Why is it that soap for your body can be bought for around a buck and yet laundry detergent… which is really just soap for your clothing… is $15 bucks for about a month’s worth?

Most likely, the answer is: Because they can.

I’ve been making our own laundry detergent for a while now.  I began by making the liquid form but switched to powder for only 2 reasons… 1) The powder takes up less space (the liquid uses BIG buckets) and 2) The powder is faster to make.  With that said, the liquid worked well, too.  But, this recipe is for the powder…

You will need:

A Cheese grater
1 Bar of your favorite soap
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
Blender

First… Grate your soap.  The entire bar.

Second, alternate pouring the washing soda and grated soap into the blender.  (Make sure you alternate… this is important for the blender part.  TRUST ME.)  Now, blend!  You may have to shake your blender a little to keep it from sticking… depending on how “sticky” your soap is.  The “stickier” the soap is, the more you may have to work with it.  A bar like dove or the Melaleuca bars are pretty easy.  But, when I tried the laundry bar, it wanted to be slightly more difficult.  Either way, this is pretty easy and quick.

Third, pour blender contents into a bowl and mix in your borax.

Fourth, pour it all into the container you want to use!

Use 1-2 Tablespoons per load!

Easy Peasy!!

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It wasn’t by a sudden interest in health that led us to “Paleo” – more like a super slow processing of information and research that slowly winded its way to the knowledge of how we should eat, but unsure of wading through billions of recipes and picking through ingredients.  Actually, we knew we wanted to eat Paleo/Primal FAR before we knew it even had a name!  Once I had a name for this “way of eating” we’d basically been researching before it even had a name, I wanted to know WHERE I could find the best recipes…ever.

You see, I wanted foods that we’d eat.  All of us – my meat-loving-huge-portion-eating husband, my picky 5 year old, and my 3 year old who will try most things once.  And me… I wanted food that would fill me and not leave me TIRED and hungry while literally running after 3 kids all day long.

I kept getting pointed back to Sarah Fragoso and her two cookbooks – and after introducing myself, Mrs. Fragoso sent me her books so we could check them out and share our findings with our awesome readers (YOU!)

There are two books – Everyday Paleo and Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook.  Don’t be fooled, though, by the titles – BOTH are great cookbooks!

To do this right, I want to address each book individually to show you how different they are (and why both are great and complement each other wonderfully)!

Let’s start with Everyday Paleo:

First, Sarah begins with an intro to Paleo and WHY Paleo is important.  Then, she writes about her story and how Paleo has affected her and her family’s life – which I can really appreciate.  She’s a mom who has had to make her own way – not someone who just had endless income and was bored at home with nothing else to do but make healthy food and “trail-blaze.”  She is normal (and busy)!

Next, she addresses CHANGE and how to get your family on board.  I have to say, this is one of my favorite sections!  Beyond just getting them to AGREE (or being stealth and “hiding extra veggies”) is a good look at what it means for your kids school lunches and beyond!  She covers it all!

Then, over 200 pages of RECIPES!  With photographs!  –All divided up by category!  AND, she even goes over shopping lists, types of kitchen cookware you will need, etc so you can be prepared BEFORE you get home from your huge shopping trip.

In the back of the book are meal plans, workout plans (even workouts that include a partner or a baby!), and a pictorial index of recipes… HOORAY!

This book is a great all-in-one find and the food recipes are definitely not lacking.  Sarah provides fresh, colorful, and tasty dinner options that will satisfy and leave you looking forward to leftovers!  From Pear Salad to Jambalaya to Meatballs and more, your family won’t be missing chemical-laden processed foods all that much!

Next up – Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook: This book is primarily a cookbook – Sarah includes a great introduction of her family and self and of course, Paleo.  She talks about the foods that are focused on in the Paleo lifestyle and gives even more attention to making Paleo work with kids and school lunches.  Then, on to the great recipes with the same great pictorial recipe index to find recipes quickly!  (Note: the recipes in each book are different…and great!!)

Check out the books on Amazon (see links above) to see some of the recipes/photographs.

These books are great and a huge timesaver!!

This is one of my hubby’s creations – but it’s one of our favorites!!

Ingredients:

1 c coconut milk (full-fat).  Our favorite brand is the Thai coconut milk.
1 c tomato sauce (make sure it doesn’t have added sugar, etc)  We buy Hunt’s.
Mushrooms
Chicken Breasts (4-5), boneless and skinless
Bacon
1 can of artichoke hearts, chopped
Your choice of seasonings
Salt and Pepper

Optional – spaghetti squash cooked and threaded or Cauliflower (riced)

Directions:

Bake chicken in oven until done.  While chicken is baking, cook bacon until it reaches desired tenderness.  Put bacon to the side.

