Replay: Homemade Powdered Laundry Detergent

Mine is a nice sherbet color as I make a double batch and use both Fels Naptha and Zote (orange and pink)

Quick and easy, and after the initial investment for supplies, you have wonderful and frugal laundry detergent that works as well as the commercial brands, but for far less money.  Essential oils are optional.  I use them, but it really does smell good even without.  I looked online to find a 'laundry' scented oil but the Fels Naptha and Zote are wonderful smelling on their own so don't feel you need an oil or scent booster.

I posted this last October but I make this every couple weeks and since I just made another batch this morning, I thought I'd post it again for those who missed it the first time!

 Homemade Laundry Detergent

1 bar either Fels Naptha or Zote laundry soap (bar form)
1 c Arm & Hammer WASHING soda
1 c 20 Mule Team Borax
1 c Oxi-Clean (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons essential oil in your favorite scent (optional)
1 container to store it


Grate the soap bar into a large bowl with a hand grater or use a food processor. Fels Naptha tends to be harder to grate and is worth using a food processor or salad shooter with the shred disc.  Zote is easily grated by hand as it's far softer.  When grated, add 1 cup each of the Oxi-clean, washing soda and Borax. Add oil to scent if you are using - we like our laundry to smell wonderful so I use about cap full.

You can use the mixture as it is, I suggest making a fine powder of it to ensure it's mixed equally all the way through, and is quickly and easily disintegrated in the laundry.  If you only have a blender:  Put 1 cup at a time through your blender and blend smooth. Only do 1 cup as the soap particles might clog your blender. For food processors:  I've tried both the S-blade and the grating blade.  I think the S-blade works best and makes the smoothest powder.

Place in a container and 2 heaping tablespoons.  We love this stuff so much we use about 4 on average.  Just use more or less depending if the clothing are heavily soiled or a large or small load.

(For the container - I found a simple "flour storage" container at a local retail store that works great for a double batch.  Any tightly sealed container will work to keep out moisture and keep it from spilling.)

Low Carb, Sugar Free Chocolate Cake

With out of town guests in the next room, I quickly sneak a photo of the cake!

This weekend we have been entertaining out of town guests.  That means cooking and baking low carb and sugar free for people who are not doing low carb and sugar free eating.  Always a great challenge to see if I can come up with menu's and desserts that look and taste just like the 'real deal'.   And I did. 

This is the chocolate cake I whipped up while they were here.  It's chocolate, moist and yummy with about 5 carbs per slice and no sugar.  They were told how healthy it was and couldn't believe something sugar and flour free could be so good.

They are not 'computer' saavy and not wanting to get into a discussion about what 'blogs' are nor why I would be taking a picture of food, I have been trying for two days to sneak a picture of the cake to share.  It's rather humorous actually and the photo you see is the best I could get.  One of our guests walked into the kitchen just as I snapped this photo, so I quickly and nonchalantly put the camera off to the side and covered the cake back up.   Sorry for the lousy photo, but the cake is really good!

Low Carb, Sugar Free, Chocolate Cake


2 1/4 c Honeyville almond flour
3/4 c cocoa powder
1/2 c erythritol granules
1/3 c whey protein powder
1 t instant coffee
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t xanthan gum
1/2 t salt
3/4 c sour cream
1/2 t lemon juice
1/2 c soft butter (1 stick)
5 eggs
15 drops Sucralose liquid or other sweetener
2 t vanilla
2/3 c almond milk

Place all the dry ingredients from the almond flour to the salt, in a large bowl and mix well with a wood spoon, whisk, etc.  Set aside.  In your mixing bowl, beat the butter, sour cream and lemon juice.  Beat in the eggs, liquid sweetener and vanilla.  Add half the dry almond flour mixture, beat well.  Add the almond milk, beat.  Add the last of the almond flour mixture.  Bake in your preferred pan;  a greased and parchment lined 9X13, a greased bundt pan, 2 greased and parchment lined round 8 or 9 inch pans or make into cupcakes.   Bake at 325 degrees.   I baked in two- 9 inch round pans about 32 minutes.  Test and bake until the center is done.  Let cool about 10 minutes and remove from pans to cool completely. 

For a layered cake like I made, I sliced each round in half to make 4 layers.  In between each layer I used a heavy dollop of 7 minute frosting and covered the cake in buttercream.  Ultimately I love the buttercream for the filling and covering the cake in the marshmallowy goodness of the 7 minute frosting.  I only did it this way because I didn't want to double the 7 minute frosting recipe to make enough to cover a 4 layer cake, while I knew the buttercream frosting recipe makes enough to easily cover a layer cake.  Use whatever frosting recipe you like best or here are my two favorites;

Frosting:
7 Minute Frosting (sugar free) or


Sugar Free Butter Cream Vanilla Frosting

3/4 c granular Xylitol 
1/4 c water
3 large egg whites (separate and use the yolks in another recipe)
3 sticks real butter
2 T vanilla extract or use half vanilla sf syrup and half extract
*If you taste test it and find your personal tastes would like it sweeter, use 5-10 drops liquid sweetener

In a saucepan, place the water and Xylitol. Heat over medium high until it comes to 240 degrees.  With normal sugar this would be soft ball stage but because Xylitol and Splenda do not thicken, you cannot test this by traditional soft ball stage.

