I first saw a recipe for homemade laundry detergent ages ago and thought it was a great idea, but could never find the soap, so I gave up and continued using the store brought stuff. It's stayed in the back of my mind because according to publications like Debt-Proof Living and such, it is a huge money saver compared to store brought. Then one day at one of those mom and pop grocery stores I saw not only Fels Naptha, but also Zote soap. And it was really cheap, so I brought a bar of Fels Naptha. And it sat in my bathroom closet for about 6 months. I never wanted to grate the soap and boil it, and who has a 5 gallon bucket sitting around and where would I put it in my already crowded apartment where my rugrats wouldn't get in it? Then one day I needed to wash clothes and didn't have laundry detergent or money to buy any, so I grated the soap and mixed up the powered detergent. I was pleasantly surprised by the results. First of all, it took me about 5 minutes to grate the soap and mix it all up, where it would have taken me 15 minutes to go to the store, so all that belly aching for nothing. Second and most important: I have a cat that likes to piss me off by peeing under the chair I have by my front door. Incidently it's the chair I toss my coat on when I come in also. My kids don't think twice when they knock my coat to the floor. They also don't pick it up and without fail, the next morning I want to puke when I swing my coat to put it on. Regular laundry detergent does not rid your clothes of the smell of cat pee. This homemade detergent got rid of the smell. I'm sold.

Powdered Laundry Detergent

2 cups Fels Naptha, finely grated
1 cup washing powder (I also found this at the family-owned store)
1 cup Borax (this is readily available at most stores in the laundry aisle)
2 tbsp baking soda (I added this because it's usually what I use to rid clothes of cat smell)

Mix well and store in a plastic container with lid.
Use 2tbsp per full load of laundry.

This soap doesn't dissolve well in cold water, so I put an inch or so of hot water in the washer, added the soap, swished it around, then adjusted the temperature to whatever I wanted. It did not suds up, but as long as it got my clothes clean, who cares. A couple of people on-line complained that it didn't get odor out of their clothes, but I'm thinking they were sprayed by a skunk or something because cat smell is the hardest scent I've ever come across. Maybe the baking soda I added made the difference. I do know that my clothes had no scent at all which is taking some getting used to. Maybe I'll get some essential oil and try that. I also had to use fabric softener, which I normally don't use. My clothes came out soft enough, but there was some static cling, but over all I'm very satisfied and will continue to use this instead of store brought.

Google "homemade laundry detergent" for a liquid version, testemonials, price comparisions, etc.

I always said that I'm going to try Angel Food Ministries, but something stops me every month. But I think it could save me some money each month, so why not. This might be the inspiration I need to give it a go. And with the menu and food already planned out, what could be simpler?

I found this blog. She is going to use her crockpot every day for a year. And post pictures too. I love the ideal of my crock pot, but most of the recipes I find are too much work. Who has time to chop, dice and all that jazz in the morning? I've people say do the prep the night before and assemble it in the morning. You mean, cook twice? Three times if you count pulling everything together once it's finished. Yeah, that's too much work, I'm all about simplifying things, but this site has easy recipes that I can actually see myself doing. She gives simple (sometimes funny) directions like: --mix with finger. or a spoon. whatever.And she uses real ingredients like canned tomatoes and cranberry sauce, of which I have 2 cans left over from Thanksgiving. I'm making the oatmeal (sans apple) this weekend for breakfast.

This is what I made for dinner last night:

Weeknight Lasagna Toss
1 lb ground beef
2 cups chopped green peppers, (about 2 peppers)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 jar (26oz) spaghetti sauce
1 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup Italian dressing
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
12 oven-ready lasagna noodles, broken into quarters
1/2 cup Ricotta cheese

Brown meat; drain.
Add pepper, garlic, spaghetti sauce, water and dressing; bring to boil. Stir in noodles; reduce heat to med low. Cover.
Cook, stirring occasionally, 10-15 minutes or until noodles are tender. Remove from heat. Stir in ricotta cheese.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Cover; let sit 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

***Notes***
I don't remember where I got this recipe, but it seemed easy and flexible (I didn't measure exactly 1/4 cup of dressing and it didn't fall apart) so I tried it. All of the kids ate it and enjoyed it. Bubba didn't like the shape of the noodles, so he picked over those. Next week he'll love lasagna (he's funny like that), so I'm giving it a thumbs up all the way around.

I didn't have ricotta cheese, but I don't think it made a huge difference in the outcome of the dish.
I'm not into chopping and all that jazz, so I just used a handful of the pre-cut frozen peppers and onion mix. One of the best kitchen inventions since sliced bread I tell you.
Needless to say I am not going to finely chop anything, so I skipped the garlic too. It gets most of it's flavor from the Ragu and wasn't needed, but maybe if I had used a generic spaghetti sauce I would have added some garlic powder to spice it up.
12 noodles were way too much. The next time I may only use 9 at the most.

How can you not love something with this name? And my picky eaters just might eat this version.

CREATIVE POVERTY LASAGNA
Serves 8
1 pkg lasagna noodles
3 8 oz cans tomato sauce
3/4 can water
2 lbs ground beef
1 pkg spaghetti sauce
2 large pkgs mozarella
2 large pkgs cheddar
Powdered parmesan cheese
Brown hamburger. Add tomato sauce, water and seasonings - bring to boil, then remove from heat and set aside.
Cook noodles for 20-30 minutes. Add lots of salt or oil so it won't stick together. Drain.
In 9 x 13" pan, spread 2 tbsp sauce in bottom. Layer noodles, sauce, cheeses. Put parmesan in every other layer. End with sauce and cheese. Bake 20-30 minutes @ 350 degrees.