Black Bean Dip

Today I was really craving something to dip tortilla chips into but I didn't want anything too heavy because I'm having a late lunch at my sister's house. I don't have much in my house in terms of condiments so anything with sour cream or avocado or anything like that was out. However, I browsed the internet looking for a black bean dip recipe and I sort of combined them all into what I had and my personally tastes.

1 can of black beans, rinsed (to help eliminate more sodium)
1/2 cup chunky salsa (the hotness is up to you. I used mild)
2 tablespoons of lime juice (I don't actually measure so just a couple squirts)
1 tablespoon of cumin (again, just guess)

Blend it all up in a blender or food processor. I ate some at room temp but I don't think I'd heat it up (now that the leftovers are in the fridge). It's really good! I'm not sure about the consistency. It sticks to the chip just fine but I expected it to be thicker. Maybe I added too much of my salsa "juice" when I added the salsa or something. I don't think I'd try to change it for next time though. It tastes so good!!

Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

I came across some ways to save more money. One of them is to make your own laundry detergent. As it is, we don't buy the name brand kind but it still adds up. If you make your own, it can cost less than 5 cents per load! Plus it doesn't have any chemicals in it, it doesn't have plastic waste (like the liquid detergent bottles. The ingredients come in minimal wrapping and cardboard boxes). There are all kinds of recipes for it and they say that if you have very hard water (like we do. We haven't bought a water softener yet) or well water you have to play with the numbers to avoid dingy clothes but in our test load, we haven't had that problem. We used
1 cup of borax (found at Target, Ace Hardware, Walmart, etc)
1 cup washing soda (found at Menard's, Ace Hardware, Walmart, etc)
2 bars of laundry soap (we used Fels Naptha because that was recommended to us but there are other kinds)

You grate the soap ( using a cheese grater) and mix all the above ingredients well. Then store in an airtight container (we put ours in a glass canister but some people like the mason jar method. We almost filled a 1.5 liter canister with the finished product so you may need several jars.) You only use 2 tablespoons per load. This recipe produces a powder detergent (that is safe to use in HE washers) but there are other recipes out there that produce a liquid detergent.

We did a test load with very dirty rags (that have been washed without stain remover previously and the stains are well set in). It smelled very fresh and no powder clumps were found in the washer. The rags turned out pretty clean. Not perfect but I would say better than our previous detergent.

We are so excited to use this all the time. I recommend it for anyone looking to save some money (they say that depending on how much you go through and what brand of store bought detergent you buy, you could save 300 dollars a year) or just looking for clothes that don't have chemicals (they add chemicals to the liquid ones to keep them the right consistency. I assume they also to the powder but I can't verify that.)

Now we just need nice weather and a clothesline so we can start drying outside!

BLT pasta

Since I don't eat bacon and I used spinach instead, this pasta should really be called FST pasta but that doesn't sound as nice. I've been having a lot of "blt"s lately because tomatoes are finally in season. I was getting tired of having the regular old sandwiches day after day so I started doing wraps instead. That also got old pretty quick but I still had ingredients to use up so I decided to make a pasta dish out of it. I kind of threw it together last minute so my measurements are kind of vague.

1/2 box of pasta (I used multi-grain rotini)
1 hot house tomoato (or any tomato of your choice, just make sure you have enough of it)
2 cups of spinach (I would've used more but it didn't fit in my pan right away)
3 tablespoons mayo something (I actually used light miracle whip)
spices to taste (I used dill and paprika, about a half tablespoon of each)
3 slices of veggie bacon (or whatever bacon you prefer)

Make your pasta according to the directions, rinsing with cold water at the end. In a pan over medium heat, cook your spinach down until it wilty. Chop up your tomato and mix it (especially the juice too) with the mayo and spices. Cook your bacon and cut into pieces. Combine all and eat! This serves about 3 people but you could easily double it.

It definitely is not the same as having a BLT toasted sandwich but it still has all the BLT flavor without the same boring part. It even tastes great cold the next day too (or if you don't want to serve it right away).

OMG I Have a House!!

Last night my in laws came over to help us get the living room farther since the couch is coming tomorrow. It was a lot of work (and we still have some left before we can paint) but it's a lot better. Plus, most of the sanding is done and the dust is vacuumed up so that will save me a huge headache later when we are trying to keep the brand new couch clean. So we ripped up the carpet in the living room (and we had done the dining room carpet a couple days ago). We had left it on to protect the original hardwood floors while we were working. Now that the carpet is gone, our house is  looking amazing! The dining room is basically finished (we have to touch up a couple paint spots, put the vent in, put trim on) and the living room is getting there. We also used to have plastic on our windows to protect them from construction and we didn't want everyone to see the huge mess going on inside. Well, last night we took the plastic off the last window downstairs, which is the HUGE window in the living room. This is what everything looks like now (the plastic is up for sanding purposes and with that in the way, it's hard to get a good view on the living room and I couldn't make it come out in its own picture either. Sorry I'm not the best photographer.)


