Over the years I've made a lot of homemade yogurt posts. I'll link them at the bottom of this page. The thing about cold start is that's super duper easy and you don't need an Instapot!
Here's a short video of the process.
For this recipe you will need:
Electric yogurt maker
4 cups Ultra Pasteurized Milk (like Fairlife)
1-2 Tablespoons of yogurt starter
1/4 cup Powdered milk (optional)
Combine all ingredients. Mix well. Pour into yogurt maker. Incubate overnight (approx. 8 hours). When yogurt is set, refrigerate for 3 hours.
The results!
MORE DETAILS!!!!
Electric Yogurt Maker vs. Non-electric Maker
If you use an electric yogurt maker you never need to heat the milk. If you're using a non electric process you'll need to heat the milk to approx 108 degrees and hold the it at that temperature for the duration of the incubation period.
Yogurt Starter:
- You can buy freeze dried starter online at Amazon. You really only need 1 small envelope.
- You can use yogurt with "live and active yogurt cultures" from the grocery store. Be sure to use only plain, unsweetened yogurt. NOT BLENDED yogurt.
- Once you've made your first batch of yogurt you can save a few tablespoons of homemade yogurt to use as starter. Store it in the freezer so that it doesn't go bad.
Powdered Milk:
- Powdered milk makes the finished yogurt extra thick. It creates a rich creamy greek yogurt without the need to strain the product.
- Using ultra pasteurized milk will make a product that is thicker than regular yogurt.
More Yogurt Making Links
Small Batch Yogurt Making (with recipe cards)
Yogurt Making - without a yogurt maker (with recipe card)
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| Homemade Yogurt with Granola |
Homemade plain yogurt (Small Batch)
For this recipe you will need:
2 cups of non fat milk (or any dairy milk)
½ cup powdered milk
2 tablespoons of yogurt with live and active yogurt cultures
OR 1 pack of freeze dried yogurt cultures (available on Amazon)
OR 1 pack of freeze dried yogurt cultures (available on Amazon)
Food thermometer
Microwave
1 clean, dry bath towel
Mix milk and powdered milk in a pan. Heat to 180 degrees. Remove milk from heat and allow it to cool to 110 degrees. Whisk in yogurt (or starter packet). Pour mixture into a container (I use a Ball canning jar). Heat a cup of water in the microwave for 2 minutes. Remove cup from microwave. This step is to raise the temperature inside the microwave. Wrap the milk jar in a towel and place it in the warm microwave. Close the microwave door and leave it closed over night (or approx. 12 hours).
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| Add powdered milk to regular milk |
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| Heat Milk to 160 degrees |
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| Cool the milk down |
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| Use plain yogurt with Live and Active yogurt cultures OR |
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| Freeze dried yogurt culture packet |
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| Wrap warm milk in a towel |
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| Place towel wrapped container in the microwave overnight |
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| In the morning it's ready to eat! |
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| Click Here for Printer Friendly Version of Recipe Card STOVE TOP VERSION |
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| Click Here for Printer Friendly Recipe Card MICROWAVE VERSION |
Banana’s Foster
1 medium ripe (not over ripe) banana – sliced
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 Tablespoon milk or soy milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt
Cinnamon
Heat bananas and butter over medium heat until butter is melted. Make sure that all bananas are coated with butter. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of bananas. Stir until the sugar is melted. Add milk and remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and salt. Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.
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| Homemade Granola |
There is ALWAYS granola in my house. For this recipe I simply garnished with a handful of my standard peanut butter granola. Here's the recipe.
Homemade Peanut Butter Granola
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey or brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1½ cups rolled oats
Pinch of ginger (optional)
Pinch of allspice (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan or skillet melt butter, peanut butter and sugar. Remove from heat. Stir in cinnamon, salt, ginger, allspice and vanilla. Stir in oats. Make sure the oats are fully coated with the peanut butter mixture.
Spread oat and peanut butter mixture on a cookie sheet. Bake until the edges are brown (about 20 minutes). Remove from the oven and cool.
Break cooled granola into pieces. Store in an air tight container.
For more Recipes, click HERE!
Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of this post for 1 last tip!
