Astro Original Greek Yogurt- Review and Great Deal!

See these 4 tubs of yogurt? They only cost me $3! Can you believe it!?

My local grocery store had a big sale on these 500g tubs of yogurt a couple weeks ago, I had never tried Greek yogurt before but for $1 I figured it wasn't much of a loss if we didn't like it and it could always just be frozen for smoothies if it wasn't great.
There wasn't much selection but I grabbed a peach low fat and a honey flavor, both still had 2 weeks left on the best before date. I didn't want to buy too much in case we didn't like it. The peach was pretty meh, we didn't finish it and it went into the freezer but the honey was awesome! It's slightly sweet but doesn't taste like honey, it's thick and has a slight tangy cream cheese taste. It tastes almost exactly like the filling for my no bake cheesecake, which consists of a block of cream cheese with half a tub of Cool Whip blended in. I like it, Mr likes it and the kid likes it. It's good on it's own or as a parfait with fruit and granola. It's the best damn yogurt I've ever tasted, we don't usually finish an entire tub but we ate all of this one up no problem!

So I've been checking back every couple days and the sale was still on but the yogurt shelf was empty or just had plain. I pretty much gave up hope until I sorted through my coupons the other day and saw that I had a $1 off coupon for this exact brand and type and the coupon expired that very day! I had to check one last time, I didn't want the coupon to go to waste! I had to go get a few things anyway so I checked the dairy aisle first and grabbed up 4 of them when I saw that the shelf had been filled. I would have grabbed more but really 4 seemed a bit excessive to me even as I added them to my basket.  So they were $1 each plus $1 off coupon, I got all 4 for the price of half a tub at regular price (these sell for $5.99 each!). I picked them up on the 31st and they are good until the 12th. We've already eaten about half a tub so hopefully we use most or all of them up.

I would have to say that this is probably the best deal I've had on anything ever! Yes, I realize that maybe I'm a little too excited about it but it's very tasty and I LOVE a good deal!

DIY Laundry Detergent

I've been eagerly waiting to run out of laundry soap so that I could make my own, I found this recipe quite some time ago and it seemed to be the simplest one to make. I actually halved it though just because I only had the one container to store the soap in and it takes me a good 6 months to go through the contents of it anyway. It only took about 10 minutes total to make so that was a plus for me as well!

Here's how you do it!

Orange Cleaner- Made From Orange Peels!

Here's an awesome idea for a non-toxic cleaner that I got from one of my favorite blogs Penniless Parenting, her post on it is here.  check out her site, she has a ton of money saving ideas as well as recipes and other things.

I started buying Bio-Life products, similar to Method products when I was pregnant with Alice and couldn't stand the smell of most cleaning products. Not to mention that I didn't want to subject myself to any potentially dangerous fumes while Ladybutt was still on the inside. The Method products are fairly expensive though at over $5 a bottle and still had a weird chemical smell. I rinsed out and kept the bottle when it was all gone because I intended to use it for a different cleaner recipe but still hadn't been able to find essential oils near where I live.

The orange cleaner recipe is simple, just orange peels and vinegar. So you're actually making use of something that would normally go straight into the garbage.

All you have to do is pack your orange peels into whatever container you would like to use and fill it up to the top with vinegar. Then let it sit for a minimum of 2 weeks, the vinegar will pull all of the orange oil out of the peels, that's the good grease-busting stuff. I just had this small container, if you use something bigger you can keep adding peels and vinegar to it until it's full.

Here's mine after nearly 2 months of steeping, I could have topped it up with vinegar along the way but I honestly kind of forgot about it. I wasn't really in a rush to get to it anyway since I was still using up the last of my "bad" cleaning products. No use in throwing them out and wasting the money!

Pour the liquid out into an easy to pour container such as a bowl with a spout or large measuring cup. I let mine sit for a couple minutes so it could all drain out and then squished at the peels with a spoon to try and squeeze out as much as I could.

I ended up with just under 3/4 of a cup of concentrated cleaner. Not too bad!

I poured it into then measured out about 1 1/2 cups of water and added that. My cleaner still seemed pretty strong and dark colored so I went ahead and topped the bottle up with more water until it seemed right to me.

And here's the finished orange cleaner! Nearly a full bottle of it for the price of less than a cup of vinegar! It has a nice orange smell and you can't really smell the vinegar at all which is great for me because I can't stand that smell.

So far I've only tried it out on a stinky metal diaper pail, the garbage was changed but the smell wouldn't go away. We sprayed it down and wiped it and it got rid of the smell no problem and made the metal nice and shiny. I plan on taking all of the burner plates off of my stove at some point and seeing if this will get rid of the burnt and caked on grease that was left for us by the previous tenant. Hopefully I can get to that within the next week, I'm just always using the stove so I haven't had a chance!

