I made some for the first time yesterday! So yummy! If you missed the recipe, you can find it here! We have been trying to find ways to have it for every meal. So I thought… why not share some recipes for your homemade bread? This way you too can have some recipes ready to go when you make your own bread.
As a side…
Yesterday, I also made tuna casserole, and had it with a side of a slice of warm bread, fresh out of the oven, with butter! My son wanted some garlic bread, so I toasted it added butter, then sprinkled some garlic spread on top, we love Johnny’s!
As a snack…
Bobby wanted more bread, but this time with crunchy peanut butter. He’s a big pb&j fan. That’s kinda the reason I decided to try to bake bread in the first place, so when I make him uncrustables at home, I can use it with bread where I know every ingredient that is in it. I also recently started making mini pizzas in our Air Fryer. Since we are running low on english muffins, I decided to try it with our bread today… OMG, it’s like a french bread pizza!
For a sandwich!
I saw that my sister posted a recipe for a BLT Deluxe Melt (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato) Sandwich on her blog. Since we had turkey bacon, and avocados, and now yummy bread too…. I decided I should give it a go! So tonight’s creation is brought to you by my little sister!
The whole family enjoyed it! My hubby’s bread got grilled a bit too long on one slice, so I put it on the bottom. He’ll eat anything, which is great since I have burned things on occasion and we usually didn’t have to toss them. Human Garbage Disposal is his alter ego.
We used our homemade bread and Dave’s Killer Bread rather than sourdough. I baked the turkey bacon on a cookie sheet in the oven. I recommend chopping up extra lettuce, tomato, and avocado and saving them into storage containers so we’ll be ready for later. I’m sure the girls will ask for more turkey and cheese sandwiches later this week. They have been on a major turkey and cheese sandwich kick lately. We used Tillamook Medium Cheddar and Arla Havarti instead of Mozzarella. And we skipped the egg. But… it was sooo delicious! You can try out her recipe and jazz it up to make it your own, or copy it to a T if you have all the ingredients. I am all about subbing when I don’t have the exact ingredients, but something close enough. Ha!
More to come…
The bread is almost gone, but when I make a new batch and try out new recipes, I’ll come back here and add to the list!
I’ve always been not so keen on the fact that I can’t actually see inside the store bough ones. 👀 Do you use reusable apple sauce pouches?
So I bought the little green pouch ones that I could fill up at home when my oldest was 1. I used those for a bit, until my kids chewed up the spouts. 🤦🏽♀️ And lost the caps. 🤷🏽♀️ It was always a little awkward trying to clean the bottom of the pouch, too. You would fill it from the top, next to the odd placed spout, and good luck cleaning all the crevices. Plus they weren’t see through. I knew what I put in though, so… I did have a little more peace of mind than the store bought ones.
Then, I went back to the prefilled ones…
For no other reason than because it’s just easier. Plus… there were organic options… So they have to be better than the ones that people have found mold inside, right?
But then… Amazon…
Totally popped these up as something I might be interested in. These pouches have a mostly clear backside! And the spout is on the top, like the kids are used to!
So you fill it from the bottom, it even has a line to tell you where to stop filling so it won’t spill over when you zip it closed!
And I found these super cool soft spouts you can attach over the hard spout. They come with a built in cover! These totally help you to avoid spills if your little ones are anything like mine were. Do your kids squeeze the pouch as soon as your hand it to them? Mine would make a mess at the most inopportune times. They will have to get used to the extra suction required. But, you won’t have to worry about a big mess if they squeeze the pouch a little too hard. I’m sure it’s totally possible that they could grab a full pouch and squeeze it just to test it… You can even attach these spouts onto the store bought pouches too! So, if you are just looking for a little bit of safety while handing prefilled pouches to your kids, get you some!
The kids are getting older now…
Hopefully my kids won’t bite the spouts again, because they are older now. But since we are hoping to grow our family through foster to adoption, these may come in handy for our newest youngest.
I filled these with apple sauce today. You can buy the big container of apple sauce for less cost per serving and fill your own containers at home. Did you know that you can often find out the cost per serving right on the price labels at the grocery stores? Plus, I find that my kids eat so much more fruit when it’s already ready for them to grab and eat! You can even make your own apple sauce at home, but I haven’t been that brave just yet.