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| Gift Card Exchange Time! |
UPDATE: I first made this blog post in January 2015. I do my best to verify and update each year. As far as I know the information is still valid. READ THE FINE PRINT as terms and conditions may have changed!
Yes you can trade those gift cards for cash and it's fast and easy to do. This post is offered to you as a guide on how best to ditch those unwanted, unusable gift cards.
First Things First
What are you willing to give up?
You can ditch the old gift cards but make no mistake about it you're giving something up! You'll sacrifice time or money or convenience.
The Sacrifice:
Time: Getting the most money for your gift cards takes a little time. So say you have a $100 gift card. You can sell that card for $97.00 but it's going to take you a week or more to complete the transaction.
Money: You can have cash in hand very quickly but it'll cost you. With certain vendors you can trade a $100 card for $60 cash on the spot. But if you want the most you should look around.
Convenience: Some card exchanges are fairly quick (within 24 hours) and offer a descent trade in value, but you're limited on what you get in return. For example, a $100 Target gift card traded in at Walmart will get you $96.60 in Walmart store credit. That's a GREAT and easy outcome but only if you want to shop at Walmart or Sam's Club.
Ways to Trade
Comparison Website: Sites like Gift Card Granny allow you to compare the sales price of various sites to find the best place to buy or sell your cards. Use this type of site to purchase cards at a discount or sell your
unwanted cards. Gift Cardio shows you the recent trends, so you can see
what time is the best to sell. (when the discount trend is at a low you should
sell [see picture])
Pro: This method is relatively easy
Con: You'll need to read about the different rules for the
place you are selling the card at. For example, at Ebay you must mail the card,
while Raise you can mail or upload a picture of it.
Payment Method: Check in the
mail or Paypal.
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| How Gift Cardio Works |
eBay: Before this year I used to sell my cards on ebay. I already have an ebay account so getting started was super easy for me. Ebay typically offers a good value for the cards (I'd commonly get $95-$97 for a $100 card).
Pro: Easy if you already have an eBay account. This method works best for popular cards. You can sell a card (or store credit) in any amount.
Cons: If you have a gift card from a smaller store your card may take longer to sell or you might not get as good of a return. Since you are paid through paypal the payment method could be a pro or a con. You will incur fees from both paypal and ebay.
Payment Method: Paypal
CoinStar: This method was new to me. I tried it for the first time this year and it's GREAT but there are significant downsides! Use the coinstar website to find the special CoinStar Gift Card Exchange machine near you. You CAN NOT exchange cards at the regular coin star machine. Card Exchange machines are yellow (the regular machines are green). Also, before you drive over to the coinstar machine, check the list of gift cards that they accept. They take a lot of common cards but there are MANY stores that are NOT on their list.
Pro: This is the fastest, easiest process BY FAR! You receive cash on the spot.
Cons: Very poor return. For a $100 gift card I received only $60. There is a $20 minimum on cards. There are a lot of cards that they don't accept. You need to have a valid driver's license or state ID plus a credit card.
Payment Method: Cash
New for 2017 - CoinStar now has an in person trade in option. Use the yellow coinstar machine or find a CoinStar cashier on their website. Some Target stores (the electronics department) function as CoinStar Cashiers).
New for 2017 - CoinStar now has an in person trade in option. Use the yellow coinstar machine or find a CoinStar cashier on their website. Some Target stores (the electronics department) function as CoinStar Cashiers).
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| CoinStar Gift Card Machine |
Gift Card Granny, CardCash and CardPool- This is actually my favorite way to trade, but there are down sides.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: CardCash and Card Pool and 2 different companies but they work the same way. Also, Cardpool is affiliated with CoinStar. Ultimately there are a bunch of different ways to send your money to the same parent company.
Here's how CardCash/Card Pool works:
Option #1-
You enter the store name and value of the card(s). Card cash gives you a quote on how much cash they'll offer. For example. If you trade in a $100 Home Depot Gift card they will offer you $82.00 if you mail the card in or $77.00 if you enter the information online.
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| How Card Cash Works |
Cons: You get more money if you mail in the card. You might have to wait for your money to arrive in the mail.
