Homemade Xanthan Gum–Fail

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I’m not gluten free, but a lot of my friends are.  So in my research to help my gluten free friends live happier, more frugal lives, I found an article on making xanthan gum at home.  Xanthan gum is not horribly expensive.  I bought a 1 lb bag at Amazon for $17.49.  But you only use a tsp or so per recipe, so it lasts a long time.

The flakes before pulsing to a powder.

Even then, I thought if you could make some at home for little effort, it might be worth a try.  So basically I mixed a little yeast and cornsyrup in a jar.  Shook it around for 5 days and then added a 1/4 tsp of vodka and then dried what was left.  It was an amber colored thick liquid, that dried into glasslike sheets.  I powdered the dried sheets in the blender and then compared it’s thickening ability to my purchased xanthan gum.

After Pulsing to a Powder

I added a 1/4 tsp of each to 1 cup of water and stirred and waited.  The commercial gum mixture got thicker and thicker the longer it sat.  The homemade did nothing.  I doubled the amount…still nothing.  I did notice the water felt slippery when rubbed between my fingers…. but still never thickened the water.

Homemade left; Commercial Right. Notice in the white mixture, you can see the xanthan gum absorbing water and swelling like gel beads. Nothing like that happened on the left.

I tried to follow the insructions very carefully and for now have PLENTY of commercial xanthan gum to use.  I love how it thickens a light salad dressing. I’m still playing around with it.

Homemade Xanthan Gum on the left. The two look nothing alike.

So has anyone made their own xantham gum successfully? Can you see what I did wrong?

3 Ideas for Good cheap summer fun

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The simplest items can entertain kids for hours. They don’t have to cost a lot, but it helps if the item is something they haven’t used for awhile. It’s the “newness” that gives it the biggest appeal.

1. Sidewalk chalk is something I haven’t had for several years (one bad messy memory ruined it for me.) But I broke down and bought a huge bucket for $5. The kids were so excited and I was impressed with their huge murals.

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Then I noticed that their art extended all the way to our covered entry where rain would never wash it off.

2. So I offered them the opportunity to paint 🙂 An icecream bucket of water and a $1 set of paintbrushes were all we needed for fun, fun, fun.

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Plus, I got my porch cleaned off 🙂

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3. Now that the weather is warmer, the kids can make forts from old vinyl table cloths, twine or rope and clothespins–outside. Your house stays neat and they are happy away from the TV.

My Newest Student and a Tip

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I have the flu :(. It started when I was at the emergency clinic with Dub Saturday having a two week old toothpick removed from his foot. By the time I got home I had a high fever, chills, and couldn’t stand without the room spinning. I called my mommy :). It seems like no matter how old I am when I’m sick I want Mommy. So when Dub insisted that I drive him to the ER instead of Darren, I totally understood.

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As painful as the experience was for him, he loved the wheelchair.

Today Darren is super excited about getting the patches on Caleb’s new scout shirt. He kept asking me if I felt better as the day went on, and when I didn’t have an instant recovery from his great care, he carried my sewing machine down from my studio and set it up inches from my bed. That way HE could do the work and ask questions if he needed. What an amazing guy!

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Changing the subject… Here’s a money saving tip. I saw on pinterest that if you put the roots of purchased green onions in water they will grow. You’ll always have fresh onion tops to use as needed. I tried it and it works! The outer edges don’t grow so I plan to peel those off and see what happens. This is great for my Plus menu subscribers since they can eliminate green onions from their shopping list!

Green and Growing

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I planted my garden a few days ago and little green shoots are coming up. The garden is more shaded than it appeared to be in winter before the tree leaves appeared. So it is a great experiment if anything will grow.

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This bed has sprouts of green beans and okra popping up their heads. In the center is a spaghetti squash plant that I plan to train to a tomato cage.

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The left side of this bed is red chili peppers and sweet bell peppers on the right. In the center I have 6 squares of lettuce and spinach, one eggplant, one cilantro, and one rosemary.

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This bed has 4 tomato plants and a zucchini right in the middle of it all.  I hinted to the children that tomato cages would make a great mother’s day gift.