Place mushroom slices in a pan and saute, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.  Add in the chopped artichoke hearts and cook for approximately 1 minute.  Then, add in the tomato sauce and coconut milk, stir to mix.  Add chicken and bacon, cut into smaller pieces and add into pan.  Add in your choice of seasonings and cover with a lid and let it simmer for approx 5 minutes.

Serve alone or over cooked spaghetti squash or riced cauliflower.

This recipe is one of our favorites!!  We are super excited by how easy it is and that the kiddos (and we!) love it!  We also love how versatile it is and that it fits within the Paleo frame of eating.

Rora (3 years) and myself gearing up to chop onions!  (Disclaimer: I chopped, she stirred.)

We’ve had some great meals the past few days – but, we weren’t creative and mainly just stuck with the recipes.  I’m going to post their photos with credits to them AND a link to the original recipe, so click the link below the photo if you want to see their recipe.

(via)

First up is the Pork Avocado Cream Enchiladas from PALEOMG – and honestly, it wasn’t my fave.  I don’t know if it was the green-ness or the pancake texture of the “tortillas”.  The kids weren’t really huge fans, either.  i did have leftovers the next day and used salsa verde instead of the avocado cream topping and liked it much better.  I also liked the tortillas warmed over better.  The kids…did not eat it (and they aren’t generally picky).  The meat was SUPER tender and we had tons left over, so I froze some of the meat and then used some of the other for eating with fresh veggies.  Because I am ALL ABOUT leftovers and saving some money

(via)

Next, we tried the Southwestern Frittata from Everyday Paleo.  I doubled the recipe and made 2 – one to keep out and eat and one to freeze.  Loved having this around for snack/lunch/breakfast.  Another plus?  The kids ate it!

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We actually made our Chicken Sliders WITHOUT the homemade paleo-ish buns.  Although, I look forward to trying them   These were really good…except, trying to save money, we decided to use chicken we had and cooked and chopped it super-fine.  You really do need ground chicken to make them stick together and look all pretty.  Tasted the same, which means they tasted great anyhow…but, still!  We will definitely do these again.  My girls loved these!

(via)

Tomato Cream Chicken Sausage ‘Pasta’ was last night and it came from PALEOMG, also.  Pretty yum, except the kids weren’t too impressed.  We would definitely try it again, though.

PROGRESS!

We’ve definitely CHOSEN to carefully frame this Paleo/Whole30 adventure in a specific mind-frame of THIS IS NOT A DIET.  THIS IS A CHOICE.  We are doing this for us…therefore, we cannot “cheat” – simply because, how do you cheat when it’s something you choose?  So, let’s say after our initial 30 days of healing, I want to have coffee with a friend one day…or there is a wedding…then, we can CHOOSE and not feel guilty.  Pretty liberating, if you ask me!

Sarah Fragoso heard about our Paleo Adventures and was super-excited for us, so she sent a couple of her awesome cookbooks to check out – and they rock!  I have to say, if you are new to Paleo or just want to consider changing some things, her books are a MUST-READ.  I loved reading about her personal story and the things she’s overcome and loved her down-to-earth no-nonsense approach to the “Why Paleo?” question.  In her book, Sarah also talks about “eating non-Paleo” occasionally and I love the fact that she takes time to note that if you DO choose to fall off the wagon, just don’t fall into gluten!  Why?  Because, in short, it takes 10-20 days to get back out of your system.  You’ll want to read her book for more info on WHY you don’t want some of this stuff in your body as I won’t dive that deep into it here, but for the first time EVER, I actually read the front of the cookbook!  And, enjoyed it!

So far, I’ve learned that we really need to work on being more prepared.  This first week has really shown us some great things that we can work on to make this go fabulously!  First of all, we can save ourselves tons of time if at the beginning of each week, we cook some meats (sausages, bacon, beef, chicken) and chop up veggies and store them separated in the fridge.  Then, in a moments notice, we can mix up salads, make frittatas, etc.  Also, making double of recipes we love and freezing!  Frittatas are awesome and can be made in all sorts of ways and are super easy for breakfasts and lunches.

We stay pretty busy here, so I like things that are super fast and convenient for lunches and breakfasts… leftovers rock.  We’ve also learned that it doesn’t have to be expensive at all.  At first, I planned around having a specific meal 3 times a day with corresponding recipes and we bought for that – I’d actually recommend doing that for anyone just getting started.  You can use your first week or half-week to see how much your family eats when you take out grains/sugars and yet, you are prepared if they eat more.  Personally, the meals we’ve chosen keeps us full and our meals are lasting us longer than we thought.  Plus, I notice the girls getting fuller faster.