I plan on making a big batch of yogurt too in my Instant Pot, and filling up more pouches so those can be grab and go as well.
These can be great for school too!
These can even be grab and toss into the lunchboxes when the kids do get to have lunch at school again. We found out yesterday that our kids do get to go back to school in person. It will be day camp style, almost 3 hours a day, with half their class, and with their real teacher in person! I’m super excited too, because our middle child will be starting kindergarten. I was not looking forward to having to try to teach him fully at home through distance learning. Many are having to do this, and I don’t envy them at all. I know everyone is doing the best that they can, and that’s all that you really can do. Do your best, let God handle the rest!
So if you’ve got young kids who like their snacks in pouches, you have got to check out the reusable apple sauce pouches for your kids!
If you want to check out more of our super favorite things, you can find them here!
My son would have Uncrustables for every meal if we let him.
And he eats them frozen…
I’m a little worried about how he’s going to react when he opens his lunchbox at school and finds a thawed out Uncrustable 😱.
Not going to lie, they are super convenient too… He can grab a bag out of the freezer and have his meal ready to go.
But… Then there’s the ingredients. 🙄 And the high fructose corn syrup is a deal breaker for me.
So… I started making my own at home with these cool sandwich cutters!
I know exactly what is going into them, and I can freeze them and store them in one big zip lock bag for less trash waste too! Plus, it saves money since we buy the peanut butter and jelly in bulk!
I put peanut butter on both pieces of bread then drop a spoonful of jelly on top of the peanut butter to try to keep it from squirting out of the bread as I use the cutter and sealer.
Next thing on the to do list… Find a good recipe to making my own bread at home so I can stop having to read all the bread labels… 🤔
I had no plans to buy Bentgo Kids boxes for their school lunches…
But then my youngest started preschool. And because of COVID-19 they are only allowed to take their lunchbox to school, no backpack. I tried to pack her all the things she wanted on the first day into her lunchbox and I was looking for small containers, with lids, and trying to fit things into nooks and crannies. I got it done, but it wasn’t easy…
Then Amazon read my mind…
And what pops up on sale the first day she is at preschool but… Bentgo Kids boxes! They were on a super sale too! I should have shared that day, but I just thought about it today. It’s my first time packing her lunch in her Bentgo Kids box, as it is her second day of preschool. They are still on sale for $3 off if you order today. But I think I saved like $10.
What’s for lunch?
This is what she ordered today…
And I totally forgot to take a picture with the cute little animal forks I also found on Amazon, but she’s got one in there to poke into her patty with cheese, and dip it into her mustard and ketchup. She likes to eat her fruit with it too!
I also got these slim ice packs to put underneath her Bentgo Kids box in her lunchbox to keep the right side of her container cold. Looks like those were on sale last week too…. shoot, I need to get better at telling you all about the sales…. right after I find them!
So, she’s actually going to school in person?
She is! And today she decided to wear her new Face Shield. I thought this might be easier for her to breathe in, and she can still see through it, as well as her teachers can see her mouth since it isn’t covered behind a mask. I did send her cloth mask in her lunchbox… just in case this doesn’t fly. (I also missed a picture of the shield on, I swear she walked out the door with it on her head and I told her and Daddy to turn around for the picture and completed missed that it was no longer on her head) I haven’t had my Vitalbiome or my Metaburn yet today, that’s probably why I didn’t notice… ha ha! #focusfocusfocus
She asked me to pick her up today, since Daddy is dropping her off. I guess we’ll be taking turns as long as Daddy gets to continue to work from home.
And just in case you are wondering…
Don’t expect to be seeing super fancy lunchbox creations from me… just easy food, that fits into the tiny, organized compartments.
I keep seeing the other 2 kids Bentgo boxes on the counter as I type this and thinking I forgot to send her lunch to school with her… Oops!
I’m off to take my Vitalbiome and Ease so I can start my workday!
