Homemade Disinfectant Spray

With the cold and flu season upon us here in the Midwest, I thought I would share a quick recipe for a disinfecting spray.  This is adapted from the book The Naturally Clean Home.  It is full of quick and easy herbal alternatives for cleaning just about everything!  I use this spray for everything. It's great for walls, tables, toys, doorknobs, or any place people touch. I have one in the kitchen and one for the bathrooms. Just spray it on and wipe it down with a damp sponge or cloth.

Disinfectant Spray Formula

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vinegar (don't worry the smell goes away when it dries)
• 5 drops tea tree essential oil 
• 5 drops thyme essential oil (I use lemon or lavender essential oils)

Tea tree, Thyme, lemon and lavender are antibiotic, antibacterial, anti fungal and antiviral.  There are others too, but these are the ones I use most often. I put it all in a spray bottle and go around my house spraying and wiping every surface- happy disinfecting!

~Simply Angie

Homemade Waffle Mix

My husband got a waffle maker for Christmas this year, he loves waffles! It's handy if you make your mix ahead of time then you have it on hand. I store mine in a Ball jar in the refrigerator until we are ready to make waffles.
Waffle Mix
3 c all-purpose flour
2 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 c sugar
Whisk ingredients together and store in an airtight container until you want waffles.
Add these ingredients to make waffles:
2 eggs
1/2 c buttermilk or milk of your choice
4 T melted butter
Mix with 1 1/2 cups of waffle mix. Whisk until batter is smooth. Preheat your waffle maker and pour about 1/3 cup of waffle batter into your waffle maker. It took mine about 3 minutes to cook. Makes 4 waffles.
You can add about 1/4 cup chocolate chips, blueberries, or your favorite before you cook your waffles.
We used homemade syrups, found here Simply Apple Cider Syrup and Simply Homemade Pancake Syrup   to pour over our waffles. Enjoy!
Love and peace,
~ Simply Tammi

DIY Valentine Day Project

We had a sleepover last weekend with our 5 year old grandson and our 9 year old granddaughter. It is our tradition to complete a craft project of their choice, so they decided to make a Valentine's Day gift for their parents. This project requires adult supervision (and lots of help) but there are parts of the project that the children can do alone. I let them choose all of their material, colors, and design their own project, and this is how they turned out - so cute and they were thrilled!
Materials:
8x10 plain canvas
quilt batting (optional)
scrap material
wooden letters
paint
glitter
mod podge
hot glue or fabric glue
buttons, fabric flowers, or any decorations they choose
I started the project by having them paint their letters while I stapled the batting and material (using a staple gun) onto the underside of the canvas. After the paint was dry, they painted a layer of mod podge over the letters and sprinkled glitter over them. While the letters were drying, we used the instructions for the DIY Fabric Flowers . I made the flowers for them since I was using hot glue, but I had them fold the flowers for me (to keep them involved). Then they decided how they wanted to place everything on their canvas and I glued everything in place. We let everything dry overnight and the smiles on their faces in the morning were priceless. Even though these were gifts for their parents, the children told me they were going to keep them in their bedrooms for decorations! How adorable is that?

Busy little crafters!

Love and peace,
~ Simply Tammi

3 Ingredient Pumpkin Spice Muffins

 

Here is a recipe we have had for years, it's simple and healthy. It was on the Weight Watchers points plan, I'm not sure how it is done now, but they were 2 points per muffin for 12 muffins. It doesn't get much easier than 3 ingredients! 

Here's what you need:

• 1 box spice cake mix
• 1 can pumpkin (not pie filling) or frozen pumpkin (check out the post on freezing fresh pumpkin)
• 2-4 Tablespoons water

Mix all ingredients well. Bake in sprayed muffin tins at 350 degrees for 15-25 minutes. I baked mine for 15 minutes and they were perfect. They are very moist, like cake, so be careful not to over bake them.

~Simply Angie