In short — I’ve been loving it!

So much so, in fact, that I tweaked the recipe a bit to make it stretch even farther and I’m loving it still.

For one batch of powder detergent I’m still using the one bar of Fels Naptha, but I doubled the other two ingredients.

Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent Recipe

1. 1 bar Fels Naptha (cost: $1.29)*
2. 1 cup Borax (cost for 76 oz. box: $2.79)**
3. 1 cup Washing Soda (cost for 55 oz. box: $2.05)**

I’m still using 1 Tablespoon per load.

(*Price is from my local Kroger ~ **Price is from my local commissary)

Cost Per Load

According to my calculations, each load costs approximately eight cents. Obviously, that cost can vary based on the price you pay for the ingredients.

How does that compare to the cost per load for the laundry detergent you are currently using? (Or what is your maximum price you will pay for laundry detergent, those of you who are not loyal to a brand but rather buy the best deal based on sales and coupons?)

I came across a great video from Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar via Money Saving Mom showing how to make a gel laundry detergent, for anyone who may be interested. Money Saving Mom’s post, “Four Ways to Save Money on Laundry Detergent” is definitely worth a read as well. And I didn’t wade through the over 200 comments on her post, but her readers gave lots of good tips from what I saw when I skimmed through.

I do know I’m interested in learning how to edit videos like that. Anyone have any pointers? Any (preferably free) video editing software/site they like to use?

To Sum It Up

I will continue making my own laundry detergent for the foreseeable future. It’s working great, and it’s cheap. My only complaint is the work sifting the grated soap. (The actual grating is no big deal.) It’s a real workout! I tried to encourage my 14yo son to lend a hand and pump up his tennis arm at the same time, but even he tuckered out! I made double the amount this last time, so I can go for a stretch now. But I’m on the lookout for a second-hand salad shooter or food processor, as some of you have recommended for fast and easy shredding of the soap bar.

I tweaked the recipe a bit for the homemade dishwasher detergent I’ve been making. It seemed like my glassware and coffee mugs weren’t coming out as clean as they had been, so I doubled the amount of Lemi Shine for each batch of the powder detergent.

Homemade Dishwasher (Powder) Detergent:

I’ve noticed better results after making a batch using two tablespoons of Lemi Shine instead of one. However. I also finally calculated a cost analysis, and when all is said and done, I’m not sure I’m even saving any money!

According to my calculations, using the recipe above and dispensing two tablespoons at a time breaks down to five cents per load.

The Numbers*

• 1 – 76 oz. Box Borax: $2.79
• 1 – 64 oz. Baking Soda: $1.99
• 1 – 12 oz. Lemi Shine: $3.19

*Prices are from my local commissary.

Anyone out there using a homemade recipe for their dishwasher similar to this one? How’s it working for you? Anyone have another tried-and-true dishwasher detergent recipe they’d like to share? The rest of you who don’t make your own dishwasher detergent — how much does your box of powder (or gel) costing you per load?

The last time I went to the commissary, I jotted down the cost of one 75 oz. box of powder Cascade: $4.39. If my calculations are correct, that comes to about six cents per load using the same two tablespoons each time.

Obviously, prices vary per product and from store to store, region to region. But a difference of one cent per load? I’m just not feeling it.

Of course, my numbers could all be wrong. In which case, you numbers’ gurus? Feel free to let me know. I’ve never claimed that math was my thang. right now I’m just looking for someone to give me a reason why I should keep making my own dishwasher detergent instead of switching back to a store brand.

So tomorrow always comes sooner than you think.

Loving the comments and tips and input on cooking whole chickens in the last post! I know I learned some things! Admittedly, that’s not saying much… Ahem.

What do y’all make with the chicken from your whole chicken?

But before we talk chicken, let’s talk chicken stock. I turned around and immediately tried a new (to me) recipe using the five cups of chicken stock that my whole chicken produced.

Black Eyed Peas ~ Crockpot Recipe

• 1 pound dried black eyed peas
• 1 pound sausage link
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced celery
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
  
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

(The original recipe for this came from “A Year of Slow Cooking”)

• Soak your beans overnight. Drain and pick out the undesirables (broken, discolored beans) in the morning.
• Use a 5 to 6 quart crockpot. This will serve about 8 people.
• Dice the veggies, and dump them into your crockpot with the pre-soaked beans. Add sliced sausage. Pour in broth, and stir in Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
• Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for about 6.
• Before serving, use a stick blender to smash up about 1 cup of beans. If you don’t have a stick blender, scoop out 1 cup of beans, blend them in a traditional blender, and add back to the soup. Don’t blend too much—just enough to get the broth thicker and creamy-looking.