Day 2 we got to start our day with a nice hot shower in our friend’s house before we headed on to Utah to visit Ryan’s sister and her family. When we got out to the RV to take off, we realized that the refrigerator had turned off at some point during the night and the food wasn’t as cold as it should have been. Apparently the battery runs out of power, so my aunt, who has her own trailer, and was giving us lessons as we went along, told us we could switch to propane when we dry camped to keep the fridge cold if we weren’t keeping the generator on all night. So… we started doing that (when we remembered).
Speaking of generator, we also learned that you can’t power the generator on with a dead battery, so you had to start the RV first, then power on the generator if you were going to use it while driving. Another thing, you have to have the generator on while driving if you want to run the A/C in the back of the RV. So many things to learn!
So we made our first stop of the day in St George at a Sinclairs (one of those Dinosaur gas stations) to gas up, and made lunch and ate it while we filled up, and I’m sure Ryan cleaned the windshield as well, that was his third job (1 – Driving, 2 – Getting Gas, 3 – Cleaning the windshield). One app we used almost every single day of the trip to find the least expensive gas, that was nearest to us, was Gas Buddy, I HIGHLY recommend you get that for any road trip. We set it to Diesel so that it would only consider gas stations that had diesel, then you could open the station and see what type of amenities they had. Most of the time we just needed gas, but sometimes we needed to dump and fill up with water.
Then we got back on the road and started heading up the grade toward Alpine, Utah when the thermostat got really hot, the little alarm (a different one) made noise and said we were overheating, and the engine slowed way down. We pulled over on the side of the 15 and called AAA. If you don’t have AAA, you should get it, we have the Premier membership, and it allows for one 200 mile tow a year for each cardholder, which has absolutely saved us in our personal cars, like the time we were moving here and Ryan’s car broke down hours from our new home, and we got it towed for Free! So, we found out from our friend Mike that there’s Premier RV for when you are in an RV, and you need to add it on a couple months before you trip, so we did, and it sure came in handy when we broke down on the second day of our trip! Thank you, Mike!!!
While we were hanging out on the side of the freeway for hours, the kids got to play with puzzles, color some of their favorite characters, and just hang out watching movies. We found out most repair shops are closed over the weekend, and since it was almost 5 pm on a Friday we may have to wait until Monday to get a diagnosis.
The first company AAA sent out was Bracken’s Auto Tech. Austin came out in his tow truck with some coolant to see if filling that up would get us up and running again. After he filled up the coolant, we tried driving the RV again, the temp had gone down, but within 30 seconds of driving, the heat went all the way back up and the engine slowed back down. He realized all the coolant shot right out and went onto the ground, so it was going to need more than just a refill. He thought we may have to get an Uber to get me and the kids to wherever the RV would be towed since they don’t usually have room for 2 adults and 3 car seats in a tow truck, but I had a friend in St George, also named Austin who had volunteered to come pick us up if we needed a ride.
Thankfully, next AAA sent out All Ways Towing to get us towed to Amen Diesel (they were actually opened on Saturdays). The driver of the first tow truck was Hunter, he came with an extended cab tow truck to pick us up, and they sent a separate tow truck to pick up the RV. So my friend Austin got to stay at work once he knew we were taken care of. Thank you for the offer, Austin! Hunter knew we were trying to pack some bags in case we would be without the RV for the weekend, and he had fun keeping the kids entertained. Once the RV tow truck arrived and they got it loaded up, Hunter drove us to Denny’s where Ryan unloaded me, the 3 kids, the 2 car seats (1 with a sleeping child) and the bags, while he headed to Amen Diesel to get the 3rd car seat with Hunter.
We spent 3 hours at Denny’s eating dinner and waiting for Ryan’s sister, Jen, to arrive from Alpine to pick us up for the night and drive us back to her house. Everyone at Denny’s was super nice, especially our server, Jake, who was always on top of things and made great recommendations! It made the wait go by much faster.
