Friday, May 21, 2010
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Beef & Pepper Stir Fry
Lets start with our cast of characters.
Yes, I know my meat looks funny. It was a little freezer burnt. But it was fine! Trust me! I'm still alive aren't I?
Don't remind me that my camera sucks.
It's not my fault, I have an electric range. Have you ever tried to use a wok on an electric range? YOU CAN'T.
Set aside.
Start pouring in the sauce you made.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
DIY Laundry Soap
Yeah, I know, this isn't food. But I felt it was relavent since part of this blog is dedicated to saving money.
I originally got this 'recipe' from The Family Homestead. I've been using it for almost four months and I have to say I'm impressed with how clean my clothes come out.
First, we have our cast of characters.
You will need:
A large-ish size pot.
1/2 c. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda.
1/2 c. Borax
1 bar soap.
A 2 gallon bucket.
Lots of water!
It doesn’t matter what kind of soap you use, depends on what scent you want. I had ivory on hand, so I’m using it.

Grate up your bar of soap. Don’t worry about your cheese grater, it will be fine <3
In the pot, put 6 cups of water and bring it to a boil, add the soap. Stir until melted.
Once melted, add the washing soda and borax, stir until well mixed.
CAUTION! Don’t leave this unattended! It can boil over very easily if you don’t keep stirring.
Once it’s all nice and blended, go to your bucket. Put 4 cups of hot water in it. Add your soap mixture and mix well.
Now, add 1 gallon and 6 cups of water to the bucket. You should have 2
gallons now. Mix well.
Put the lid on your bucket and let it sit for 24 hours before using.

When you open it back up the next day, it should have a slimy, chunky, rather sudsy look to it. Stir it well before using and make sure to get the stuff off the bottom.
For your average load, use 1/4th cup.

Once you’ve done your first load you’ll find out whether you need to add more or less soap or any of the other ingrediants.
I find that with this soap my clothes smell and feel cleaner and don’t have a ‘perfumed’ feel that I get from commercial soaps.
Well, there you have it! Hopefully I’ve inspired you all to make your own laundry soap and save a ridiculous amount of money. There are many other uses for Borax, such as using it as dish washing detergent, or keeping bugs away. (:
you can find more information and the calculations on how much this soap costs you per load at: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm
I originally got this 'recipe' from The Family Homestead. I've been using it for almost four months and I have to say I'm impressed with how clean my clothes come out.
First, we have our cast of characters.
A large-ish size pot.
1/2 c. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda.
1/2 c. Borax
1 bar soap.
A 2 gallon bucket.
Lots of water!
It doesn’t matter what kind of soap you use, depends on what scent you want. I had ivory on hand, so I’m using it.
Grate up your bar of soap. Don’t worry about your cheese grater, it will be fine <3
CAUTION! Don’t leave this unattended! It can boil over very easily if you don’t keep stirring.
gallons now. Mix well.
Put the lid on your bucket and let it sit for 24 hours before using.
When you open it back up the next day, it should have a slimy, chunky, rather sudsy look to it. Stir it well before using and make sure to get the stuff off the bottom.
For your average load, use 1/4th cup.

Once you’ve done your first load you’ll find out whether you need to add more or less soap or any of the other ingrediants.
I find that with this soap my clothes smell and feel cleaner and don’t have a ‘perfumed’ feel that I get from commercial soaps.
Well, there you have it! Hopefully I’ve inspired you all to make your own laundry soap and save a ridiculous amount of money. There are many other uses for Borax, such as using it as dish washing detergent, or keeping bugs away. (:
you can find more information and the calculations on how much this soap costs you per load at: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
My version of Goulash
This meal is relatively inexpensive and easy to throw together with frozen vegetables, left over sausages, left over spaghetti sauce, or whatever. The total price of this could be dropped to less than three dollars depending on what left-overs you use.
Here's the breakdown:
Pasta: $0.80
Hamburger: $1.10*
Peppers: $2.00*
Portobello Mushrooms $0.99*
Onion: $0.35
Crushed tomatoes: $0.99
Carrots: $0.50
Total: $6.73
* = sale.
Had the peppers, mushrooms and hamburger been normal price this meal might've cost around ten dollars. This recipe serves three to four people depending on serving size, and considering that to feed four people at McDonalds could cost you almost thirty dollars, I think this is a good, healthy alternative.
Lets get started then.
Begin with boiling about 2 1/2 cups of pasta in salted water. Have this going while preparing the rest of the meal.
In a large skillet, brown 1lb of hamburger until done. Drain and set aside.
Return the skillet to the stove and melt about 2tbsp of butter until it starts to turn brown.
Saute them for about two minutes, until they begin to smell good enough to just eat it straight out of the pan. Be careful not to overcook them, you want the peppers to still have snap when you're done.
Note: If you are using canned mushrooms, add them now.
Let it cook until the hamburger is hot again and the sauce is bubbling. Season how you want, I used garlic powder, Italian seasoning, dried oregano, coarse ground pepper, kosher salt, and some dried chives.
This recipe is pretty versitle, there are tons of ways you could prepare this and never eat the same thing twice, You could probably go in a completely other direction with this and use shrimp and a white sauce and come up with something similar to shrimp scampi. Or you could use chicken with broccoli and green peppers, it's up to you really.
Even if I try to re-do this recipe it will never be the same thing, it'll always vary just a little bit.
I hope you enjoyed this (: Now get out there and cook!
My version of Goulash:
- 2 cups Penne Rigati.
- 1lb. Ground hamburger 80/20
- 1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped.
- 1 Orange Bell Bepper, chopped.
- 1 Medium Yellow Onion, chopped.
- 4 Small Carrots, diced.
- 2-3 Portobello Mushroom caps, chopped.
- 1 Can Crushed Diced Tomatoes.
- 1/4 cup Tomato Ketchup.
- Garlic powder, Italian seasoning, Dried Oregano, Coarse Ground Pepper, Kosher salt, Dried Chives.
Prepare pasta as instructed on box.
Brown hamburger, drain and set aside.
Saute mushrooms with butter until fragrent, add peppers, onion & carrots and toss for one minute. Return hamburger to pan. Add crushed tomatoes and ketchup. Mix together. Season to taste.
Serve over pasta.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Simple Boule
For those who don't understand simple french or baker's terms, it's a simple bread ball ;) SO YEAH, I learned how to make bread last night using this method: Five Minutes a Day to Fresh-Baked Bread.
I screwed up a little:
I put the dough in the fridge after preparing it forgetting it had to rise at room temperature, I saved it after about five minutes.
I didn't put enough corn starch on my makeshift 'Pizza Peel' so the dough stuck like crazy to it while it rested for 40min, I had to rework it and I did not allow it to rest again.
Because of this, the dough ended up landing in the pan weird in the oven and I had to work that even more to get it to set right.
The crust came out extremely chewy, but it is still edible and the bread itself is very soft and great with butter.
Since I have three more loaves worth of dough in the fridge (the dough will last up to two weeks in the fridge) I will eventually make more, probably as soon as this loaf is gone. Hopefully by the end of this batch I will have gotten a hang of the technique and I'll be getting better. I love this bread, I have always loved artisan bread. Store bought bread is too soft, has no texture, has no flavor, and is expensive! Not only is this method cheaper but the end result is so much more satisfying than that store bought crap.
Lets see how long I can keep this up. I may just keep half a loaf of the old crap in the freezer for when we're in-between loaves and have no time to bake :B
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)