Stock the Pantry for Clean Green Cleaning for Under $50

I have written before about cleaning without chemicals. It is something that I started out of necessity after I got tired of my sensitive skin being irritated by harsh chemicals. At first I thought, Wow this is going to be expensive! After investing in a short list of ingredients and testing their potency I was incredibly happy with the results. Many items I needed where things I already bought, so I started buying in bulk. 

Here is a list of easy to find ingredients to keep on hand for a clean and healthy home! I have listed where you can find them and about what it should cost you. 

Check out my posts All Purpose Cleaner and Laundry Detergent for full recipes. All prices are based on my local grocery store, prices may vary in different locations.

Baking Soda ($1.62/ 32 oz.)

• Can be found in the baking aisle, often a generic brand can be a huge price saver. 
• The most ESSENTIAL of all the clean green ingredients. 
• Ingredient in All Purpose Cleaner
• Mix about a cup with a few drops of your favorite essential oil and sprinkle over the carpet. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. The baking soda absorbs the smells in the carpet. Vacuum it up and the carpet will smell fresh. 
• A tip from Martha Stewart (she knows about good things) http://www.wholeliving.com/134227/tub-scrub. Tub, tile, and counter scrub: One Cup of Baking Soda,  1 tsp. Of liquid soap, a few drops of lemon essential oil, and enough water to form a paste. Scrub with a cleaning brush and be amazed. When I tried this my tub foam up a gray sludge that I didn’t know was there! (Thanks million plus people who post this to Pinterest it is a great tip!)
• Unclog a drain. Wait till the sink is empty and preferably dry. Pack the drain with baking soda using a butter knife. Chase with white distilled vinegar for a foaming effect.
• Got a pan that needs to be scrubbed and you don’t feel like scrubbing it? Leave it over night with a nice layer of baking soda and most of it will come right off. Baking soda absorbs the grease, preventing it from hardening. 

White Distilled Vinegar ($2.99/ gal.)

• Found in salad dressing aisle of grocery store
• Major bargain for cleaning.
• Uses:
• Spray onto windows and wipe with coffee filters for maximum clean. 
• Spray onto bathroom fixtures to shine.
• Fill a plastic sandwich bag and tie around faucets and shower head to clean off buildup.  (Thanks Mom!)
• Warm 2 cups and pour down drains weekly to keep them unclogged. 
• Veggie Wash (1 part vinegar to 1 part fresh lemon juice to 11 parts water)
• All Purpose Cleaner

Liquid Castile Soap ($14-$17/ 32 oz.)

• Found in Natural Cleaning or Natural Health and Beauty Aisle
• A little bit goes a long way.
• Uses:
• Ingredient in All Purpose Cleaner
• Amazing face and body wash. Great for sensitive skin , acne prone skin, and some claim it can prevent wrinkles!
• Can be used as a shampoo.
• Great all around liquid soap for cleaning floors, counters, etc. 

Borax ($4.29/ 76 oz.)

• This can be found in the laundry detergent aisle at the grocery store.
• Uses:
• Ingredient in Laundry Detergent
• Ingredient in All- Purpose Cleaner
• Leave about ½ Cup in toilet over night to break up that nasty water ring.
• Stain removal booster.

Washing Soda Crystals ($3.15/  55 oz.)

• Made by Arm and Hammer and found in the laundry detergent aisle. 
• Similar to baking soda, but stronger for cleaning.
• Uses:
• Ingredient in Laundry Detergent
• Ingredient in All Purpose Cleaner
• Stain removal booster. 

Fels-Naptha Bar Soap ($1.29/ 5.5 oz. Bar)

• Found in laundry detergent aisle. 
• Used mainly in Laundry Detergent and fabric stain remover. 

Tea Tree oil  ($8/ 4 oz.)

• Can be found in skin care aisle of grocery store and in any health food store. 
• An antiseptic essential oil, great for cleaning.
• Great for skin, clears up acne and other blemishes. 
• Uses:
• All-Purpose Cleaner
• Scent/ Antiseptic for any homemade cleaning product

Orange or Lemon Essential Oil. ($5/ 4 oz.)

• Can be found in skin care aisle of grocery store and in any health food store. 
• An antiseptic essential oil, great for cleaning.
• Scent gives a reassuring feeling that the kitchen is really clean.  
• Uses:
• Ingredient in All-Purpose Cleaner
• Scent/ Antiseptic for any homemade cleaning product

Olive Oil ($3.69/ 17 fl. oz.)

• Can be found in baking aisle of grocery store. 
• Can be used as a furniture polish.  Ten drops lemon essential oil, 2 Tablespoons lemon juice, and 3-4 drops olive oil.  Use a soft cloth to rub on. Test first on a small spot that won’t be seen if the finish has a bad reaction. 

Fresh Lemons ($.50/ ea.)

