out Blessed With Grace for more Tempt My Tummy Tuesday!

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Recipe Swap: Homemade Yogurt

Thanks to Stephanie at A Year of Slow Cooking, I decided to give this a try. I’ve made it on the stove before, but I did not have time to stand over it so I thought that I would try this method. I have a 2-quart Crock Pot, so I just halved the recipe. Actually, I used just under 2 quarts of milk. I also added some vanilla extract to the milk since I had plain yogurt.

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The milk will slowly heat in the Crock Pot for about 2-1/2 hours. Mine only took about 2 hours,probably because I don’t have a high & low setting on this one.

After it has heated up to about 130 degrees, turn it off and let it cool down to about 115 degrees. It’s still pretty warm, but not too warm to touch. While this is cooling down, I scooped 1/4 cup of yogurt into a bowl and let it come to room temperature. After the milk had cooled down, I added about 1/2 cup of the warm milk to the yogurt and stirred well. It immediately started to thicken up which is a very good sign! Add this mixture back to the remaining milk in the Crock Pot, stir well, and cover with towels to insulate it. This keeps it from cooling down too quickly.

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Let mixture set for about 6 to 8 hours, or until it starts to thicken up.

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Pour into containers and place in the refrigerator overnight to finish thickening up.

Well, I think I rushed mine. It was setting up very nicely, but I put it in the fridge too quickly. It cooled off quicker than it should have (maybe because it was setting in front of the AC? 😉 ) so I went ahead and put in the fridge. We’ll use this to make smoothies, eat with fruit, etc. I will definitely be doing this again, but next time I’ll place it in a different location and it will NOT go in the fridge before it has set for 8 hours.

Don’t forget to check out the Grocery Cart Challenge for more great recipes!