ABCs

This was a fun little project that I just finished. I had been saving baby food jar lids for quite some time now with this project in mind and I must say that I am pleased that I did!

I spray painted the tops of the lids different fun colors and then I took a sharpie and wrote a different letter on each one in upper case and the lower case on the bottom of the lid.

A simple project for teaching ABCs and my daughter loves to play with them! She's not quite old enough to be lining them up to spell words but she recognizes a letter when she sees it and she'll be able to play with these forever :)

And the best thing is, I didn't spend a dime on them (unless you count he spray paint I used, then maybe I spent a dime or two)

Tortillas

We love to make our own tortillas, but it can be a lot of work to make them and roll them out just for one meal. Today I'm going to show you how we have fresh home made tortillas all the time with less work. Take your favorite tortilla recipe and double or triple it. Roll all your tortillas into balls and take out the ones you're using for that meal. Now put the rest on a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer. 

After they freeze for an hour or two put them in a bag and back in the freezer and that's it until you want more. You do have to plan ahead with these (like most totally home made meals) so in the morning on the day you want them, take out however many you want and put them in some kind of airtight container and put the lid on. 

Leave them somewhere warm until its time to make dinner. By this time they should be ready to roll out. I knead mine to make them nice and smooth again and then just roll them out like normal. Simple, easy, and it saves time and money :)

Chocolate milk

Everyone deserves to have chocolate milk sometimes, but that doesn't mean we need to pay 3-4 dollars for a gallon of it! Today I am going to share an awesome recipe with you. To be honest, after drinking this homemade chocolate milk for so long, I don't even like the store bought stuff much. This recipe also has about ten grams less sugar per cup, (I know it's not a huge difference, but it's still less) doesn't have any weird additives, and it costs you the same as a regular gallon of milk.
 *one thing to note is that this needs to sit before you can really drink it, so plan ahead at least 20 min or so*

Here's the recipe:
1/3 C baking cocoa
1 1/2 C sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 gal milk*

I start with a gallon that's less than half full (but make sure you have a full gallon on hand)

mix the cocoa, sugar, and salt together

pour the dry mixture into the mostly empty gallon of milk

add the vanilla

shake well (it will be lumpy, no worries)

now, add more milk until the jug is full.  Shake it again and put it in the fridge.
 It will still be lumpy, but the lumps will dissolve as it settles.

Shake well before each use. We also like to heat ours for Hot Chocolate :)

*if you don't want to use a gallon of milk, you can use 4 C of instant powdered milk and a gallon of water* (I prefer milk)

Laundry soap

So, there's been quite a hype about home made laundry soap- and why not? It's super cheap and if you do it right, it can be super easy and it works really well (I'm a fan at least) come to think of it, even my mom loves it and she's always been rather picky about her laundry soap. So today, am going to share my favorite recipes.
First of all, there are two ways to make it. You need to decide if you want liquid or powder. At first, I made liquid soap, simply because that's what I had been using and I had a container for it but after a while, I changed my mind. I like the powder just as much and it's easier to make and easier to store, so I changed my ways. If you would prefer liquid, you'll find my favorite recipe at thefamilyhomestead.com
For powder soap, there are so many recipes and I just read a bunch of different ones and decided on the mixture that I preferred, so I'm not entirely sure which blog to attribute credit to but here is the super easy recipe that I use:

You need three ingredients: Super washing soda, (NOT the same as baking soda)  Borax, and a bar of soap*.  All of these things can be found at Wal Mart in the laundry isle on a good day (they have been out of stock a lot lately, so when you find it, you might want to stock up!)

Grate about two cups of the bar soap**. I put it all right into the container I intend to store it in.

Now, add 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda (this picture is a double batch) and mix well; I just shake mine up until it looks good.

That's it! Done. Store in an airtight container and use two tablespoons per load. The most time consuming thing will be to grate the soap. Another pro to making your laundry soap is that its really easy to make hypoallergenic, just depending on the bar soap you use and it is just fine to use in high-efficiency washers.

*Most people generally use Fels Naptha or Zote.  These are laundry soap bars and they work wonderfully (they are also awesome to keep on hand for a quick rub into a stain) and you don't need to use as much if you use one of these brands. While these are great choices, you can really use any kind of bar soap that you prefer; some people say that certain brands are better than others, but I don't know that this is true. I love Fels Naptha because it cleans very well, but when I can't find it, I go to Sams or Costco and buy a big package of the cheapest one.

**A lot of people like to use a separate one from the actual kitchen cheese grater, I have a cheap old one that I use.

There you have it, super easy. Again, this is simply my favorite recipe, some people add more borax and soda, and honestly, I often just grate the soap until it looks good instead of measuring it; it's not a very strict or delicate process, so find out what you like best 

Here's the actual recipe:

1 cup borax

1 cup super washing soda

2 cups (or as much or as little as you like) grated bar soap

*update 8/21/13* you can also add a booster like oxiclean or another stain remover. I buy oxiclean at SAMs club for $15 for an 11 lb box and I add about 1/4 cup to each batch of soap

*update 10/25/13* after using the powder soap for a while, I have actually decided that I liked the liquid stuff better so I have switched back to the recipe I found at thefamilyhomestead.com. I just put it in two milk jugs and shake it up every time I use it.