Behold, last night’s dinner: enchilada casserole. It’s like lasagna, but with Mexican flavors. Instead of noodles, you use tortillas and instead of tomato sauce, you use enchilada sauce, etc. I am not sure how authentically Mexican it is, but it tastes good.

Enchilada casserole is also fairly economical, especially since it is a great way to use up stale tortillas. I also used frozen tomatoes from last year’s garden instead of salsa and homemade chorizo sausage instead of all ground beef, thus further reducing the cost of the dish. If you don’t happen to have chorizo around, you can just use ground beef instead.

This dish generates plenty of leftovers and is a hit with kids. Here’s the recipe:

Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients:

12 tortillas, corn or flour (I prefer corn)
1 lbs ground beef
1 lbs chorizo sausage, out of casing
1 10-12 oz can enchilada sauce
10 oz frozen tomatoes or salsa
2 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 can sliced black olives
1 c corn
1 c spinach
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp oregano
4 c grated cheese, preferably a mix of cheddar and jack
Salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the chopped onions and cook until soft. Add the meat and cook, stirring frequently, until meat is brown.

Combine the tomatoes and enchilada sauce in a bowl. Pour half the sauce into meat and stir.

Add corn, olives, spinach, pepper, rosemary, and oregano to the pan. Cook over medium heat until the spinach has wilted. Taste the meat. If it doesn’t have enough flavor, add some salt and pepper.

Now assemble the casserole. Grease a 13X9″ lasagna pan. Put a little bit of the sauce in the bottom of the pan and spread it around.

Get out 4 tortillas. Dip each tortilla in the sauce, then lay it in the pan, much like you would with lasagna noodles. I ripped two tortillas in half to make sure there would be no gaps and that I would have a solid layer of tortillas.

Spread half of the meat mixture on top of the tortillas and then put 1.5 cup of cheese on top of the meat.

For the second layer, repeat with 4 more tortillas, the rest of the meat, and another 1.5 cup of cheese.

To finish, top with another layer of 4 tortillas that have been dipped in the sauce. Drizzle the last of the sauce over the top of the casserole and add the remaining cup of cheese.

To cook, cover the dish with foil and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and broil the casserole until golden, for approximately 5 minutes. (Watch it to make sure it doesn’t burn.)

Let the casserole sit for 5 minutes so the cheese can congeal, and serve as you would lasagna. Enjoy!

Umbrellas are easy to find free or cheap, but an attractive umbrella is another story. But now you can make any umbrella attractive through this tutorial on how to recover an umbrella on Whatever Dee-Dee Wants. In it, Jessica from Me Sew Crazy demonstrates how to take your average umbrella apart and recover it with pretty material. You can access the instructions here.

I like the idea of sprucing up an umbrella this way, especially since the prettier an umbrella is, the more expensive it is. Even better, when your old umbrella wears out, there’s no need to throw it out–just recover it with new fabric and you’re good to go. [Recycled Crafts]

Is it a camera? No! It’s a pencil sharpener.

$16 from Mortimer Snodgras. Cute. [swissmiss]

I read somewhere that the more functions a plant has in your garden, the more useful it is. If you fill your garden with multi-use plants, there’s more of a chance that your garden will work together as a natural system.

What do I mean by functions? Let’s take a look at bee balm, a plant I’m putting in the front flower bed this spring. Bee balm is a perennial herb. It is:

* Attractive to beneficial insects–As you can tell by the name, bees love bee balm. They even sleep under its leaves.

* Beautiful–Bee Balm adds visual pleasure to the garden.

* Edible–The leaves can flavor food and the flowers are a lovely addition to a salad.

* Medicinal–According to this site, bee balm can help in the “treatment of colds, … headaches, gastric disorders, reduce low fevers and soothe sore throat, [and] relieve flatulence, nausea, menstrual pain, and insomnia.” Wow.

[How Stuff Works]

So, four functions, one plant. Sounds like a deal to me.

I always wonder why polyester fabric doesn’t come up more in the conversation about oil. Polyester is made from oil.

I’m aware of how prevalent polyester is in our clothes because my mother is allergic to it. Every time we go shopping, we have to read the labels to find all-natural fabrics like cotton or linen. You would be shocked how much polyester is mixed in with the fabric.