It was a long day, and we actually ran out of data on our phone one day prior to the start of our unlimited month… Boo… While at a rest stop on the way up to Alpine, Ryan called Verizon to see if they would waive the $15 overage fee, and rather than waive the fee, they told us about an offer we had on our account for being long time customers, where rather than paying the extra $30 for one month of unlimited data, they could offer us unlimited data for $2 extra a month… every month! And they would prorate it to the current month, so not only did they waive the $15 fee, and not bill us $30 extra for July, they billed us $2 for the month for June so we didn’t have an overage, and now we have unlimited data for only $2 a month, rather than $30 a month. So that $45 we would have spent, will not buy us almost 2 years worth of unlimited data. Auntie Jen was singing the Daniel Tiger song about when something seems bad ,turn it around, and find something good, but the kids didn’t hear it. And when we walked out of the rest stop bathroom, Bobby started singing it… so… the break down, and the running out of data, actually turned into something good.
So, it was a long, exhausting day, but… we scored on the Verizon offer, and we got to sleep in a super comfy bed, in a dark dark room, and wake up the next morning to spend time with the family.
Tips for Day 2:
Get AAA if you own a car.
Get AAA Premier RV if you own, or are going to be using an RV.
Get Gas Buddy for any road trip… or even if you just randomly choose where you get your gas in town. We usually go to Costco because it’s generally the cheapest in town. Speaking of Costco, upgrade to the Executive membership if you don’t already have it, it pays for itself. If you don’t make enough back in the rewards to cover the price difference between the regular and executive membership, they’ll refund you the difference!
Verizon is pretty awesome…. sure we didn’t have service in some locations, but overall, we had pretty good service as we went through 16 states. And that unlimited offer came at the perfect time, it even allowed me to jump on a company Zoom and and watch it live, rather than calling in and just listening to it (did you know you can call into zooms when you don’t have data/wifi?)
If you are ever break down in Cedar City, Utah call All Ways Towing or Bracken Auto Tech, they are both awesome! And if you want a place to eat and hang out for a few hours… Denny’s is the place to go!
I’ve been in planning mode for the last couple months. And we leave in around 57 hours and I am still trying to book the last couple nights of our trip. Now, it is a 3 week trip, so I still have some time, but I hoped to get everything booked before we left so we’d have a plan. Not that that means anything, since this is our first RV trip, we may find that we can’t do everything as fast as we had anticipated, so… we plan, but know that things may actually change, and we’ll roll with it.
A big bummer was when I was looking into where we could park/drive at Monument Valley and I found out that we can’t actually drive the RV through Monument Valley… To get there and back to the Grand Canyon from Scottsdale, AZ adds about 6 hours to the trip. So rather than drive all the way there to see what we can see before we can go no further, we are going to skip Monument Valley this trip and spend extra time at the Grand Canyon. We had originally planned to stop in Chicago for a night, but the Memorial Day murder rate helped me decide we could skip it this trip, and plan for that when the kids are older. We also planned for a stop in St Louis to see the Arch, but the 2 RV parking areas around there sounded like they weren’t in the best neighborhood, then there was the whole flooding, so… we’ll just pass by the Arch on the freeway… I think… (I haven’t actually solidified the exact routes yet, but we do have apps for that) and keep moving on to our next stop, and plan the actual visit to the Arch for when the kids are older as well. Part of the hesitation for just getting an RV site and Ubering is that we have 3 kids in car seats still, so if we were to Uber, we’d have 3 car seats to contend with wherever we are Ubering to. Thankfully, my parents are renting a minivan for while we are in Michigan for the wedding so that we can get around and leave the seats in the car while we go to the wedding and reception.
Since we will now have over 24 hours at the Grand Canyon, I found out we can take a train ride (https://www.thetrain.com/) to the Grand Canyon, so that saves me from trying to figure out where we should stay and how best to get to and park at the Grand Canyon with an RV, plus it means we can stay put for 2 nights. And, the train actually has an RV parking area so we can pull in for the night, wake up early, head to the train, spend a few hours at the Grand Canyon, then ride the train back to the RV, and wake up early on the 31st for our long drive home. They actually give a AAA discount too, so that’s a perk. However… you do get charged $35 for entry into the Grand Canyon unless you have and NPS Annual Pass.
