Homemade Car Wash Solution

How to Make Your Own Car Wash Solution

A little off the norm here but our car was in desperate need of a little TLC, so I decided instead of trying to cram one more thing in on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon let's hit two birds with one stone and find a car wash solution that I can make and use it for my blog.  Sorry chicken broth ... your time will come tomorrow!

This has been the filth we have been driving around in and I cringed every time I have looked at it but there are only so many hours in a day and something has to get left undone. I wish I could do a better job at keeping our car clean inside and out, but I have decided I really DO NOT like taking the time to do so ... four kids traveling to and from games multiple times a week results in lots and lots of dirt and crumbs! I absolutely love the feeling of a clean car but have realized I am very unmotivated to clean something that doesn't look new when I am finished. In our case, the dirt does a very nice job of camouflaging the imperfections that every car gets after years of being used and washing it all off only brings attention to those imperfections. So between the not so new looking car and the length of time it will actually stay that way because of the number of hours and kids that will occupy it daily ... my satisfaction of all that hard-work is usually short-lived. 

My recipe was nothing fancy and I found some great tips at auto.com.

Homemade Car Wash Solution

1/4 cup of dishing soap

1/4 baking soda

2 tablespoons of borax

2 gallons of water (warm water is best)

I found this mixture to suds up very well and did a good job. However, we drive country roads quite a bit so usually have tar specks all over the back, which I did need a little extra help removing using some bug and tar remover (going to need to look into what I can use that is more natural than this!).

Today's Question: Do you have any suggestions or tips on how to keep up with a clean(er) car?

Homemade French Dressing

How to Make Homemade French Dressing

Requesting a little grace today as you read this ... please look over any typos (I will proofread later today when I have more than 10 minutes!) 

homemade french dressing

Today's inspiration was Monical's french dressing, I am a little embarrassed to admit we buy this by the gallon ... hoping no longer! I started with a basic french dressing recipe from allrecipes.com and the ingredient list from the Monical's french dressing bottle. Here's what we came up with - 

Homemade French Dressing

1 cup sugar

1 cup canola oil (vegetable or olive I am sure would work ... this is what I had on hand)

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 tsp onion powder

Whisk all ingredients until well combine. Pour into container and refrigerate. Makes 2 cups of dressing.

I made two different batches - the first with brown sugar and cider vinegar and the above was my second. I was pleasantly pleased with how similar this was to Monical's french dressing ... it is missing something and I still can't put my finger on it, but when I do I will let you know!

Today's Question: Ranch or French?

Filling the Compost Bin

What to Put in Your Compost Bin

I feel like I am slacking with the last two days being much later than normal for my posts. My compost bin was screaming to get filled and since I knew this would not get done unless I had to write about it, so sorry for the "not too thrilling" post for today. My first thought was this is going to take much longer than I was hoping but I will follow through on this! We spent about an hour and a half cutting, collecting, and dumping ... and sadly enough we are only about half full ... this will have to be a work in progress!

We added fresh lawn clippings (yes, mowing happened today only because I needed more green matter in my bin ;-) ... brownie points for me with the Mr.!), pin needles (we are stocked to our ears with these bad boys), dried leaves (those that some how have still managed to surface after what we thought was pretty thorough raking last fall and this spring), shredded newspaper, ashes from the fireplace (more brownie points!!!), and coffee grounds from this week.

Now that we have a place to dump our compostables we will be adding our eggs shells and cartons, fruit and vegetable peels, hair from all the hair-cutting that happens around here (mostly just the boys), and shredded paper. A few of the things we will be avoiding are anything dairy, fatty or oily, the glossy ads from the newspaper (additional chemicals are added to paper with a glossy finish so will not compost these), or anything animal related.

I love the fact that this helps less of what we use go into the garbage ... I am really not sure where my passion of wasting nothing but I am really enjoying feeling "green"! I know we are doing good when we can make it through a week using only one garbage bag on trash day. Whether it's reuse our sour cream containers and tin cans or drop off at a center, we do our best to recycle as much as possible.

Cost: Nothing

Environmentally Friendly: Absolutely, love reusing things!

Today's Question: What is the number one reused item in your house?

