Mexican Crockpot Mixup

5 cans enchilada sauce
2 Cans Tomato sauce
1 cup of white rice
1.5 lbs cooked chicken
1-1.5 cups black beans
1 can corn
2-3 cups sautéed onions,  tomatoes, & bell peppers
Salt to taste

Combine in crockpot on high for 4-6 hours. Stir every hour or so.

Awesome served with cheese, sour cream, avocados, and tortilla chips. Or even just in a tortilla!

Homemade Powdered Laundry Detergent

I was feeling too lazy to make my normal liquid laundry detergent,  so I decided to try something new. I found some recipes online, but the ones I found were all large batch and I wanted to try a small batch to see how it worked for me before I committed to a 5 gallon buckets worth.  I also wanted to add some stain stick for extra stain fighting since my monkeys usually end up covered in mud or grass or food by the end of the day. So here's what I came up with.

1.5 cups borax
1 cup homemade washing soda
1/2 cup baking soda
2/3 cup soap mixture

I just mixed these all up and voilà!  Homemade laundry detergent. You use 2 TBS per load. 

The hardest part was making the soap mixture,  but I made up a huge batch of it so I could use it to quickly make up more dry detergent or even to make liquid detergent if I don't end up liking the powdered.

Here's how I made the soap mixture:

I took 9 bars of random soap from around the house and chopped them into smaller chunks.  Then I blended them into fine bits in 3 different batches in the food processor.  To keep it from sticking to my blades too much,  I added in 1/3 of a small 14 oz box of baking soda with each batch of soap chunks (so 1 box total).

Then I took 3 Buncha Farmers stain sticks and chucked them up as well and tossed them in the food processor.  These were softer and ended up beading up like beeswax granules.

Then I added the soap/baking soda bits to the stain stick granules and added in an 18 oz bottle of Purex Crystals.

I mixed these all up and stuck them in a separate container with a lid.

Update: I have been using this detergent for about 4 and a half months now. I am really happy with it. I have noticed on any laundry that has something in the load that is stinky or extra gross (read sweaty football uniform), I do tend to add 4 TBS instead of 2. This ensures that there is no leftover stains and everything smells nice and clean.

Printable Version of Recipe Here

Do you make any of your own homemade cleaners? Please comment below if you have a good recipe I should try!