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The fourth and final bed is all sweet potatoes–one start in each square. I love sweet potatoes!

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When I got home yesterday my good friend, Janelle had left these marigolds as a surprise. I plan to put them in the bed with the lettuce and peppers for a pretty pop of color.

Mulberries

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The kiddoes are picking mulberries off our tree in the back garden. They got about a quart with more to ripen soon. I’m trying to post a photo from my phone. Crossing my fingers that the wordpress app will work this time.

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Garden Update :)

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Here’s a reminder of what my old garden spot looked like:

Two weeks ago we had a garage sale and while I sat in the garage helping customers, Darren cleared my garden spot!  What a relief.  I didn’t know how I was going to find time to do that.

Then he built the beds for me too!  (I bought kits from Aldi and totally expected to do it myself..so what a great surprise!)

I drove to a local greenhouse and filled my minivan with bags of stuff.

Part 1: Compost

To save money I used the modified Mel’s mix talked about here. It uses twice as much compost since that is the least expensive and most nutritive part of the mix.  If I had my own compost, it would have saved $13 a box or $52 total.  I had to buy it and it was unusal.  More like fine mulch.  They called it cotton something compost.  I had never heard of it before.  I want to start a compost bin now to get the cost of filling the next year’s bins down. We will need to clear some land to build them…it feels a little overwhelming.

Part 2: Vermiculite

Each bed ended up with 2 cubic feet each of compost and 1 cubic feet each of vermiculite and peat moss.

Part 3: Peat Moss

 It cost $35 to fill each bed, which sounds decent until you multiply that by 4.  And I have 4 more beds that we didn’t build this year!  I hope to clear more land for them next year, but went ahead and bought them now so they would all match.  When they told me the total for all the stuff, I couldn’t help but think about all the FOOD I could buy for that much money.  But I reminded myself that this was an investment that I wouldn’t have to redo for 10+ years.  Plus, I like the idea of having a garden :).

Mixing by hand

My plan was to mix everything in the bins with a shovel.  But that was tricky to mix it well and not spill it out everywhere.  That dirt was like gold gravel to me and I didn’t want to lose a speck of it.  I resorted to just digging in with my arms and stirring it up by hand.  It was fun in a “I hope my Mama doesn’t catch me doing this” kind of way.   And then I remembered, I am the mama :).

Ready to Plant

I finished the bins just before dark.  Planting will have to wait for another day.

 

Darren’s New Toy

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Don’t forget to enter our giveaway here. The winner will be chosen Friday, May 4th.

How many times can I say no before giving into His handsome face? I started to think about all the things I plan to ask for this year and felt myself softening up.  His little boy pleading eyes were too much for me this time as he anounced that he found his dream bike.  So I said, “Yes.  But please don’t die. There aren’t a lot of men standing in line for your job of daddy to 6 ready made babies. We need you.”

He said, “I’ll be safe.  I promise.  Think about all the money we’ll save on gas.  Think about how much fun we’ll have riding together.  The weather is so nice right now.  I’ll take a safety class.”

Now I pray a little more than I did before.

Why I Went to the Hospital

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Don’t forget to enter our giveaway here. The winner will be chosen Friday, May 4th.

I’ve been sewing for 20 years…or maybe a little longer.  So I was as shocked as anyone when I made a huge safety mistake with my sewing machine.

I haven’t volunteered much up at the kid’s new school.  I sent the kids there to help with my overhwelming home circumstances. Beyond sending up food now and then, didn’t feel up to much more.  So when the music teacher asked me to make a whale out of a hula hoop–I wanted to say, NO.  But instead I said, “Can I think about it?”

Thinking about it meant beating myself up for not being more involved.  Telling myself it was the least I could do.  And wondering if I didn’t, who else would or could?  But honestly, I didn’t really know HOW to make a whale out of a hula hoop.  That didn’t stop me from telling them I would.

So I thought about it for a really long time.  Then finally, I called my mother, who knows everything. And she came up with an elaborate plan with a hinged mouth and pully system.  Which I eventually scrapped–but at least it got me started, lol.