Flavored Sunflower Seeds

How to Flavor Your Own Sunflower Seeds

This was a request from the Mr. since baseball season is in full swing and we are getting our fill of sunflower seeds! As I started looking into this I originally was going to get some raw seeds and start from total scratch. Then I started looking at the ingredients for all the different kind of seed flavors and notice the original seeds ingredients are just sunflower seeds and salt! The next time I try this I will start with raw sunflower seeds (preferably the ones I or a friend have grown), but for now I decided to start with a a bag of salted and roasted seeds. I didn't get too creative with my flavor choices, just went with some of our favorites and what seemed to be the easiest.

bacon             salt & vinegar         barbecue

Homemade BBQ Sunflower Seeds

1 cup of salted and roasted sunflower seeds

1 1/2 tablespoons of water

1 1/2 tablespoons of barbecue seasoning (I used a McCormick Grill Mates Barbecue that I sifted with my mesh colander to removed the larger seasoning pieces)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place seeds in a small bowl. Pour water over and moisten all the seeds. Drain. Sprinkle and coat the seeds with the barbecue seasoning. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and bake for 3-5 minutes or until seeds are dry. Let cool and store in an airtight container or enjoy immediately.

Homemade Salt & Vinegar Sunflower Seeds

1 cup of salted and roasted sunflower seeds

1 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place seeds in a small bowl. Pour vinegar over and moisten all the seeds. Soak for 5 minutes and then drain. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 3-5 minutes or until seeds are dry. Let cool and store in an airtight container or enjoy immediately.

I wish these turned out more vinegary ... will have to tweak this one!

Homemade Bacon Sunflower Seeds

1 cup of salted and roasted sunflower seeds

4 strips of crispy cooked bacon 

1 1/2 tablespoons of water

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Crush bacon in a food processor until fine. Mix crushed bacon and salt and set aside. Place seeds in a small bowl. Pour water over and moisten all the seeds. Drain. Sprinkle and coat with bacon salt mix. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet. Bake for 3-5 minutes or until seeds are dry. Let cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge or enjoy immediately.

The finer the bacon the better it will stick, if you have bacon salt on hand this could be substituted for the real bacon, but if you are trying to cut out unnecessary ingredients check the ingredient list first.

We will be enjoying these at tomorrow's game ... can't wait to get the kiddos feedback (they don't sugar coat anything)!

Cost comparison: Due the fact I used the store bought salted and roasted which are the same as all the other flavors I didn't save any money today, so I guess I can just be pleased with feeding my kids a healthier version of these! When it comes to growing my own and roasting them myself, that's where we will see the savings. 

Today's Question: What's your favorite sunflower seed flavor?

Using Dry Beans

How to Replace Canned Beans with Dry Beans

Beans, beans the musical fruit, the more you eat the more ... well you know. ;-p (sorry couldn't resist!) Black, pinto, northern, kidney, if it is a dry bean this would work, today just happens to be great northern beans. I started last night by following the directions on the bag and did an overnight soak. I am sure glad I notice I had a 2 pound bag and the directions were for 1 pound of beans (Be sure to read those directions!) 

great northern beans after overnight soak

This morning I drained the water and covered the bowl with plastic wrap until I could get back to it this afternoon, I am sure it wouldn't have hurt to soak them longer but I have noticed soaking for too long can sometimes cause the beans to split.  On to cooking them, I found that 1 pound of soaked beans fits just right in a 2.5 qt crock-pot, so you unless you have more than one or a 5 qt you may one to stick with just 1 pound of beans. I have one of those 3 x 2.5 qt crock-pot gizmos which came in very handy today. I guess now I can laugh about having to put a new crock-pot on my Christmas list, thanks to our #2 who decided to be an electrician like is papa and cut some wire one day when he saw the wire cutter and my crock-pot that got left out! Aaaahhh! Let's just say, after the anger subsided, I became very fond of my Dutch oven that was still in its original box from our wedding ... almost 15 years later! Thanks to the individual that gifted that because I LOVE IT; wish I hadn't missed out on so many years of cooking with it. I really would use that for everything but I don't think leaving our oven on all day unattended would be looked upon very highly (hehe) so we have to use the crock-pot every once in a while.

