Shout it Out? No, Toss it Out!

One thing at a time.. this has been my personal mantra when it comes to getting my ( sometimes quite reluctant) family to be more green and more frugal. Most recently, my attention has been drawn to laundry, an unavoidable necessary evil in every household... some of us more than others. ( Oh how I miss the days of only doing laundry for myself, even if I did have to load it in the car and take it to a dreaded laundro-mat to do it.) My main goal is to be completely natural in my laundry efforts, and of course save some money in doing so by making my own laundry soaps, fabric softeners, etc. I have really hit some major road blocks in this endeavor however by finding just about every "recipe" I find calls for Borax, which as I have read is highly poisonous. Hmm.. take out the chemicals and replace with a poison... sounds like a great idea! Not! Being a mother of 2, sometimes frighteningly active, toddlers I really want to cut any "poisonous" or "chemical" aspect out as much as possible. I know there has to be an alternative that not only is free from any of these elements but that still cleans well too... so the search continues!

This week however, more out of necessity than anything else, I ran across one way to cut a commercially made product out of our lives. Our recent change to cloth training pants, one I was extremely excited about, left both my son and I with a few learning experiences to be had. ( Yes I know, it took me a while to change to cloth ones. Unfortunately they were absolutely nowhere to be found here much to my anguish, at least in sizes I could read and I just don't like ordering online for things that need a perfect fit because both of my children are like me.. one size fits for one thing or one brand and another size for another and so on...quite a pain lol) It was one extremely, ahem, "messy" accident that led to my discovery of the wonderful use of baking soda as a stain remover. I decided to test the offending trainers in a solution of about 1 gallon of hot water and 1/4 cup baking soda and to wash the other, less messy ones using my usual store bought pre-treater. Much to my surprise not only did the baking soda work as well as the commercial product but it actually outperformed it bringing the trainers as good as new while a few stains remained, although lighter, in the others. What better reason to toss out those chemical items and move to solely using baking soda? I am a definite convert when it comes to baking soda!

For tougher stains, try to sprinkle baking soda directly onto the fabric and let sit dry for a while, or you can try a paste made of baking soda and water. ( an unused toothbrush makes a good tool for scrubbing this in, I always keep one of 2 cheapie ones around for cleaning needs like that!)

More laundry ideas coming soon as my interest has been peaked by my little baking soda experiment lol.

Simple White Bread

One of my favorite endeavors in my quest to become more frugal and self-sufficient is my journey into making my own bread. Not only does a freshly baking loaf of bread make the most amazing air freshener leaving your house smelling heavenly all day, but also creating your own bread allows you to tailor it to your own needs and control exactly what is in it. Not to mention the savings of making your own compared to upwards of $4.00 per loaf really starts to add up after a while if, like me, you aren't a fan of the unhealthy chemical laden standard white breads available on the market these days and opt for the more whole grain organic products available when you do by pre-made breads.

Who doesn't need a good go-to white bread recipe? From PB&J to toast most of us use white bread on a daily basis. I ran across a recipe online quite some time ago and have modified it to suit my needs to come up with the perfect white bread standard for my family. It makes a wonderful hearty loaf that can last about 3 days to a week for a family of four like mine. (Unfortunately I have lost the link to the original but I am looking for it and will upload if/when I find it lol)

This recipe is to be used for a bread machine, but if you don't have one you can always do it the old fashioned way. Believe me, there is no better stress reliever than hand kneading bread dough some days! I believe for hand kneading the somewhat standard knead 10 minutes, let rise 1 hour, punch down and let rise again another 30 to 45 minutes would work for this bread, but of course you can play around with that and find what works best for you depending on the size of loaf and consistency of bread that you like.

One thing to keep in mind when using active dry yeast is that warm water MUST be 110 degrees F at least, otherwise the water and yeast will not work together properly and you will end up with a small extremely dense loaf of bread. I have found that adding the dry ingredients followed by the oil and finally the water is the best method for me when putting the ingredients into the bread machine, but this is of course of personal preference. My settings for this bread are also always a medium white 1.5 lb loaf. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and if you make any modifications let me know and I'll give them a try! Always room for improvement!

Summer Deals at Chuck E Cheese

One thing about island life here in Okinawa is getting used to not having things that I as an American have gotten so used to accepting as everyday life...the convenience of running to Walmart ( yes, while I tried to avoid it I did shop at Walmart for convenience items. I know, I know), or having a Home Depot and a Lowe's to choose from when the building or gardening bug bites me. Today I was reminded by our evil television that shows American commercials of an old favorite of mine, Chuck E. Cheese. Many parents rue the idea of Chuck E. Cheese but I welcome trips there. My kids always had fun and it always let the kid still hiding in this shell of an adult have fun trying to beat my old high score or win more tickets for them. So, even though I can't take advantage of this deal myself.. or at least until I find a well hidden Chuck E. Cheese somewhere here on the island.. I thought I would pass the news on to anyone who can, since it is a great deal especially for those of us who have multiple hungry mouths ( including husbands!) to feed. As part of a summer sale Chuck E. Cheese has multiple coupons available. One is one of their usual x amount of coupons for y amount of dollars, but the other is for a large cheese pizza for only $9.99. The offer expires on Sept. 24th so plenty of time to print out and enjoy the savings before school starts or on a weekend to celebrate and help ring in the new school year!

More information and the coupons can be found at the Chuck E. Cheese website. Be sure to look around too if you haven't already visited the site, there are lots of other deals and offers available!.