Super Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

This cookie isn't green... and it's not particularly healthy... but I thought I'd share anyway! :D  

Well... I DID use "natural" peanut butter (the one with only peanuts, palm oil, little salt, and molasses)... *shrug*.  

I found this recipe on Pinterest on how to make super easy peanut butter cookies.  

It says that its only 36 calories per cookie.  Those huge cookies are NOT 36 calories.  

I made 38 smaller ones and those are like 50 calories each.  Those huge ones must be like 100+ calories.  :P

Anyway, they were SO easy to make.  I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I love baking.  

However, I broke my mixer so I've been baking less.

This recipe doesn't require a mixer.  Just a spoon. :D  

I made small dough balls and placed them on the cookie sheet. 

I also made sure to spread them out because I didn't want it to become one huge cookie like the one on the recipe.  

They actually didn't spread that much...  

These cookies are deeeeeelicious!  YUM!! 

No butter, no flour, no vanilla extract... so easy!!!

(By the way... my homemade vanilla extract is pretty much done! stay tuned for pictures!!)

RECIPE

SUPER Easy Peanut Butter Cookies (The recipe says healthy, but I think they're just... normal cookies hahaha)

- 1 Cup Peanut Butter

- 1 Cup Sugar (I used a little less than 1/2 brown and a little less than 1/2 white)

- 1 Egg

- 1 TSP Baking Soda

1.  Mix peanut butter and sugar.

2.  Mix in egg and baking soda.

3.  Make dough balls and place on cookie sheet.

4.  Bake at 350F for 8 to 9 minutes (recipe says 10, but it seemed too much for me).  

That's all! 

Let me know if you try it!

Homemade Laundry Detergent - Hard Water

I've been wanting to make my own, homemade laundry detergent for a LONG time.

Almost all the recipes I found for homemade detergent called for "Borax".

Then, I kept reading how bad it is. So, I had to research it.

I read and I read and I read. I came across this post on Crunchy Betty.

I'm concluding that I'm okay with using Borax for washing my clothes.

There are probably tons of other chemicals in the store bought detergent that's not labeled that I'd be worried about.

Dry or liquid? This time, I made dry, powder detergent.

Next time, maybe I'll make liquid. We'll see. :)

Okay, to the good stuff.

Here are the ingredients:

- 2 cups Washing Soda

- 2 cups Borax

- 1 bar Fels Naptha

You may wonder why this recipe calls for more borax and washing soda than other recipes found online.

It's because we have hard water.

Geez, water issues again?? I have to make our No 'Poo recipe a special way because of our hard water.... and now, our detergent? Well, I guess I'll just deal with it...

So, I grated the entire bar of Fels Naptha (which, by the way, is a laundry soap).

I tried putting it through our tiny little food processor to make them into tinier pieces, but it ended up just balling up. lol. no good. It crumbled anyway when I crushed it with my hands, but next time, I'll just keep them shredded like the photo above.

Then, I put everything into an empty, huge coffee container and mixed and mixed and mixed until the yellow soap seemed evenly distributed.

- We put in 2 tablespoons (we're using the scoop that came with the coffee container) as the water is filling up in the washer. I first start off with hot water and then if I need to switch to cold, I switch it after I know that the soap has dissolved completely.

- We add Oxy Clean to the "1" line before adding clothes.

- We also use white vinegar in a Downy ball for the rinse cycle as our "softener". :)

So far so good. It's been 2 weeks and everything seems to be working great!

I even did a test wash and put tomato sauce on a hand towel and let it sit for 2 days before washing it. No stain! :D

MUCH cheaper than store bought detergent and less chemicals. Yay.

Here's where I need your help.

I read that Fels Naptha may not be the "greenest" soap to use.

I wanted to use Dr. Bronner's Castille soap, but I also read that it doesn't get as clean. That's no good. I also read about Ivory, so I might try that.

Suggestions?

My Green Monster Smoothie

I love making smoothies.

I really like this green smoothie recipe I found online.

It is SO SO SO delicious and super healthy!

I always substitute the flavored yogurt for non-flavored Greek yogurt and add honey.

Today, I decided to change it up a little bit.

I added frozen peaches, whole flax seeds, and kale!

I also didn't have any bananas in the freezer so I just used a handful of ice cubes.

