Pinterest Pick of the Week! Slow Cooked Chili

Ah ha!

After a week end of issues signing in, I'm finally back!  Wooo!  (Not sure what was up...)

Either way, it's that time of week again. Time for my latest Pinterest Pick!

"We want the room reveal!" my imaginary readers are shrieking.  I know you do... But I think I'm going to hold off for OOOOOONE more project. Just one. I promise.  It'll be worth it.

Instead, I'm going to explode with enthusiasm over the chili recipe that I found!  

Okay, so I'm a HUGE chili fan.  There are few things I find as satisfying as a bowl of chili.  Especially when it's slow cooked for.ev.er. So when I cam across this awesome base recipe on Pinterest, I knew I had to give it a go.

The recipe itself is simple. Throw the handful of basic ingredients into a crock pot for 8-10 hours on low and tada!!!! Chili.  But like i said.  It's a base recipe.  The beauty of this recipe is that you can add nearly anything you want and it's going to be amazing.  So I added corn, mushrooms, extra ground turkey, black beans and a can of Rotel.  You know... for an extra kick.

Wanna know what I got at the end of the day?

This amazingly amazing chili.  It was hearty enough to eat on it's own but we paired it with cornbread.  (Which, by the way, was too dry. Gotta work on that...)  Not only did it smell and taste amazing, it made enough for hubby and I to enjoy leftovers for DAYS. (I even gave some away!) All for next to nothing. 

Wanna try it too? Here's the base recipe, which started out on allrecipes.com before being pinned!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 (16 ounce) cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• Shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. In a skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Transfer to a slow cooker. Add the next nine ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4 hours. Garnish individual servings with cheese if desired.

Holy wow! One step. That's awesome. 

If you make it (and you should!) leave me a comment and let me know what YOU added to it.  I've been reading all over the net the different things you can. Everything from beer to cocoa powder. Please, some one tell me they've tried the cocoa powder and it was amazing.  Cause for some reason, it sounded delicious to me. 

Ah, chili. You are a delicious dish indeed.

Keeping it Clean: The Fine Art of DIY Cleaners. Pt 1

I am SO excited to be blogging today. So excited!!!

As you may know (and if you don't, where have you been???), I'm into DIY... everything. Anything I can make at home, I'm going to. So with all the chatter I've seen online about DIY cleaners, I thought "Hey! I should share some of my most favorite, super awesome, home made cleaner recipes!"

(Inner Erin is very enthusiastic about sharing!)

So for the next few weeks, I'm going to be doing just that! Tell you're friends, tell your family! Because my first post, dear reader, is for something that you probably use several times a week.

Laundry Detergent!

I don't know about you but I HATE buying laundry detergent. With two kids and a messy husband (okay... I'm the messy one. Sigh.) I do A LOT of laundry.

(AKA, Jon does. What can I say? I hate doing laundry MORE than buying detergent.)

So rather than spending the bajillions of dollars on detergent and fabric softener, I just make my own. And making the laundry detergent is saving me, oooooh, about $200. At least.

Wanna know the recipe? Wanna???

Sugar Crumbs Totally Sweet, Totally Cheap (but awesomely effective!) DIY Laundry Detergent

• 1 box of borax (76 oz)
• 1 box of washing soda (55 oz)
• 3 bars of Fels Naptha or Pink Zote

Start by shredding the three bars into a lined bucket. I just line it was a garbage bag and use a hand grater.

(A food processor will work as well, but I'm not sure I'd use it for food ever again.)

Once you've shredded all of the bars, add the entire box of borax AND the entire box of washing soda.

Mix thoroughly.

Pour into a cute (or in my case, closest) empty container.

The. End.

Seriously. That's it. So let's add up the total cost.

The box of Borax was $4.39. I used the 20 Mule Team Borax. The box of washing soda was $2.99. My brand of choice was Arm and Hammer. And the Fels Naptha bars were .99 a piece. That brings us to a grand total of...

$10.35.

Now, are you ready for the awesome part?

You only use ONE TABLESPOON per load.

Which means this laundry detergent will last 1 year. That's doing laundry 7x a week (which is what the average American is doing weekly!)

So here are some key notes before I sign off!

• Suds do NOT equal clean. This is a low suds detergent. Which means this detergent is H.E. effective :)
• It is cloth diaper safe!
• If you feel you need extra cleaning powers (aka you're the mother of messy little boys!), feel free to add a small container of Oxy Clean.
• And last, but not least, enjoy the amazing smell of the detergent as you make it! I love how my house smells laundry detergent day!

There ya have it! Home made detergent, tried and true. Hope you love it as much as we do!

** Have any cleaner recipes you'd like to share? Or interested in seeing something in particular posted? Leave me a comment or email me at yaysugarcrumbs@gmail.com!**