As you are heating the sugar substitute and water, mix the egg whites in a large mixing bowl.  Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.  With the mixer running, pour the hot Xylitol mixture down the side of the bowl in a thin stream, mixing into the egg whites.  Beat approximately 7-10 minutes on high until the egg whites resemble a thick and glossy meringue.

Start to add the butter in chunks, about a tablespoon at a time.  Keep the mixer running and whip the mixture about 7- 10 minutes more.  If the mixture breaks up when you first add the butter and it looks like cottage cheese, no worries.  Just keep whipping until it's smooth again.  Once the frosting is smooth, add your vanilla and whip again for a few minutes.  If it's a really warm or humid day it might get too warm to work with.  Just refrigerate it for about 7 minutes, whip again.  The cooler temperatures will cause it to harden up again.





You can use any brand ingredients you feel comfortable with or regularly use, however some of you might be interested in the products I used to make this;
              

SO many idea's for Super Bowl (the Big Game) Get Togethers

This morning I was sipping my coffee and thinking about Super Bowl parties, menu's, foods...   I started to come up with menu's except... I kept remembering more and more great recipes I've posted that would be perfect as well.  And too, when I would click on the recipe on my site, I would see the recommended recipes under that post and see yet another one that looked like a great choice.  The list of foods was getting too long to be useful!

In the end, I realized I had too many great ideas.  I've been posting to my website for 7 years.  I have thousands of recipes.  So, in the end, I grabbed a few idea's, put them in the image above to get you started, and thought I would just point out that I have labels in the right side bar to help your search, as well as a site search that you can type in any search word you wish.   I've now made myself very, very hungry. 

Sugar Free 7 Minute Frosting

This is my favorite style frosting for chocolate cake and cupcakes. It's a fluffy, marshmallow-like frosting and I love the way the flavors meld with the chocolate flavored cakes. You need to use it right away though, and try to keep it covered with a damp cloth if you can't. As it dries quickly due to egg whites. You can make this with pure sugar - as most people do, but it turns out great using a sugar free granular sugar substitute.


Sugar Free 7 Minute Frosting


2 egg whites
1 1/2 c sugar substitute 
1/4 t cream of tartar
1/3 c cold water
1 1/2 t vanilla (clear if you have it otherwise, regular is fine)

Put everything in a glass or metal bowl that just fits inside a saucepan but is wider on top so the bowl hovers and doesn't sit on the bottom of the pan. Bring a saucepan of water to a slow boil/simmer, place the bowl into the saucepan and let the water simmer under the bowl as you mix with an electric hand mixer. As the egg cooks it will thicken. It will take about 7 minutes of mixing. Sometimes as the mixture gets hot and starts to thicken I remove the bowl from the saucepan and finish mixing it on the counter which seems to work fine too. It's ready when the mixture forms stiff peaks when you lift the beaters. Use immediately to frost cakes or cupcakes.

Some products I used in the above recipes;

NOW Foods Erythritol Pure Sweetener,  (Pack of 3)
NOW Foods Erythritol Natural Sweetener, 1 lb
Ideal No Calorie Sweetener 10.6 Ounce Baking Bag (Pack of 2)
Ideal No Calorie Sweetener 10.6 Ounce Baking Bag

PER THE COMMENTS/QUESTIONS BELOW:

Great recipe! I have one question, the 1/3c of cold water is part of the ingredients or is just for the pan? thanks!!!!

Yes the 1/3 cup water is part of the recipe.  The amount of water you use in your pan depends on the size of the bowl you have and the pan you use.  Usually about 1-2 inches of water in the pan (and if you are not American; then of course centimeters - as many you need)

...another question, the t means tablespoon or teaspoon?

In American cooking a little "t" always means teaspoon while a capital "T" mean tablespoon. 

A Healthier Alternative to Pizza (while we are doing lower carb and sugar free)

If you are a frequent reader of An American Housewife, then you know that for the last 15 years, our family has enjoyed 'pizza night' every weekend that was always coupled with "family movie night".   However, pizza crust is not exactly healthy and is full of carbs. 

While I'm still working to find and perfect a pizza crust recipe that I can use when we are low carbing, (I've tried many but have yet to 'love' one of them)...  I found these flat breads at my local grocery that I think worked perfectly.  I'm thrilled with the results.  I also read all the labels on the pizza sauces available and managed to find one with only 1 gram sugar and 3 carbs so be sure to read your labels.  There are some good ones out there.

The Flat Out flat breads come in a 'light' version and after the dietary fiber is subtracted, it leaves 5 g carbs.  No sugar.  I made individual pizza's out of them (mine has the green olives on it in the photo above - yum!) and half a pizza was more than enough to fill me up!  And although I easily put away 3 or even 4 pieces of regular pizza when I'm really hungry, half of this flat bread pizza filled me up.  I couldn't finish the whole thing - so it is filling and delicious. 



Pizza

Flat breads
mozzarella cheese
pepperoni, olives, peppers, etc. to top your pizza
sauce - lowest sugar and carbs you can find

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spread a thin layer of sauce over the flat bread.  Top with your favorite toppings.  Place on a pizza stone or pizza pan and bake until golden brown on top and crisp on the bottom, depending on your oven.  Ours ran about 7-8 minutes.

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