• Can be found in produce section of the grocery store. 
• Highly antiseptic.
• Uses:
•  Cut in half and use to scrub wooden cutting boards. 

Laundry Detergent, 6 gallons for under $3.

I love the new Tide slogan "Style is an option, clean isn't". Or something like that. So to keep your style clean I have worked out a recipe for a great laundry detergent that will be safe to use and easy on the wallet. You will only need three ingredients Washing Crystals, Borax, and Fels-Naptha. All three of these are available at my local grocery store in the laundry isle. 

Six gallons of laundry detergent for this? Yes, please. 

Have all of these ingredients and tools handy:

One 5-1/2 oz. Bar Fels-Naptha Laundry Soap

1-1/2 Cup Borax

1-1/2 Cup Washing Crystals

1 Stock Pot

1 Funnel

6 Empty gallon jugs

1 Box grater

The first step is the hardest! Grate one bar of Fels-Naptha Laundry Soap. This will make about 2 Cups and costs around $1.29 at the local grocery store.

Now that the grating is done place the soap flakes in a stock pot with 1-1/2 Cup Borax ($0.68 locally), 1-1/2 Cup Washing Crystals ($0.82 locally), and 12 Cups of water.  Stir and heat over medium on the stove. 

Looks a little egg-y.

While this is warming up be sure to stir often. Time to start filling those six gallon containers with 12 Cups of water in each. I usually fill one and use it as a measuring stick for the rest. Mark the water level for when you re-use these. 

Once all your soap has dissolved on the stove and has a nice foam to it, take it off the heat. 

Place 2 Cups of the soap concentrate in each gallon jug. Use the funnel and a heat safe glass measuring cup. 

Use a bamboo skewer to stir up the concentrate and water, or close the cap and shake gently. Top off the jug with about 2 more cups of water. 

Toasted Quinoa Salad with Roasted Garbanzo Beans

So, until recently I was unaware of an amazing ‘super food’ called quinoa. First I want to spare anyone else the embarrassment of mispronouncing this goodness of nature. When you are at the grocery store and need direction please, please, please don’t asked for “Quinn-oha” say it “Keen-wa”. As someone who had only seen the word in print I made the mistake of uttering the first pronunciation. On a side note most grocery stores keep quinoa in the gluten free or grain section of their natural selections aisle. 

What is the food that I regard so highly? I would describe it as having a nutty flavor and an orzo like texture. Like rice it has such a versatile place in recipes. Sweet, spicy, and salty can be achieved in this miracle food. One thing I really like about it is it can make an endless amount of different one-bowl meals. Who doesn’t love a dinner that doesn’t require an entire load of dishes?

You probably now want to know why it is so good for you. It is a rare food that it a complete amino acid making it a complete protein that is essential to the human diet and rare in a plant based diet. As I mentioned before quinoa is found in the gluten free section of the grocery store because it is and always will be gluten free. Quinoa is also one of the most vitamin rich foods I have ever seen. As a plant food it also lacks cholesterol as long as you don’t add any animal product in the preparation (duh!). People have claimed it helps reduce risks and effects of diabetes, heart disease, migraine headaches, and cancer. 

For more info http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?dbid=142&tname=foodspice

I bet you are all waiting for a recipe now so you can cure what ails you. This one is so easy and makes plenty of left overs!

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Toasted Quinoa Salad with Roasted Garbanzo Beans

1-12 oz. Box of Quinoa 

2 cups water

1-15 oz. Can of Garbanzo Beans (aka Chick peas) drained and rinsed

2-3 Roma tomatoes seeded and diced

1-12 oz. Bag of frozen Corn kernels thawed

1 medium red onion diced

Olive Oil as needed

4 Tbs. Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper

Dressing

½ cup lemon juice

4 Tbs. Olive Oil

4 cloves of garlic finely minced

2 Tbs. Italian seasoning

1 Tbs. Fresh cracked Black Pepper

Fresh Basil for garnish (optional)

Heat about 2 tbs. Olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat for the quinoa and preheat the oven to 350° for the Garbanzo beans.

Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer to removed any debris, like you would rice. Shake the strainer to remove excess water. Place the rinsed quinoa in the warm skillet and use a spatula to make an even layer. Stir  occasionally to prevent burning for about 5 to 8 minutes or until a few are brown.

Another great use for my cast iron! See link below to get one for yourself. 

       Add 2 cups of water to the toasted quinoa in the skillet and raise the heat to high. Allow all the water to absorb or evaporate out and remove from heat. Take off stove and allow to cool.

This is what it will look like after cooking. Each grain should be swollen and a few 'squiggles'.

While the water is evaporating drain and rinse the canned Garbanzo beans. Place them on a baking sheet and coat them with 4 Tbs. Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and olive oil. Place in the preheated oven for about 10 to 15 minutes or until a nice, rich brown color. Remove for the oven and allow to cool. 