The original recipe also called for Kosher salt, which I didn’t have, so I just used regular; and for spicy sausage; as well as Tabasco sauce for taste at the end. I also used one cup of water with the five cups of chicken stock to bring the total to six cups called for in the recipe.

The kids really liked this. Well, except for Peter, the 5yo. But if he had his way he’d eat peanut butter tortillas for every meal (yes, tortillas), so he doesn’t really count.

This was a lot of food. We ate this for two meals — the photo above was actually from the second go-around — and there’s still a large bowl’s worth leftover. It’s also really good with crusty bread.

I would definitely call this a do-over, except that next time I think I’ll just stick with the five cups of chicken stock and not bother to add that extra cup of water. I would have liked just a little thicker consistency, I think.

I could have used a little more pizazz myself, though the flavor was definitely yummy. Perhaps if I’d used spicy sausage as the original recipe called for, or dashed on some Tabasco sauce at the end, which I could have done just to my bowl, but I didn’t think of it.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

• 1 can (equivalent) chicken
• 1 can (equivalent) mixed veggies (I used frozen corn and peas)
• 1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup
• 1 c. Bisquick
• 1 c. water

Mix first three ingredients. Pour into greased baking dish. Mix Bisquick with water and pour over first mixture. Bake at 400 degrees  45-50 min.

I’ll be the first to admit this isn’t exactly the healthiest recipe. Can of soup? Bisquick? (Would it help if I told you I got the Bisquick for free?) If anyone can offer an easy Chicken Pot Pie recipe using single ingredients, I’m all ears.

The kids gobble this up. Even Peter. (After much coaxing.) They even got to it before I could take a picture. We did have leftovers, but not much.

Chicken Tetrazzini

• 1 box noodles
• 1 c. (or more) cooked chicken
• 1 zucchini, shredded
  
• 1 large carrot, shredded
  
• 3 T Butter
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1/4 ~ 1/2 c. milk (or heavy cream)
• 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

Boil noodles. Melt butter on low heat and saute garlic, zucchini and carrot.

(The photo was taken after I had sauteed the first ingredients, then added the chicken.)

After a few minutes, add soup, sour cream, milk, cheese and chicken.  Stir over low heat. Add cooked noodles to mixture. Toss and serve! (Another great recipe originally from The Happy Housewife.)

This makes a lot of food! I opted for angel hair pasta in ours. Crusty bread also goes well with this, along with a green salad.

Of course, Peter had to pick out “all the gross stuff”. Sigh.

Which I then promptly picked up and put on my plate. I do love me some sauteed zucchini.

I would have gotten yet another meal out of this chicken, to be sure, had one teenager not preempted both of the chicken-filled recipes above by helping himself to a plate full of meat. For a snack.

He doesn’t exactly like to pose for the camera.

So I turned around and was all like, “What are you, a caveman? Is that how you’re going to eat it?” Meaning, without utensils.

So Conner got up and got himself some dip.

I suppose it’s better than a plateful of frozen chicken nuggets…

Now, please, do tell: What are some of your favorite, tried-and-true chicken recipes? How far can you stretch a whole chicken?

I’ve got another whole chicken in my refrigerator, ready and willing for another round of meals. Conner has requested Chicken Teriyaki. I googled for some recipes, but the choices were rather overwhelming. Can anyone recommend a great (simple) recipe for Chicken Teriyaki? I’m thinking stir fry, even though I don’t have a wok. (That’s not terribly vital, is it?)

Conner will thank you. He might even pose for a picture. With or without a plate full of chicken.

I never cooked up a whole chicken myself until recently.

“Hi, I’m Jolyn.”

(Hi, Jolyn!)

“I’m 38-years-old, and I just cooked my first whole chicken.”

This is dedicated to all of you 37 and younger. Please, don’t wait as long as I did to prepare something so fundamental to healthy, frugal meals.

And if you’re older than I am and you’ve still never cooked up a whole chicken? Well, then, God bless you. You need me, don’t you?