Look at those wood floors and huge windows! To give you perspective, I am in the kitchen, the blue room is the dining room, and the room you can hardly see is the living room. Aren't those huge windows?? David and I were commenting last night how it feels like we've just moved in because we're starting to have (empty) finished rooms! Of course the picture doesn't do my house justice but it's finally starting to become real. These two rooms used to have the nasty (saturated with dust and grim) carpet, filled with cabinets (that have since gone in the kitchen), tools, plastic on the windows, etc. They looked so small because of how much stuff was in there. They weren't wall boarded. And that was probably 6-8 months ago. Now look! I have a house!

Chaos

So when we bought our couch, we were told that it would be delivered in two to three weeks. We plan to put it in the living room (which isn't done yet). I'm not sure how it happened, but our living room still isn't done. (There were 2 Saturdays in a row where nobody got any work done, especially with Easter so that was a huge set back). We got the call today that our couch is going to be here Friday. That's the day after tomorrow!!! We are trying to figure out if we have time to finish the living room before then if we work really hard but some things you just can't speed up like making plaster dry faster. So...it's not going to get done. Hopefully it'll come in plastic and then we can put it in the dining room because that's essentially done (still needs trim and to shine up the wood floors and that but it's all cosmetic). Sanding is just so messy though (even with plastic up) that I hope our new couch isn't affected.

Second, Cocoa is being a huge menace lately. She has been chewing up our (new) carpet to no end. She finds the strings along the wall and pulls (unraveling several feet of carpet). We think she thinks they're like roots and wants to pull on them and chew on them but...it's our carpet! We cut them off when we see them and try to cover the edge with stuff she can dig on but she finds ways around it. She also chews the little carpet pieces that come up from digging on it and that's not good for her either. In an effort to help this, we hung a towel up by the window (kind of like drapes) and she digs on that (which is allowed) but I can't imagine what she would do if we have real curtains there.

Third, it's almost time to start considering opening our windows, which means that Spring cleaning is almost here! I couldn't be more excited. I just hope I find time to do it because I used to do it on Saturdays but those have since become devoted to working on the house (in terms of construction, not cleaning).

Making a Bag

I am in the middle of a couple projects right now but I wanted to blog about making a bag for my reusable pads. Right now, I am using a ziploc for my dirty pads but that seems to defeat the purpose so I am in the process of making a bag that will be able to hold the dirty pads and have a divider in the middle so I can have some clean ones in there too (and this way they won't touch or get mixed up). I'm pretty excited about it and my mother in law is helping me because she is experienced and I am not at all. This will also be my first zipper! Of course, I will post pictures when I'm done but it's going to be a bit because my next step is to attach the zipper and my sewing machine doesn't have a zipper pedal. I do have the choice to buy one but she (my MIL) already owns on and I would need her help anyway so we will have to find a time to get together. It's gorgeous fabric on the outside (a geometric paisley, colorful) and a pink polyester satin on the inside. The zipper is black. The bag is 8 by 5 and modeled after a bag I already own but has a different purpose. I'm so excited! Once I have my bag, I will be more inclined to make more pads. I only have two so far and of course they're my first ones so they're more prototypes than anything. But I have some ideas for new ones (and can post those too if people are interested). I love sewing!

April Resolutions

With the first day of April here and Spring weather finally starting to arrive, there are some changes we are going to make in our household.

I love to cook but most of the time, I cook with prepackaged foods (canned beans, mac and cheese, condensed soups, etc) and it really skyrockets your sodium, which I've been trying to cut down on lately. Every time we cook with prepackaged foods, we add things and create a complete meal out of it. David and I have resolved to start cooking once a week (just dinner for now) without doing things this way. Eventually we'll incorporate this lifestyle more and more into our lives but slowly so we can maintain it. For the first couple weeks, I think it will be a lot of stir frys until I come up with new ideas (if you guys have any, let me know in the comments!). Because it's Spring, we have started our garden so having those fresh veggies will be really nice for this.

Also, we are cutting out TV one day a week. We have been watching a lot lately when we really should be getting more done around the house. It's our way to unwind and relax after a stressful day but we need to find alternative methods. It should also help our energy bill (every little bit counts!) so we are kind of excited about it.

p.s. Spring cleaning season is almost here! Expect a post about it soon