Also, if you haven’t noticed, I’ve completely ditched the themed nights. Maybe I’ll incorporate them back in, but I felt so restrained!

Monday – Enchilada Casserole
Tuesday - Dinner Out
Wednesday - Veggie Couscous
Thursday – Creamy Garlic Fettuccine w/ Salad
Friday – Chicken Veggie Casserole
Saturday – Jambalaya

This enchilada casserole is one of my favorite dishes my mom makes. Don’t be deceived by its name, it doesn’t have any enchilada sauce in it, but it is yummy, and only as spicy as the salsa you put in it.

Enchilada Casserole

1 whole chicken (boiled and shredded)
Package of corn tortillas
15 oz jar of salsa
Small jar of green chilis
Jar of Cream of Mushroom Soup
Jar of Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 can milk
Cheddar Cheese
Monterey Jack Cheese
9 X 13 inch baking dish
Mixing bowl

1. Boil chicken and shred into small chunks. (This can be done the day before…If not, be sure to allow enough time for chicken to cool so you can shred it!)
2. Cut corn tortillas into 1 inch strips.
3. Mix Together chicken, salsa, green chilis, and both cans of soup in mixing bowl.
4. Put a layer of the salsa mixture into the bottom of the baking dish.
5. Place a layer of corn tortillas on top of salsa layer.
6. Sprinkle a handful of both cheeses on top of salsa layer.
7. Repeat (tortillas, salsa mixture, cheese, tortillas, salsa mixture, cheese). End with cheese.
8. Cover baking pan with aluminum foil and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes until cheese is bubbly (I like to broil it for a few minutes without the aluminum foil at the end so the cheese gets a little brown).
9. Let it set for about 10 minutes, slice and enjoy!

For more menu planning ideas, visit http://orgjunkie.com/

Granola Girl (Noun): Modern hippy woman minus the heroin and STD’s. Socially aware and active with a penchant for hemp and sodium-free soap. May eat tofu for breakfast and sweeten food with agave syrup. Is determined to save the world.

That’s nice. Thanks, Mom.

Either way, I LOVE GRANOLA. I made granola when I worked as a baker at Great Harvest Bread Co, which by the way, has awesome bread and treats, but only if you want to pay massive amounts of money. Anyway, I found a recipe for granola here and it looked good, so I tried it out. The granola turned out on the burnt side and was VERY salty.

I plan to make this granola again using this modified recipe:

Crunchy Granola

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup turbinado (raw) sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsps. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
Nuts of your choosing
Dried Fruit of your choosing

1. Preheat oven to 300. Combine oil, honey, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Add oats and toss to coat. The mixture should be sticky, but not dripping with liquid.

2. Spread the granols in a thin layer on a wax or parchment paper line baking sheet. Place in oven.

3. Cooking time is about 25-30 minutes. Take the pan out every ten minutes or so and mix the granola around to prevent sticking. Taste regularly, keeping in mind that things will crisp up when it cools. The granola shouldn’t brown!!!

4. If your nuts are untoasted add them toward the end of cooking so that they have time to toast but don’t burn. Add toasted nuts and dried fruit after you remove the granola from the oven.

5. Serve with milk, ice cream, yogurt or make some granola bars!

-Derek Webb

I love shopping–for food, new clothes, furniture, you name it. I love the convenience of having everything at my fingertips. As an American in a fairly large city, I can go to any store I want and have the ability to buy any sort of fruit, vegetable, or cut of meat that I want for pretty darn cheap!

Drew and I purchased a book months ago called The Better World Shopping Guide. This book encourages consumers to be educated and informed about the things they buy. After digging into it a little, I’ve been truly surprised about some of the practices of companies that I frequently buy from (like Nestle and Kraft). It rates companies on the following:

Am I supporting companies who bring harm to humans, the environment, or to animals? Yes.

Am I supporting social justice with my purchases? The answer, no.

The book begins with the top 10 changes that every consumer should consider.

1. Bank
2. Gasoline
3. Supermarket
4. Retail Stores
5. Car
6. Seafood
7. Chocolate
8. Coffee
9. Credit Cards
10. Cleaning Products

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to dig a little deeper into the 10 things to change, so that we can be educated consumers in our home who honor God through our intention to honor his people and his creation through our purchases.

