Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Chocolate syrup is my new favorite thing to make homemade. I found the recipe over at Naturally Frugal Mom. Try it out. It's quick, easy and very thrifty!

Foaming Hand Soap For Less

I am a fan of foaming hand soap and I have found a way to make it a little cheaper.

You will need...

Empty foaming hand soap container
Water
Soap

Take your empty container and pour in about a tablespoon of soap, fill the rest of the way with water and give it a good shake.

This takes less than a minute and can easily save you a few bucks.

Tip Tuesday - Steamed Milk

My husband has become slightly addicted to Starbucks. The problem? Money and the 30 minute drive. So we decided to figure out how to make our favorite Starbucks treats at home. We had the Starbucks organic coffee, chocolate, caramel and milk. We had everything we needed to make them except a milk steamer. So I found this tip online and I am so excited to share it with you. It's so easy.

1.Pour about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of milk into a small canning jar.

2. Put on the lid and shake it for about a minute until it is nice and frothy.

3. Take off the lid and pop the jar in the microwave for about 30 seconds and prepare to be amazed.

That's it! It's that easy!

Let me know what you think if you try it.

Tip Tuesday - Clean Microwave Trick

This week's tip is for cleaning the microwave fast and easily.

After cleaning your kitchen take your dish rag, give it a good rinse, wring out excess water and pop it in the microwave. Microwave for about 15 seconds then wait IT WILL BE SCORCHING HOT. I usually wait about a minute for the rag to cool down a little ( good time to sweep the floor). Open the microwave and use your hot rag to easily clean out the mess.

Works like a charm. Try it out and tell me what you think.

Homemade Ant Poison Recipe

My parents had an ant problem this week. They had ants all over their kitchen. I brought my mom some of my homemade ant poison to try out. She put it out on the counter next to a commercial ant poison. The ants swarmed to the homemade and we didn't see one ant go near the expensive commercial poison. The next morning there were no ants.

I thought I would share my recipe with you all.

Homemade Ant Poison Recipe

In a saucepan combine the following,

1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
2 Tablespoons Borax

Cook over medium heat until it is the consistency of syrup. We put it out in metal pasta sauce lids or milk lids.

Let me know if you try it I would love to hear what you think.

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Mix equal parts of Baking soda and Borax. Add about 2 tablespoons to each load. My dishwasher needs a little less. I usually just fill one of the dispensers.

Vinegar is a great alternative to Jet Dry.


Thank God for dirty dishes,
They have a tale to tell.
While other folks go hungry,
We’re eating very well.
With home and health and happiness,
We surely shouldn’t fuss.
For by this stack of evidence,
God’s been good to us.

Homemade Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

I have been trying to cook everything from scratch lately. I hadn't been very successful with breads until I made these.

They were very easy to make.


Here is the dough rising.













Voila! Here they are! They were so delicious!!



Since there are just 2 of us I let them cool and then stuck them in the freezer. It is so nice to have homemade rolls whenever I need them.








Here is the recipe in case you would like to try them.

2 Cups water
1 Cup oats
3 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon Active dry yeast
1/3 Cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons salt
4 3/4 to 5 1/4 Cups all purpose flour

In a saucepan, bring water to boil; add oats and butter. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the oat mixture, sugars, salt and 4 cups of flours. Beat until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Shape into rolls. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove from pan to wire racks to cool.

Homemade Produce Wash

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp. baking soda
1 cup water

Put ingredients in a spray bottle. Be careful because it will foam up. Spray on fruits / vegetables, let sit 5 minutes then rinse.

Homemade Furniture Polish

I tried this one and it is not only easy, but cheap and very effective. No more pledge for me!

1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup lemon juice

Pour oil and lemon juice into a squirt bottle. Shake to combine. To use,shake well, spray (it doesn't take much) dust cloth or rag with oil, blot the oil by folding the cloth together, and then dust your furniture. Leaves a beautiful finish!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

4 Cups hot tap water
1 bar Dr. Bronner’s Baby Mild Castile Soap (you can also use ivory or fels naptha)
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use.

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Washing Soda and Borax can normally be found on the laundry or cleaning aisle.

This 10 gallon recipe (using organic soap!) costs me $3.17 and I don't even use it all in a year.
When I used to buy tide it was about $98 a year I would spend.

Use bulk white vinegar instead of fabric softener to save even more!

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Tonight was girls night. We had BBQ Chicken pizza and I made homemade cinnamon rolls.
It was a great night!



Here is my recipe

2 cups of warm water
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons dry yeast (or two packages of dry yeast)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
(you can also use shortening, if you prefer)
6 to 7 cups of flour

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let sit for a minute or two. Add the sugar and salt. Mix. Add the cooking oil (or shortening), 2 eggs, 2 cups of flour and beat until smooth.



Stir in 3 more cups of flour. Begin kneading the dough, adding the final cup of flour. If the dough seems too sticky, knead in more flour, a quarter to a half cup at a time.

Let the dough "rest" for 15 to 20 minutes. (I leave it sitting on the counter and use the time to wash up the bowl and other utensils and to clean off the counter top.)









Roll the dough into a rectangle that's 24 to 30 inches long by about 16 inches wide.










Spread with soft butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.













Starting at the wide end, roll into a log.














Cut the cinnamon rolls into equal sized slices (approximately one inch wide each or slightly more) and place into two greased 9 x 13 pans. Put in a warm place to rise for 45 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes (or until the cinnamon rolls are golden brown).

Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then turn out of the pans.




This recipes makes two dozen cinnamon rolls. If you want REALLY BIG cinnamon rolls, cut into 12 equal pieces 2 inches wide.

Total amount of time needed from start to finish (including time to bake) is about 2 hours.
Icing:
Sift about 4 cups of powdered sugar and add about 1 Tablespoon of milk for each cup of sugar.

Homemade (SAFE) Oven Cleaner

I am trying out a new homemade oven cleaner.

In a spray bottle I mixed

about 1 1/2 Tbs of borax

1 cup of hot water

1/2 cup or so of vinegar

and a few drops of ultra concentrated dish soap.

I shook it up and sprayed it all over my oven.
I then sprinkled baking soda over the liquid.
I sprayed the mix again... this time over the baking soda.

I'm going to leave it sit over night and tomorrow I should be able to use a warm wet rag to wash it off.

I'll let you know how it works.


UPDATE- The oven cleaner worked amazingly! It was so nice to just wipe it out without the horrible chemical smell. Try it you will love it!