Make Your Own Makeup Remover

So the day has come that I've finally run out of makeup remover. My Walmart brand bottle has lasted me over a year especially since I don't even wear makeup every day anymore. I've already used up the cash I set aside every month for fun/other spending so buying a bottle would have to come out of the grocery money and I didn't really want to do that. So I checked out the DIY section on Pinterest and found a link to  this "recipe" that uses things I already have at home.

Here's what you need:

• 1 cup water (I used the cold Brita water)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baby shampoo
• 1/8 teaspoon olive oil

That's it! Just mix everything together and you're done. This made enough to fill my entire bottle as well as a baby cube, I didn't have any tiny jars around to store the rest.

This worked really well, it got all of my mascara off pretty easily. And I wear A LOT of eye makeup!

I realize that not everyone has baby shampoo around but you can get a teeny sample bottle from most pharmacies for just $1 or from the dollar store and each bottle has enough to make probably 2 or 3 batches. Sure beat the $5+ that it costs to get a small bottle of store-brand makeup remover.

Vanilla Soy Mocha

Bleh. It's dreary and rainy and chilly and I want a mocha. Starbucks is too far away especially since it's pouring out and spending the $4+ for a tall mocha with soy and added vanilla syrup isn't really within the budget right now. I'm reserving my Starbucks treat for when they have Gingerbread again closer to Christmas.

So I'm going to try this DIY style and hopefully it's good. I have vanilla soy, I have chocolate syrup and I have coffee concentrate normally used for iced coffee. Sadly I do not have whipped cream or chocolate shavings. Boo.

So I'm starting by microwaving 1/3 cup coffee concentrate and 2/3 cup vanilla soy milk until it's nice and hot. I left just a bit of room for the chocolate sauce and a dab of cream. I also had to add a bit of simple syrup because I like my stuff super sweet.

Holy crap, I just remembered we have these! Mmmmm, sprinkles!

The verdict: Not quite Starbucks quality, maybe because I'm not normal and always get a ton of whipped cream on my drink, even if it's made with soy. That may be the problem, it just doesn't taste creamy or vanilla-ey enough, it's still quite enjoyable and better than a lot of other coffee shop drinks I've had.

Homemade Sweet Cornbread

This is great for breakfast or as a snack with tea. It's quick and easy to make and you can make it sweet or savory. This time I went with sweet but next time I may do savory with some cheese and green onion to go along with soups and chili that are coming up on the menu later in the month. Sorry, no photos of the process this time.

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder

Start by making a cup of buttermilk if you don't keep any in your fridge, pour it into your bowl or mixer and add the cornmeal. Let the cornmeal soak for a couple of minutes while you get the other ingredients ready and preheat the oven to 400.

Now add the sugar and oil, mix for a bit and then add the egg and mix. Now add all of the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter should be quite thick, pour into a lightly greased pan and thump the pan on the counter to even out the batter a bit. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes. Mine baked for 22 minutes and was perfect.

For savory cornbread:

• Only use 1 tablespoon of sugar instead of 1/2 cup, you could also up the salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons if you like
• Add 1/2 cup cheddar cheese and a chopped green onion as well as a shake or 2 of cayenne pepper
• Try cheese and diced jalepenos

Be sure to add these things in with the wet ingredients so that they are well mixed.

Make Your Own Vanilla Extract

I am always out of vanilla extract. I never remember to pick up a bottle when I do the rest of my groceries since I don't need to go down the baking aisle for anything else. A little bottle of the fake stuff will cost you over $3 while a teeny bottle of the real stuff runs around $10. I think the bottle is under 100ml. You might get a dozen uses out of one just using 1/2-1 teaspoon per recipe. I've been using a splash of vanilla flavored soy milk when I bake but it's just not the same.

I remember seeing a post on Punk Rock Domestics where someone made their own vanilla extract but it was a few years ago and I couldn't find it. Google came through, there were tons of posts on how to make it, lots of different ways. I picked the method that seemed easiest and closest to what I remember seeing on PRD.

This is super easy, you just need a little patience. So here's what you need:

Cheap Vodka

• Mickey of Vodka, 375ml. I bought the cheap stuff since I wasn't going to be drinking any. This one cost me about $13.
• Vanilla beans. I didn't shop around for these because I had to walk down Hastings with booze and a baby, I just grabbed the first ones I saw and got outta Dodge. These cost me $6.99 and are Madagascar beans. I saw them later at my local market for $3.49. I'll know for next time, if I ever manage to run out of vanilla again.
• Cutting board
• Sharp knife. This is my cute little fruit knife.