Monday – Dinner at Momma’s house

Tuesday – Cajun Red Beans and Rice

Wednesday – Soyrizo & Eggs

Thursday – Veggie Kabobs & Couscous

Friday – Dinner at a friend’s house

Saturday – Vegetable Casserole

Sunday – White Garlic Pizza

Here’s how I plan meals. Every night of the week has its theme. This makes meal planning for Drew and I SO incredibly simple. We tend to stick with the same stuff ALL THE TIME. So, this helps introduce some diversity into our meals Here are the themes (as of right now).

Monday – Italian

Tuesday – Mexican

Wednesday – Raw Food

Thursday – Soup/Sandwiches

Friday – Pizza or Burgers

Saturday/Sunday – Casserole/Crockpot Recipe

I have a group of recipes for each theme (which I’m still working on). My goal is to get enough recipes so that I can switch menu plans with the seasons.

Here is what our week’s dinners will be:

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Veggie Tacos

Wednesday: Southwest Salad w/ Cilantro Lime Dressing

Thursday: Tortilla Soup

Friday: Bison Burgers w/ baked beans

Saturday/Sunday: Thai Chicken

For more meal planning ideas, visit Organizing Junkie.

Anyway, according to Trent on The Simple Dollar, “nine loads using my homemade detergent has the same detergent cost as one load of Tide with Bleach Alternative.” The savings for him? At least $70 per year. He probably does a lot of laundry

Our Cost and Savings
In our 2-person home we do about 2 loads of laundry a week, 108 per year.

We use Seventh Generation laundry detergent. The cost is $16.99 for 100 ounces which cleans 66 loads. That’s 25 cents per load.

The homemade laundry detergent cost us roughly $7 (with extra soap, borax, washing soda and a bucket to use later) and provides roughly 52 loads. We have the ingredients to make this stuff 4 more times. So really, that $7 paid for 260 loads. That’s 2 cents a load.

Using Seventh Generation laundry detergent, it would theoretically cost us $26.00 a year to wash clothes. With the homemade stuff, it would theoretically cost us $2.08 a year. Wait, what?! That’s pretty much free. We are saving about $24/year.

Here is Trent’s post on laundry detergent.

The “Recipe”

Here is what you will need:

• 1 cup washing soda
• 1/2 cup borax
• 1 bar soap
• Approximately 3 gallons water
• a cheese grater (or knife, or peeler, or just something sharp)
• a pot
• a bucket or other large container
• something to stir with

Step 1 – Shred, slice, or grate your bar of soap.

Step 2 – Boil about 4 cups of water in a pot and as it is heating, slowly add in soap pieces.

Step 3 – Let it simmer until the soap is dissolved into the water.

Step 4 – Pour about 3 gallons of warm tap water into your bucket

Step 5 -Add Borax, Washing Soda and soap solution and stir.

Step 6 – Let sit for 24 hours

Step 7 – Do some laundry!

Here’s the final recipe:

• 2 large, red ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded (you could also use canned diced tomatoes, they work just as well)
• 2 garlic cloves (I used the stuff in the jar)
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 yellow onion (it’s what we had on hand)
• 4 oz canned chopped green chilies
• 1 to 3 whole jalapeños, deveined and seeded (Optional to taste)
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice
• salt and pepper (to taste)
• cumin (to taste)
• paprika (to taste)

Here’s a picture of most of the ingredients that I used:

Toss the garlic, green pepper, onion, cilantro, and jalapenos into the food processor and chop for a few seconds. Scrape the stuff off the sides of the bowl.

Then, add in the rest of the ingredients and chop for a few more seconds. You don’t want to make a puree, so make sure you don’t over-chop it!

Taste it and add more spices if needed.

Throw it in the fridge for at least an hour to let it season and enjoy!

Well, as a beginning homemaker (and I’m surely not the only one), it can be intimidating to incorporate healthy, natural, frugal, and do-it-yourself practices into daily life. That’s what this blog is for – for me to keep track of what I tried that worked, what I tried that didn’t work, and for all homemakers (experienced and beginning alike) to learn from or simply to laugh at my attempts to educate.

With that said, leave feedback! I’d love to know who out there is reading.

‘Til next time,

jessica