What’s an NPS Annual Pass??? It’s a pass you can get for $80 that will allow you into all the parks on the list for an entire year. And you can buy it online… however… you can’t print your pass, they have to mail it to you, and since I am just looking into this 2 days before our trip… I don’t think that’s enough time to order our pass and have it arrive. You can pick up a pass from any of the parks though, so I am going to have Ryan try to run out to Lake Kaweah tomorrow to grab a pass, then hope that we can enter our pass online to save the $35 on the train tickets. If you are planning a trip to several parks this year, look into getting the America The Beautiful annual pass to save you some money https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm#CP_JUMP_5088574
Here’s the locations you can visit with the pass: https://store.usgs.gov/s3fs-public/PassIssuanceList.pdf
I’m sure I’ll learn more as we go, but for now I need to figure out how we can do a tour of Hoover Dam since… that is actually our first stop on day 1… so I better get to figuring that one out sooner, rather than later. https://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/service/DamTour.html Looks like we won’t be taking the tour since you can’t go on the tour if you are under 8, and our kids are only 2.5, 4.5, and 6.5. Guess that will have to wait for another trip as well!
And what time are we actually leaving on Thursday morning? I don’t know yet… depends how late we are up on Wednesday night loading up the RV. I do have boxes all over the house right now with things I have already packed. And I’m praying that the kids aren’t taking things out and leaving them where I can’t see them because I am mentally checking them off the list as I put them into the boxes… Worst case… we can buy what we need on the road, thought I’d rather not spend money on something we already have… but the most important things for me to remember are… my grandma’s China that I am taking across the country for my sister, and our wedding attire… since we kinda need that for the wedding. Everything else… can be replaced… but I’m going to try to remember much as I possibly can so we can limit the amount of stops we have to make to buy what we forgot.
If you are doing an Amazon return and printing the label at home… I have a tip for you! The first page is always the instructions, and I’m pretty sure you know what to do anyway.
When you click Print Label & Instructions and select your printer, the preview will show up and the instructions will be on the first page, and your actual label and the paper you need to put inside your package with your return on the inside of the package will be on the second page.
In the printer dialogue box select the second radio button down to the right of Pages and type in 2. Also change the color to Black and White (you’ll save your color ink for important thing where you need color, and the color cartridges cost more money anyway).
Then print! Voila! You just saved paper and colored ink! ❤️
We definitely want a new vacuum for the house, and I found a list that shows the best vacuums for wooden floors, with Shark Navigator Lift-away Professional being listed as #1, and I actually found it on sale at Costco this week… But I didn’t buy it yet, because I hadn’t read reviews from real people. It’s $50 cheaper at Costco in Visalia, right now, than it is on Amazon if you are in the market for a new vacuum.
Actually… As I did more digging, I found out that even though it’s called the Professional… It’s a different model than the one sold at Costco. The one at Costco doesn’t have as many features, so it doesn’t cost as much. It’s probably still a really good vaccum, but we’ll likely stick to Amazon to order the right model based on the reviews for wooden floors usage.
But…. If you are just looking for a small vaccum, I’d say hands down, this Eureka Blaze is amazing for the price! I’ve been sweeping with my microfiber floor mop lately and this vacuum saved me so much time. We’ve had the vacuum attachment off for so long that I was thinking I had to use the mini attachment, which takes too long when cleaning up hundreds of kids crumbs, but with the rolling attachment it just took a few minutes.
So I kept seeing the recipes for Yogurt in your Instant Pot, but… I didn’t have everything I needed, and the instructions looked way too complicated, so I never tried it.
Then… I saw one that said I only needed Milk and a yogurt starter (and that meant I could totally use one of the store bought yogurts in my fridge, because it just needs to have live and active cultures). So… I set out to Costco (my grocery store of choice) and was happy to pick up a 2 Gallons box of milk, because the recipe called for a gallon, but… I decided to just do half the recipe.
When we used to buy milk from the Costco in Oxnard, it would last FOREVER. They had 3 of the 1/2 Gallon Cartons in a box and they were Organic Horizon 2%, so we would get 2 or 3 boxes at a time and it would last us for months. When we moved to Visalia, they only sold a box of 2 Gallons in it, and it wasn’t Horizon, and they actually just switched Producers in the last few weeks, and it would be expiring in like a week. My kids don’t drink milk nearly as fast as they used to, and when the best buy date is like tomorrow, and we still have a spare gallon in the outside fridge, we have to buy a huge box of cereal, so my hubby can have cereal with milk for every meal, so we don’t have to throw milk away.
