Laundry Detergent

Within the past 2 months we've started making our own homemade laundry detergent. There are a lot of different receipes out there for both liquid versions and powdered versions. We decided to go with a powdered version because we didn't have a huge pot or bucket to make the liquid kind.

It has actually been awesome. I remember the 1st load of laundry we pulled out of the dryer. The clothes were so soft and they just smelled clean and fresh. Not perfumey.

It is very simple to do, only takes about 15 minutes because shredding the bar soap is the longest step. I've made 2 single batches before this one, and last night I decided to do a double batch to last us a bit longer.

I haven't counted how many loads it lasts us, but I know one batch lasts us 4 weeks. I will try to track the number of loads we do with this new double batch. That way I can do a price comparison.

Here is the recipe if you are interested.

Powdered Laundry Detergent (recipe #4)

• 2 cups Fels-Naptha soap, finely grated (or any bar soap you prefer, we use Ivory)
• 1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (we were only able to find this at Fred Meyer)
• 1 cup Borax

Mix Well and store in airtight plastic container.

Use 2 tablespoons per full load

Recipe: Spinach Lasagna Rolls

A coworker gave me this Weight Watchers recipe and it is really delicious! They are very easy to make!

Please ignore the fact that I took my picture before I poured the sauce and cheese on top. They look a lot more appetizing after that step. I also didn't take a picture after they were cooked. But I just love how all the rolls look, well-you know-all rolled up, haha.

Also - we had a bunch of fresh spinach that we had received from our CSA box last week so we wanted to use that up instead of buying frozen spinach. Well, that didn't work out too well. We just chopped it up and mixed it into the ricotta mixture. It tasted very different from the times we made it with frozen spinach like the recipe calls for. I think we should have cooked it first. Ooops!

I also forgot to put sauce on the bottom of the baking dish before I put the rolls in and we were out of foil, but they turned out fine. Oh well, they were still edible and Jordan ate it, which these days is a miracle, so we couldn't really complain.

Here is the recipe if you are interested in trying it.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls - 4 points

• 9 Lasagna Noodles, Cooked
• 10oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
• 15oz Fat Free Ricotta Cheese
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• salt and fresh pepper to taste
• 32oz tomato sauce
• 9tbsp (3oz) part skim mozarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350. Combine spinach, ricotta, parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of a 9x12 baking dish.

Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out the lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle. Roll carefully and place seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.

Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp of mozarella cheese. Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes or until cheese melts.

To serve, ladle a little sauce on the plate and top with lasagna roll.

Makes 9 rolls - each rolls is 4 WW points.

Bento

I read a lot of interesting things online - especially about food. Since Jordan has become old enough to eat solids I've become more aware of the things we put in our body and adopting healthy eating habits to set a good example for her. We are slowly working on them and making progress.

One idea that has become a huge hit in the past few years is bentos for toddlers. A bento is a small container used for a meal. There are usually multiple compartments and most come in fun shapes, colors or designs. You can read this post for more information.

I've been wanting to do this for Jordan for such a long time, I finally just purchased her first bento box. It is yellow and has a banana design which I knew she would love because she is obsessed with nana's.

You can see form the 2nd picture below that it is two-tiered. It includes some silicone compartments (they look like cupcake wrappers, but are a lot smaller) to keep foods separated. A small condiment cup that has a lid as well as a spoon and fork.

Now I just need to decide what healthy/yummy food I'm going to fill it with...

Running

So let's see, about 4 months ago I started doing this running program called Couch to 5K. It is a guide to get you from couch potato to worthy of running a 5K in 9 weeks. 9 WEEKS! That is only 2 months. Now, you can definitely spread it out if you aren't ready to progress to the next week, you can keep going until you feel comfortable moving on. Like I said, I've been doing this for 4 months and I am still doing Week 2, haha!

I know I know...how horrible is that?! I've never been a runner in my life, except when I was a little kid, because that's what little kids do. But at whatever time running turned into 'exercise', I stopped. So when Week 1 said to run for 1 minute straight, that was a struggle for me. But eventually after 2 months of working on Week 1, I got the courage to attempt Week 2. And I did it! How awesome, so I've been perfecting week 2 for 2months and last week I tried Week 3. Boy oh boy was that depressing. I couldn't finish. So last night I did week 2 again and it was fairly easy. I struggled a bit at the end, but I need to face the fact that it's time to move on to Week 3.

So now I just need to remind myself that at the beginning of each new week I will struggle, but after 2 MONTHS I should have it nailed down, haha. You are supposed to do this program 3 days/week, but I usually only have time to do it once, maybe twice a week. And like I said, I just wasn't built to be a runner.

I will keep you posted on my success! (If I keep going at this rate, I should finish Week 9 in about a year. Sweet.)

A New Blog!

Hello!

I've decided to start blogging on a more regular basis. There are many things I am interested in writing about and sharing with everyone. #1 is my baby girl of course and all of the amazing adventures she is up to these days. I am also interested in sharing crafts that I work on, recipes we cook, our transition from eating processed foods to eating whole foods and possibly some miscellaneous posts full of my random thoughts/opinions on things.

I know a lot of people keep separate blogs for each area of their life and maybe someday I will get to that point, but for now I would like to keep it all in one place.

Thank you for stopping by!
Drisana