OK, getting back on track. When I got home today, I put my soaked beans in my crock-pot, added the recommended amount of hot water to them, and turned in on low. The directions say to simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours which is what I usually do, but felt the need to figure out the crock-pot way of during this. I would be so up for doing this more regularly if I could throw it in the crock-pot and forget about it! SO, today is the test day ... how long do the beans need to cook in the crock-pot? We are at almost one and half hours right now and after a taste test, we have a WAYS to go! I will keep you posted.

Cost Comparison - 

Dry Bean Cost: 2 pounds of beans will get you about 18 cups of cooked beans, so approximately $0.30 to $0.40 per 2 cups (16 oz) of cooked beans depending on the type of beans

Canned Bean Cost: approximately $0.60 to $1 per 15 oz can depending on type and brand

The nice thing about dry beans, you can buy bulk and keep in the freezer which means it could maybe be even cheaper!

I can see this branching out into ... homemade chili beans, homemade re-fried beans, oh the bean stories we could come up with!

Be sure to check back for updates! Something to remember is cooking times will vary depending on the size of the beans.

Today's Question - What's your go to bean for recipes?

Update 9:15pm - So I cooked them on low for 7 and half hours. One of my crocks was slightly over done, maybe by about 30 minutes and the other one was perfect! I don't usually use these containers to freeze things but decided since I had an abundance of them (and they would be easily accessible for all of you to store up and use as well) I'd give it a shot. The plastic wrap wouldn't be a necessity but I felt it would help keep them sealed better. I am always leery about freezing these types of containers ever since the issue about dioxins came up dealing with reusing and freezing water bottles, but since I have read the dioxin issue was a myth and the bigger issue is the bacteria when reusing so just make sure they are clean. In the past I have used the good old fashion square freezer containers my grandma used. 

great northern beans dated and ready to go in the freezer

Homemade Raspberry Jam

How to Make Homemade Raspberry Jam without Fruit Pectin

Those $1 raspberries were irresistible yesterday, so I am at it again ... Round 2 on jam without fruit pectin. 

I really just tweaked my blackberry jam and am winging it! 100% trial and error. I wasn't pleased with the consistency of the blackberry jam and decided I should cook it for less time. So here's what I tried.

Homemade Raspberry Jam 

6 oz. fresh raspberry, washed and crushed

1/8 cup of water (optional, used to rise seeds when straining)

1/2 cup of sugar

removing the seeds, this is what I had left

Crush raspberries using pastry cutter (or fork).  Place at least half (this amount depends on your seed preference)  in a wire mesh colander (small enough to catch the seeds) over your sauce pan and use a spoon to mash through the colander until no more juice is coming through. Use the water to drizzle and mash, drizzle and mash. We are just wanting to remove as much of the fruit flesh as possible. Add sugar to the sauce pan and heat over high heat. Stir continually watching for it boil. Boil for 3 minutes and remove from heat. Pour into clean jar and refrigerate.

the consistency after a few minutes of cooling

This very well could be an addiction! I will be searching the produce aisle for jam suspects! The thing I love most about this besides eliminating the unnecessary ingredients ... these raspberries will last much longer in our house in jam form. I would have to by at least five of these small containers of raspberries to feed my kiddos!

Seed Starters for the Garden

How to Start Your Garden with Seeds

seed starters using toilet paper rolls ... let's talk about brownie points for recycling also!

Do you know that moment when you have to chuckle at God because you once again realize he knows way more about how to bless you than you could ever even begin to ask for? Welp, I had one of those moments today when I placed my newly planted seeds in my greenhouse! We have lived in our home for almost three years and this greenhouse was here when we moved in. I never in a million years would have thought to even ask for a greenhouse and here I sit dreaming about how this simple greenhouse is going to abundantly bless our family with some fresh produce (and save on groceries) for many years.  I have been looking at this greenhouse (which isn't the prettiest thing in the world) for the past two summers saying, "One of these summers I really need to take advantage of that thing and grow something!" Sure wish it didn't take me as long as it did to make that happen.

