When staying up late...

...don't make the same mistake that I did last night.

Here's the background.  I went to the store to get milk and a few other items that we needed.  I had plans to make yogurt...again, since we've all been eating it *including me*.  This last batch was 71 calories per 1/2 cup.  I digress.  Milk was on sale for $1.57/gallon, so I figured I'd make yogurt using the entire gallon *because you can.*

I put the milk in the crockpot *I used a bigger one; it's 5 or 6 quarts* at shortly after 8.  The girls were put to bed and I started making granola.  I made this delicious granola that can be found here.  I didn't make the 30 servings that it suggests, but cut it in half.  For my purposes, it still made 30 servings *I'm figuring about a 1/4 cup per serving...you probably could use less*.  I also didn't use all of the ingredients listed *I didn't have:  sunflower seeds, oat bran, pecans, or maple syrup.*  Instead of the oat bran, I used flaxseed meal *but only a 1/2c instead of 3/4c* and instead of the maple syrup, I used sugar free breakfast syrup.  I also used 2 tablespoons of regular butter and 6 tablespoons of light butter instead of the vegetable oil.  I omitted the raisins.  After baking it and allowing it to cool, I needed wanted to taste-test for quality assurance, so I had some of our homemade yogurt with the granola on top.

At about 10:30, I checked the temp on the milk.  It wasn't there yet.  At this point, I was already fading.  I'd had some decaf coffee and some dark chocolate.  Then I had... and ....

Are you seeing a pattern?  I was having difficulty staying awake long enough to get the milk ready to go in the oven.  My coping mechanism for staying awake is food.  I did this in college...often.  When it finally  got to temp, I then needed to cool it.  Ugh!  More waiting!  I got the wrapped crockpot into the oven shortly after midnight.

There are several morals to this story.  #1--It takes quite a bit longer to get a gallon of milk to temp than a half gallon...so start early.  #2--If you're not wrapped up in making yogurt and you're very tired...Go.  To.  BED!!

If you get caught up in this dilemma, remember to track everything.  Things like this happen and we just need to keep ourselves accountable.

**Edited to add:  1/2 cup of my yogurt *the one I made with myself in mind* works perfectly with 2 tablespoons of the granola.  Yum!