Frugal Friday Followup

Fels naptha soap + washing soda + borax + mixing it up in your food processer= homemade laundry soap.

Ever since we visited the embroidery factory, I have been wishing that I could have some laundry soap that smells the same....it was so clean and fresh. Guess what? Washing soda smells the same! We're giving it a shot today.

Canning beans...This is like my long-term food storage and three month short-term storage combined. I use my cannery dried beans and cook up between50-60 pints. Then they are on the shelf and ready to go, the perfect cheap fast food! They taste WAY better than store-bought canned beans, plus they have no extra salt, etc. in them. We eat a lot more beans when I have them this way and beans are very good for you! If you have a can of beans you can open one up and...

Smoosh them up in the blender and make refried beans.
Mix them with hamburger and chili seasoning and have chili and throw it over a baked potato.

Eat them as is with tacos.

Mix them up with shredded beef/pork and make burritos (I have canned beef on my storage shelf)

Use them as a side dish for any Mexican food.

Cook up some brown rice and throw some beans on top with a little cheese and cilantro-yummy!

This year I am going to do some black beans and white beans too.....

And because I had to stay home and listen to the pressure canner whistle, I was able to finally finish up these projects.

Holiday placemats. I haven't been able to find anything I like at the store and so I whipped these up myself.

Now people, don't get crazy on me and think I am a superwoman. I FINISHED these that had been hanging around my office for a couple of weeks.......I had to do something while I was waiting for the beans to cook and my laundry soap took less than 30 minutes to make. I don't have small children running underfoot either. My children can drive themselves places too.

I even had time to eat a bon-bon or two!