The life and times of the Dingy Broad, her man and their passel of short people

I started making my own laundry detergent a year or so ago. I saw an article on it and thought it would be fun. Yes, fun. And it is. For me, anyway. I love me a challenge. And after we got our front loader washing machine, with a family of eight that apparently wears a lot more clothes than one would think, we were spending WAY too much on laundry detergent.

I searched around a bit and the number of recipes I found was overwhelming, but the recipes are divided into two categories: liquid and powder. I choose powder. Why? Most of the liquid recipes just have the same ingredients as the powder detergent, but with a bunch of water added. You have to cook it and keep it in giant buckets, blah blah blah. I don’t have room and I’m lazy and don’t want to spend the time. It just sounds messy. So I use powder.

I think most people would be surprised how much they would save making their own for a few minutes of time every month or few. And my laundry comes just as clean as it always did.  And I control what exactly goes into it as well.

Ingredients:

• 3.1 oz bar Ivory soap or Fels Naptha (Ivory is chosen because it’s all natural and easy to find – Fels naptha is more recommended but you normally have to buy online unless you are very lucky. I use Ivory most of the time)
• 1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
• 1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (some recipes call for half this amount, but I have had luck with a 1:1:1 ratio of soap to borax to washing soda)

First, I shred the soap using a regular shredder. Then I throw that in the food processor for 30 seconds or so. It might start to clump together a bit, but once you start adding the other two ingredients, it all becomes as one. I store mine in a sealed sugar bowl on the washer and the rest in a freezer bag up above. I always give the jar a shake before getting a scoop out.

Useage: I have a front loader and use about 3/4 Tbsp per load, I have read that top loaders can use more like 1 Tbps. Play around with it and if your clothes feel stiff at all after the wash, cut back a bit. Some people add a few drops of essential oil, I’m too cheap for that, plus I do use a scented fabric softener liquid so I felt it was redundant.

My cost per load: ~$ .03!

What’re you paying? If you do a lot of laundry, it can add up FAST as money thrown out the window never to be seen again!

Bottom Line…

Out of pocket spent: $1.58

Received: $11 register rewards (hereafter referred to as RR’s if I forget) to use next time

Well, this could have been oh so much more impressive, but my procrastinator, busy self waited until today to go and almost everything on my list was out of stock. Boo-hoo. For reference, Sunday or early Monday is the best time to go grab the best Walgreen’s deal before the local “me”s go clear them out! Trucks are supposed to restock during the week but I have never gotten the feel for a good schedule of that although I read that other stores do it like clockwork on certain nights.

I will say I love me some Walgreen’s – it varies week by week of course, but almost every week, even without the use of coupons or special finagling, there are items ANYONE can walk in and get for free or close to it, after RRs. Add in coupons and special top secret helpful tips, and they often pay YOU to take it out of the store. But I say just start simple and start getting the items you can for free and cheap if they are something you or someone you know or even someplace you can donate it to can use. Then baby steps up to really LOOTING the store!

(I do need to go back and write some back to basics posts that talk about how register rewards work in general, printable coupons, etc, etc. but if I waited to do those before starting current posts, I would probably never get started. Ask away if something doesn’t make sense or it seems like I left an important fact out of my info!)

But here’s what I ended up with and the breakdown…

* (2) Theraflu Warming Relief 8.3 oz – 2 x $4.00 = $8.00 (sale)
* Sally Hansen Nail Polish – $2.59 (I got this because I had a $5 off ANY Sally Hansen coupon that I knew from reading other blogs would go through as $5.00 off my order even if the product was not $5.00, so I found the cheapest thing that would work for a Christmas stocking stuffer for one of the girls and the rest went towards my other stuff)
* Dentek 55yd Floss – $2.00 (sale)
* Oral B 1-2-3 Toothbrush – $3.00 (sale)
* Herbal Essense Shampoo – $3.00 (sale)

Coupons:
Walgreens Theraflu coupon (found in store): -$4.00
Herbal Essence coupon from i nserts: -$1.00
Register Rewards from last week: -$5.00, -$2.50, -$2.50, -$2.50

Subtotal: $1.08, plus tax on the before-coupons total = $1.85

Register Rewards Received to use next time: (good for 2 weeks) = $11.00

$4.00 from Theraflu
$3.00 from Oral B
$2.00 from Herbal Essence
$2.00 from Dentek

$10.15 profit!