Nice and brown roasted Garbanzo beans. 

After removing the quinoa and beans from the heat dice the vegetables and make the dressing. For the dressing warm 4 Tbs. Olive oil in a shallow pan and add ½ cup lemon juice. Add the garlic, Italian seasoning, and black pepper. Saute until garlic begins to brown. 

Combine cooled quinoa, beans, and veggies in a large serving, mixing, or storage bowl (my favorite is all three! see link). I recommend using a rubber or silicone spatula to give a gentle touch. Pour the lemon dressing over the top and stir until combined. Fluff with a fork and add a little basil garnish before serving. Great served hot or cold, I actually prefer it cold. 

So easy and fast! My husband and I usually can get two dinner servings and about 3 or 4 lunch servings out of this recipe. It’s a real time and money saver. I usually make some sort of quinoa salad on Sundays to ensure we have something for lunches early in the work week.

Special thanks to Very Culinary for getting me hooked! Here is a link to the recipe that inspired me. http://veryculinary.com/2011/08/09/toasted-quinoa-salad-with-cumin-lime-dressing/

So good even Chief wanted a bite. Served in a roasted poblano pepper.

A few helpful links from Amazon:

My Food Revolution and Yours Too.

Hello Readers!,

I want to apologize for my absence. My mind has been flooded with the idea of “eating to prevent and cure”. It sounds insane but many doctors and scientists have found which foods help us and which ones hurt us. The idea is if you have something wrong with you eat certain foods and avoid certain foods. When you are healthy avoid foods that in the long term make you sick. Crazy talk!

Sounds simple? In a way it is, but when you have to sort out what some of your health goals. For myself I wanted to lessen my allergies (I was tired of prescription side affects), stop having acne breakouts (I have tried literally every product on the market!), and lose those pesky muffin top pounds (duh). Luckily, my problems all fell into some of the same food categories. I can honestly say when I stick to what I have learned my face is clear (inside and out) and my weight is much less of a beast. 

I started my food journey earlier this year and this past month I have really learned about how vast this idea spread. I started with an Anti-Inflammation “diet”. I use “diet” loosely as it conjures up terrible images. The basics are no white flour, refined sugar, or processed foods. (Many other rules that are different for everyone also came into play.) Difficult. These new rules where tough to live by, but once the ball was rolling and I could breathe, skip concealer, and sit with my pants buttoned all at the same time I became a believer. 

What you put into your body affects it and the more you are aware of the make up of your food the healthier you will be. This started my interest in what is being dubbed the “Food Revolution”. An entire movement of people have shed light on the food industry. WARNING: You cannot unlearn what you will learn if you watch and read he material I suggest. 

Food has somehow become political. People don’t want to tell you what or how your food gets to your plate (or eeek Styrofoam box). Sadly, most people don’t want to know. If you are like me and want to live without illness, prescriptions, and pesky pounds come to the revolution! If you are prepared to learn I have suggested some documentaries below. Extracurricular research is highly recommended and encouraged. I am by no means an expert, but I recommend learning for yourself and your friends and family. 

Click on any of the pictures below for more information. 

Food Inc. 

Possibly the most common of the food documentaries out there right now. PBS airs it every now and then. This one focuses on Industrial farming and where you food has been before it gets to your plate. Also, it has quite a bit of info on how the government allows companies to patent soy beans and other naturally occurring foods by simply engineering their genes. Creepy. 

Forks Over Knives

This documentary focus on a plant based diet and its health benefits. Doctors who have done long term studies on the benefits of veganism are interviewed. They compare our cultures obsession with dairy against eastern cultures lack there of. 

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

This one was so inspirational! It is the story of one man trying to cure his mysterious illness, which (shocker!) is cured by a dietary change. Along the way he meets another man with the same illness and transforms that mans life, who in turn transforms the lives of all the people in his town. In a final story twist he saves his own brother after a heart attack. Hollywood could not have written such a touching story. Tears, literally tears of joy for these people. 

Foodmatters

This is the best one if you have any illness. It is very to the point about foods that can save your life and even reverse illness. 

I highly recommend all of these. Don't worry about making all of these changes at once, it takes time to not want to murder some one over a DQ Blizzard, pepperoni pizza, or Diet Coke. Trust me. Any knowledge and changes you can make now are for the better. I hope this helped you! 

Love Alice

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes (with vegan opt.)

Good morning blogees! I woke up this morning with the urge for pancakes, so I thought I would share...

As always I decided to get creative with 'healthify-ing' what could be a really bad junk food feast. I swapped out the all-purpose flour for the whole wheat variety and changed out all the dairy items. Blueberries are such a great antioxidant and add sweetness, this will help me not drench my stack in syrup. To each there own, I won't be mad if you want a more traditional flapjack.

