DIY Yogurt

When I was a kid, my mom made a ton of stuff from scratch.  She made her own mixes for things like taco seasoning and pancakes, her own cream of mushroom soup, like everything.  I love that she did that because it showed me how easy it is to make your own food from scratch and probably 90% of the time it tastes way better homemade.  Sometimes it's much cheaper also!  One of the things I remember loving was homemade yogurt.  The consistency is a bit runnier than store bought but the taste is just better to me.

Typically the process of making yogurt includes heating the milk to 180°, letting it cool back to 110° and then adding the starter but I have found in the wonderful world that is Pinterest how to do it with my crockpot and a timer!  It's really super easy, just a long process.  You can totally customize it and add your sweetener or leave it plain and mix in whatever you like as you go. My crockpot is not huge so I have to make a smaller batch at a time but you can do a gallon if you like yogurt and your kiddos will eat it all within a week or so.  Everything I saw said it was good for a week and so far we've eaten ours within 7-8 days so I don't know how well it keeps longer than that.Start by pouring 8 cups of milk (or a full gallon but I'm going to give the half recipe amounts) in your crockpot and add 1 1/2 cups of dry milk powder.

This will help thicken the yogurt.  Turn it on low for 2 1/2 hours.  Then turn it off and if you wish to sweeten yours you could add the sugar now and it will help dissolve it better while the milk is hot.  I would use 1/2 cup with the 8 cups of milk to start with and adjust to your tastes the next time around.  You can also add 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract if you want your yogurt to be vanilla flavored.
Wait 3 hours for the milk to cool down and then dip out two cups of the milk. Stir 1/2 cup of plain yogurt starter into the warm milk and then add back to the crockpot.  Cover with a towel so it stays nice and dark and helps insulate to keep it warm.  Alternatively you could put it in storage containers and place in your oven with the light on but do not turn the oven on!!  Putting in storage containers ahead will help limit the number of times the yogurt is moved and help keep it thicker.  The more it's stirred the runnier it will be


Let your yogurt sit for 8-12 hours.  The longer it sits the more tangy it will be, and the thicker as well.   I was not letting mine sit longer than 8 hours because I always try to start the process first thing in the morning so I can let it get cold overnight in the fridge, but recently I forgot to put it in the fridge before going to bed and it was sitting in the crockpot for probably 16 hours.   It came out so thick and not too much more tangy to be a problem, especially since I had sweetened that batch.  I do sometimes like to leave mine plain so I can use it for cooking (my favorite blueberry muffin recipe calls for sour cream which I never have around because it molds so fast!) and also to mix with pureed fruit for Maddie when she was first starting on foods.  The baby yogurts are so expensive!   Right now milk is $1.79 for a gallon at my Aldi's which means making my own yogurt with some plain store bought yogurt as starter is vastly cheaper than buying premixed and sweetened.   I have made some up with sugar and blueberries and also mixed with jelly.  My favorite way is to eat it with homemade granola!  My most recent favorite new granola recipes are Buttered Pecan and Gingerbread Granola. Another tasty treat I've done is to slice up some bananas, mix in chocolate chips and toasted pecans.  What is your favorite way to eat yogurt?

Of baby foods and Advent

This blogging is not off to a good start again is it.  I can't believe just how incredibly challenging it is to carve out enough time to get on the computer anymore, let alone type up a blog post.  If I have a minute without littles there are so many other more pressing things to do!  But I constantly have ideas swirling in my head about things to write and I'm trying to keep a running note in my phone to remind me when I do get the chance.  I'm still struggling to get Maddie to consistently sleep well at night so I feel sleepy a lot and prefer to take a nap with the kids as much as possible.  I keep thinking one day she is going to sleep as good as Isaiah and then I'll have whole nap times to accomplish great things but until then, I just keep napping.

I know my last post was about baby food and I did have pictures taken and another baby food post planned, maybe I can still share it, but Maddie is beginning to really take off with a lot of table foods.  I have been so pleased to not have to try to do a lot of different things.  I can make a big bowl of oatmeal for Isaiah and feed her some as well, or macaroni, or beans and rice dishes.  She even ate little chicken nugget bites the other day.  I'm still giving her some baby foods I have already made up for some meals that don't seem as easy for her like the other night we had super yummy One Pan Garlic Ranch Chicken & Veggies and I was a little nervous about the carrots being too firm as she only has two little teeth so far, so I just gave her a few little bites of potatoes.  She is also a cheerio monster, and loves the crackers just like her big brother.