Finally, I procrastinated long enough that other projects were piling up.  I set a short deadline and went for it.  With 15 minutes left to work, I figured I could have it finsihed in time to pick up the children from school and drop off the whale to enjoy a nice stress free weekend.  But instead, I reached for a stray pin, while lifting my foot off the foot control.  I was unaware that the foot control was wedged under the leg of the sewing table keeping it on even while my foot was off.  I sewed all the way through my right index finger and the needle broke off inside.

Yikes!  It was time to go pick up the kids, the whale wasn’t done, and now this. Neither end of the needle was visible, but I knew it was in there.  I worked at it for a few minutes, but couldn’t take care of the problem with my left hand.  I called my husband for help, who suggested I go to the hospital.  I didn’t want to do that.  Instead I drove up to the school to ask the nurse for help.  She had gone home for the day, but there were lots of parents there with medical backgrounds.

Not one of them could even look at it.  They pretty much said, “You did what?!!!”  Then held up their hands to block the sight and suggested I go to the hospital.

I was unaware that my oldest daughter, Heidi, was at home calling all sorts of people to help.  When I headed back to my car to make a new plan, my mom drove up and insisted I get in her van and go to the hospital.  I gave in.

They treated me very well there.  Ushered me right back and acted like I had a real injury, lol. Even gave me a prescription for a pain pill for the healing period, Bwa ha ha ha! (I did not fill that.) Within an hour I was on my way back home, but lost all interest in sewing.  I told my mom that was the most expensive sewing project I’ve ever made (when you figure in the medical expense) and I’d might as well start buying everything.  She laughed and said, “Probably right, but where are you going to buy a whale made from a hula hoop and a bedsheet?”

So I hopped back on the horse and started sewing again.

It turned out pretty cute and can actually swallow Jonah :).

Meet a Superstar and enter a Giveaway

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The Giveaway is now Closed.  What a great group of entries!

Sandi Sullivan, AKA Mom CEO,  helps mothers start their own home businesses in the natural household products industry.  One of my readers, Danielle Ray, took a risk, clicked on the square button ad and sent Sandi an email.  Now she is head of the fastest growing team in the company!

Intrigued?  Me too!  Let’s ask Daneille a few questions:

Q.  Tell us about your family.

I have been married for 13 years.   My husband is a high school student pastor so our lives revolve around teenagers!   We have 4 kids: Bronson 11, Cohen 9, Lanna 7 and Gavin 5.  We raise chickens for eggs, take care of a garden and we always have a project going!  Right now we are adding on a covered porch to the back of the house.  We also home school so we can have the flexibility to take trips and vacations when we want.    I think my goals for my children are like most people, I want them to be independent adults who make wise choices and learn from their failures.  I want them to be confident enough to do something different if what they are doing is not working.   I want them to be able to set goals and pursue them.  I want them to be able to get their groove on on the dance floor. I want them to do hard things.  I want to be a good example to them.

Q.  What was your career before starting your home business?

A. Up until last month, I worked as a nurse on weekends in Labor and Delivery helping new people come into the world. While my job was very rewarding it also required me to be away from my family for 12 hour shifts. Our hospital is requiring more and more classes, certifications, and in-service hours in order to keep working. I realized no matter how much I worked my income potential was not going to change without sacrificing more time. The month I decided to resign, my check from M* was $11,580. I figured that I would have had to work at the hospital everyday, 12 hour shifts for an entire month to make that much money. The difference is that I had only worked about 30 hours total for the whole month in my M* business!

Q. How did you first find out about MomCEO?

A. I have been following The Grocery Shrink blog since the summer of 2010.  I was looking for ways to stretch our dollars with 4 kids!  I love the advice, stories, and encouragement Angela offered.  One story was about a lady, Sandi Sullivan.  She talked about how she was able to be at home with her family but still have an income working her business in her spare time.  I sent her a message through the MomCEO button and she called me the next day.

