Most of my readers know that I work a full time job and run my blog part-time once my kiddos go to bed! Some nights I am so tired that it is hard to cook a good healthy meal from scratch! I was so excited to hear about Chef Boyardee and the new recipes that they came up with to help make dinner easier. These new recipes are “ALMOST HOMEMADE” and the great part is that they can be made in less than 30 minutes. I would love nothing better than to serve my kids fresh from the farm organic food every night. We live in the real world with real times schedules and picky eaters! Checking out their new site made my own creative juices start flowing! I love mixing ingredients to make a totally new dish that my family will enjoy! So if you are looking for an in-expensive meal that will feed the whole family then check out Chef Boyardees new recipe site and all the great recipes they have to offer. We listed our favorite two from their site below. Try them out tonight!!

The first recipe we chose to make was the Cheeseburger-roni! The kids looked at it as if I was serving them poison. Then I told them to try one bite and if they didn’t like it they would have to eat it. The all took a bite and as soon as Nevaeh was on board the other two followed with a “YUMMY!” The recipe below is exactly what we made and it was a breeze. We can give 5 thumbs up from our family!!

CHEESEBURGER-RONI

Nutrition Information*

Directions

1. Preheat broiler. Spray 10-inch oven-safe skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat.
2. Add beefaroni, drained tomatoes, ketchup, pickle and mustard to skillet. Heat 5 minutes or until hot, stirring occasionally.
3. Top with cheese. Lightly spray torn bun with cooking spray and place on top of cheese. Place skillet under broiler 2 to 3 minutes or until bun pieces are browned and crisp.

Cook’s Tips

No hamburger bun on hand for the topping? Two slices of bread may be substituted. And dill pickle relish could be substituted for the chopped dill pickle. The beefaroni mixture could be served in hamburger buns, topped with American cheese for ‘cheeseburger joes’. Get the kids involved with preparation by letting them add ingredients to the skillet and help stir the dish. They also could tear up the hamburger bun. To help give your family even more of the good stuff they need, you can use Whole Grain Beefaroni instead of Regular Beefaroni.

RAVIOLI LASAGNA

Nutrition Information*

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray 8×8-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. Place spinach in microwave-safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on HIGH 2 minutes; squeeze spinach dry.
2. Combine ravioli, drained tomatoes and Italian seasoning in medium microwave-safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on HIGH 3 to 4 minutes or until mixture is hot. Combine cottage cheese, spinach and black pepper in small bowl.
3. Place half of ravioli mixture in bottom of baking dish. Top with half of cottage cheese mixture and 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Repeat layers. Bake 15 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbly.

Cook’s Tips

Involve the kids with the preparation. They can stir together the cottage cheese mixture and help layer the ingredients in the dish. Trying to please a picky eater? Substitute the spinach with another vegetable the family enjoys. You also could place all of the spinach mixture between the layers of ravioli or leave the spinach out completely.

“I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Chef Boyardee and received a gift card to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”
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This was easier than I thought it would be.

One of Betsy’s goals for the year was to ditch some of our standard cleaners that we use around the house and make them! Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about this project mainly because I wasn’t sure that homemade cleaners would really get the job done.

And my lovely wife is a bit of a neat freak so there’s no way she would use something that didn’t perform well.

So a couple of weekends ago she went out and bought a few staple ingredients and some empty spray bottles and we spent a few minutes mixing up four different homemade cleaners that have since replaced 90% of the cleaners we use around the house.

For the last few weeks we’ve been using them now and I’ve been so impressed by how well they are working, I thought I’d share them all with you in case any of you are interested in ditching the chemicals.

The Cost of Cleaning. The thing about homemade cleaners is that the initial start-up costs might seem a bit high. A tiny bottle of lavender oil (.5 ounces), for example, will run you $7-$8. But the thing to remember is that for each batch of cleaning solution, you’ll be using literally just a few drops of oil.

I would guess we spent around $30 on our homemade cleaning supplies for these four solutions, but now we have enough supplies to last us years. By the time we run out of lavender oil, for example, our cost per bottle for these cleaners will be reduces to cents.

