Clean and Disinfect Kid’s Toys (without toxic bleach)

So I’ve totally been on a spring cleaning kick lately. The end of last week I spent shampooing my carpets (I’m in heaven!) and I’ve had the hankering to do all the odds and edds. Like clean the crumbs out of my kitchen drawers, cleaning behind the fridge, and cleaning window tracks!
Well I wanted to clean all the kids toys and wanted to do it pretty quickly. Bleach/lysol are not allowed in my house anymore. They are just too toxic…

So here’s what I did. I started running the bathtub and poured in some Basic G, probably a couple teaspoons.

Then I dumped in all the water safe toys. You know the plastic Duplos, kitchen play toys, matchbox cars, and even the wood stuff. But they only went in and out quickly. Don’t put anything in there with batteries or holes that water can get in and possibly never get back out again.

Then just pulled them out and dry them off. Andrew was a good helper with the drying.

The rest of the toys got sprayed and wiped down. This was also a great chance to go through the toys, I threw away anything broken or cheap, pulled out things to donate, and returned the rest to their proper place.
It felt so good to have clean toys and a clean toy room. And then this happened a couple days ago…

Oh well, at least the toys and carpets are clean.
I’ve got a bunch more organizing and cleaning I want to do so stay tuned!Interested in learning more about my non-toxic cleaners...check out my website HERE , email me if you have any questions!
What’s on your spring cleaning list?

Quick and Easy Meatloaf Muffins

Wow, so life sure does get busy sometimes, right? I’m sure you didn’t notice my absence, it’s not like you sit staring at the computer longing for a new post from me, so I’m sure you didn’t. haha. Last week I spent a couple days hanging out with my mom and vacuuming and shampooing my entire house. It was glorious!

My mom just got a new carpet cleaner and agreed to bring it with to let me use it. I am sooo glad she did, they were getting pretty dirty. My husband was teasing me, he said he thought I would be pretty disappointed if the water wasn’t nasty. No – I would be ecstatic if the water came up clean! Clean carpets and floors are my thing especially now that I have a crawler, well army crawler.

Exhibit A…crawling out of her pants!


Alright, on with the recipe…

I’m sure everyone has a recipe for a meatloaf, this is mine. I love this recipe, it’s such an easy go-to and when you cook it in muffin tins, it cooks in a fraction of the time meatloaf does. Genius, right? I learned that from my sister-in-law, she’s a very smart woman! (except for that whole, marrying my brother thing ;-)


Served with a side of my very favorite Pasta Spinach Salad

Basic Meatloaf

2 lbs ground beef (I use ground turkey)

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 C crushed saltines

1/2 C milk

2 eggs

1/4 C onion, chopped

1 TBSP Italian Seasoning (or 1/4 tsp each basil, marjorom, rosemary, sage, and savory)

 

Mix all ingredients together until combined. Scoop into muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or put in a greased loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes.

Best Ever Chocolate Banana Bread

 

This chocolate banana bread is the bombdotcom! My wonderful friend and next door neighbor, Katie,  has treated me to this wonderful bread a couple times, most recently as a treat for my birthday and it was the perfect snack on my road trip to SLC. I begged her for the recipe and made it for myself. I looooove it and since it has bananas in it, I can totally have it for breakfast, right?
I hope you love it as much as I do! It is the perfect combination of creamy smooth bananas and a punch of chocolate chips. yum!

Chocolate Banana Bread

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cup banana (about 3)

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan.
Combine sugar, eggs, oil, banana, and vanilla and mix (I used my hand mixer – this got the banana nice and smooth). Add the rest of the ingredients until and mix together until just combined.
Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 60 – 70 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes then remove from pan and continue to cool on rack.
Enjoy!