Pioneer Woman

I have been spending lots of time at the pool talking with my friends about couponing and ways to save money. I love leisurely afternoons at the pool where you can enjoy time with friends and actually get to talk while we are watching our kids. I learned this recipe from Kristy May who has been using this for a while.

Anyway, I am not sure if I could go all crazy with the coupon thing because frankly organization is not my strong suit, but I heard about the idea of homemade laundry detergent and I really jumped all over that one. I love that homemade laundry detergent is all natural and has no chemicals like the store-bought kind. I will certainly not miss lugging home those expensive and heavy containers of detergent from Walmart.

So last night I took my supplies and went to my friend Suzanne's house to make our concoction. We had such fun laughing and talking over our grater and Ivory soap bars. We did the math and two batches of detergent is roughly $2 which means that each load is only pennies-a huge savings from the store-bought kind.

This bar of soap is where you start. Suzanne thought it would be hard to find so she ordered it online. We then laughed and realized that our local Walmart less than a mile from her house had it for $1 each. This is the stain fighting agent of the batch.

Here are our supplies. For one batch you need one cup of baking soda, one cup of Borax, one Ivory soap bar and about a fourth of a bar of the Fels-Naptha soap.

First step is to take a grater to a whole bar of Ivory soap. Ivory grates easily and this step did not take long at all. It looks like coconut!

Then we mixed the 1 cup of Borax and the 1 cup of baking soda into the Ivory shavings. I then grated about 1/4 of the bar of Fels-Naptha soap into the mix. I love the smell of that soap!

Truly you could mix those four things up and use it, but we preferred for it to be finer, so we used the food processor.

Viola! My two batches of detergent that will last me forever and cost less than $2!!!! If you look closely you will see some yellow-that is the Fel-Naptha soap-it is yellow and smells so clean and fresh. For each load you use two tablespoons which equals out to a small medicine cup. I cannot wait to see how long this lasts and I will certainly not miss lugging those expensive containers of Tide home! I have done four loads of laundry already and my clothes smell fresh and clean. I am thrilled that we have found a way to save money and cut chemicals out of our laundry room.

While I am getting my pioneer woman on today I thought I would share a great recipe from my grandmother for breakfast treats. My husband LOVES these things and is so happy when he sees the freezer stocked full of these:)

Here are the ingredients-you need a package of plain english muffins, a jar of Old English cheese (or if you cannot find it then a small hunk of velveeta would work) and a pound of sausage.

Cook the sausage thoroughly and then add the Old English cheese. That will make a yummy mixture!

Then slice open your english muffins and lay them out. Scoop a heaping tablespoon of your sausage and cheese mixture onto each muffin.

Here is what it will look like. Then take saran wrap or Press 'n Seal and wrap each one individually and put them in the freezer. When you are ready to enjoy, take off the saran wrap and pop it in the microwave for about a minute and enjoy! Mike can usually eat two of these each morning which means they go fast around here.

Stack these up in your freezer for a quick breakfast with some protein to help keep those bellies full!