Two Healthier Recipes for Kid Faves

This weekend I was a cooking/baking fiend! I'm always looking for ways to give my kids some of the foods they love but in much healthier versions...and without it taking me all day in the kitchen! Here are two of my most recent successes:

Homemade Cheese Crackers

1 1/3 cup pureed white beans (just take a can of your fave white beans, dump the entire can contents into your blender/food processor and puree - sometimes I have to add just a tablespoon of water to get it really smooth)
2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
2 tbs grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika
1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup wheat germ

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl then kneed until the dough is smooth. If the dough is really sticky, add more wheat flour by small amounts until the dough is less sticky. One note here, the dough, while warm from kneeding, will be slightly sticky but it shouldn't be so bad that your hands are getting completely covered. Once you have the dough kneeded, wrap in plastic and place in fridge for 30 minutes to an hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. While oven is heating, take a baseball size chunk of dough (leave rest in fridge) and roll it out on a cutting board or silicon mat to 1/8" thick. Cut into 1" squares or fun shapes using a small cookie cutter. Place on foil lined baking sheet and sprinkle with a small amount of salt. Bake for 15-16 minutes until just starting to brown on the bottom. Remove from baking sheet and set aside. Continue this method using small amounts of dough until you have used it all (or you can freeze part of it to use later). Once you have taken the last batch out of the oven, turn off the oven and crack the door open for about 5 minutes. Place all the baked crackers back on the baking sheet (they can just be piled - they don't have to be in a flat layer) and put the baking sheet back into the oven, shut the door and leave the crackers there until the oven completely cools down. This dries out the crackers to make them nice and crisp. I usually divide my crackers into 1/2 cup portions in small baggies, place those in a larger ziptop bag and store at room temperature. I can't be sure how long they keep because they never last long in our house!

Homemade Toaster Pastries

1 pkg refridgerated pie crusts (contains 2 crusts)
filling of your choice (fruit preserves, chocolate hazelnut spread, etc.)
sprinkles (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unroll one crust at a time. If you cut off the rounded ends, you can restick them using a small amount of water to make the crust a rectangle shape. I wish I had taken pictures of this part because I don't really know how to explain it. Roll the crust out until it is about 16" by 12". Divide in half both ways so that you have four smaller rectangles. Take about 1 tablespoon of the filling of your choice and spread on one half of each smaller rectangle. Using your finger or a pastry brush, go around the edges of each rectangle with a small amount of water. Fold the plain side over the filled side of each rectangle and press closed with a fork. You can trim them so they are perfect rectangles again. Brush the tops with a little more water and add sprinkles. Repeat with the other pie crust. Place finished pastries on a foil lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 until just starting to brown on the edges. Serve immediately or freeze for toasting later. These toast just like store bought versions but just make sure the edges are well sealed.

Make sure you use different types of sprinkles for different flavors and label the bags you put them in so you know what they are!

My kids are loving these and I'm happy knowing they are soooo much healthier than the store bought varieties! I'll be experiementing later with making whole wheat pie crusts to boost the healthy factor even more!

Non-Gloopy Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

Okay, the die-hards out there won't like how I achieved my end result but I DID IT!!! If you read my post yesterday (and past ones about making laundry detergent) you know I wasn't happy with the consistency of the end result. I tried a few things yesterday evening but when I was heading to bed, it was already developing a skin on the top and looking like it was headed to it's usual gloopiness.

So, I actually laid awake for just a short while last night thinking about it and what I might could do differently. When I awoke this morning, I was fully prepared to start spooning gloop into my laundry bottles....but when I peered over the edge of that large pot, I was totally shocked!

How gorgeous is that??? I did more than one thing different so I can't be entirely sure of which one made the difference but I think I know what it was. When I checked before going to bed and saw what I thought was the beginning of it turning gloopy, I dumped in a small container of purchased concentrated liquid detergent, stirred and walked away. Before that, there was a definite skin developing however, there wasn't even that this morning!

So here is the NEW and IMPROVED homemade liquid laundry detergent recipe!

Homemade Laundry Detergent


1 large pot
water
1/3 of a bar of soap grated using fine grater (I've used several different brands so pick your favorite!)
1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
1/2 cup Sodium Carbonate *
1/2 cup Baking Soda

*Sodium Carbonate is also known as "Washing Soda" or "Soda Ash". I had difficulty finding either until I read that you could find it in the pool products. Sure enough, look in your local discount store aisle at the pool products for balancing the Ph in a pool. Read the ingredients carefully and you should find something which contains nothing but "sodium carbonate."

Directions:
Put 3 pints of water into large pot and heat till hot but not boiling. Add in grated soap and stir gently until dissolved. Add in Borax, sodium carbonate and baking soda and stir until thoroughly mixed and dissolved. Pour carefully into large bucket. Add an additional quart of hot water and stir. Top off with enough cold water to bring total to one gallon then set aside to gel. The finished product will not be gelled completely like gelatin but will be more "gloppy" (for lack of a better word). Other websites say this is expected and just to use as it is. Use 1/2 cup per load.

***IMPROVEMENT*** I started with a batch that had already cooled completely but you could probably add these steps at the end of the original recipe with the same result. I had all the detergent in my large pot and added one tablespoon of lemon juice (because the acid is supposed to prevent gels from gelling, right?). Then I brought it to a boil and allowed it to continue an easy boil for 5 minutes (because prolonged heat is also supposed to break down gelatin bonds). At that point I turned off the burner but left the pot in place, allowed it to cool for a short while and then added one small container (1 1/2 qrt) of purchased concentrated liquid laundry detergent. The end result looks and smells just like purchased detergent! It's wonderful!

Now I'm off to read the paper, cut coupons and then make some homemade toaster pastries...I think I'm on a roll so I can't wait to see how great these turn out!!!

I Give Up...Sort of :-)

Okay, so I've been trying to get back to posting every weekday but it just isn't happening. I have soooo much going on right now: two kids who went from being homeschooled to enrolled in a local charter school, one daughter starting an online charter high school and one son about to return to preschool part time and part time being homeschooled...oh, not to mention my hubby being overseas! And that is only the tip of the iceberg, as they say!

I considered just shutting down this blog but I just can't bring myself to do it. I have so many great tips and ideas that I want to continue to share. I've been really busy working on more kid-friendly healthy meals, my preschool homeschool curriculum, some canning recipes and still perfecting my homemade laundry detergent recipe (see, more of the iceberg).

Speaking of that laundry detergent, if you didn't read my previous post, you can see it here along with my homemade dishwasher detergent recipe. I keep trying different things to keep the end result from being so gloopy but no success yet. Even as I sit here and type, I have a batch sitting on my stove becoming more gloopy by the second. However, it still works great and saves a ton of money so I'm still using it and happy with it in that sense.

So, what is it that I'm giving up on? Posting every weekday or even posting on some type of regular schedule. For now, I'm just going to post when I can about whatever I've been working on that day or week. Today it was laundry detergent but, no news to share there. Tomorrow, I'm going to try making some homemade toaster pastries! Can't wait to share that with you!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!