Easy Egg Rolls

Here's a recipe I found recently and we all here at the Dyck household love them!

I've revised it slightly from the original which can be found here

 https://healthline-store.com/weight-watchers-big-mac-egg-rolls/         

1 lb ground meat, beef, turkey or chicken

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp garlic powder 

Salt & pepper to taste

1/3 cup dill pickles, diced

1/2 small onion, diced

1/2 cup shredded cheese or your choice

12 egg roll wrappers

Sesame seeds

Cook ground meat until done. Drain any fat. 

Mix meat, spices and Worcestershire sauce and cook for a few minutes longer. Add any other spices you might like.

Combine meat mixture, onions and pickles in mixing bowl and fold in cheese.

Spoon about 2 tablespoons of meat mixture onto centre of egg roll wrapper and roll as you would a burrito.

Do the same for all the rolls.

Spray or brush egg rolls with a small amount of cooking oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds if you wish.

You can air fry in the basket at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 7-10 minutes or bake on foil-lined baking pan at 400 F for about 10+ minutes and browned as you prefer. Flip about halfway through cooking.

What's In My Caddy?

 We've all heard of "what's in my purse?" and I'm going to talk about what's in my caddy.

Cleaning caddy, that is.

I try to be environmentally friendly but, honestly, to do a good and efficient job of cleaning, sometimes I'm reckless. 

Disposable gloves. I like to change my gloves frequently. If I'm cleaning your house, I'm not going from bathroom cleaning to another room with the same gloves. Off they go into the garbage and I put on fresh ones. 

Swiffers. I have purchased reusable ones but I don't find they do as good a job. Sometimes I'll use the reusables for baseboards and trim and such, but really, Swiffer refills are the way to go. AND you can pick up a lot more before switching up for a fresh one. Also Swiffers are smaller and work better for some jobs such as slat blinds. I cringe a little because I go through several for each house and throw them in the garbage.

Plastic garbage bags. If the home I'm cleaning uses bags in their garbage cans, then I will replace, most often, with my own. I have a few sizes that I carry with me. It's easier and more sanitary to pull out the garbage bag and replace with a clean one especially from bathrooms and kitchens.

Vim scrub. Not the bleach one, as I've ruined clothes by a rogue squirty tip. The one in the yellow bottle works great and I use it on almost all sinks. Great for scrubbing soap scum and coffee stained kitchen sinks. 

Enviro Care. I dilute this and use it in bathrooms mostly. It's an all-purpose cleaner that is gentle and won't ruin granite, ceramic, chrome or plastic surfaces. The salesman at the cleaning supply store told me a baby could drink this stuff and not get sick. Not so sure about that but it is odourless and effective.

Krud Kutter. I tag this with Enviro Care when cleaning showers and bathtubs. Be careful as it messes up paint but works good on plastic and wood if you've got soap scum or body oils. This I also dilute.

Vinegar water. I mix vinegar and water half and half. Works great in kitchens and glass if I don't have my glass cleaner with me. If I run out of Enviro Care this can be used in the bathrooms too. I also spray a damp cloth with vinegar water and wipe fingerprints as I dust.

Windex. I don't know why but some glass and mirrors don't get as clean with vinegar and some don't get clean with Windex.

CLR. Normally used for calcium, lime and rust found normally in bathrooms and kitchens but also works in conjunction with my Enviro Care on really scummy bathtubs and showers. 

TSP. Trisodium Phosphate is a great degreaser especially on ovens and areas around well-used ovens. It's safe on most cabinetry. I haven't found anything that has been damaged by TSP.

Stainless steel polish. After I clean stainless steel appliances with vinegar water, I wipe with a dry cloth then spray this polish and give it a good swipe with another fresh dry cloth. Works great in kitchen sinks too.

Lysol toilet cleaner. I find that the Lysol Power does the best job especially if I'm trying to clean a throne with dried you-know-what in the bowl. 

Paper towel. I spray the entire toilet with Enviro Care, then wipe with paper towel and throw the paper away. I'm not washing cloths with human or pet waste on them.

My bucket always has either Pine Sol, Murphy Oil Soap or both as I sometimes mix these two together in a bucket of water when I clean laminate or vinyl. Smells fantastic and does a great job of washing floors. 

Bona hardwood cleaner. For the precious hardwood or laminate that some have in their homes. The spray and wipe method usually is good for those floors that don't get too dirty. The REAL hardwood floors, those found in really old homes, look fantastic when I also use the floor polish every few months too. Looks super shiny if the floor has been treated with an acrylic coat.

And of course I always have other things like mop heads for the Vileda or Bona mops...depending on what kind of floors I'm cleaning that day. I carry an extension cord because I don't like unplugging my vacuum too often. I own two Miele vacuums--one for not-so-dirty homes and one for dirtier homes or ones with pets. I clean the vacuums with alcohol spray, vacuum the filters and change the bag frequently ...although I may leave the same bag in for a couple of rounds if it doesn't have much in it.