I have realized I sometimes over research something to make sure I waste minimal amount of time on mistakes or things I could have done better had I just known. Also, I have realized this thinking has stopped me from following through with a plan because the daunting task is going to require too much effort to get it right the first time! HELLO, this is where you learn from your mistakes silly! ;) Gardening has been one of those, I want those beautiful plants and an abundant amount of produce the first time, how greedy of me!   

SO, I am entering Gardening 101 here and am completely in training mode ... please follow with caution and lots of advice!

We started a couple varieties of tomatoes (some for fresh and most for sauce), cucumbers, zucchini, LOTS of jalapenos, yellow (yes, YELLOW, it is SO GOOD) watermelon, and cantaloupe. Thanks to my oldest who labeled our plants so well! Once the ground warms just a bit more, I will put radishes and a couple strawberry plants in. 

I am absolutely giddy to think about what we will be eating straight from our own backyard!

Today's Question: Who's up for some produce swapping this summer?

Updated 5/11/15: We are making progress ... my mouth is starting to water just thinking about the produce!

Homemade Bread

We've had a busy day between helping get my sister and her family one step closer to getting settled into their home before the baby comes and cleaning up garage sale stuff (it's crazy how you can sell so much but still go home with a car full!).

fresh bread sliced and ready for use

My homemade item today is bread ... lately I have been letting the bread machine (which is a loaner, thanks mom) do all the work! I absolutely love homemade bread and doing it all by hand tastes even better than the bread machine, but the bread machine is a very close second. I learned how to make bread with my sister a good ten years ago when a wonderful lady from her church spent an entire Saturday teaching us the ins-and-outs of bread making AND sent us home with her stash of bread recipes! SO GOOD!

Now bread is one of those things that takes time and I usually don't have it, but I wish I could do it 100% of the time because is tastes so much better and costs WAY less. It takes at most 5 minutes to get the bread machine started and it's done in 2 and a half hours. When I am doing good, I will throw the ingredients in while I am fixing dinner and then it will be finished before bed. For us, each loaf lasts about 3 to 4 days between breakfast and lunches, so a couple days a week is all I have to commit to getting the bread machine going!

Cost Comparison: approximately $0.40 per 32 oz. bread machine loaf VS. $0.85 per 20 oz. Aldi loaf

It comes out to about the same amount of slices since homemade bread is more dense than store bought which makes is more than a 50% discount. When you eat as much bread as we do, this adds up fast! I love the fact if I am not due for a store run, I can throw my ingredients into the bread machine and avoid a trip just for bread. Also, I haven't experiment with the bread machine too much yet, but there is a recipe for bagels, pretzels, and so many other things.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Mix

Home to Make Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Mix

I have one recipe that specifically calls for spaghetti sauce seasoning mix which is my grandma'a Upside-down Pizza. YUM! I'll have to share the recipe in an update when I get a chance, so easy and good! I have forgotten the spaghetti sauce mix packet so many times when picking up items for this recipe and finally got smart and decided to just start making my own. (see update below for recipe)

I'm hoping to use this in the homemade tomato sauce I will be making from the fresh tomatoes soon to be rolling out of my garden! The plan is to can basic sauce and then I can tweak the seasonings however I fancy!

I adapted this recipe from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures because the herb and spice combination sounded really good. 

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Mix

1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 cup dried parsley flakes
4 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons sugar 
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons basil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon sage

Combine all ingredients in a glass jar or container. Use 2 tablespoons per 8 oz of sauce. Heat and simmer for a minimum of 5 minutes. Thin with water as needed. You could use a 6 oz can of tomato paste and add 1 can (6 oz or less) of water instead of 8 oz can of sauce. 

It's been garage sale weekend so  it's been a push to get these in, but I am bound and determined to make a post each day!!

Updated 4/25/15:
Grammy Lou Lou's and Grandpa Kaeb's Upside-Down Pizza

1 lb. ground beef

1/4 cup chopped onion (optional)

1/2 envelope spaghetti sauce mix (1 tablespoon homemade mix)

8 oz. tomato sauce

1 1/2 cup shredded cheese (I have used cheddar, co-jack, and mozzarella, depending what is in the fridge)

1/2 cup sour cream

8 oz. package crescent rolls

2 tablespoon butter, melted

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Brown ground beef and onion. Drain grease. Add spaghetti sauce mix and tomato sauce, heat together until hot. Pour into 9x13" pan. Combine shredded cheese and sour cream and spread over meat mixture. Unroll crescent rolls and lay over mixture. Combine butter and Parmesan cheese and brush onto rolls. Bake at 375 degrees for 18 to 25 minutes.