Items on my list but that were out of stock: (all listed in the flyer which can be found online at walgreens.com also)

Emergen-C Booster 2-pack: $3.49 – $3.49 RR = FREE
Robitussin DM To Go: $2.49 – $2.49 RR = FREE
Vaseline Sheer Infusion Lotions : $6.99 – $6.99 RR = FREE
Chapstick Fresh Effects: $2.99 – $2.99 RR = FREE

Now the idea to really take advantage of these deals is to go back multiple times during the week and do the deals all several times each. I try to kind of fly under the radar as much as possible, so unlike some people who will go in and do 10 separate transactions, I only ever do 2 or 3 at the MOST, if it’s not busy and I have one of my nice cashiers on. Here’s the thing though, the whole thing that makes doing RR Deals a little more complicated than it would be. You can use those RRs you earned to pay for anything in the store on your next purchase, EXCEPT if you use them to pay for one of the deals that should spit out another RR, it will NOT if you use that one to pay for it. Hard to explain. But if I went back in and say, bought another Oral B toothbrush, and my total would come to $3.21 or something like that. I would NOT want to pay for that using my $3.00 Oral B RR or else the next one won’t print off. I COULD use the $2.00 Dentek RR or if I had another $3.00 RR from something else, but just not the Oral B one. You can use an RR, but just not one that you want to print off again that transaction.

Go take a look at walgreens.com and skip the coupons, unless you have them, and just go and get some free items (after RR) and close to free (.99 Herbal Essences if you can use it, etc) Next week’s shaping up to be a good week there (people online get the ad scans like a month ahead of time so have tons of time to plan these things – take a look: http://mommysnacks.net/2009/10/walgreens-snack-sale-week-of-october-4/ ) and you should be able to put those RRs to good use!

Hearty, sweet, delicious!

These muffins… mmmm! I know better than to make these when there aren’t alot of kids around, or else I eat WAY too many. They are like a slightly more healthy for you cookie, really, with a bigger serving size. Perfect! They are a little more dense than regular chocolate chip muffins we have made, but I like the difference.  We make them alot during the fall and winter, but today just seemed like the kind of day to do up a batch! You could always healthify them up a little more by substituting applesauce for the oil, which I have read many times makes pretty much no difference in the taste or texture, but we can’t keep applesauce around in this house so I may never know…

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
Yield: ~ 24 muffins

Muffins:

1 1/4 Cups quick cooking oats
1 1/4 Cups milk (reconstituted powdered milk is a perfect, frugal substitution here!)
1 egg
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
3/4 Cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 Cup chopped pecans (original recipe calls for these but we never have them so we skip it)
1 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Crumb Topping:

Easy, and pretty cheap!

Combine oats and milk and allow to stand for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease each cup of one 12-cup muffin tin, or use silicone and skip the greasing. Stir egg, oil, vanilla, 1/2 cup of the brown sugar and chocolate chips (and 1/2 cup of the pecans if using) into the oat and milk mixture. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add oat mixture to flour mixture, stirring until just moist. Fill each cup of one 12-cup muffin tin 2/3 full.  TOPPING: Combine brown sugar (1/2 cup), flour (1/8 cup), ground cinnamon (1/2 tsp), and butter (1 Tbsp) to make the topping. Cut the topping together with a fork until it resembles a coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping on the top of the muffins before baking. Bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes.

(Note: Huge shocker but I got part way through the recipe and realized I was out of baking powder. Fear not,  I made a quick substitution – did you know that 1 cup of self-rising flour = ~ 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 1/2  tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt? So even though it was a little off I just used 1 1/4 cup self rising flour I had and skipped the baking powder and the salt. No problem.)

Note #2: I realize my crumb topping never is very crumbly, maybe because I don’t use real butter or maybe my imprecise-ness of measuring, but in the end it all tastes the same after it melts and bakes.)

