The Great Dishwasher Detergent Expieriment!

I like to be frugal. Let me rephrase that... I LOVE to be frugal. Show me a better way to save money and I'm all over it! I even math out purchases on games that I play, such as Farm Town from Face Book. Did you know that if you plant three crops of grapes a day you make more money AND get three times the experience points? Check it out... I swear it's true!

Anyway... I had found a recipe for making detergent for my dishwasher. I thought to myself...Self! What a GREAT idea!! Well, turns out, maybe not so great. By the time we got through the first batch my once clear glasses had taken on a strange milky hue. Bummer dude.

So to the store I went to get more "store soap". (Have you looked at the price of that stuff recently? Yikes!) After a couple of washes, the glasses went back to normal and I walked away a little disappointed, but glad at the same time. Let's face it, no one wants to drink from a glass that looks coated with dried milk! Yuck!

A month rolls by and I'm putting my store soap in the washer like usual. Then I remember that I need to top off my "Jet Dry" dispenser with my white vinegar. (It works just as well and is WAY more frugal!) I ended up over filling it (as usual) and notice that when it hit the spilled over soap... it fizzed....

Being a home schooling Momma I isuspected what that was! Baking soda! My recipe didn't call for baking soda! Off to the store I ran! I was as giddy as a school girl! lol I come home and get to mixing equal parts Borax, washing soda and baking soda. I turned around and... CRAP! There are no dirty glasses to be washed! How'd that happen?? Any other time I'd have to stick my head under the faucet to get a drink! Fine.. I'll fix this! Quick as a cobra I grabbed several glasses and spit on them! (I can't very well put clean dishes in the washer! That would be wasteful!)

I topped off my JD dispenser, added my homemade soap and turned that sucker on!

Oh no.... nope.... that didn't work. Don't try this one ladies, it was a bomb. Now I'll be alternating between this and store bought until Jesus returns! lol Oh well lesson learned I guess!

Are you getting ready for next year??

I am!! I have to. If I waited until fall to start I'd spend WAAAAAYYYY to much and that makes my wallet hurt! I had seen something on a web site earlier in the year to help keep me going through out the year, but then I couldn't remember where I found it. Soooo, I decided to take what I could remember and run with it. This is what I came up with....


This is the front cover of my CHRISTmas notebook. I used a spiral bound note card book. Having started to use it I wish I had used a note card binder instead so I would have a little more flexability.



This page starts my first section.



Our Traditions.....



The next divider looks like this, can you guess what the section is??


Did you guess?? I know you did! It's "people to buy for". I only included a sample of the pages to give you an idea. The first page is a complete list of peeps. Then a couple of pages that look something like this. DH, the kids and Mom each get their own page. The kids pages have a list of those that they get gifts for as well, to help keep track.


Then we come to the next divider, "stuffer stuff"....
Stuffers are my nemasis. First, because they get expensive quickly, and secondly, I usually buy enough to fill 6 of them.



I have a "fabalus" arrangement with my BF where I get her stuff and she gets mine, and then we ship them to each other. I LOVE this!! Each stocking gets it's own page....



The next divider starts my CHRISTmas timeline...



My countdown starts in November...


and goes through the day AFTER CHRISTmas....



The next section is more or less "miscellaneous"...




I've included things not to forget (Santa brings a new tooth brush in our stockings every year). As you can see, I have a line for each type of battery. I just write the number of batteries for each item next to the appropriate type and mark it out when I buy them.


It seems every year I end up with a couple of things I changed my mind about later....


I'm going to add another page for gift ideas. That way if I see something for someone, but have to wait to get it, I can reference back later. It will have the item, price, where I saw it and who I think would enjoy it. I can also take the time to find it elsewhere for less that way! Win, win!

I love this idea and have already implemented it. It looks more daunting a task than it is. Start to finish it only took me about 30 minutes. Wrapping the pages isn't a must, but it makes for great dividers and helps keep the CHRISTmas spirit going. It's the perfect size to fit in my purse so I can keep it with me. I'll never have to try to remember what I've picked up where for whom again!! "Fabalus!!"

Me

Baked Oats

This is another recipe that I got from My Measuring Stick.

The kids LOVE this. It is very filling and usually keeps the whinnies away. Not to mention very healthy!

3 Cups of Oats (or left over cereal)
1/2 Cup Oil (preferably coconut)
1/2 Cup Syrup
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
3 TBSP whey (left from making cream cheese, or water as a substitute)
1 Cup Water
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp (aluminum free) Baking Soda, yep they put metal in your baking soda
1/3 Cup of any dried fruit you have on hand, including raisins (optional)

To Make

• The night before mix all of the ingrediants together and stuff on a shelf in the fridge.

• In the am, preheat the oven to 350, and butter up a loaf pan. Bake it for 35-45 minutes depending on your oven.
• To serve, I cut it into thick slices and slather it with butter. Yummmmm!! My three kids and the loaner baby it an entire loaf, but they are big eaters!

As a note, when it is finished baking, the middle will be solid. If you take it out and it is "runny, pop it back in for five minutes at a time. Enjoy!

Cream Cheese From Yogurt

This is so easy it's scary!! lol All you have to do is make your yogurt, and set aside 1/2 Cup. Get out a tall(ish) container(I use a 2qt piture), a colander (I use a wire one), and either a potato sack, or flour sack. I bought mine at wally world. They were 5 for 5 in the section of dish towels and cloths, and they are washable.

To set up, put out your container, stack the colander on it, and lay the "towel" in it (opened up of course).





