The Laundry Method

I love laundry. I'm being serious. I really, really love doing laundry.

It's a task that can easily and quickly be completed from beginning to end.

And I love that.

I wanted to share my favorite laundry product with you, Method Laundry Detergent from Target.

Method is a plant-based detergent using 95% natural and renewable ingredients in an eco-friendly bottle. I like being able to use the same detergent for sheets, towels, delicates and our normal laundry.

And the best part is the pump top! It is super simple to pump 3-5 squirts, depending on the size load, into the washer and let it go!

To make things better, when you run out, you can buy a refill pack that pours right into your original bottle! So great for our Earth!

Saving our environment one load of laundry at a time,

Laura

I really love my...{simplehuman soap dispenser}

(see here for all previous posts in the I really love my... series!)

I really love my simplehuman Soap Dispenser! My grandparents (Hi, grandma and grandpa!) gave us this soap dispenser for Christmas a few years ago and it's wonderful!

It has a sensor by the top that dispenses the perfect amount of soap without touching the dispenser. This is great for the kitchen when your hands are covered in raw meat, onion, or who knows what else!



The clear back makes it easy to know when to refill and there are 4 options for the amount of soap that is dispensed. You can buy this germ-a-phobe friendly dispenser at Bed Bath & Beyond or lots of places online!

Nobody likes raw chicken all over the place,

Laura

Taco Cookies

Ever seen those two words together? Taco and cookie?

I made these as an April Fool's joke but I think they'd be perfect for Cinco de Mayo this weekend!

I was inspired by this  recipe from Parenting Magazine after a quick google search for April Fool's dessert ideas! With a few adaptions, I ended up with a soft, cinnamon taco shell filled with cake, frosting, fruit roll ups and pop rocks!

Taco Cookies

Makes 12 cookies

Prep Time: 15 min. Total Time: 25 min. for cookies + time for cake and toppings

Taco Shell Ingredients:

1 c. packed light brown sugar

1 1/3 c. whole wheat flour (gives the brown color, don't use regular)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 eggs

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Stir together the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Whisk in the vanilla and eggs until smooth. Fold in the butter and chill for 5 minutes in the freezer.

The dough is very runny! Ladle into circle shapes and bake for 5-6 min. until golden brown.

While the cookies are baking, make an aluminum foil log and spray with cooking spray. After the cookies have cooled for about one minute, carefully drape the cookies over the foil to make the taco shell shape. They might crack a little but that's ok, it will be on the bottom of the final cookie display. Let the cookies cool completely before removing the foil.

For the fillings:

Bake a chocolate sheet cake (I used a box) and let cool. Crumble 1/4 of the cake and mix with a heaping spoonful of chocolate frosting. Frost the rest of the cake and give it away to your neighbors.

Sprinkle the taco meat (aka the chocolate cake) into the cooled shells.

Top with sour cream (piped white frosting in a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off), lettuce (green fruit roll-up thinly sliced) and tomato (red pop rocks). If you are not serving these right away, wait to put the Pop Rocks on until you are ready to present. Another option is to thinly slice up peaches and strawberries as cheese and tomatoes!

Enjoy!
Laura





Split Pea & Ham Soup

Remember when I was saying that you think you know a lot about your significant other and then you learn they like scones? Well, then you learn they like Split Pea and Ham soup.

What? That just sounded nasty...and mushy...and baby food-ish. Boy, was I wrong! It is none of those things. Well, maybe mushy, but only because it's soup and soup is pretty mushy.

Anyways, another one of my favorite blogs is Skinnytaste. It's full of healthy, scrumptious recipes all with their Weight Watcher points included. I don't use Weight Watchers but I love knowing that although a recipe may taste decadent or rich, it is low in calories and fat.

So, when my hubster told me that he is a fan of Split Pea and Ham soup, I went straight to Skinnytaste. Her recipe for Split Pea Soup with Ham Hock is anything but nasty, mushy and baby food-ish. It's creamy (without the use of cream), smooth and simple!

I always check our grocery store flyers for what meat is on sale that week to plan my recipes or to buy when it's cheap and throw it in the freezer. Last week, I bought a 10 lb. ham for $12! It's the little things, or 10 lb. things, in life!

After having ham and potatoes for dinner one night, I pulled the ham off of the ham hock and we had soup the next night! (With the PW Rosemary Rolls, of course!)

This recipe is also a great one to freeze and thaw out for a quick, easy dinner! You could even make one batch to have that night and use the ham hock again to make another batch to freeze. A quick tip for freezing soup: make sure to freeze it flat so it is easy to stack!

See here for the original recipe on Skinnytaste!

Enjoy!
Laura

PW Rosemary Rolls

Who doesn't love bread? Not me. Combine warm bread with butter, rosemary and salt? Even better.

The Pioneer Woman's Rosemary Rolls are a go-to, simple recipe for this household. It takes some advanced planning (really, you just have to pull the Rhode's White Dinner Rolls out of the freezer a few hours ahead of time) but it is so very worth it!

In Oklahoma and Texas, the rolls took about 3 hours to rise. In Colorado, with the altitude change, they take about 5 hours, so take that into consideration. Also, it is hard to just eat one and so you might want to plan a trip to the gym while they are rising to make yourself feel better about eating the whole pan one.

Here is a link to the original recipe: Buttered Rosemary Rolls. I promise you won't be disappointed!

I won't tell you how many I ate...

Laura

P.S. You know what goes great with warm bread? Warm soup. Check back tomorrow for that...