Q.  What made you take the leap and join Sandi’s team?

A. After talking with Sandi I decided her company really met a need we had in our own family.  Not only did she offer an alternative to conventional products, but they were focused on wellness and better health.  That really sparked my interest because I have been a nurse for 15 years. I know it is better to prevent health problems than to treat them after they have already started!  From the products to the business concept, it really made sense.\

Q.  How has starting your own business changed your life

A. I would say my life has been “enhanced”.  We have always managed our money well.  We have a budget.  We enjoy “re-purposing” things, growing a garden and raising chickens.  The difference is that now, we have the time to do more.  The things that we dreamed of doing one day, we are getting to do now.  We have been able to save enough money for our whole family to visit my sister in South Africa.  The best part is, I don’t have to get permission for extended time off!  I have been able to set a schedule, and work as much or as little as I wanted.  Time is a freedom that you do not have working a normal 9-5 job (well, for a nurse a 7-7 job).   I am able to stay home with my kids, but still have a full-time income

Q.  Your personal team is now the fastest growing division in the nation.  What things did you do that were so successful

A.  Our success comes from working together!  It really is about being a team and helping others reach their goals.  Some people are just looking to supplement their income, some want to replace their income.  Sandi has coached my team and helped us every step of the way.  It helps that she was there to guide us to avoid the trial and error that comes with starting something new.  She helped us do well from the start.  Some people can set high goals and get there, but for me, it was all about baby steps.  The best part of setting little goals is reaching them, celebrating, and setting the next goal.  This is what made it fun for the whole family.  We made goal charts that my kids filled in so they felt like they were a part of the business too.  I don’t know how it happened that we became the fastest growing, I just know it has been fun.  So, I guess fast is fun

Q.  How does your family feel about your home business?

A.It really has been a blessing for our family in more ways than just making money, we are also saving money. By learning about a new way to shop, and planning what we need for the month, it has kept me from running to the store every week to pick up a few things and leave having spent $75 each time. After 5 months of shopping with M* my husband called me in a panic because he thought I forgot to make the house payment. He said we had more money than usual in our checking account. I assured him I had made the house payment and it was because I was not going to the store every week now. The savings are continuing to accumulate. We still shop primarily the perimeter of the store, cook and eat at home, and wait for things to go on sale. For all those little things that seemed to rob our budget before, we are getting better quality products that we use delivered right to our door.My kids appreciate our home based business too. We went to the beach last week. We stayed in a very nice beach house, went to meet “Winter” from the movie Dolphin Tales, took an ocean safari boat ride and played on the beach. Bronson, my oldest said, “We never took vacations like this before. It must be because of M*.” We are getting to do more. We have more time, more money, and more dreams to fulfill. It has become our motto to save more, give more, and do more. I remember the way I thought it was going to be when I became an adult and had a family of my own… now I feel like I am doing life the way I had always imagined.

Q. What advice would you give to someone considering their own homebased business?

A. The best advice I can give to anyone trying to start a home-based business is to team up! It is hard to stay motivated and do well without other people doing it with you. It also helps when you are doing something that whole family can appreciate… getting your children involved helps them understand that the time you are not at home with them is being spent reaching your goal. We always celebrate check day and do something special… the great thing about kids is that getting go to Waffle House is a treat!

Q. You have generously offered a giveaway of some of your favorite products. Tell us about them.

A.  I love our laundry soap.  It sounds funny to say you love a cleaning product but I really do!  I also love the Sol-U-Mel.  It has so many uses but my favorite is as an air freshener.  The best part about all our products is that there is nothing harmful in them.  When I am done cleaning my house does not smell like chemicals, just clean

Thank you for your blog and the time you take to encourage others.  I hope this in some way encourages your readers too.  Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share.

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If what Danielle is doing sounds like a good fit for you, click here to contact her and find out more.
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Now for the giveaway:  You can win a sparkling home cleaning pack including:Laundry 4-Pack with 96-load MelaPower 6x and MelaBrite 6x Plus DiamondBrite Dishwasher Detergent and Sol-U-Mel all purpose cleaner

$75.00 Value!

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment below and be sure to include your email address.  The winner will be chosen this Friday, May 4th a noon–right after I send out the new menus :).