Now pour your yogurt into it and let it sit on the counter over night. voile!! Cream Cheese!





See?? Is that easy or what??

Me

Home Made Yogurt

I must tell you that I got the origional recipe from My Measuring Stick (on the right)

INGREDIENTS:

-1/4 cup of store bought, active/live culture, plain yogurt. (This will be your starter. After your first batch of yogurt, you can use 1/2 cup of some of your homemade yogurt as a starter instead.)

-8 cups of whole milk, do not use ultra-pasteurized.

-3/4 Cups dry milk (optional, but it helps thicken your final product. *Thanks Jester)

-1 Cup of Sugar

-What ever frozen/fresh fruits you would like. I buy some fresh and freeze them myself (like bananas).

HOW TO MAKE DELICIOUS YOGURT

1. Pour the milk into a crock pot, and turn the crock pot on low. Leave it alone for two and a half hours.

2. Turn the crock pot off, leave the cover on, and let the milk sit for three hours.

3. Take a cup or two of the warm milk from the crock pot, and put it in a small mixing bowl. Mix in your starter, sugar and your dry milk.

4. Mix the yogurt/warm milk back into your crock pot.

5. Put the lid on the crock pot, then fold and put a heavy bath towel over the crock pot to insulate the leftover heat (leave the crock pot turned off), and go to bed.

6. The next morning, you'll have yogurt waiting for you in the crock pot.

7. Pour a 1/4 C (ish) into a separate container for your next batch, and put the rest in the fridge. You can split it up if you want to, but I just stick my whole crock pot in there. Let the yogurt fully cool down to the fridge temp. After it is nice and cold, ENJOY!!

8. I thaw frozen fruits and then mash them with a potato masher (or a fork). About 1 part fruit to 2 parts yogurt is really yummy!!


I love making my own yogurt! I get around 20 servings. A half gallon of milk costs me $1.88 so it maths out to about 10 cents plus fruit. And I know where it is coming from! WIN WIN For the BigM family!!

**Note: If you mess up somewhere, just start over! Don't waste your starter!!


Me

My Mother Earth Bread

The original recipe for this is called Mother Earth Bread. I have adjusted it quiet a bit to fit my needs, and this is that recipe...

In a small bowl you put in...
1 1/2 C Liquid (I use buttermilk, water or whey work, whey is better)
2/3 C rolled Oats
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C honey
2 TBSP butter

If you can let it sit over night, is is better for you, but it isn't necessary.


After it sits (or you mix it) nuke it for a few seconds at a time until the liquid is warm to the touch, but not hot.














Stir in 1 TBSP yeast (one packet) and let iet it rest for about ten minutes, or until the yeast is bubbly (This is called proofing your yeast)








If you have a free standing mixer that is great! (If you don't, you will need to remove the jewelry from your hands and wrists and get hot!) Add your liquid mixture to your mixing bowl (or a large bowl), and 3 C unbleached or whole wheat flour (the WW is better with if you use buttermilk) Start to mixin'. Do not use any setting past 2 or 3, and you will want to use beater hooks, not regular beaters. I tried this with a hand mixer and regular beaters once... it was quiet a "shocking" experience!













Any way, when it is mixed, touch it. Is it sticky? If it is, and it probably is, sprinkle in some more flour, up to half a cup. Now mix it up with up with your hand. When it is mostly incorporated, stick the bowl back under the hooks and knead it for 5-10 minutes.








To knead dough by hand, set your timer...take the dough out of the bowl, and dump the flour that's left onto the table. Then you fold the dough in half, and smash it all together. Now pick it up and smack it down on the table and fold it the other way, and smash it some more. Keep it up until your timer goes off.

Now, pour a TBSP or so into a smallish bowl, add the dough, and turn it over and around so that it is lightly coated with oil. Cover it with a towel and set it on top of your stove. Turn your stove on to the "warm" position. Let it sit there until it doubles in size.


Now you can punch it so that it deflates, and squish it around a bunch. Shape it to fit your loaf pan. I use a Pampered Chef pan, but you can grease or butter up any pan you want. Yurn off the oven, set your bread in there uncovered, and wait about thirty minutes. After waiting, check its progress, and turn the oven up to 350 degrees. Bake it for 50 minutes and then remove it from the pan immediately to cool. Slice it anyway you want, thick, thin, or super thin (my fav).

Baked Blue Berry French Toast

I wanted to put up the recipe for my yummy BBFT that I posted about earlier.

First, get out a 9X13. Slice your bread about an inch thick and cover the bottom of said pan. (You may want to tear your bread a little and fill in any "big" gaps)

Mix up three eggs, a little sugar ('bout a TBSP), a tsp real vanilla extract, and
2 & 1/4 Cups of reconstituted milk.

Pour you milk mixture over the bread, and then flip each piece over so that it soaks up the milk really well. Sprinkle it with fruit (it doesn't HAVE to be BB, that's just our fav) and fresh home made cream cheese.

Cover it and put it in the fridge over night.

In the morning, preheat your oven to 375 and bake it, uncovered, for 40 minutes.

You can also make a topping to add to it by mixing 1/2 Cup flour, 1/3 C brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 c SOFT butter. (Just let it sit in you microwave over night) Use a pastry blender (or a couple of butter knives held between your knuckles) until you have a crumb mixture and sprinkle that over the top before you put it in. I don't do this, as I am not very awake at 5am, and the kids love it with out as evidenced in the pictures I posted.


I hope ya'll enjoy this as much as we do!