Pinterest and Products

With wanting to eat cleaner I have found some really good products that have worked for us. However, being on a budget is so hard while trying to do this! Take for example the cream of anything soups. You can buy the cheap brand here 72 cents a can; however, for the clean stuff it is $2.99 each! :( I love the Pacific foods brand of the version:



They have 2oz more than the can and you can get a 12 pack on amazon for $30.48. But that is still $2.54 a carton..which is cheaper than on a military base?? anywase. The ingredients are simple (only 4 or 5 compared to the can) and it tastes so fresh! But that price is just absurd. So I think I found a solution! On pinterest there is a site where you can make your own cream of anything soups yourself!

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 1/2 cup main ingredient, diced
• 1/4 cup butter or substitute
• 1/4 cup flour or substitute
• 1 cup milk or substitute
• 3/4 cup broth

This is great! The author suggests to just quadruple the batch and store them in the freezer.Or just can store it in a jar up to 4 days in the fridge. Her link is here. With crock pot recipes, your gonna come across some of these soups and I recommend going for some of the substitutes in the ingredients and making your own healthy soup!


Another product Jake and I both are loving is the Cascadian Farms cereal. Jake really REALLY loves cereal. I don't blame him but cereal is expensive here and he can go through a box in 2-3 days. The cereal he LOVES is about $3-$3.50 a box here but they are all full of GMO's. Who cares right...they taste goooood! But, I have found that the Cascadian Farms cereals are only $2.50 a box and all ORGANIC! I know that still sounds expenisive but cereal for some reason is a lot more expensive here. They have some that if I would just pour in a bowl and not tell Jake what box they came out of, he couldn't tell the difference and his happy/healthy tummy is none the wiser. We also like the granola but looking online, it is super expensive (like $4.58 a box!). The box lasts us about 2 weeks and we put it in our yogurt or just grab a handful for a snack. If anyone sees the prices in local stores let me know.


Another pinterest find that really does work is the lemon on hard water stains. You just cut up a lemon and scrub the heck out of your facets and it makes them all shiny without having to spary clorox on it and get the scent stuck in your nose hairs. :)
When I did this I was fustrated because we have an older house on base and I know its been used and abused but that still doesn't mean I want it to stay nasty. But the water stains on some of the facets are just permanent; however, I bet if you lived in not so old or nasty of a house, the lemon would work wonders. It helped to a large degree on the sink facets.

Also, I cleaned our mattress. I have never once done this before in my life. So I took a cup of baking soda in a mason jar and dropped about 10 drops of lavender oil and shook. Then I strained the mixture over the matress with a strainer from the kitchen and let it sit for a couple of hours while I washed the linens. SMELLED GREAT!! The mixture is supposed to lift all the nastiness out of the mattress and bring it to the surface...did it do that? I don't know if it did or not, but mentally I felt better about our mattress while I vaccummed everything up and it smelled excellent. :)