So, I was very excited to try the recipe so we could use half of the first gallon of milk on yogurt, and I wouldn’t have to also buy yogurt, or smoothies… I was thinking ahead. Plus, the Producers milk would be good for like 2 weeks from the date I purchased, it so I was also happy I’d have a little extra time if I didn’t get to making my yogurt right away.
So, I decided to make it on a Friday, completely forgetting we would be having an Ohm Hour that evening…
Here’s the recipe, then I’ll tell you my experience after…
Ingredients:
1/2 gallon of milk (I used whole milk, but you can use whichever milk you prefer) Just a tip, 1/2 gallon is actually 8 cups
Yogurt starter, I used 1/8 cup of a storebought yogurt with live and active cultures, or you could use 1/8 cup from a previous batch you made at home
Instructions
Sterilize your Instant Pot (IP) by adding 2 cups of water to your IP, make sure the steam release handle is closed, press the steam button, then set the timer for 1 minute. After a few minutes, your IP will come to pressure and will steam the water for one minute. After it beeps, do a quick release (I put a towel over my release handle and twist it open so the steam can escape into the towel and not get water everywhere). After all the steam is out, open the lid and dump the water out.
Pour your half gallon (8 cups) of milk into your IP. Turn the steam release handle to sealed. Press the Yogurt button, then press the Adjust button until the displays says “boil.” The IP will now boil your milk. This will take around 45 minutes, but may take a little shorter or longer., depending on how long it takes to build pressure. After the milk has boiled, your IP will beep and the display will read “yogt.”
This next step is the step that requires the most attention. After the display reads “yogt”, you need to remove the metal pot from your IP and set it on the counter, with a liquid thermometer inside so that you can see when it cools to 110 degrees F. You can speed up the cooling process by adding ice packs around the pot, and stirring your milk, but I just let it sit for an hour and it was slightly over 110 degrees so I checked 10 minutes later and it was ready.
Once your milk has cooled to about 110 degrees, you can add your yogurt starter. Slowly add your yogurt starter as you are continuously stirring, so that your starter is mixed evenly throughout your milk.
After it’s all mixed up, put your metal pot back into your IP and put the lid back on. Press the yogurt button again, then press the adjust button until it displays a number. This number is the number of hours that your yogurt will culture. You can use the “+” and “-” buttons to adjust how long you want your yogurt to culture. I planned to let mine go for 8 hours since we aren’t lactose intolerant, but you should let it culture for around 24 hours if you do have lactose issues.
After you’ve selected the number of hours, your IP will beep and then display 0:00 as that is how long it as been culturing. This timer counts up, so you’ll see how many minutes or hours it has been culturing.
When your yogurt is done culturing, your IP will beep a final time and then display “yogt.” You can now transfer your yogurt to your preferred storage containers. I put mine in meal prep containers. Store your finished yogurt in the fridge. It should keep for several weeks.
So… that’s how it should be done…. this is actually how my version looked…
I sterilized my IP, added my milk,
set my milk to boil
and walked away. I came back around an hour later and it was ready for the next step. I pulled the pot out, put in the thermometer, which actually happened to be my mother-in-loves, and I’ve only ever used it when trying to make her English Toffee… which reminds me, we should try to make it this year, and as I was trying to lean it against the side of the pot, it fell in….
so I scooped it out with a spaghetti spoon… I did get it hooked to the side,
then covered the pot with a towel while I went outside with the kids to play.
After an hour, I checked on it, and it was still a little warm, so I had Alexa set another timer for 10 more minutes. After she alerted me that my 10 minutes was up, I left the kids playing on the trampoline, listening to Grim Grinning Ghosts and ran in to get my yogurt to add to my boiled milk. I used a whisk to make sure my yogurt was completely mixed in (I used blueberry, I thought it was just plain yogurt on top, since the fruit was on the bottom, but the yogurt did come out a little blue.. oh well), then I set my IP for 8 hours. I was 5 hours later that I realized we had an Ohm hour starting in 10 minutes.
