Grout Cleaning Recipe

Roger Howard: Photo credit & cleaning solution.


Spring Cleaning Recipe for the Grout

7 cups water, 
1/2 cup baking soda, 
1/3 cup lemon juice 
1/4 cup vinegar -
 throw in a spray bottle 
 spray your floor,
 let it sit for a minute or two... then scrub.

Air Freshener Homemade

*** Homemade Febreze ***

What you'll need:
1/8 Cup of fabric softener (I used Downy April Fresh)
2 tablespoons Baking Soda
Hot tap water
Spray bottle (I used my empty 27 oz. Febreze bottle)

Preparation:
Using a funnel, pour fabric softener and baking soda into your spray bottle.
 Fill spray bottle with hot tap water and shake well.
Don't forget to twist the nozzle over to the LOCK position if you're using a Febreze bottle.

Carpet Cleaning Solution Recipe

CARPET SHAMPOO SOLUTION:

1 Cup Oxyclean*
1 Cup Febreze*
1 Cup Distilled White Vinegar
*This homemade version works fabulously!

Pour contents into shampooer tank and mix with hot water to fill tank completely. This will not only clean your carpets it will also deodorize. It will smell slightly of vinegar until the carpet is dry, then will smell like febreze...

Be sure to test spot with the solution just to be safe, however this should be safe for ALL carpets.

Canned Berry Recipe

photo & recipe credit:  LAURIE SENN SAGERMAN


 Eight Pints and Seven 1/2 Pints of "Summer in a Jar"

....Just 5 cups of Strawberries,
 Blueberries and Raspberries,(Total)
 cups of Sugar, 
1/2 cup of Lemon Juice, 
and 1 Pkg of Pectin... 
Ten Minute Water Bath......
.Heaven in a Jar

Artichoke & Spinach Dip Recipe

Artichoke & Spinach Dip

http://www.reynoldskitchens.com/easy-recipes/recipe-items/savory-artichoke-spinach/

Prep Time:10 minutesCook Time:26 minutes

Ingredients

1 Reynolds Oven Bag, Large Size

1 tub (10 oz.) cooking creme

2 jars (6.5 oz. each) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1 cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon flour teaspoon garlic powder

Smoked paprika (optional)

Pita chips, tortilla chips or crackers

Prep

1. PREHEAT oven to 375F. Place Reynolds® Oven Bag in 13x9x2-inch pan. Spray inside of bag with cooking spray.
2. ADD cooking creme, artichokes, drained spinach, cheeses, mayonnaise, flour and garlic powder to oven bag. Gently squeeze bag to blend ingredients. Arrange ingredients in an even layer in bag.
3. CLOSE oven bag with nylon tie. Cut six -inch slits in top. Tuck ends of bag in pan

Cook

1. BAKE 20 minutes or until mixture starts browning and is bubbly. Carefully cut bag open.
2. SPOON dip into serving dish; sprinkle with ground paprika, if desired. Serve warm with pita chips, tortilla chips or crackers.

REYNOLDS OVEN BAGS TIPS: We tested with Kraft Philadelphia original flavor cooking creme (located in dairy refrigerated section of the store), Birds Eye frozen chopped spinach, McCormick smoked paprika To prepare spinach, wrap drained spinach in a paper towel and squeeze out excess moisture.

http://www.reynoldskitchens.com/easy-recipes/recipe-items/savory-artichoke-spinach/

Low Fat Vanilla Bean Frozen Yogurt

Low Fat Vanilla Bean Frozen Yogurt

~~
I don't own an ice cream maker. I know, that sounds so un-American but oh well.
I put this in my freezer in my CoringWare (FRENCH WHITE) and it did GREAT!
http://www.corningware.com/

HOMEMADE IS EASY Blogger ~

If you like the tangy taste of yogurt you'll love this low-fat homemade frozen treat made with a combination of Greek yogurt and plain yogurt and real vanilla bean. 

It's National Ice Cream Month and to celebrate I've been playing with my new ice cream maker. This frozen yogurt is so easy to make. This is best served soft and topped with fresh fruit. Serve it right out of the ice cream maker or let it thaw a few minutes before serving.