We are trying some fun recipes because we see this as an adventure and an opportunity to break out of our cooking/eating rut and try NEW things in NEW combinations.  But, if you feel less-fun, you can cook hamburgers with most mustards, tomatoes, spinach, avocado, etc and eat with no bun and no cheese.  Eat with a side of some carrots and VOILA!  Or, you can do Salmon and asparagus.  If you are super picky…just read the whole30 guidelines and make sure those ingredients aren’t in your favorite foods (or sub them out)…and you are good to go!

Breakfast:  Fruit

Lunch: Leftover Fajitas from the night before

Supper:  Caveman Pizza (recipe below)

Day 2 went by well, and surprisingly, I’ve not craved sweets as much as I thought I would – more like, carbs and cheese.  The meals are awesome so far, so it’s not while I’m eating, but more like when I get hungry…or, when I smell certain smells…or, when I’m just craving a “little something” after supper.  Thoughts of flaky biscuits with honey, pancakes, garlic bread, pita bread, tortillas…and queso.  Yep.  And, I did find a recipe for a golden “biscuit” paleo-style…so I’m super curious to look into that.    Not that I NEED it…it just sounds yummy.

Day 2 was marked by a little bit of tiredness, but in all honesty…I felt that eating the food we used to eat, too.  So, no big news there!  I’m looking forward to getting the JUNK out of my system!!

CAVEMAN PIZZA – serves 2

Ingredients:
Meat Crust:
1 pound ground beef
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed

Toppings:
1/2 to 3/4 cup of your favorite salsa
Red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
Yellow onion, cut into thin strips
Avocado, sliced
Mushrooms, sliced
(optional) garnish: fresh lime, chopped fresh cilantro

Other:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Garlic Powder

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400F. In a large bowl, mix the ground beef with the crust seasonings until combined.

Make the crust. Divide the meat in half, roll into a ball, and press evenly into an 8- or 9-inch round pie pan. Cover only the bottom of the pan and smooth the meat with damp hands until it’s an even thickness. Repeat with the other piece of “crust.” Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and the edges are brown. Leaving the oven on, remove the meat crusts from the oven and drain off any liquid.  Put back in for another 5 minutes if desired.

Cook Your Veggies.  Add 2 T of extra virgin olive oil, sea salt (to taste), black pepper (to taste), and garlic powder (to taste) to pan.  Add in mushrooms, bell pepper, and onion and cook until they reach desired tenderness.  (You can also skip this whole step and put the veggies/mushrooms  on raw.)

Assemble your pizza. Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and place the meat crusts on the baking sheet. Spread about 1/4 cup salsa on each meat crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges. Arrange the peppers, onions, and mushrooms on top, pressing them gently into the salsa. Pop the pizza back into the oven for 10-15 minutes, until hot and browned to your liking.

Add toppings to your pizza. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with sliced avocado, then squeeze a little fresh lime juice over the top and sprinkle with chopped cilantro, if desired.

Supper: Awesome Fajitas (see below for recipe)

Our intent was to start Saturday morning all Paleo… but, stuff happened and grocery trips had to be pushed back…so, we rolled with it.  Technically, we didn’t eat lunch at all and for supper, we busted out this yumminess.  We love it enough that we’ll definitely be cooking it again!!

Ingredients:

• 1.5 – 2 lbs. of chicken breast of consistent thickness, cut into strips
• Tomato, sliced
• 1/4 to 1/2 medium jicama, peeled and sliced into strips – it tastes a lot like a potato married an apple.  If it has brown spots all on the inside, throw it out.
• 2-3 ripe avocado, cut up
• 1 red, orange, and yellow bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced into strips
• 1 or 2 heads of Bibb or Butter lettuce – this will depend on your preference and how big the head is.  We only use 1.
• Cumin, chili powder, freshly ground black pepper (liberal amounts of each)
• Sea salt to taste
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro (chopped)

Directions:

• Heat 1-2 tbsp of coconut oil in a pan (medium-high heat).
• Once the oil is hot, mix spices together and sprinkle half directly into the pan.
• Add chicken on top of the spices, and sprinkle the other half of the spice mixture on top of the chicken.
• Allow chicken to blacken and sear on both sides
• In the same hot pan (with leftover spices), sauté the peppers and onions.
• Use the spatula to scrape blackened spices off the bottom of the pan, stir them right in with the veggies.
• When pepper and onion mixture is cooked to desired tenderness (3-5 minutes), remove from pan and transfer to serving dish.
• Fill the bottom of your plate with large leafs of lettuce.  Lettuce can be torn to eat with a fork OR left whole to use as “wraps” for the fajita mixture.  Pile hot peppers and onion on top, surround with jicama, avocado and tomatoes.
• Drop the chicken on top of the whole glorious pile, top with freshly chopped cilantro.