House Reviews

Stacy: 9 – I love these, they freeze great also, and just defrost one for 30 seconds or so in the microwave for a quick treat that tastes freshly made! Or thaw them out a batch at a time. But they are great! (Day 2 note, I’ve already eaten too many in the last 12 hours, oops!)

Chris: 10 (ok, he said 1,000,000 – he is new at this LOL) – “These are awesome, I love the taste, you don’t even have to drink milk with them, I like them warm the best as dessert! Can I have another one?”

Well, decided to make this obviously non-vegetarian recipe since I got a deal on a bunch of “fake crab” (fake as in not real crab, but is it like fishy something lol) and we have like a dozen packs of it I got for .25 a pack. And the carnivores in the family like that as a special treat, so used it in this recipe. Well, and of course made alot of tweaks so it’s pretty much unrecognizable from what it started as, so I’ll just bill it as my own… Next time I was advised I should use more Old Bay Seasoning, since everyone who added more to their own bowls said it made a big difference. I couldn’t taste test it as I went along making it, so I decided to err on the side of caution rather than adding too much.

In my opinion, kinda tough to take a good chowder picture, but here's the general idea

Seafood Chowder
4 cups veggie stock/bouillon (or seafood stock if you have it, we didn’t)
(recipe called for 1/4 cup cream sherry but we skipped that)
2 cups milk
1 Tbsp Old Bay (will add more next time)
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp thyme (didn’t have on hand but will try next time)
4 slices bacon, chopped  (we use ready bacon and just crumble it right into pan when called for – if not using either, substitute 1 Tbsp olive oil)
1 lb cooked crab meat (or similar), chopped
3-4 large potatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 lb frozen corn
1/2 lb frozen peas (we skipped)
1 cup 1/2 & 1/2
Salt & pepper to taste.

1. Brown off the bacon bits, if necessary – remove with a slotted spoon to drain.
Heat the stock (along with the sherry if using), milk, herbs and spices.
2. Add in the corn, onion and potatoes. Cook over medium high heat until potatoes are barely tender.
Keep warming that stock, but be careful not to curdle the milk.
3. Add half and half, simmer on low for about 5 minutes.
4. Add in the crab, bacon bits, and peas. Simmer another 5 minutes or until the shrimp and peas are done.

Ratings:

Isaac:  9 – “really, really good!”

Chris: 9 – “I like this alot, let’s make it again”

LJ: 9 – “Was better when we added more Old Bay Seas0ning, very good!”

LJ turns 12 this weekend (Happy birthday, bud!) and decided he wanted something different than the traditional birthday cake this year. We had this cake ball pop recipe bookmarked and it seemed like a good one to try. He’ll also be able to easily take some to school for his classmates. They were simple to do and only a few dollars more than a regular cake and frosting would have been. And so many ideas for creativity!

Cake Ball Pops

1 box cake mix, any flavor

1 tub frosting, any flavor

1 package meltable candy chips or bark, any flavor/color

Any other decorative items, and sucker sticks if you want them with sticks

Prepare the cake according to the package directions, and bake it in a 9 x 13-inch pan. Cover the cake with a dish towel and allow to cool completely. When you’re ready to make the cake balls, begin gently crumbling the cake. Place sections of the cake into a large bowl, 1/4 of the cake at a time and use two forks and just gradually pull the cake apart. When you’re finished, you should have a bunch of very fine cake crumbs. The standard recipe calls for a whole container of icing, but I use about 3/4 of the container.  Keep at it, gently working the mixture together…Until the icing is not longer visible. Even if you use white icing with devil’s food, the white will eventually blend in entirely. Next, roll the mixture into balls – walnut size is good. HINT: If you have a small cookie dough scoop, it makes it really nice. Just scoop the mixture, dispense it into your hand, then hand roll it from there. Next, pop them in the freezer, uncovered, for at least an hour. You’ll want the cake balls to be very firm before coating them. Now, melt the chocolate/candy either slowly in the microwave or in a double broiler. Note: If you want the candy to coat the cake balls more uniformly (i.e. less gloppy) you can thin the chocolate with a little Crisco (vegetable shortening). Here’s where it really helps for the balls to be very frozen and firm; decreases the likelihood of crumbs falling into the melted candy. Insert a stick sideways into each ball. You’ll notice there’s a flattened area that resulted from the cake balls cooling on the pan. Don’t forget that’s there. Now, you can either roll the ball in the candy, or spoon it over the top—whatever’s easier for you. Whichever method you use, be sure to thoroughly coat the bottom of the ball where it meets the stick. Lay them back down onto waxed or parchment paper, paying attention to the flat part (get it against the parchment again.)  They’ll get solid again pretty quick, then you can finish decorating however you like.

