Liquid Dish Detergent (Borax free, no weird ingredients)

I spent a good hour pouring over recipes and grocery store websites. Picking and choosing meals everyone in the family would eat that were a little bit more nutritious than pasta and canned marinara sauce. Planning meals that could stretch from dinner to lunch and hopefully a bit to go in the freezer for later, too. I searched multiple grocery stores for the best choices in produce. I cleaned, cut up and divvied up veggies and fruits, putting them in individual packets for grab and go snacks. I had breakfasts, lunches AND dinners planned for a full 5 days.

I was feelin' pretty good about myself. I was all struttin' around the kitchen: "Who's that Proverbs 31 wife? Yup, you know it! Don't be hatin'. I'm just followin' scripture, boyyyeee!"

Then it was time to do dishes. With no dishwasher detergent.

-Pffffffffftttttttt-
(That's the air escaping my personal Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon.)

THEN I remembered that someone on Facebook had recently posted a recipe for dishwasher detergent. Scrambling, I looked it up but one of the ingredients was citric acid which I didn't have and Borax which is..... -sigh- in my opinion it's good for some things but not for others: Laundry soap? yeah. Tub scrub? sure. Dish soap that may, theoretically, end up in my, and my family's, digestive tract? can we find something else?

So a little Google search found me a recipe with ingredients I had on hand and no borax... and off I went making some dish detergent.

You will need:

1 1/2c Water

1/2c Vinegar

1/4c Dish Soap

2 Tbsp Salt

2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

 1 Tbsp Washing Soda

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.

Stir on stove over medium heat until dissolved.

(NOTE: You do not need to boil this mixture. 

From previous experiences with liquid laundry soap I knew 

it does not take long for things of this nature to boil over. 

Take a few minutes, stand at the stove and stir 

until you feel the granules of the salt and washing soda "disappear".)

Let the soap cool and store in a glass container.

(or in the empty dish soap container you threw into the recycling yesterday. Not pictured.)

Happy Bubbles!

The bubbles look happy. The soap smells heavenly.... but does it work? Let's find out!

Today is Cinco De Mayo and I happen to have had a ham hock in the freezer from our Easter Ham. 

You know what that means! Beans and rice!!! MMMmmmmmmmmMMMM!

On my (nearly licked clean) plate is the aforementioned beans and rice. Some salsa, sour cream and cheese melted from the warmth of the beans straight 

from the dutch oven. MMMMmmmMMMM!

This was sitting in my sink for a good 45 minutes as I ran around after dinner doing other "wifey-mothery-facebooky" things.

I'm a slacker and generally don't rise off my dishes prior to going into the dishwasher. 

In fact when we went dishwasher shopping (11 years ago?) the only feature I wanted 

was to not have to pre-rinse my dishes... 

we got that dishwasher. 

Long story short, the dish was not pre-rinsed. Just popped in the dishwasher as is. 

Did it wash?

You tell me.

That be a clean plate.

A bit blurry but look at that shine!

So we got a win here! This is my new go-to dishwasher detergent! No borax (which really isn't good for washing dishes what with the fact that it's usually a main ingredient in ant bait), no citric acid, no other weird "I gotta go back to Wegman's.... again!" ingredients. 

Rating: You should totally do this! Today! Go turn of your computer/mobile device and make it, you'll be happier for it! (Happy bubbles, remember?!)