Payment method: Paypal, direct deposit, check in the mail or trade for another gift card
Option #2 -
So say you'd like to trade to your $100 Home Depot gift card for an eGift card. Card Cash will give you $86.00 in credit at a participating store. Those stores include CVS, Bed Bath and Beyond, Dell, eBay, Hotels.com. Sears, Toys R Us, Kmart and more.
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| Trade your cards for ebay credit |
Pros: Fast, easy, widely available. Partial gift cards are fine.
Cons: This ecard program is only available online and you have to have email to receive the gift card. Also, depending on the card, you may need to mail the card in and wait for your money or eGift card.
Payment Method: store credit only (arrives by email)
Payment Method: store credit only (arrives by email)
ONE MORE THING-
Say you got a couple of gift cards and you enjoyed your shopping experience, BUT there's a little money left over. It's too little money to spend, but more than you want to toss out. Sell those gift cards! I sold mine on CardCash, but you can sell them anywhere.
I had a year old Lord and Taylor gift card with a balance of $1.46. I was paid $1.08. For a Saks 5th Ave card that had a $7.01 balance I was paid $5.82. Grand total is $6.91. Now, $6.91 is not a lot of money but it's more than I would have had if I just let these cards sit and go to waste.
Make sure you check the card balances before you attempt to sell them. Also, pick up any old gift cards you see lying around. Store parking lots, sofa cushions and old purses can be a gold mine of nearly spent gift cards!
Say you got a couple of gift cards and you enjoyed your shopping experience, BUT there's a little money left over. It's too little money to spend, but more than you want to toss out. Sell those gift cards! I sold mine on CardCash, but you can sell them anywhere.
I had a year old Lord and Taylor gift card with a balance of $1.46. I was paid $1.08. For a Saks 5th Ave card that had a $7.01 balance I was paid $5.82. Grand total is $6.91. Now, $6.91 is not a lot of money but it's more than I would have had if I just let these cards sit and go to waste.
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| Small Balance Cards = cash payout |
Pro Tips:
Shop Around- Smart shoppers know that it pays to shop around. Visit lots of card exchange websites and see who will give you the greatest return on your gift cards. If you'd prefer to check a lot of different sales sites at once, visit GiftCardio.com or Card Cash. Both sites allows you to enter the vendor and value of the card in return they tell you what various sites will pay for that particular card.
Be Smart- You'll need to enter the card vendor (Target, Starbucks, etc) and card value to get a quote for your cards. NEVER disclose the card number and PIN unless you're ready to sell the card. Be careful of fraudsters! The Card Number and PIN are all the information anybody needs to swipe the value on your cards. Keep that information safe!
READ THE FINE PRINT!- Every card trade site has lots of fine print. READ IT! You don't want to lose part or all of your cards value because you didn't read careful.
Check your Junk Mail - My eCard certificate came in to my junk mail folder. Make sure you check there if you're waiting on information from one of these companies!
SUPER PRO TIPS:
Don't limit yourself to gift cards. You can also sell/trade store credits!!! So say you wait in line at the store and you are able to return that unwanted gift. The only problem is that the store will only give you store credit. YOU CAN TRADE/SELL STORE CREDITS!!! eBay is a great way to sell store credits for a good return on the dollar!Partial Gift Cards: So grandma is extra generous this year and she gives you a $500 gift card to Bass Pro Shop. That's great, only you live in a big city and you've never been bass fishing in your entire life. You're able to spend $75.23 on long underwear but now you've got $424.77 on a gift card that you'll never use. Sell or trade that odd ball amount!
ONE LAST TIP!
Before you sell your gift cards there's one more thing you HAVE TO do! Check and see who else accepts that card. Say you get a Banana Republic gift card. You like BR, but you don't really shop there. Check the website of the store. Find the place where they talk about their gift cards.
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| Check store websites!!!! |
By clicking the "learn more" tab on Banana Republic's website I discovered that I could use my BR card at Gap, Old Navy, The Options and Athleta! Who KNEW!? And why don't they advertise this!?
I won't spend $100 at BR but I would DEFINITELY spend that much and more at The Gap!
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| Other stores that accept my gift card!!!! |
Good luck and Happy Trading!
Check out More Tips and Tricks Here!
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