So I was interested in finding the above video from “How It’s Made,” where a factory takes plastic water bottles and turns them into polyester. It reminded me of the discussion we had about the story of bottled water.

The video shows a way that plastic water bottles can be recycled into fabric–which is good–but it also shows how weird polyester really is. No wonder my mom is allergic!

Here’s a clever idea, “Clockpops” from REaction Gifts. They are made out of the lids of soda bottles and jar caps.

Even the “spokes are made from old bicycle wheels, fencing materials, or other scrap rods,” according to the site. A great and attractive way to recycle. [re-nest]

I was in a coffee shop and found myself drooling over their cake pops, little balls of cake and frosting on a stick. Sometimes that’s all the cake you need.

Anyway, I didn’t end up getting a cake pop, but now I can make my own through these recipes in The Kitchn. What I like about these is that they can use leftover cake–and yes, sometimes that does happen.

These would be an especially big hit with kids.

[University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture]

I was excited to learn about the Tea Bush, called Camellia Sinensis. All tea that we drink–black, green, oolong, etc.–is made from this bush. Thus, by growing it in your yard, you can make your own tea.

The Tea Bush is originally from Asia and closely related to the Camellia, as you can probably tell by the name. And like the Camellia, it is a pretty bush with fragrant white flowers and waxy green leaves. It takes well to pruning, can be grown as a hedge, and can get 10-15 feet tall. Best of all, this plant works in light shade, so it is a good way to add an edible plant to a shady spot.

I haven’t grown a Tea Bush yet, but I plan to put at least one in the backyard. According to the Sunset Western Garden Book, the plant can be grown in Zones 4-9, 12, 14-24. I would assume that if you can grow a Camellia, you can grow a Tea Bush.

You can purchase a tea seedling from One Green World for $20. They say the plant is 8-10 feet high and is cold hardy to 0°F.

Let’s grow our own tea.

I love this OCD Chef Cutting Board from Fred&Friends. It lets you make sure every slice is exactly the same as all the others.

The last thing anyone would ever call me is OCD, but it looks so handy, I want one! [swissmiss]

[Crafter]

Since posting about turning a bar of soap into liquid hand soap, a lot of people have asked me about making your own laundry soap. I have never tried this but I am curious about the subject.

To make your own laundry soap, you use a combination of borax (found in the laundry section), grated bar soap, and something called “washing soda,” otherwise known as sodium carbonate. Arm and Hammer makes it. Here’s what it looks like:

Some people use baking soda instead of washing soda, which is gentler but may not work as well.

The advantages of making your own laundry soap is that it is cheaper. Roughly speaking, store-bought laundry soap costs $.30 a load and homemade costs between $.03-$.05 a load, which is an astounding 85%-90% in savings. And, like most soap making, it can be more efficient because you make large batches and don’t have to replenish your soap supply as often.

Also, as with making your own liquid hand soap, making laundry soap is a way to use up bar soaps. You could use travel soaps, the ends of soap slivers, or any other extra bars of soap you have lying around.

Finally, laundry soap may be more environmentally friendly and have a lower toxicity than the store-bought stuff.

The downside–and this is why I hesitate trying it myself–is that it might not work as well as store-bought laundry soap, especially in high-efficiency washers. I also wonder if it is harder on your clothes in the long run. If that’s the case, making your own soap could be penny wise and pound foolish.

But not having tried it myself, I can’t say for sure. So, for further reading:

* Got No Dough on The ‘Make Your Own Laundry Detergent’ Debate. It talks about the pros and cons of making your own laundry detergent.

* Making Your Own Laundry Detergent: A Detailed Visual Guide at The Simple Dollar. They not only tell you how to make the homemade laundry detergent, they did a test comparing homemade soap to the store-bought version and got very similar results.

* Crafting Green World tells you How To Make Your Own Eco-Friendly Laundry Soap for Three Cents A Load by Crafting A Green World. You can’t beat that price.

* Make Your Own Laundry Soap from Planet Green tells you how to make both liquid and powdered laundry detergent.

* Simple Easy Fast Effective: Jabs Homemade Laundry Detergent. A straightforward recipe and a cost analysis, too.

If you have made your own laundry soap, tell me about it. Is it worth it?