Homemade Carpet Deodorizer

   My son Connor, 3, has skin allergies and requires "special" laundry detergents so his clothing doesn't irritate his skin, and "special" lotions that don't make him break out in rashes every time he gets rubbed down. When he was a baby, I discovered that just playing on the carpeted floor would make the poor guy's skin break out in rashes, because I was using store-bought carpet deodorizer, which, it turns out, he was allergic to. 

     Glade carpet deodorizer: Bad for kids with skin allergies

   So, I decided to make my own carpet deodorizer. Of course, I could have just skipped the deodorizer altogether and vacuumed my carpet without, like most normal people do, but let's face it: I'm addicted to anything that smells good and makes my home smell good..

   (Not kidding. If I walk into my house and it doesn't smell the way that I want it to, I deep clean my entire house top to bottom just to get it smelling right again. I need therapy.)

   And, of course, I hate all things toxic and too-cleany-smelly. (i.e., anything that smells like pine, lemon, ammonia, bleach, etc.) I don't think that most cleaning products out on the market today, (even the ones who "claim" to be "green", are healthy to use in your homes or healthy to breathe in when the scent of them permeates through the air.) 

 

 I would never in a million years use these cleaning products, or cleaning products like these, in my home. Ever. 

 

   Nor would I use any of these "green" cleaning products. 

   Why?

   Because, if my kids got into my cleaning products and, God forbid, put some in their mouth or swallowed any of these "green, non-toxic" cleaning products, they would still get poisoned and could still die. 

   Not a chance I'm willing to take.

  

   So, I decided to make my own. I make all of my own cleaning products, but my homemade carpet deodorizer is the easiest and quickest to make, not to mention it's great for the pocket book, because it can be made for next to nothing, using "ingredients" normally found in your kitchen. All you need is: 

   Baking soda, spice of your choice (I usually use cinnamon and nutmeg, but you could use almost any spice that's in your cupboard. I also have lavender, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, and cloves) 

   All you do is pour the baking soda and the spice of your choice into a bowl, and mix them together. 

   Once everything is mixed, I usually put the mixture into a jar, like this: 

   Now you're all set to use it. Just sprinkle this deodorizer on to your carpet until your heart is content, and then vacuum, and -VOILA!- your carpet and your home will smell soo much better than store bought, ammonia-filled clean. And best of all, you can sprinkle this on your carpets and then let your kids play on the floor and you don't have to worry about it. 

   Now Connor can play on the floor without breaking out into rashes. 

  

Breakfast Smoothie

I don't know about you all, but I am NOT a breakfast person. Because of sugar content, I don't buy cereal for me or my family and I don't buy Pop Tarts because I don't think they're healthy.  I don't eat eggs, bacon, ham, etc, because of my vegetarian/vegan diet, and I have never liked pancakes, french toast, or waffles. 

   Don't get me wrong, I DO eat them sometimes, when I find the right recipe and have the right amount of motivation. 

   But I DO love smoothies!! They are so easy to make, and don't take many ingredients, so you can make healthy breakfast/lunch/dinner smoothies no matter what your income/budget. That's part of why I love them so much! 

   All you need is orange juice (I use Albertson's brand), frozen berries (Again, I use Albertson's brand mixed berries), ice cubes, seven up (or Sprite) and a blender. 

    I usually don't condone drinking soda for breakfast, but I only make this every once in a while, and besides, Sprite is caffeine free anyway so it's harmless, right? 

   Anyway, all you need to do is put 2 cups of orange juice into the blender, and then two cups of Sprite (the whole can). Then add 4 ice cubes and the berries (I used 6 oz, which was half of the 12 oz bag)

   
   Blend all of the ingredients together, until smooth. I'm afraid I just got my blender not too  long ago and am still trying to figure out how to use it properly, so I had to first use the blend feature, then the ice crush feature, then I blended it all together again. There is probably an easier way to do it, but I can't live like that. 

   I love the color and the texture of this smoothie. It's full of antioxidants, it's bubbly, and colorful. My kids love it and think they're getting a treat.  We use red plastic cups because my kids break things easily and we're really classy.

Veganized Puppy Chow

      PUPPY CHOW!!!!! Who doesn't love it? When I was younger, my mom and I made batches and batches of puppy chow for all of my aunts and uncles for Christmas.  Admittedly, I hadn't made puppy chow for YEARS, and all of a sudden, -BAM!- I had a hankering for the chocolatey, peanut-buttery Crispix-y goodness. 

   So, off to the grocery store I went. Since overcoming and recovering from Susac Syndrome almost three years ago, I have tried to go vegan in my diet as much as possible, but it's hard being vegan in Montana, where there's really no specialty stores anywhere near me. (There is one in Miles City, about an hour and fifteen minutes away, but who has the time?) Luckily, there are food items in your own hometown grocery store that are vegan; they just don't advertise as such. 

   So instead of making the old-school Puppy Chow recipe, I did what I usually do with all recipes: I veganized it. 


   With Puppy Chow, really the only non-vegan ingredient were the chocolate chips, which don't count as vegan because the recipe calls for "milk-chocolate" chocolate chips. But the grocery store in town, Albertsons, carries Bakers brand chocolate. 

   I love Bakers brand, because they are the only non-vegan brand of chocolate that doesn't use milk or eggs in their products, which is something I learned years ago from a friend of mine whose daughters had food allergies like you wouldn't believe. She swore by Bakers. 

   Other than that, all the ingredients were the same. Here's the recipe, (although I didn't measure anything) 

      1 1/2 C. all-natural, organic peanut butter
      2 boxes (16 squares) Bakers brand semi-sweet chocolate
      1 bag of Powdered Sugar (I used Albertson's brand)
      1 box Crispix cereal


      Empty the box of Crispix into a large bowl (We didn't have a big enugh bowl so I used a roasting pan). 
Using a double broiler, melt the chocolate squares until the chocolate squares become smooth, creamy chocolate goodness. 
      While you're waiting for the chocolate to melt down, (which won't take long, I promise), melt the peanut butter in the microwave.  (For the love of God, please microwave for 20 seconds, then stir, then microwave for 20 seconds, and so on. My husband didn't know to do that and burned the peanut butter while he was helping make this). 
      When both the cocolate and peanut butter are melted,  stir the two together, and then pour over the top of the Crispix cereal.  Stir until the cereal is fully coated.
      With the cereal fully coated in the chocolate/peanut butter mix, pour into a paper (or double plastic) bag. Pour bag of powdered sugar into the bag on top of the cereal. 
      Make sure the bag is sealed tightly shut, and shake it until all the chocolate pieces are covered with powdered sugar. Lay out on the counter or a flat surface to cool, then store in a bowl or plastic bag, depending on when the puppy chow will be eaten.

 

     

       When I was younger making puppy chow for Christmas with my mom, we put all the puppy chow into individual Ziploc baggies to distribute to relatives. Now, I put my puppy chow in a serving bowl because I know that it needs no storage. It didn't last long in the bowl, either--my boys ate it all in 45 minutes.   Since it was veganized, I didn't even mind! :-)