Same goes with my caddy and products--I wipe with alcohol so I'm not carrying too much germies and pet hair from home to home.

In my bag, my cloths. Lots of cloths. I don't want to run out in case I come across something big! Kitchen scrubby cloths and yellow drying cloths, bathroom scrubby cloths and green drying cloths, window and glass cloths, then blue and orange for everything else. I carry an extra pair of socks in case I soak the ones I'm wearing. Typically if this happens, it's from stepping in a puddle in the bathroom. I never go barefoot in clients' homes. I tried using indoor shoes at one time but found I was leaving very light footprints!

I also have a small plastic container that I carry a couple of scrubby pads, an SOS pad, small brushes, dental pick, flat stubby screwdriver (for tightening toilet seats), plastic scraper and hand sanitizer. 

In my vehicle I have another bag with extra stuff....a vacuum bag, a few cloths, swiffer refill and an empty spray bottle. Just in case.

It's a lot but I seemed to have made everything fit somehow. These items sometimes change, depending on what house I'm cleaning that day or if I decide to try something new or different.

Hello!...Spring Cleaning!

Throw open those windows! Nice weather is upon us!

For now, anyway. We've had a wild last few months here in Lethbridge, AB, haven't we?

We've gone from 20 degrees Celsius days to snow in just a few short days. I remember watching the snow fall whilst I stared out my deck door with a sunburnt face. 

BUT Mother Nature is looking promising once again! Now is the time to start freshening up your home. 

Here is a general spring clean checklist. Just do one room or area at a time as you have the time and energy to get these things done. I usually work from top to bottom but whatever works for you.

One. I sometimes take a broom to the ceiling. It can get incredibly dusty and cobwebby. Look at the ceiling fixtures whether they be lights or fans or whatever you got hanging from there. Grab a ladder and a damp cloth and start wiping as good as you can. If you can get the globes off of the light fixture, do it! For caked on dust and dirt, I use TSP. You can find this stuff in the local hardware store in the paint department. It comes in liquid, premixed spray or crystals. The crystals mixed in water work the best but the other forms will do too. Some say Dawn dish detergent works too...use whatever you've got. Often I end up using pure Murphy Oil Soap if I'm out of TSP.

Two. Look at the curtains and blinds. If you can pull off the curtains and wash them, that's the best. Wash them and just hang them back up again. The room smells amazing and fresh if you hang up your curtains damp from a fresh washing. Blinds, depending on what kind, can usually be wiped with a damp cloth. May have to use TSP for that as well.

Three. Look along the walls. Sometimes I dust the walls and then spot clean any fingerprints or smudges and sometimes, if I'm feeling feisty, I take a damp flat mop and run it along the walls to get a good wiping done. It's up to you. Baseboards, door and window trim may have lots of insect poo when you look closely...especially if they're white.

Four. Carpets. Move the furniture that isn't too hard to move--or get help if needed, and really vacuum well behind there. It's amazing what might be lurking under the couch! Run the vac wand alongside the baseboards. Don't forget to go into closets. They have feelings too.

Five. Windows and screens. Use glass cleaner or warm dish detergent water and give the glass a good wash with a wet cloth then another wipe with a dry cloth. If you can pop the screen out, that's great, and vacuum the best you can. Getting into the tracks of windows and sliding doors is easy. Just use an old toothbrush and the vacuum cleaner at the same time and brush that debris out of there. 

In the bathrooms, I suggest popping out the fan and give it a good vacuum. Don't forget to also clean behind the toilet and in the cupboards. 

Kitchen cupboards will need a good wiping as well. I use TSP the most in kitchens as they are generally the greasiest room.

This is a great time to declutter if time and energy permits. Feel the sense of renewed energy. Anything you haven't used in a long time, get rid of it. Someone else can use it instead of it hiding in your space, or throw it out if it's just not worth anything to anyone. Broken, chipped or damaged items that are not being used, need to go out. 

You can hire a housekeeper to do it for you too! Ahem.

I've helped people with their spring cleaning many times. Sometimes the homeowners go on a holiday and I'll go in and do the deep cleaning instead of the usual maintenance cleaning. Or I work in tandem with them...they clean one room or area and I tackle another. My favourite is when homeowners declutter and move things and I'll clean behind them.

Doing deep cleaning on a somewhat regular basis is a good way of finding anything that may need attention. I have found damaged stuff, or find that they've got, or had, a mouse in the house or something may be molding due to moisture or worse yet, a pipe is slowly leaking behind a wall from the bathroom which would never have been discovered if stuff hadn't been moved.

Any way you do it, it'll feel good and your house will say thank you!

Give me a call or email and I can help arrange some deep cleaning for you!

403-315-3231

rebdyckcleaning@gmail.com