I created this guide as a basic intro to adding homemade swaps into your daily homemaking. I find this important for a few reasons: being a homemaker means managing the home which includes spending. Making things at home allows for more financial freedom. It also allows you to decide what comes inside your home; you don’t have to depend on big box stores and companies. It also helps embrace what homemaking is about: being the lifeline of your home. You get to be in charge of the smaller things which blossom into having a bigger impact.
I hope you enjoy the contents of this guide!
Clean Kitchen Swaps
This is one of the first steps I took because, honestly, most of the home life flows from the kitchen. These are some of my favorite swaps:
Wooden or stainless steel utensils
Cast iron or stainless steel pots/pans
Glass or ceramic storage bowls
Ceramic bowls and plates
Stainless steel plates for toddlers
Mason jars for drinking
Castille hand soap
Pretty much my rule of thumb is glass, ceramic, or stainless steel!
Easy Roast Chicken
I wanted to include this recipe because buying a whole chicken is effective in a couple ways. First it provides a few dinners because you can either shred the chicken or eat the parts (breast, legs, thighs), and you can use the bones for broth/stock!
Preheat oven to 350
Drizzle with olive oil and salt
Place in oven and cook for 1 hr 30 mins
Chicken Bone Broth
I make broth with the remains of my whole chicken. There are a couple ways you can make it, and it really comes down to what works best for you! You can also add many different things to your broth depending on what you have on hand in your kitchen. It doesn’t have to get too fancy.
Add carcass from whole cooked chicken Fill up with 6-8 cups of water per chicken Add leftover veggie scraps, salt, pepper, turmeric, apple cider vinegar
Cook in crock pot on low overnight
Tortillas
2 cups flour
¾ cup water
3 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
(if you want to include sourdough, I use a little less flour and add about ⅓ cup starter)
Mix all ingredients and knead the dough. Cut into 8 pieces. Roll out with a rolling pin very thin. Place on cast iron over medium heat with oil or butter
Sourdough Pancakes
1 ¾ cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
4 tbsp sugar(YOUR CHOICE) (or maple syrup)
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 ¼ milk
½ cup starter
4 tbsp melted butter
Combine dry ingredients
Combine wet ingredients
Pour wet ingredients into dry and lightly mix
Place ⅓ cup on cast iron over low/medium heat with oil or butter
Coffee Syrup
For at home coffee flavors with extract, the base is 1:1 water and sugar(YOUR CHOICE). For example a vanilla syrup would be 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 1-2 tbsp vanilla extract. You can add more or less extract based on your liking. My favorites are peppermint and vanilla to make a peppermint mocha and vanilla latte.
Add water in a pot
Bring to a boil then add sugar
Let simmer for 10 minutes
Add extract after the simmer (this prevents the extract from burning off)
Sourdough Basics
The way I maintain my starter is by keeping a small amount in the jar, then adding 100g flour and 100g water, then mixing well all together. Once it has doubled in size and is bubbly, it is ready to use. You can use this for anything flour based like bread, biscuits, pancakes, desserts, snacks, pastries, the options are endless!
Loaf Recipe
125g starter
300g water
500g flour
10g salt
Combine starter and water in a glass bowl, whisk together well to create a foamy water
Add flour and salt
Mix with hands or stand mixer until a dough forms
Let it sit covered for one hour
Begin stretch and folds
Do 4 stretch and folds over 2 hours, so once every 30 minutes
After the last set, let the dough sit covered on the counter for 4-8 hours. If it's hot in the kitchen, it’ll be less time. If it’s colder, itll be longer.
Shape the dough and place in a bowl upside down in the fridge and let it sit overnight
Cook for 25 min covered in dutch oven at 450, then remove the lid and cook for additional 20 minutes at 350.
I highly recommend getting an established starter from a friend. You can post in a local mom group and ask for a small amount of starter, and most likely someone will give you some for free!
I also recommend getting a sourdough kit. It’s not necessary but it makes it much more fun and helpful to have all the tools. You can find one on amazon.
All Purpose Cleaner
My favorite way to keep a clean home is making cleaning supplies. A good all purpose cleaner should be in every home.
1 tbsp white vinegar
½ essential oil (lemon, peppermint)
Splash of 91% rubbing alcohol
Fill the rest with water or 50/50 water + alcohol
Handsoap
For hand soap I simply mix castille soap with water. Personally, even non toxic hand soaps make my hands burn and castille soap is the one soap I’ve tried that doesn’t do that. I get a foaming hand pump and put my mix in the bottle.
Fill bottle ¾ of the way with water
Fill the rest with Castille soap
Laundry Detergent
Detergent is something people are picky about for good reason, I’m someone who doesn’t mind going simple and avoiding the unnecessary chemicals and fragrances. This is what I use with no issues.
3 cups borax
2 cups bobs red mill baking soda
1 cup washing soda
1 bar grated castille soap
2 tbsp per load
Deodorant
This is one of my favorite DIY swaps. The coconut oil is antibacterial, the arrowroot powder absorbs moisture and keeps sweat away without clogging pores, and the baking soda neutralizes odors.
½ cup coconut oil
⅓ cup arrowroot power
½ tbsp baking soda
Add the oil and powder in a glass jar and sit until fully combined.
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