Tweaks: 

- Do not combine sour cream and cheese, I found this hard to spread evenly over the warm meat. Sprinkle cheese over meat. Add 1/4 cup of heavy cream (or milk) to sour cream and pour over shredded cheese. Then top with rolls and continue to the same.

- Doubling the meat makes it more substantial. Now we just have to make two pans because one doesn't cut it for our family of 6! Two pans does allow for leftovers to send with the Mister for lunch which is a must when dinner planning. :)

Source - Birds of a Feather Cook Together: Urban Steidinger family cookbook, pg. 62

Yes, my grandma's family has their own cookbook! It was dedicated to my late-great-grandparents and is filled with 600+ recipes from all their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren's favorite recipes!

Homemade Sour Cream

Home to Make Homemade Sour Cream

There is a difference between cultured sour cream and sour(ed) cream and today am making sour(ed) cream since I am using buttermilk instead of active milk cultures.

I found a recipe at "Mother Earth News" and followed it using my homemade buttermilk.

Homemade Sour Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup buttermilk (1/4 tablespoon of vinegar topped off with milk and let set for five minutes)

Mix ingredients in desired container, tighten lid, and shake to mix. Loosen the lid. Let sit on the counter for 24 hours or until thick. Refrigerate once thick. Good for one week.

Once I attempt homemade yogurt using active cultures I will probably try cultured sour cream.

Cost Comparison: $1.68 for 10oz. of homemade sour cream VS. $1.29 for 16 oz. Aldi sour cream

Definitely not a cost saver and there really isn't ingredients that I feel like I would need to be cut out from store bought sour cream, but I will try almost anything once (sometimes twice). We will see tomorrow how this will be, be sure to check back for an update!

Updated 4/25/15: It has been 48+ hours since my sour cream has been sitting out and I am sad to admit ... it didn't work. I feel this was most likely my error before putting the recipe I borrowed out-to-pasture and will try again using either 1/4 cup of sour cream or straight vinegar. I think I will try my hand at homemade yogurt first though, especially since I have my sister home now who has been doing yogurt for a while! She also mention homemade ricotta is very easy ... I need to add that to my list.

Updated 4/27/15: So I'm a little embarrassed to say I forgot all about my sour cream that has been sitting on my stove for the last 4 days! And yes I have used my stove everyday!?!? Not sure how I missed it sitting right under my nose for that long, it must have been because I had written it off as a failure. Surprisingly enough the consistency has thickened quite nicely and the visual texture (I have not dared try tasting it yet!) looks perfect. It does have a smell I'm not sure about and I don't know if I will ever get the courage to try it (*gagging*), but it is currently chilling (and maybe growing something) in my fridge. If anything I am getting a good laugh at the fact I have just might be crazy enough to try this heavy whipping cream that has been sitting not refrigerated for four days! What?!?!? 

Updated 4/28/15: I TRIED IT (it was a very small amount and I wouldn't let anybody else try it)! Wasn't terrible and actually tasted very much like the real deal BUT I cannot get over the smell, I'm not sure how to describe it! I will try making this again tweaking my recipe with the other half of my heavy whipping cream and this batch (sad to say) will be going out the door!

Updated 5/17/2015: This past Wednesday when my sister was over to help make yogurt, we started talking about my sour cream. Although it is somewhat embarrassing to admit, I will inform you I still have it ... the smell is gone! I need to do a little research if there is a fermentation or something that takes place which was the cause of the odd smell. We both tried it (you can curl up your nose in disgust if you want) and were pleasantly surprised. I also tried some on my nachos the next day and have had not signs of food poisoning (hehe) and on a side-note, no children were used in the taste testing of this 'soured' cream. I did try my hand at making some more sour cream in the Yogotherm using store bought sour cream instead of the yogurt and it is currently straining in the fridge to make it thicker. At the first taste it doesn't seem as soured but we will see how it tastes on our potatoes and nachos.