DIY Dishwasher Detergent

"What are you making now?" 
That's what my husband says when something weird arrives in the mail. This time, it was citric acid from Amazon.com for my homemade dishwasher detergent. Don't worry, the rest of the ingredients can be found at the grocery store.


I'm on a mission to kick toxic household cleaners to the curb. There are plenty of natural products on the market (like Seventh Generation & Method), but they can be pricey. I like going natural and saving money at the same time. I also need natural products that work, and this stuff actually does!

I always load up our dishwasher as much as possible (to save water & energy) and start it right before I go to bed. This morning at around 5:45, thanks to Flynn, I awoke to squeaky clean dishes with no lingering toxic residue. Sing it with me... the best part of waking up, is no Disodium Decyl phenyl Ether Disulfonate in your cup! 


I used DIY Natural's recipe and they even do a cost breakdown. I love me a cost breakdown. I once did one with homemade iced coffee v. Starbucks, and it seriously makes Starbucks look like a bunch of con artists. I won't lie, their convenient drive-thru occasionally wins me over...

[5 cents per load!]

An empty couscous container made the perfect storage solution for my detergent, and I added a pinch of rice to prevent clumping. 1 tablespoon of detergent is all you need for a load of dishes, plus a few tablespoons of white vinegar poured in the rinse aid compartment to give everything a spot-free finish.

My husband used to think I was loony tunes for wanting to make my own cleaning products, but now the nerd in him thinks it's pretty cool. Yay for science.

Have you ever made any cleaning products? If so, did they work like you expected?

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

I found this yummy and simple recipe for Whole Wheat and Honey Pizza Dough on allrecipes.com and tried it out last night. It was my first time making pizza dough, so I was surprised how good it was!

After I rolled out the dough (note: use A LOT of extra flour to do this!) I topped it with marinara, baby spinach, onions, mushrooms, mozzarella cheese and a little sprinkling of salt & pepper. I was planning on using feta cheese, but after Flynn's grocery store meltdown on Sunday night, causing me to take him home & leaving Tim to do all the shopping by himself, it never found it's way into the cart. (It wasn't on the list... not your fault, sweetie!)


Baked it at 350 for 12 minutes and cut it in four pieces - the perfect amount for Tim and I. You could easily make 2 pizzas at the same time or make a few extra balls of dough to freeze.


I used to buy premade Boboli pizza crust, but I won't be doing that anymore. Let's do one of my favorite things.... an ingredient comparison!


Boboli Whole Wheat Pizza Crust: Whole wheat flour, water, palm oil, polydextrose, yeast, wheat gluten, molasses, milk casein, salt, mozzarella cheese (milk, cheese cultures, salt and enzymes), sugar, preservatives (calcium propionate, sorbic acid), fumaric acid, modified food starch, sodium phosphate, whey, monoglycerides, lactic acid, natural flavor, garlic, artificial color. 


Whole Wheat and Honey Pizza Dough:Whole wheat flour, wheat germ, water, active dry yeast, salt, honey.

Which one would you rather eat? Yeah... not to mention the cost savings is significant. A Boboli crust is $3.79 at my grocery store and using what few math skills I've retained since high school, I figured out that this pizza dough costs $1.42 to make, giving me a cost savings of 63%. Not bad!

I'm afraid figuring out the cost of all the toppings would make my head hurt, so that one's on you. Have you ever made your own pizza dough before? Does everyone already do this and I'm late to the party? I'd love to hear your thoughts (and recipes!)