Homemade Low Fat Vanilla Bean Frozen Yogurt
Adapted from Food Network 
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 8 • Size: 1/2 cup • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts
Calories: 144 • Fat: 1.5 g • Carb: 24.2 g • Fiber: 0 g • Protein: 9.2 g • Sugar: 24.1 g
Sodium: 56.1 mg 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt (I used Dannon All-Natural)
• 2 1/2 cups plain fat free Greek yogurt, I used Chobani
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp honey
• fresh fruit to top (extra points) use kiwi, blueberries, strawberries

Directions:

Combine sugar and the seeds from the vanilla bean in the blender and blend until fine.

Whisk both yogurts, sugar and honey in a bowl until combined.  

Pour into an ice cream maker.

Freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/07/low-fat-vanilla-bean-frozen-yogurt.html

Ladybugs

How to Start a Ladybug Garden

Who doesn't love ladybugs?
These easily recognizable, friendly little insects are yellow, orange, or scarlet and have small black spots on their wings.
The benefits of having ladybugs in your garden include being able to cut back on pesticides and ridding your flower beds of aphids and other insect pests.
Also known as lady beetles or ladybirds, the ladybug can be your best friend as a gardener and attracting them into your yard or garden will add to the beauty and joy of making your garden unique.
But if you want to attract ladybugs to your garden, you’ll have to do a few things first to start your own successful ladybug garden.
Read on to learn how to get ladybugs to love your garden.

You can purchase ladybugs online or at a local nursery and release them to start a ladybug garden.

How to Identify Ladybugs
The ladybird has an oval body and the color can vary from yellow to orange or bright red. The black spots on the wing covers also vary in number and size and a few species, such as the twice stabbed lady beetle are even solid black.
Ladybug larvae are not so easy to recognize, but have six legs and are usually blue-black with orange spots. Learn to spot the larvae so you do not accidentally spray them with insecticide or crush them thinking they might be aphid or other insect larvae.
Lady beetles like to feed primarily on soft-body and scale insects like aphids; a ladybug can eat as many as five-thousand aphids during its lifespan. A female may lay fifty to three-hundred eggs at a time, which take three to five days to hatch. Larvae take about two to three weeks before pupating into adult ladybugs.

Typically we think of ladybugs as being orange or red, but yellow or black species can also be found in some gardens, depending your climate and location.

How to Attract Ladybugs to Your Garden
Besides eating aphids, lady beetles are depend on pollen as a food source and seek certain types of flowering plants, including dill, cilantro, yarrow, wild carrot, angelica, cosmos, geraniums and dandelions.
So, to create your ladybug garden, you will want to research these plants further and be sure to plant them in your garden if you don’t have them already!
Other methods you can use to attract ladybugs include cutting back or ceasing the use of insecticides in your garden. By leaving aphids, you not only provide the ladybug population with the food source upon which it thrives, but you also avoid killing any of the larvae. Remember that the ladybugs will provide a natural check against the aphids, keeping them under control.
What you will need to start your ladybug garden:

• Garden Hose
• Nozzles and attachments
• Ladybugs
• Flowering Plants (see above for some favorite species)

Instructions for starting your ladybug garden:

• You can buy ladybugs at your local nursery or online. This will help to get your ladybug population established. Research has proven that ladybugs reared indoors can not survive when released outdoors, so be sure you buy wild ladybugs collected from the outdoors only.
• Keep your ladybugs moist with a few drops of water and place them in your refrigerator vegetable crisper until you release them. This will also slow them down a bit since they will be cooler.
• In the afternoon or early evening, water your garden well in preparation; this gives them much needed hydration and helps them stick better to the plants. Its best to release your ladybugs after the sun sets to help prevent birds from eating them before they are able to settle into your garden.
• After resting overnight and re-hydrating a bit, your ladybugs will be ready to start eating those aphids. If you have any plants that are infested with the aphids, place a bit of netting over the plants and let some of your ladybugs loose under it, where they will happily gobble up those pests!

While ladybugs eat mainly aphids and scale insects, they also depend on pollen as a food source.

Ladybug Facts

• The black spots on their wings fade as they age
• Ladybug wings move very quickly, like a hummingbird’s, as much as 85 times per second in flight
• A ladybug can live for up to three years
• The male ladybug is smaller than the female
• Long ago, doctors used mashed-up ladybugs to cure toothaches
• The Swiss call ladybugs “Good God’s Little Fairy”
• The Ladybug is the state insect in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Delaware, Tennessee and Ohio.

http://www.howdididoit.com/home-garden/how-to-start-a-ladybug-garden/