As tasty as most of my posts are (at least to me) I thought I would share a 2 year experiment.  I am all about saving money. I started making everything from scratch for two reasons, one...my intestinal issues cannot take the processed foods, and two....I am cheap. Homemade is often much more economic, especially in bulk. Over time I have made everything from my own version of spices and rubs to dish soap and body wash. Even toilet bombs.  But there were so many different recipes for laundry detergents that I had to work through a few to find the one that worked.

It had to be powder form, liquid is just a storage nightmare.
It could not be scented, I break out in hives.
It had to be cost saving.

Over time this is the recipe I found. It is from Being Creative's site

Now her version lasted 9 months and cost about $20.00, mine lasted about 24 months (but at the time I was the only one using it).

I did tweek the recipe a bit, I suggest you check out the original and try what works for you. 

1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle

 

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle

1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle

5 bars of Fels-Naptha soap, found in the detergent isle (if you use Zote bars use 2 bars instead, Zote can be found at Home Depot)

1 huge container of Oxy Clean or store brand Oxy Clean (5 lbs total )

Sam's Club was great for finding huge amounts. 

or 

You should be able to find all of these items at your grocery store.

I grated the naptha soap, and in a large bucket combined all the other ingredients until completely mixed. I use a 2 tbs scoop.

Stuffed Swiss Chard

The farm market by my house never fails to have great produce. This time around they had huge bundles of Swiss chard. This is an under rated green. Beautiful in color, tastes a bit like a mild spinach. It is easy to cook, earthy in taste and versatile. Beautiful, green and fresh. So after looking up about 100 recipes on what to do with it I decided to throw together my own. Turns out my instincts were spot on.

 (yes, this is only ONE stuffed leaf)

Fresh is always best and this recipe is no different. I used non-gmo, fresh ingredients.

1 bunch (about 9 huge leaves) swiss chard.
1 cup rice, raw (I use a mix of sweet short grain and brown rice)
1 cup adzuki beans (canned or pre-soaked)
1 cup diced tomato
1/2 cup feta cheese
2 tbs crushed garlic
3 tsp italian seasonong
1/2 tbs seasoning salt
1/2 lb raw shrimp, pealed, De-veined and minced.
2 cups pasta sauce (I used home made Fra Diavolo)

Remove the leaves from the stems of the Chard. I saved the stems for a nice stir fry later in the week. 
I soaked the beans for roughly 5 hours in water then boiled them for another 40 minutes until tender. While that was cooking I then got out the trusty rice cooker (i cannot cook rice on the stove without burning it). I cooked the rice with the garlic and steamed the chard until pliable at the same time using the handy steamer basket on my rice cooker.

Combine the cooked rice, spices, feta, tomato and beans. Place about 3/4 cup into each large Chard leaf and roll much like you would a stuffed cabbage.

Place into a casserole dish, cover with pasta sauce and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.  Serve.