Tag: Recipe

Recipes

Homemade Laundry Detergent WOW!

Nicole


A few weeks ago I stumbled across a blog called Why Not Sew?  Erin had a recipe listed for making your own laundry detergent. I was really excited to see her recipe because it was for a small amount only 2 gallons of homemade detergent. Most blogs have you making 5 gallons. I only had enough bottles saved to make 3-4 gallons.  I was able to take her recipe for 2 gallons and turn it into 3 as recommended by Jill from One Good Thing By Jillee.

I can’t tell you how excited I was to give this recipe a try. The reviews were so good and the money you save is so incredible that I knew making the small initial investment could be well worth it.

What made me initially take notice of this recipe was my last shopping trip for laundry detergent. I was almost out so I decided to get another bottle at Wal-Mart. A large bottle of Tide was coming in at almost $18 a bottle at our local grocery store that same bottle was almost $21. WOWOWOWOW that is crazy!! I can go through that bottle in about two weeks.  I know when you see cents you think well that’s not too bad, but it is when you think about how many loads you may do a week or even in a month. I can normally wash 15 loads a week sometimes as many as 20. Add the fabric softener, and any stain fighters to that it can become hefty in a years’ time. I was paying over $500 a year in detergent alone!! With this recipe I would be looking at $35.00 a year for the detergent.
So how does it work?? It was fantastic! Actually I think it works better than the laundry detergent I was using before. My clothes not only smell better but they look cleaner in general. One thing I was noticing before I made this homemade detergent was our towels never really smelled that great. They didn’t smell bad, but they didn’t smell as clean as I would have liked them to be considering you are rubbing them on your clean wet body after a shower. After using the homemade detergent the towels smelled so fresh even my husband said they smelled good. Humm looks like we made the correct decision to switch.

I made a mistake by using a bar of Zote verses a bar of bath soap and ended up with a huge disaster on my hands instead of 3-5 gallons of detergent I ended up with 10 gallons of detergent. I had to run to the hardware store and buy a 5 gallon buckets to make it all work. Unbenounced to me I was actually making the Duggar Family Recipe you know the family with something like 19 kids! HOLY COW! So with that being said I  think I will have enough laundry detergent for almost 1 year costing me about .02 cent per gallon! 

I didn’t add step by step pictures as I made the detergent because I was in a bit of a hurry at my last minute decision to make the detergent at midnight, but I will capture them next time. In the mean time you can see EXCELLENT step by step picture directions by Why Not Sew? CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PIC’s
Ingredients:
  • 1 bar of bath soap ( like Dove or Ivory) If you are looking for a larger quantity visit the Duggar Family (This is the one I ended up using)
  • 1 cup of Borax
  • 1 cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (Not baking soda)
  • 3-1 gallon jugs
  • Large Stew or Gumbo pot
  • 1 cheese grater
  • 1 large spoon
  • 1 funnel
  • Essential Oils (Optional)

Directions: (Click here for picture steps by Erin)

  1. Grate the soap with a cheese grater, then add to a large pot.
  2. To the pot add one gallon of water
  3. Cook until the grated soap melts down and stir well
  4. Add the Borax, and Super Washing Soda, then bring to a bowl continue to stir.
  5. You will notice the detergent coagulating right away
  6. Add additional 2 gallons of cold water to the pot and stir well. 
  7. Divide the detergent between three 1 gallon jugs
  8. *optional* Add 10 drops of essential oils to each gallon, close then gently shake the bottle to mix
Check Out Our Online Recipe Book: www.CafeChatterbox.com

Recipes

Poblano Cheesy Chicken And Rice

Nicole

After perusing the Southern Plate I came across a recipe that caught my eye. I ended up bookmarking it for future use. A few days ago I decided I was going to make it but I forgot to put it in the crockpot and I forgot to pull the chicken breast out of the freezer. Needless to say I wasn’t going to make it…

At the last minute I decided to make an adapted version with the things I had on hand. Instead of making it in the crock pot I made it on the stove top. In the end I realized my recipe wasn’t even close to the Southern Plate’s but it did turn out fantastic. She was certainly my inspiration. This is just incredible!! It’s so easy to make and the flavor is fantastic. I am using the leftover to make enchiladas with!

I highly recommend this recipe for a quick easy inexpensive week night meal. I literally made the entire meal in 30 minutes.


Ingredients:
  • 1-13oz can of chicken drained
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 -8 ounce box  Zatarain’s Yellow Rice Mix,
  • ½ cup cheddar cheese grated
  • 1- 10.5 ounce can cream of poblano soup
  • 1-15 ounce can whole kernel corn, drained

Directions:
  1. In a large pot sauté onion until its tender, remove from pot and set aside. 
  2. In the same pot cook yellow rice according to package directions. 
  3. Once the rice is cooked about 20-25 minutes add onions back into the pot, add drained chicken, cheddar cheese, cream of poblano, and drained corn. 
  4. Mix well and heat all the way through. Once everything is heated through serve immediately.

Adapted from Original Recipe Source


Check Out Our Online Recipe Book: www.CafeChatterbox.com

Recipes

Rice Paper Salad Wraps

Nicole



I always have my eyes open for new and inventive low calorie ways of reinventing the wheel. Meaning how can I serve the same old salad (or whatever) and make it more exciting.  The last thing I want to happen in my low calorie eating is to get bored. Boredom can lead to failure!