Yuri's Green Monster Smoothie

5-6 ice cubes

1 1/2 cup non-fat milk (I had to use more because my blender kept getting stuck)

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt1-2 tablespoons honey

6 oz frozen peaches (1/2 bag from Trader Joes)

1 banana

1 to 2 tablespoons peanut butter

1/4 to 1/2 cup whole flax seeds

1 cup kale

Baby spinach - fill the blender to the top

Put everything into blender and blend!

It's seriously SO delicious. You can't even tell you're drinking spinach!

My little Y LOVES this drink.

You can add whatever you want. I've added blueberries, strawberries, oranges, apples, etc, etc... (but if you add things like blueberries and strawberries, your smoothie will come out looking a little darker and not as bright green).

Let me know if you try it!

Also... let me know about your blender. I need some recommendations!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I love to bake. I use a lot of vanilla extract. Vanilla extract is EXPENSIVE. They come in tiny bottles and I use them up really fast. Which means... I buy lots of little tiny bottles of expensive vanilla extract.

I know that people make their own vanilla extract so I looked it up. It's SO easy. Why didn't I do this before!?!?

I decided to make my own vanilla extract. I mostly went off of this recipe.

All you need are some vanilla beans and vodka. This recipe calls for 1 cup vodka.

I decided to get Madagascar Vanilla Beans. There are lots of different kinds, so you can choose whatever one you want!

I cut my vanilla beans in half width wise and length wise.

I also read on various other recipes that you should scrape out the vanilla beans, so I did that with just 2 of the cut pieces.

Then, I put everything in a small mason jar (should've used a bigger one, but that's all I had).

It looks like there's no liquid in there, but I promise, it's filled to the top with vodka. :)

And that's it!!

I'm supposed to shake it every day and let the vanilla infuse into the vodka for at least a month. It's best after 2-3 months. I can't wait!!

As you use up this vanilla extract, you can just keep adding more vodka so you never run out! YES!!!! If the flavor seems to be not as strong, you add another cut vanilla bean. Easy peasy.

I've read several other recipes where you just use a bunch more vanilla beans and put them directly into the vodka bottle. So, you don't even need an extra container!

Homemade Vanilla Extract Recipe (adapted from Simply Notable)

Ingredients

3 whole vanilla beans

1 cup vodka

1. Cut the vanilla beans in half width wise. Then, cut them length wise.

2. Optional - Scrape out a few of the cut vanilla beans (I did 2 of them).

3. Put 1 cup of vodka and cut vanilla beans (and scraped out parts if you did) into a jar. The beans should be completely submerged.

4. Shake daily for at least 4 weeks. Vanilla extract will become better with time (2-3 months).

* Add more vodka and/or vanilla beans as you use it up.

I'll report back in a few weeks to let you know how it turned out! I'm so excited!!

Let me know if you decide to make your own vanilla extract, too!

Also... I'd love to know who's visiting here so come say 'hi' in the comments and follow me through Google Friend Connect! I would love to hear some ideas of green (frugal and eco-friendly) things I can do!

Quick Update!!

It's only been a little over 6 hours and here's what it looks like!

Frozen Yogurt Covered Fruits - Simple Healthy Snack!

I was browsing through the internet and came across this super easy super healthy fun snack idea! I have LOTS of blueberries that I got for cheap and this is a perfect way to consume them! I've also been obsessed with Greek yogurt, so I had plenty of that in my fridge.

First, I washed the blueberries.

Since we use plain Greek yogurt, I dumped some out into a bowl and mixed in some honey. Mmm honey... Then, I used a long skewer (I didn't have any toothpicks) to dunk the blueberries into the bowl of yogurt and used another skewer to push it off onto a cookie sheet.

I also had a bunch of strawberries and bananas, so I cut those up into bite-size pieces and covered them up with yogurt, too.

I put the cookie sheet into the freezer and left it in there while Y. and I ran some errands and played at the park. I would say they were in there for about 2 hours, but I think they would be fine after 1 hour.

I took some fruits off the cookie sheet and put them in a little bowl for Y. The rest went back into the freezer for a later time.

Y. LOVED them. They're super delicious and it was a perfect cold snack after running around at the park!

Healthy, cold, super easy frozen yogurt covered fruit snacks! Yum!!!