Fooled Bacon kids... and a late night snack

April... where did you come from? I'm really thinking April fools day is just March laughing at us. Where did a fourth of the year go? So I want to know, did you fool anyone today? I did. There's never a dull moment in the bacon house. Yesterday I made my second batch of homemade yogurt (more on that later). I was preparing the kids lunch today when I got the idea. The kids were getting me all day, ok so I played along with their 'tricks' anyway. When it came to lunch I decided to fill their cups with my yummy yogurt! Straw and all. The kids got to the table and I heard the groans... "aawww... Milk today?!" And then Bacon Jr. took a drink. It was priceless! Nothing better than a harmless good fun prank right?! Everyone had a good laugh at my yogurt milk. And though it tasted awesome just as it, who can leave good yogurt alone? Especially some kids. The add in treat today was cut up strawberries and a spoon full of mini chocolate chips mixed in. It was a great treat to lunch.

So how did my second go around with homemade yogurt turn out? AMAZING! For those trying it out, here is what I did different. This time I used 1% milk instead of skim, after that I followed all the same steps though cooling the milk. This time I used Danon natural plain yogurt for my 6oz of starter. I mixed it in well and then added just over 1 cup (between 1 & 1.25 cups) sugar since my starter was plain and not vanilla. I added 2 TBSP vanilla extract too. Mixed all that in really well and placed it in my jars. This time I prepped the 4 quart jars and 1 pint jar too since last time I had to dump out the extra I had. It filled all the jars up perfectly with no waste this time. Off to the cooler they went. I filled the cooler with hot water (about 120*) all the way up to the top of the quart jars (yes over the top of the pint) and let them sit for 4.5 hours. Then they went straight to the fridge with no checking them. At bedtime I peeked on them, or about 6hrs in the fridge. Perfect consistency and tasting yogurt. We couldn't be happier, and between all of us, we went though a quart of yogurt today alone! You know it's good if they request seconds!

So now on to that snack I mentioned. I'm sitting at home alone tonight, Mr. Bacon is off working hard to fill our pockets and the kids are in bed and I get the munchies. Digging though the cupboards I have decided the only thing that sounds good is popcorn. But really, I didn't want to dig out the old air popper, and we were out of the package of microwave stuff, OH the dilemma. What to do? Make your own homemade microwave popcorn! You don't need much to make it, it tastes so good, and it's healthy for you.

What you need:
1/4 cup Popcorn seeds
1 TBSP oil
1/2 tsp salt
lunch size paper bag

Mix your seeds with oil and salt, Place them in the bottom of the paper bag. Fold over the bag twice and set it in your microwave. You don't need to lay it down (you can if you want), I just squish it a little to make it fit. Set it for 2-3 minutes and let the popping start! Make sure you stay near, once you hear the popping slow or stop for a sec or two, it's time to take it out before it burns.

See, Yummy popcorn! Dump it out into a bowl and you're ready to go. I do like my popcorn just plain sometimes, but others I love to drizzle some melted butter and even a little mac n cheese powder to the top!

This is a great treat you can make with the kids too. Our kids love helping mix the seeds and dump them in their own bags. Perfect for movie night!