Really, I should say you need The Happy Housewife. Her site’s where I read up on my original instructions for slow cooking up a whole chicken. She’s one of my favorite frugal bloggers ever, bless her little homeschooling mom of seven fellow Dave Ramsey fan and military spouse heart. What an amazing motivator.

Anyhoo. If you’ve kind of thought it’d be a good idea to cook up a whole chicken but you’ve never gotten around to actually doing it, I’m here to tell you it’s worth trying.  Because, really. You can’t beat the price.  Subtracting 50 cents for a coupon I had brought the price of this one to $3.90. And I used it in three different meals! (Plus a big teenage snack.)  (I’ll explain tomorrow.)

First, I stuck the chicken in the crockpot and dumped on some seasonings.

(Don’t forget to take out the packet of… stuff from the inner cavity.) (I don’t want to even think about what all that is; I just threw mine out.) (Any ideas on what to do with it? I mean, it’s stuck in there for a reason, right? Somebody must use it for something…)

I didn’t measure; just threw on some poultry seasoning I had on hand which contained thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg.

I also minced up a couple of cloves of garlic. Every household needs a garlic press. The more meals I cook from scratch, the fewer meals I meet that couldn’t stand to have a little garlic thrown in them somewhere.

Cover and cook on low overnight, or for at least eight hours. You don’t need to add any water or anything. Enjoy waking up to a kitchen that smells like a yummy organic (and faintly garlicky) restaurant.

Of course, you can serve the chicken and eat it as is, like those rotisserie chickens you buy at the store. (Only, it’s not rotisserie.) I opted to tear all the meat off the bones to use later in different dishes. I just let the chicken set in the crockpot to cool first so I didn’t burn my fingers.

But it doesn’t end there!

Don’t just throw away the bones and skin that you discard. Put them back into the crockpot along with the juices the chicken cooked in and add five cups of water. Set the crockpot back to low and cook overnight again. Or all day. Whichever works. Now your house is really going to smell good.

Strain out the bones and and other stuff and you’ve got some chicken stock made from scratch. I followed Happy’s lead and poured mine into some empty (32 oz.) yogurt containers.

Set the containers in the fridge for a few hours to allow the fat to rise to the top. It’ll look something like this.Scrape off that fat, and you’ve got chicken stock. This was about five-cups worth.

You can use it right away, or freeze it. These went right into a new (to me) recipe I wanted to try. I used the meat for three two time-tested meals, and one caveman snack. I’ll share the details on those tomorrow.

What’s your favorite way to prepare a whole chicken?

Please, those of you who didn’t wait until you were 38 to prepare your first whole chicken! Share your tips, favorite seasonings, etc, in the comments below. I and your fellow readers will thank you.

Homemade Refried Beans — Slow Cooker Style

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 3 cups dry pinto beans
• 8  cloves garlic, minced
• 3 t. salt
• 1 3/4 t. fresh ground black pepper ( I just threw some on)
• 1/8 t. ground cumin
• 9 cups water

Rinse the beans, throw out the ones that float to the top. Mix them with the rest of the ingredients in the slow cooker.

Cook on low overnight…

I had these going by 7:00 in the evening. I intended to take them off the heat first thing in the morning… But I kind of got going with my day and forgot, so they ended up slow cooking for about 15 hours.

While I was reading up on homemade recipes for refried beans, one of the comments mentioned that, the older the beans are, the longer they need to soak. I’ve had these pinto beans lying around for at least six months. The first recipe I tried with them (and the reason I bought them) was liked by no one, and I haven’t had the inclination to touch them again until now.

Now I can’t help but wonder: How old were they when I bought them? Maybe they were already old from the get-go and I didn’t soak them long enough that first time and that’s why the recipe didn’t turn out.

Who knows? My point is — not only was 15 hours not too long for them to slow cook; it’s very possible these beans needed that extra time.

Whatever the reason, they turned out scrumptious. Really. Better than the canned, in my opinion.

First, though, I drained them, reserving the liquid in a separate bowl in case I needed to add some later.

I took out the onion chunks, too –they’re just for marinating, people.

When I saw what I was left with, I really wondered if I had just wasted 65 cents worth of pinto beans and the 10 minutes of my time I had invested into preparing them (including taking pictures).

I mean, really. Does that look very appetizing?

I started smashing them into mush with a potato masher. I quickly wondered what on earth I was thinking and switched to a stick blender, just stuck it right there in the pot they slow cooked in.

I quickly realized I had not drained enough of the liquid and stopped to scoop out a little more.