We used yellow cake, milk chocolate frosting and yellow vanilla melted candy pieces. Next time I think I’d like to try red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting.

Ratings:

Everyone agreed, these were a 10!

We buy a few .79 Aldi yellow cakes mixes most shopping trips to have on hand for when the need arises for “emergency sweets”. Yeah, we have granola bars we make from scratch and other goodies, but these ones are dead easy and still cheap for the convenience, really. I have it cut out from the paper from at least 20 years ago, from Hints from Heloise (Anyone else used to turn their calculators upside down and spell Heloise, just because she told us to try it lol? OK maybe it was just me then…) Anyway, here ya go, we have used different flavor cake mixes, different add-ins, but the yellow with chocolate chips is our tried and true variety. We cook them on the light side, and in my pics they look like they do when they are first taken out, but I neglected to get a pic of them after they “set” and “fall” a bit and get flatter. But so yummy and moist and sweet! I scoop using my small cookie scoop and I always use my exopat baking sheet, I think I mentioned it before, but it makes the cookies PERFECT, no sticking, no burning, etc.

Cake Mix Cookies
1 box cake mix, any flavor
2 eggs
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
Any add-ins like chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, etc

Preheat over to 350. Mix all ingredients until no lumps remain. Drop by teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheet two inches apart and bake 8-10 minutes (they still look underdone at the time we take them out which is at about 7-8 minutes) LET COOL and set before serving.

Rating

Pretty Much Everyone: 10 – There’s no one immune from these cookies, for as cheap and easy as they are, they are the first things to get eaten everywhere we take them!

A recipe we have had a couple times now and survey says, it’s a keeper! A few of us are salt fiends and the soy sauce helps feed that need, plus we like water chestnuts, they give it a perfect crunch that doesn’t wane even after being baked for close to an hour. The onion soup adds a good flavor too, and the rice and browned spaghetti (we use thin spaghetti as opposed to thin egg noodles and they work fine) are a good combo. The original name is Fair Godmother Rice, once again gently borrowed from our favorite food blog: http://peppertree.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/fairy-godmother-rice/

Fairy Godmother Rice (aka Worms n’ Maggots)

1/2 cup butter (I get away with quite a bit less, just enough to brown up the spaghetti noodles)
5 ounces thin egg noodles, uncooked (we use thin spaghetti broken into pieces)
2 cups uncooked instant rice (we use brown)
2 (1 ounce) packages dry onion soup mix
4 cups vegetable broth
1 (5 ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and sliced
soy sauce to taste (I use probably 5 good shakes of the bottle to the dish and add more to individual servings as applies)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.  Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Brown noodles in the butter. In a large bowl combine browned noodles, rice, soup mix, broth, water chestnuts and soy sauce. Mix well and transfer to prepared casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until liquid has been absorbed and casserole is browned and crispy on top.

Ratings

me – 9.5: I’m one of the salt freaks in the house and this dish makes me very happy. I usually skip whatever the main thing we are eating and just eat a really big bowl of this, and then for breakfast the next day too lol. ‘Nuff said.

LJ: 9 – He says this one is good (he still isn’t typing his own reviews even with his new laptop, what’s up with that?) and he always has 2nds and 3rds. Will probably be bummed there isn’t any left for his afterschool snack when he gets home too.

