Link to my youtube videos

I've been spending way too much time over on youtube, but I've met some really wonderful people  and have been enjoying learning how to make little videos.

check me out

http://www.youtube.com/user/brendahere?feature=mhee

I've been making a few Youtube video's

I think the process is rather addicting


.Brenda's Channel

Excited over yogurt

I guess it doesn't take much to make me happy.

I've read about making yogurt a number of times over the years.  I just never got around to doing it.  Recently I watched a youtube video and REALLY saw how easy it was.  So I gave it a try.

I clean all the cooking utensils and jars.
I brought the milk up to 180 degrees
Cooled it down to 110
Put in two large tables spoons of live active yogurt (dannon) and lightly stirred.
I put the mixture in canning jars and put white lids on.

I tried using a cooler and a heating pad, like the video suggested but my heating pad is a newer model that has some kind of safety feature that shuts it off after so long.   So I put the jars in my dehydrator to heat around 110.

I gave TWO people the taste test.  While they could feel a slight difference in texture, they could not tell me which one was the store kind.

After making yogurt, I took one pint to make cream cheese.  What I understand that you do is drain the whey off and allow it to age a little in the refrig.
 I kept the whey that you see to put in my next batch of bread in my bread machine. No since wasting it.
I also kept out half of a cup of yogurt for my starter for next time.

The Dannon yogurt you see cost $3.29 for the quart.  For $2.99 I can buy a gallon of milk and make a gallon of plain yogurt.   My future has now changed.   I'm not making yogurt on a regular bases.

Grandma's Old Fashion Unbleached Four

I've been running the bread machine about every other day.  Going through the flour too. So much so, that I've started to buy #25 bags of flour.

I've always bought  "bread machine" flour similar to this

My store was all out of this, so I went with this

This flour comes from Swany White Flour Mills, Freeport MN.   It's fantastic!  I didn't know much about the flour except that it was milled a couple hours from home.  Having been milled so close, I was hoping it would be very fresh and the nutritional loss would be small.   I just have to tell you that the bread rose wonderfully and it tasted awesome.  Yes it does cost a few dollars more and while my budget is important to me, the bottom line is also the quality of the product.
In writing this I looked up the company at http://www.freeportmn.org/business/swany-white-flour-mills-ltd/.
This is their blurb.   I'm getting hungry just reading it.

Swany White Flour Mills, Ltd

Swany White Flour Mill is located in beautiful Freeport, Minnesota!
The Mill has been family owned and operated since 1903 and our products are still being produced with much of the original equipment.
Our store is located at our Mill and offers a wide variety of regular and organic products, as well as special orders. We now make it easier than ever to receive our products because we can ship directly to you!
Contact us at:
Phone: (320) 836-2174
Fax: (320) 836-2477

206 2nd Street SE
PO Box 214
Freeport, MN 56331
Our store hours are Monday thru Friday 8AM to 6PM and Saturday 8AM to 12PM
Stop in and visit us and see what we have to offer! Some of our products are:

• Regular Bleached & Unbleached Flour
• Whole Wheat Flour
• Wild Rice Flour
• Buckwheat Flour
• Cracked Wheat Flour
• Graham Flour
• Wheat Bran
• Wheat Germ
• Steel Cut Oats
• Corn Meal
• Coarse Oat Bran
• Nine Grain Mix
• Regular & Quick Oatmeal
• Cream of Rye
• Farina
• and our famous Swany White Buttercake Pancake & Waffle Mix!

As people become more health conscious about their food choices, organic has become very popular. Swany White also offers a wide variety of organic products:

• Organic White Flour
• Organic Whole Wheat Flour
• Organic Brown Rice Flour
• Organic Rye Flower
• Organic Soy Flour Full Fat
• Organic Hulled Barley
• Organic Whole Soybeans
• Organic Wheat Berries
• Organic Golden & Brown Flax Seed
• Organic Oatmeal
• Organic Whole Yellow Corn

We also have Organic Bread mixes that have become very well-liked and we think you'll enjoy them as well. You can use our mixes with or without a bread machine, and they come in the following varieties:

• White
• Rye
• Whole Wheat
• Six Grain
• Wild Rice 

My second attempt at sprouting

is going much better, even if it doesn't look like the sprouts in the store.

Here is a picture after three days

 This is a picture after 5 days.

There isn't as much BULK as I expected.  Of course the sprouts that I'm use to seeing are the alfa sprouts that are sold in the stores and I used a pack of garden seeds.  However they do taste nice and I have enough to put on the top of the salads for tonights dinner.

I'm going to be checking around town for some different kinds of seeds.  If the price is right I could see doing this more often.

Almost sprouting

I was digging around my cupboards and ran across a couple things.
My stackable sprouter that I bought 15 years ago and NEVER used and
Some packages of lettuce seeds that I had bought "after" the season.

WARNING:  If you decide to sprout and haven't done it before, you might want to tell your family.  I set out two trays in a stack for 2 days waiting for them to grow and my dh decided they were dirty dishes and washed them.   What a sweetie!

coupon shopping doesn't have to mean a long time in the store.

I was passing Walgreen's last night on my way home and decided to make a quick stop even though I didn't have my coupons with me.   

I walked in, grabbed the currents week flyer and the monthly book.
3 boxes of blink eye drops, one had the $4 coupn on it
3 bottles of some healthy fruit juices $2 each.
3 boxes of arnicare pain gel

Time in store 15 minutes.

End result
I used a $3.50 old ready reward and $5.59 cash (9.09)
I got back $6 in RR

My deal cost me $3.09

The amount of money I saved $63.00

My family LIKES the three bottles of fruit juice that normally sells for $2 a bottle. During this deal, I feel I got the juice for half price and all the blink and pain relief cream for free.

The juice, candy,tax is about 2.45. That means IF I had gotten milk instead, I would have had THREE gallons of milk and the other stuff for $3.50
Another thought. What if ALL the blink tear drops had coupons? and I still got three boxes? I would have a credit of another $8 AND walked out of the store with all the items.

***

I made little discovery.  There are coupons in the boxes of Arnicare.  Possible profit!

This is a break down. Don't read this if you get lost in the math. Sometimes its nice to think it though to understand how everything feel in place.

Round robining the deals I Paid for
1 box blink at 7.99 - $4 coupon - $3.50 ready reward from last week
Paid oop (out of pocket) 49 cents
I recieved a ready reward for $8

1 juice at $2
1 annicare 5.99
total $7.99 here's where I slightly messed up. with ready rewards the
amount must be more than the buck. If I had added milk I would have been fine,
as it was I threw in
1 piece of candy 39 cents
tax 16 cents.
Paid with the $8 reward and 54 cents oop

repeated TWice with

1 box blink at 7.99
I paid with a 6 I got from annicare
and 1.99 oop
I recieved a ready reward for $8

I bought
1 juice at $2
1 annicare 5.99
1 piece of candy 39 cents.
Paid with the $8 reward and 54 cents oop