The Finished Product:

Now, I have not one drop of Latino blood in me, but these beans taste pretty yummy. Like I said, better than the canned.

And cheaper, too. I am so not a number-crunching connoisseur, but I would wager that these ingredients do not total more than $1.00.

This recipe made about six cups.

Or one and a half liters, if you live outside the United States.

I bagged them up in one three one-quart freezer zip locks.

I thought I had estimated roughly the amount of one can per bag, but I just used one today and I could tell it was more, so next time I’ll probably bag up four from the same recipe.

Can you tell I’m not Type-A?

And I really should just store them in the fridge: I go through about a can a week around here. I think I just wanted to revel in my Becky-Homeckyness like I’m someone who routinely cooks in bulk from scratch to store up a cache of food.

Not only were these beans cheap and tasty, I’ll warrant they’re healthier, too. Have you ever tried a can of organic refried beans? Did you notice how different the consistency was from the regular non-organic? I don’t even want to think about which of those unpronounceable preservatives causes the changes in texture and consistency; I tried to buy more organic back before the first time we lost our tenants in our rental house, before I woke to reality and realized it just wasn’t in the budget.

Now “organic” refried beans are not only in the budget, they even help it!

Do you have a homemade refried bean recipe you love? Feel free to share it in the comments! Never tried to cook dried beans before? I highly recommend giving these a try. If I can do it, really, truly, anybody can.

One of my goal’s for 2010 was to try making homemade laundry detergent. I am happy to say that January has nary gone by and I have not only attempted my first recipe, but it was a resounding success. And not only did I make detergent for laundry, but for the dishwasher as well!

There are many recipes floating out there around the internet. I found this recipe for a powder detergent, because I’m just a powder laundry detergent kind of gal. Plus, it looked easier than the gel recipes I found.

Powder Laundry Detergent: 1 Tablespoon/load

1. 1 bar Fels Naptha soap
2. 1/2 cup Borax
3. 1/2 cup Washing Soda

I found a dishwasher detergent recipe from a blogger who also makes her own laundry detergent, but I noticed her recipe for that was a bit different from the one above. (Feel free to try both recipes and let me know the difference!)

Powder Dishwasher Detergent: 2 Tablespoons/load, divided

1. 1 cup Borax
2. 1 cup Baking Soda
3. 1 Tablespoon Lemi Shine

I made the laundry detergent first. First, I grated the Fels Naptha.

And I grated.

And grated.

I highly recommend doing this while watching a good show — “24″ works well. Jack Bauer keeps the adrenaline pumping.

I finally called in a willing backup.

Whew! Now that’s done, time to add the Borax and Washing Soda and stir.

And stir.

And stir.

It finally occurred to me that I might have found a good use for my sifter.

Again, I highly recommend some Jack Bauer to keep the adrenaline going. This took a bit.

The finished product.

At 1 tablespoon a load (2 for heavily soiled), this ought to last awhile.

I tested this right away on some, um, soiled sheets. My 5yo had just gotten a cold… Ever since he contracted e-coli back in August, every cold or little sniffle he gets seems to go right to his bladder control, poor mom guy. I was washing sheets every morning for a couple of days straight. The new detergent worked like a charm. I even stuffed my face in them and took a big whiff.

The dishwasher detergent was easier than making oatmeal. You just mix these:

Into the finished product:

Again, it works fine. I’ve also followed a tip to add a little vinegar as a rinse agent. Just today I found some name-brand rinsing agent buried under my kitchen sink. I’ll go ahead and use that up; I’m curious if I’ll notice a difference.

I’m not going to try to cost-compare a batch of this stuff vs. a batch of store-bought detergent — just not in the mood to geeky-crunch numbers right now. Based on the cost of buying the ingredients in bulk, it’s pretty darn cheap.

Ingredients for Homemade Laundry and Dishwasher Detergent (powder versions):

1. Box of Borax: $2.79
2. Box of Washing Soda: $2.05
3. Bar of Fels Naptha: $1.29
4. Box of Baking Soda: $1.99
5. Thing of Lemi-Shine: $3.19

I found everything but the Fels Naptha at the commissary on base. The super wally-mart here didn’t carry it either– they looked at me like I was from another planet when I told them what I was looking for. I finally found it in the detergent aisle at Kroger’s.

Any homemade cleaning recipes you’d like to share? I’m kind of on a roll here.

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