We got this recipe from our FAVORITE food blog – I think she should quit her day job and just put up multiple posts per day LOL – The Peppertree.  (http://peppertree.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/tortellini-florentine-soup/) We had this saved to try for quite awhile and last night seemed like the perfect night to give it a shot. We made changes all over the place, but still a super simple recipe, pretty cheap, and one we will be making again I reckon! I’ll include the recipe as written with our changes on each line after the original ones. I think I’ll use more “chicken” next time and maybe cut up the spinach leaves into a little smaller pieces but other than that, it’s a keeper!

Tortellini Florentine Soup

1 9-ounce pkg. refrigerated 3-cheese tortellini (we used an 8 oz bag of regular tricolor four cheese tortellini from the pasta isle, not refrigerated)
2 14-ounce cans reduced-sodium chicken broth (We used 3 Cups veggie broth)
1 10-ounce container refrigerated light Alfredo pasta sauce (We used a 16 oz non-refrigerated jar of alfredo sauce)
2 cups shredded deli-roasted chicken (We used 2 Morningstar Farms chicken patties baked and cut into chunks)
1/2 cup oil-packed dried tomato strips, drained (we skipped these but would probably be good if you liked them, even for visual interest)
3 cups lightly packed packaged fresh baby spinach
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, shaved or shredded (optional)

1. In 4-quart Dutch oven cook tortellini according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
2. In the same Dutch oven combine broth and Alfredo sauce. Stir in chicken (and tomato strips). Heat just to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.
3. Add cooked tortellini and spinach to chicken mixture. Cook for 1-2 minutes to heat through and wilt spinach. To serve, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Ratings

Me : 9 – I really like it, it was easy to make and pretty tasty. I added some garlic salt to mine and probably will to all of it next time. Nothign spectacular but just good cheesey comfort food.

LJ: 6 – He is not a big spinach fan, and said it was a little “blah”. But he ate it up. Maybe enxt time he can try some hot sauce or hot salt or pepper flakes in it.

Ike:  9 – *Said he would give it a solid 9 as long as I cut the spinach in smaller pieces next time. This is probably THE pickiest kid in the house so this was high praise from him.

Joel: Declined giving a number but said he would eat it again but it was good but not great. He did pick out all the chicken though as he got his as for some reason he thought I had put real chicken in it and he didn’t want to risk biting into something yucky, but by the time we realized this, his serving was gone, so he never got any with chick’n.

We are quite a cinnamon-y family here. I like my chocolate and all that, but we are all pretty drawn into any cinnamon-sweet. And Lucas is the biggest cinnamon fan of them all, so when I saw these, I knew I had found the idea for his borthday cupcakes this year as he turned the big 1-5. Since we had already had his sister’s birthday celebration 2 nights earlier and were a little traditional cake and ice cream’d out. Ok, not really, but it was a nice change I figured, plus cupcakes easier to send into school and he doesn’t eat ice cream anyway. Crazy kid. Anyhow, these were really, really tasty! I will also include the original frosting recipe that came with them, but we chose the cream cheese version and I am glad we did, how can you go wrong? Recipe found at: http://iheartcuppycakes.com/2008/01/28/sinful-snickerdoodle-cupcakes/

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
1 package plain white cake mix
1 cup whole milk (I used 1% and it was fine)
1 stick of butter, melted
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line your cupcake tin. Place cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Blend for three minutes (stop to scrape once). Pour into pans and bake for 22-25 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 3/4-6 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted (used a little less than 4 cups and I have a confirmed sweet tooth, FYI)
1/2 cup butter, softened, not margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat together cream cheese, butter, cinnamon and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add about half the powdered sugar and beat until mixed well. Then gradually add the remaining powdered sugar until you reach a spreading consistency.

* Sorry, no pic! The ones I took turned out all blurry and guess what, there’s NONE left for me to take another pic with! That should tell ya something!

Rating:

me: 9.5 – What’s not to like about sweet cinnamon cupcakes? And these were very moist and flavorful! The cream cheese frosting was evilly delicious!

LJ: 9 – He said these were awesome, and everyone else agreed too.

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