Homemade Natural Cleaning Products

I made my 1st cleaning product yesterday! After I vigorously cleaned the bathroom, with the window open to release the cleaning fumes (despite the outside temperature being 14 degrees), I came downstairs to find my husband ripping open the dishwasher. We have not sufficiently cleaned it since we moved in; after all, you put detergent in and it cleans itself, right? WRONG. It was clear the previous owners hadn't cleaned it either, and the thing is really old.

I'd been wanting to try & make my own cleaners for a while and had recently purchased the ingredients to do so. The problem was I didn't have any empty spray bottles. This was remedied during CVS's awesome 2-day sale a few weeks ago, where I scored 5 bottles of Arm & Hammer's new Essentials cleaners. Since you mix water and the little bottle of cleaning solution yourself, the bottle comes empty. PERFECT! Here's what I put in it:

Anti-bacterial Cleaner
3 cups water
1/2 - 1 teaspoon regular dish soap or Castille soap
1/3 cup white vinegar
12-15 drops lavender essential oil
12-15 drops tea tree essential oil

Put all in spray bottle and shake it up.

This was a perfect solution for cleaning the dishwasher parts, since I was concerned about the cleaning product residue then getting all over our dishes.

Need a cheap place to get essential oils? The 2 cheapest places I've found are Vitacost (where I get almost all my vitamins) & Puritan's Pride. I ended up purchasing my EO's from Vitacost because they had more of what I wanted & it was a teeny bit cheaper.

Raw Coconut Fudge

I made some raw coconut oil fudge this weekend. Here's the original recipe:

1 1/2 cups coconut oil
1 1/2 cups raw honey
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, tastes fine without it)

Dump it all in the blender and mix till smooth. Pour it into a pan (I use a 9x13 glass pan) and let it set up. Depending on your climate and time of year you may need to refrigerate it if it's over 70 degrees or so in your kitchen. Cut into small pieces and try not to eat it all the first day.

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I made a half recipe & put it in an 8X8 pan, and it was really thin. I just stirred it in a bowl. Next time, I will use wax paper to line the pan, a little less salt & less honey. Also, I need need to keep it refrigerated.

This would be good with some raw almonds or shredded coconut.