Basic stuff.

Really Clean Cleaning. After using these solutions for a few weeks, what I’m most impressed with is their cleaning power. They really work. Not only do they work, but I get the strange impression that they are even cleaner than the standard products.

When you clean a counter with the all-purpose cleaner it’s squeaky clean and the whole room smells awesome, not chemical at all. I hate to say this, but having these easily accessible actually makes me like cleaning. DON’T TELL MY WIFE.

My ultimate decision to post on these solutions was just because they worked surprisingly well.

The Basics. Betsy and I did some research on books for home cleaning solutions and I would recommend these two to anyone who wants to learn more:

- Green Clean including vinegar, citrus fruits and baking soda (I guess unavailable for now on Amazon)

- Homemade: How to Make 100′s of Everyday Products

As far as ingredients go, a good number of ingredients you will probably have on hand already at home. Things like vinegar, baking soda, citrus, etc. Those are easy.

The tricky stuff are these items:

Some of these are a bit expensive.

Most of the recipes involve castile soap and a few drops of essential oils. These are the pricey items and the ones that you won’t need to buy very often even if you make a ton of these solutions.

For the recipes I’m giving in this post, you’ll need the below items. You can find all of these at your local supermarket or health food store or you can grab them from Amazon. I’ve included links to the amazon pages.

- Castile Soap – An all-natural soap that’s surprisingly strong. A few drops go a long way. We like the lavender scent, but they have others available.

- Lavender Oil – A natural anti-bacterial oil that smells wonderful.

- Tea Tree Oil – A natural oil that cleanses and disinfects.

- Washing Soda – Sodium Carbonate which is just a strong base that works great as a laundry detergent. It has a million uses around the house.

Mixing the Solutions. If you’re going to do this, definitely buy new, clean plastic bottles. Don’t use old bottles as the trace chemicals in them might react badly.

Also, I’d recommend getting some labels because while they are all different, these solutions all look a bit similar.

The Recipes!

Let’s start with an easy one.

Lavender Anti-Bacterial Spray

- 1 Cup water
- 20 drops lavender essential oil

Easy right?! It’s smells great and lavender is very high in linalool which is naturally antibacterial.

Just a few drops…

The next recipe is the one that we use the most which is the all-purpose cleaner. It’s our daily cleaner now on everything from counters to floors.

One note about this one is that it will bubble A LOT (think high school science volcano) so make sure you leave plenty of room in your bottle for an eruption and mix it over the sink just in case.

All-Purpose Cleaner (Watch out for a reaction! It will bubble a lot.)

- 3 Tablespoons vinegar
- 1/2 Teaspoon washing soda
- 1/2 Teaspoon castile soap
- 2 Cups hot water

I think you can see how little of each ingredient is used for a batch.

All mixed up.

The next formula is the one we use on the stove or any place that accumulates a lot of oil or grease.

Grease Cutter (Note that if you have a good eye, I messed up the label on this one for my bottles.)

- 2 Cups water
- 1/4 Cup castile soap
- 10 drops lavender oil

And finally the strongest of the solutions that we made which is for really scrubbing hard to clean areas like bathroom sinks and mildewed tubs.

Bath, Sink, Tile Cleaner (Again, watch out for some bubbling.)
NOTE: Ideally, mix this one in a SQUIRT bottle, not a SPRAY bottle. It’s pretty thick and almost a paste.

- 2/3 Cup baking soda
- 1/2 Cup castile soap
- 2 Tablespoons vinegar
- 1/2 Cup water
- A few drops of Tea Tree oil

Labels definitely help.

Like I said, we’ve been testing these out for the last few weeks now and I really love all of them. My favorite is the all-purpose cleaner and the antibacterial spray which just leaves everything really clean and smells fantastic without being overpowering.

If you’re looking to cut out some chemicals from your cleaning products and save some money (in the long term), you should try these out!

CREDITS: http://www.macheesmo.com/2011/01/four-homemade-cleaners/

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