ENJOY!!

We recently had these at a friend’s home:

I promptly went home and whipped some up.  They then promptly disappeared from the freezer.

Lucky for my family, these are super easy to make!

You need:

Chocolate graham crackers
Sprinkles (optional)
Cool Whip

Put Cool Whip on Chocolate Graham Crackers and sprinkle on sprinkles.  Put in the freezer.  Eat.  Hide from the children and husband if you want them to last (put them in a container marked “breast milk” or “liver and onions” or “placenta” or something to keep butterfingers out of them)…then, eat some more.  But, don’t be stingy… at least share the sprinkles.  Gah, come on!

(Mine have mysteriously disappeared.  I’ve questioned the witnesses but they seem to no NOTHING about the disappearance… nor do they know how chocolate crumb residue got to be in the corners of their mouths…)

This has become one of our kids’ FAVORITE dishes!

Servings: about 4

Ingredients

• 1 (8 oz) can Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2-3 cups cooked and shredded chicken
• 1 egg
• 1 sleeve Saltine Crackers crushed
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/4 cup milk or water
• 2 spoonfuls sour cream (optional)
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Soften 1/4 cup butter and 8oz. block of cream cheese. Then stir to a smooth consistency. Add cooked shredded chicken to the bowl.
3. Lay out the 8 crescent dough on a cookie sheet. Stretch the crescent out.
4. Place a couple spoon fulls of the creamy chicken mixture into the center of the crescent to fill it. Then fold the crescent around the mixture so that none of it is showing.
5. In a separate smaller bowl, put the egg and a little bit of water, maybe a couple Tablespoons worth and beat together.Dip it into the blended egg. After dipping into the blended egg, proceed to dip it into the crushed saltine crackers and place on cookie sheet. Repeat for the remaining 7 crescents.
6. Cook them at 400 F for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them your oven might cook them quicker.
7. For the sauce topping: Put can of cream of chicken and milk into a sauce pan. Add as much milk as you want to get it to the consistency you want i.e. thicker or runnier.

Personally, my favorite way to eat these are putting the “pockets” on a plate with some shredded cheese on top and then ladling the sauce on (not shown in photo).  YUMMY!

Steven and I planned a super-special treat for the girls last night!  After chores were finished, we began mixing up a few ingredients so the girls could make their own ice cream!  Since sweets/snacks are “treats” over here, they were SUPER EXCITED.  Not only was it dessert, but it was FUN!  They loved it!!  (And asked to have it again for breakfast…we had a smoothie instead )

Here’s the recipe we used to make our ICE CREAM (recipe makes one serving, so we doubled it):

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup half and half
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup salt- we used table salt in one and the larger granules (Himalayan red salt, but you can use rock salt ).  You can use both, but the larger salt WILL make ice cream that is thicker/more frozen.

• Ice cubes (enough to fill each gallon-size bag about half full)
• 1 pint-size ziploc bag
• 1 gallon-size ziploc bag

Instructions

1. Combine the sugar, half and half, and vanilla extract in the pint-size bag and seal it tightly.
2. Place the salt and ice in the gallon-size bag, then place the sealed smaller bag inside as well. Seal the larger bag. Now shake the bags until the mixture hardens (about 5 minutes). Feel the small bag to determine when it’s done.
3. Take the smaller bag out of the larger one, add mix-ins, and eat the ice cream right out of the bag. Easy cleanup too! Serves 1.

This is one of my favorite summer-y cakes.  There is just something cool and refreshing about a cool pineapple cake…Yummm.

You will need:

1 Box Duncan Hines Butter Cake Mix + ingredients it calls for on back of box.  (Of course, you can make it from scratch, but… if you don’t tell anyone it’s a box cake, I won’t!!  Also, it doesn’t have to be Duncan Hines…any butter cake mix.)

(FILLING:)

1 lb Powdered Sugar

1 large can crushed pineapple in juice

8 oz sour cream

(“ICING”)

Cool Whip (or you can make your own whipping cream)

How:

Cool Whip on top and sides