A few days ago I was in our international grocery store in the Asian section and came across rice paper. I love Vietnamese spring rolls which are made with rice paper. I got to thinking maybe you could do other things with rice paper too? Rice paper averages about 56 calories a sheet so what the heck I thought let’s give it a try!

My first venture so far into the rice paper trial has been making salad wraps. Make up about 6 cups of salad with all of your favorite salad ingredients including the dressing. Wet your rice paper, and then roll about one cup of salad up in the rice paper making rice paper salad wraps.

The rice paper will stick together sealing the edges. This makes a very fun salad side dish that is also an easy finger food. If you want to leave the dressing off of the salad you can serve it on the side as a dipping sauce. People love to dip! 😉
Rice paper is a fun way to reinvent the same old eating routine and do it in a low calorie way!! As you can see in the picture above my first attempt at wrapping the salad resulted in it being wrapped too loosely. By the time I was finishing my 6th salad wrap they were turning out perfect! Practice makes perfect, or at least close!

Rice paper ideas:
  1. Ham and cheese salad
  2. Julienned Apples slices with light/sugar free caramel sauce
  3. Mixed fruit salad in fat free whip cream

Print Friendly and PDF
Check Out Our Online Recipe Book: www.CafeChatterbox.com

Recipes

Italian Layer Bake

Nicole


I was really excited to try this recipe it looked so good in the picture and seemed easy enough that I new I had to give it a try. I changed the meat up based on what I had on hand. Basically you can use any lunch meat you have I actually used deli chicken verse turkey and I used pepperoni verses the hard salami. 

We all really enjoyed this recipe. It’s very interesting! I think the roasted peppers made it so good. Without the peppers it would have been just OK, but the peppers gave it a very unique and pleasantly surprising pazazz! It was super easy and most things I had on hand to make it work for us. It it a great recipe for a week night meal.
Serves: 6
Ingredients: 
  • 1 (8-ounce) container refrigerated crescent rolls (I used reduced fat)
  • 8 slices (1/2 pound) deli turkey (I used deli chicken)
  • 8 slices (1/2 pound) deli ham
  • 12 slices (1/2 pound) deli hard salami (I used pepperoni)
  • 8 slices (1/2 pound) Swiss cheese (I used mozzarella)
  • 1 (12-ounce) jar roasted peppers, drained (I only used 1 whole pepper)
  • 4 eggs, beaten (I used 6 egg whites)

Instructions: 
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unroll crescent roll dough without separating triangles. Separate dough into 2 squares along center cut line.
  2. Place 1 square of dough into an 8-inch square baking dish; using your fingertips, press dough to fit bottom of dish.
  3. Layer with half of each of turkey, ham, salami, Swiss cheese, and roasted peppers. Pour half of beaten eggs over peppers and repeat with remaining meat, cheese, and peppers.
  4. Place remaining square of dough over peppers. Pour remaining beaten eggs over dough and cover lightly with foil. 
  5. Bake 20 minutes, remove foil, and bake an additional 20 to 22 minutes, or until golden and heated through. Let cool 15 to 20 minutes then cut and serve. 


Original Recipe Source



Check Out Our Online Recipe Book: www.CafeChatterbox.com

Recipes

Mississippi Roast with Au Jus

Nicole

This has quickly become a family favorite. I can’t even begin to tell you just how great this recipe really is. First off its super easy to make because you are simple dropping everything in the crock pot and letting it do all of the work. Second this recipe is do die for! The flavor of the meat along with the sauce it produces is something special. I had a feeling it would be good, but I had no idea it would be this GOOD. 

I was a rock star with my family that night. I don’t think I have ever gotten that many compliments. I ended up serving the roast on toasted white bread then I served the au jus on the side for dipping the sandwich in. My husband said it was the best French dip sandwich he had ever had in his life. I know this recipe has been passed around a few times so I don’t really know who the original poster is, but I do know who I got it from and that is “A perfectly lovely ordinary day.”  If you don’t make this recipe you are truly missing out.

This story does have a heartbreaking end though…. That night after dinner my husband and I were already dreaming of the leftovers for lunch when all of the sudden a 5lb. block of mozzarella cheese hit the covered container containing our delectable dinner and shot it across the kitchen and it broke up and splattered all over the place. I don’t know what made me want to cry more the loss of the fantastic roast, the money that was wasted, the fact that my lunch for the next day the eat was scarfing down as fast as her mouth would move, or the fact that it was going to take me an hour to clean up the mess. *SIGH* I guess we will just HAVE to make it again 😉

Ingredients:
  • Chuck Roast (I used a 4 pound roast any size will work)
  • Hidden Valley ranch dressing
  • McCormick Au Jus mix
  • 1 stick of butter (I used margarine)
  • 5 pepperoncini peppers

Directions:
  1. Add Chuck Roast to the crock pot
  2. Sprinkle Hidden Valley ranch dressing on top of the roast
  3. Sprinkle McCormick Au Jus mix on top of the ranch
  4. Put a stick of butter on top of the au jus
  5. Put about 5 pepperoncini peppers on top. (Find in the pickle section of the store)
  6. Do NOT add water.
  7. Cook in crock pot on low for about 8 hours. (Mine was done in 6 on low)

Take Note: You can discard the pepperoncini peppers when the roast is done if you would like. My husband ate them on his sandwich and loved them.

*The pepperoncini peppers really do send this dish over the top so don’t skip them*
Original Recipe Source

I forgot to add the peppers before I took the picture
Check Out Our Online Recipe Book: www.CafeChatterbox.com