 You need to slice down the middle of your vanilla beans so that you expose the innards and so that all the nice little flecks of vanilla bits can get into your vodka. I left the ends attached so that there are less big pieces to worry about when I go to use it.

Slice the beans through the middle

Now open your vodka and add the vanilla beans. Now give it a good shake. If you don't have room to shake then you know what you have to do, pour yourself a shot.

Grab a sharpie and write the date on the bottle, I peeled off the label to make this easier and so that nobody accidentally takes a swig of vanilla extract thinking it's some fancy vodka. That would probably be pretty gross.

Now comes the hard part. You have to wait at least 2 months until you can use this stuff. I was bad and used a bit today for some coconut macaroons. I only made it a week ago, it smells like vanilla booze but thankfully the boozeyness baked off in the oven. It didn't have a really strong vanilla flavor yet.

The color after 7 days

If you're an avid baker you can have a couple of these on the go, maybe a month apart so that you always have one ready. If you don't go through it that fast you can keep topping the bottle off with more vodka! I'm not sure how many times you can fill it up before it starts to get weak, you could probably just taste it every so often.

So there's 1/3 litre of pure vanilla extract for $20! ($15 if you shop around for the best price)

Make Your Own Sugar Scrub

[post by Holly]

Summer is here and before I get into dresses and sandals for the next few months, I need to scrub off the rough stuff from my feet.
Body scrubs are surprisingly expensive, $4.99 and higher for a jar that would fit in the palm of my hand! Looking at the ingredients I realized that they're all very similar. Some sort of oil, sugar or other abrasive, essential oil and a fragrance. Everything else appeared to be preservatives. Foot scrubs appeared to have the same ingredients with the addition of some sort of menthol.

It seemed like it would be pretty easy to make my own based on what the store bought ones contain. I had everything at home as far as I knew. I did some Googling and came up with a lot of different recipes and adapted a few to create what I think is the easiest method.

Olive Oil Sugar Scrub

So here's what you need:

• Oil: olive, coconut or sweet almond seemed to be the top three: I used olive oil because that was what I happened to have in my cupboard. Every recipe advised against using canola or other high viscosity oils
• Sugar: I used regular light granulated white sugar in mine. You can use raw sugar if you want more scrubbing power or finer ground for a lighter scrub. Don't use brown sugar, it gets goopy and nasty because it contains molases.
• Essential oil or perfume oil: I didn't have any but I did have some perfume oil samples from The Morbid The Merrier. This vial (Voix De Ville) was half full ( 0.5ml) and was enough to cover the olive oil scent of my scrub
• A bowl to mix your scrub in
• A cute jar to put your finished product into

Add your oil to your sugar a little at a time until all of the sugar has a bit of oil but isn't liquid, you want it to still have a crumbly texture.  Then I added my half vial of perfume oil, if you're using essential oil just add a couple drops and stir it up really well.

I pre-measured my sugar into my jar to make sure it would fit, my jar would hold a half cup. I also measured my oil as I was adding it, 4 tablespoons was perfect. My olive oil gave the scrub a greenish tint which I chose not to enhance with food coloring but green or blue would look great.

I just used it in the shower and it was pretty good! While using it I could really smell the olive oil, but once I got out and dried off I smelled like the perfume. Left me feeling exfoliated and I didn't need to use lotion afterwards!
This scrub is comparable to expensive scrubs I've used but because it contains no glycerin it doesn't leave any kind of slippery or soapy residue.
Try not to get water in the jar, this can be tricky in the shower but your scrub will last much longer.

Brew your own iced tea for just $0.15

[post by Jon]

I feel kind of silly even typing this out. This recipe is so simple any explanation will just be meandering so I'll just get right to it.

1. Combine boiling water with 3 teabags in a large cup (8-10oz)
2. Let this cup sit overnight.
3. In the morning pour this super strong tea into a 2L pitcher.
4. Fill with cold filtered water.
5. Stir and remove teabags.
6. Optional - squeeze half a lemon into the tea.
7. Add a few teaspoons of simple syrup to each glass you pour.

There are a few things great about this recipe.

• You can use any kind of tea. Your favorite green, herbal, black etc.
• Inexpensive. Tea is very cheap especially when bought in large boxes. 3 teabags makes it cost only $0.15 per jug.
• If you regularly drink hot tea as we do in the morning or after dinner, the tea bags can go in the iced tea pitcher instead of straight to the garbage. Add water each time you do.
• Make it a sweet as you like. Holly likes her tea way sweeter than I do, the simple syrup allows us to make each glass just how we like and there are no granules.

I don't like to add the lemon to the jug because it gets more bitter after a few days in the fridge and can't refill the jug as consistently.