I didn’t know if I should stop the IP, and potentially ruin my first batch of yogurt, or let it run, and potentially risk my ohm hour streak… so I let the Yogurt keep culturing. I still don’t know if we ruined our streak, but we would have just been completing our 3rd hour in a row since I ruined the streak a few weeks ago when I didn’t realized our Eco mode on our Nest thermostat upstairs was set wrong…. oops! Before bed, I decided to check on the yogurt, it did look pretty creamy, but as I was scooping it into meal prep containers, it was still kinda watery…. So I did what I thought I should do… stirred it up and set it to culture overnight.
In the morning it was still looking like a hot mess, just like it did when I left it the night before. I scooped it into containers anyway and stuck it in the fridge. A couple hours later when I shook the container, it was firm. So, definitely not as watery as it was in the warm pot, but the consistency still looks a little off.
I did, however, ask the kids if they wanted to try a smoothie. I usually buy them the little drink smoothies, that they love, but this time I got to make it myself, so I knew exactly what was it in, and they LOVED them! I added some of my chunky yogurt… a whole banana (that I broke into pieces), a big strawberry, a little milk, and a couple drops of strawberry stevia, then I used my immersion blender to get it into the smoothie texture that they are used to. I poured it into little Tupperware Snack cups, that I had no idea actually could use sippee top lids on them, and gave them to the kids. They all asked for seconds, so I had to make another batch.
I can definitely get used to making my own yogurt, and getting to make whichever flavors we want by adding our own fruit or ingredients. I may mix up some honey in it tomorrow for them.
Next time, I’ll start earlier, and definitely not during an ohm hour day.
One of my friends on Facebook posted in one of the local Mom’s play groups about this website that had work from home jobs. One of those jobs that I saw, that looked really cool was Userfeel.com I had seen a page like this before, but when I tried to apply for the job, it said they weren’t hiring in my area… which I thought was a little weird, since it’s a remote job, and I’m not sure why they wouldn’t hire in my “area”. They didn’t specify which “area” I was in either, but maybe they just don’t hire people in California. Something to note is that they aren’t actually hiring you as an employee, they are hiring you are an independent contractor, so you do need to save for tax time on your own.
However, Userfeel.com did not have this “area” notice when I went to their website. So, I was pretty excited that I could get signed up. After you submit your information, they send you a confirmation email to verify your email address. After you verify your email address, they send you another email for the next step, to take the qualification test. The qualification test is to make sure you can do the job.
So, what’s the job? It is right up my alley! You have to have a computer with a microphone because you open up their recording software that records your screen and your microphone and they give you a set of tasks so that you can “test” out websites and give your honest feedback. I am a data analyst by day, and I personally love testing things to make sure they work right. When they don’t, I like to figure out what could be wrong, then pass the information back to the developers so they can fix it and get it back to me for testing. With Userfeel you go to the website they direct you to, and follow the instructions. My test was actually looking at Enterprise, the rental car company, and trying to schedule a car rental. As you are going through the tasks, you also speak out loud your thoughts on the process, the website, anything that you notice. As you complete the tasks, you mark it as complete and go onto the next task, until you are done and it uploads the video with your voice back to Userfeel and they can pass it along to their clients for feedback, so they can make sure they are providing the best user experience to their own customers.
The cool thing… you actually get paid to do this!
And you can do it when you have free time. You, of course, need to find a quiet spot in your home, so that you can focus, and they can hear your voice clearly in the recording, but… you can pick and choose when you want to work. I, personally, just passed my certification test, so I haven’t done any real tests yet, and haven’t gotten paid yet. But, I am looking forward to getting my first email with a real test so I can give this a go.
We have definitely been tightening our budget at home, so it will be nice to be able to add some extra income without having to leave the house to do it. I do work 30 hours a week as a data analyst, and also take care of my almost 2 and almost 4 year old, while my hubby is at work, and my oldest is at school, so… it doesn’t leave for a lot of free time, but that’s the nice thing about this, you do it on YOUR time, and you don’t have to get dressed and head out of your home to do it.
Instructions
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