Start a pot of coffee and warm up your griddle! It's pancake time!
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• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar (turbinado for the vegans)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature (1/2 C silken tofu)
• 1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature (almond milk)
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (Earth Balance)
• 1 Cup Fresh Blueberries

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

In another bowl, beat the eggs (tofu) and then whisk in the milk and vanilla.

Melt the butter in a sauce over medium heat.

Whisk the butter into the milk mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and whisk until a thick batter is just formed. Carefully fold in the blueberries with a rubber spatula.

Plop them on your hot griddle and flip them when the bubbles stop popping up. 

All Natural All-Purpose Cleaner for $1.50 a Bottle

As someone who spends a lot of time in my kitchen I use a lot of cleaning products. Until I started researching natural foods and the green movement I had never thought twice about the name brand cleaning agents I routinely use in my home. After reading the labels I decided that, much like the food I eat, these chemicals that my husband and I come in contact with daily need to be as close to natural as possible. I scoured the internet and came up with a recipe for a multi-purpose cleaner that is safe and cheap. The ingredients for this cleaner can also be used to make laundry detergent, dish detergent, and just about anything else to clean up your home. Currently I am working out the kinks to these other cleaners, which will make buying other cleaners a thing of the past. My goal is to build an arsenal of natural ingredients to clean every room in the house without breaking the bank. I have listed the recipe below with links to Amazon.com to help guide you. Every ingredient was available at my local grocery with the exception of the essential oils. Feel free to browse around for the best deals and save yourself some money and chemicals. Speaking of saving money one recipe makes about 16 ounces for $1.50.

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All-Purpose Cleaner

1 tsp. Borax Powder

½ tsp.  Washing Crystals

2 Tbsp. White Distilled Vinegar

½ tsp. Liquid Castile Soap

2 Cups  Distilled Water

20 Drops Tea Tree oil

10 Drops Orange or Lemon Essential Oil. 

1 24+ oz. Spray Bottle

1. Mix Borax, Washing Soda Crystals, and Castile Soap in a 2 Cup glass measuring cup. (I prefer the glass measuring cup because of the spout. If you have a funnel this isn't such a problem pouring the mixture into the spray bottle. Which ever you prefer or is handiest to you.) 

2. Slowly add vinegar, this will bubble over like a science fair volcano. Caution it may get warm. While this is settling down warm 2 Cups of  distilled water. Using distilled is incredibly important because of the fluoride in tap water, filter such as Brita and Pur do not remove it. 

3. When mixture settles pour the mixture into spray bottle. Slowly pour the hot water into the bottle. 

4. Let the spray bottle cool down. Once the bottle is cool to touch add the essential oils.  Close bottle and shake. 

5. Ready to use!

Making the Switch to Almond Milk

If you are looking for a healthy alternative to milk be sure to give almond milk a try. As the popularity of this alternative grows it is becoming more readily available. Just about every grocery store now carries the name brand Silk Pure Almond or Blue Diamond Almond Breeze. Many stores now even carry store brand versions (Kroger and Aldi).  These products can be found in the health food cooler or in some stores mixed in with the regular milk. With such availability price is fairly low ($2.39 - $2.89 per half gallon versus $1.99 per half gallon store brand 2% milk).

Almond Milk has less calories than 1% dairy milk. On average 1 serving of almond milk has 60 calories whereas the dairy milk has 100. Calcium is a very important part of dairy milk, almond milk out does it with 45% of your daily value compared to 30% in a serving of 1% dairy milk. With 0g saturated fat almond milk beats the 1.5 g in dairy milk. Since almond milk has no animal product in it the cholesterol amount is 0 mg. The 1% dairy milk has 13g of cholesterol.  Also since animal products are not used in almond milk there are no added hormones or lactose. Along with that no animals are harmed or factory farmed. The almond milk covers what most people need out of dairy milk and reduces what they don’t. You should always do your own diet research based on your needs, these are just my notes.

Most important is taste! I am sure that is most peoples' first question when researching new products. I have tasted the original flavor of Silk Pure Almond, Almond Breeze, Kroger almondmilk, and Friendly Farms Almond Milk (available at some Aldi stores). Other flavors such as Dark Chocolate and Vanilla are available in most brands with a little different nutrition value than above. Taste and texture were excellent in all except Almond Breeze. I felt that it had the same ‘chalky’ texture as soy milk, whereas the other brands were much smoother with less after taste.  I have used all three to in baked items with success. I highly recommend switching out regular milk in your favorite baked goods with almond milk for a healthy alternative. Your family might not even notice the difference! I have had people tell me it just tastes like I added a little almond extract. 

I hope you all found this helpful! Do not be afraid to try some new and healthy alternatives. Many benefits can be achieved if you do a little research and open your mind.