Speaking of, Isaiah has been such a finicky eater for me for the last long while.  It's been since close to his first birthday that it started, and he seemed to progressively get worse and worse about what he would and wouldn't eat.  Recently though we've had some kind of breakthrough and suddenly he's trying things!  And eating them even!!  He's like a whole new child.  It does seem to work best if he sits with me and eats off of my plate but for now I'm choosing my battles.  If he will eat the food I'm okay with that.  Maybe soon we can begin to work on eating his own food in his own chair.  It feels crazy to say it because I know I have so silently judged moms before with picky eaters that they just must not be trying hard enough because surely the kid would eat something if they were really hungry?  But I swear there were days that all he had were three muffins over the course of an entire day.  Because I made them for breakfast and then he refused to eat anything else and I would not let him have more muffin unless he tried something else.  But last night he actually wanted the chicken, and he was totally fixated on the dark skin which seemed totally out of character for him.  But I'm so very excited to have him eating again I'm not even going to question it.

It suddenly hit me though this week that Christmas!  This week is Thanksgiving which means Christmas is coming.  And oh how exciting it will be with Isaiah this year!  He will be big enough to appreciate so much more.  I've been so in love with the whole Advent thing and I really want to incorporate some traditions into our family celebrations.  But how to do Advent with a toddler?  I've seen some neat ideas but I know there's got to be more out there.  I know Advent begins very soon so I really need to get on this!  I guess I should be hitting up Pinterest but do you celebrate Advent with your little ones?  If so, how do you do it?  I would love to hear about books or calendars geared toward the smaller ones.

Things learned first week of diet

So I went to the doctor and she says I have a little problem with candida. What does this mean? She wants me to take a prescription to kill it and go on a diet of only meat, veggies, fruit and beans. Yes many of my friends who have done this have told me you aren't supposed to have fruit but she told me I could and it's my lifeline right now okay? The medicine or maybe the dying yeast I'm not sure which causes me to have multiple annoying side effects--most people describe it as flu-like symptoms, a crazy bad headache, body aches, and slight nausea off and on. I'm also very tired and have next to no energy. Because of the nausea this makes me NOT want to eat the things I should (like meat and fresh veggies) and the only thing I can make myself want to eat when I'm nauseous is fruit. I'm assuming she knows what she's doing for now since I'm not her first patient and the lady at the health foods store recognized her name and said she was a good doctor.

When I first went to the grocery store on Saturday I really had no idea what I wanted or needed to survive this diet. I came home with some random fresh veggies for one or two recipes I'd found, fajita seasoned chicken, apples and almond butter. What I have found is that I really liked Rasta Pasta with a few minor tweaks and no pasta, and rotisserie chicken with mock potatoes (cauliflower mashed up). I put most of the fajita chicken in the freezer, it will be handy for Sunday lunches I think because I can just grab a baggy of that and some salad. So strategy for next week? I think I'm going to buy a whole chicken and do it myself in the oven and get like three huge bags of cauliflower. :P If it's possible to be sick of it I will be I'm sure because for now it's the only thing I really want that I can have.

Surprisingly I haven't found myself really craving or longing for any desserts or things I'd typically eat. I miss having coffee in the morning but only because it's a comfort thing to me not because my mouth really wants it. Mostly I just want to stop thinking so hard about what I can have and trying to come up with something that sounds good from that list and just eat whatever the family is eating.

Some new things to try this week--I think I'd like to try doing some fish (tilapia maybe?) but the fact that I come home so late every night from work makes me want fast and easy things to make. Other things to get and try, spaghetti squash and I think I have all the ingredients to make some ratatouille. Since I'm currently eating fruit I'm thinking of making some smoothies with frozen fruit and soy milk. Fingers crossed it turns out good. :P I'm really craving creamy things but can't have anything creamy. I want cheese too. I want alfredo and creamy chicken dishes. And did I mention cheese? Stink.

If any body has done this before and has some good recipes they want to share please pass them along! What are some things you made to try to imitate other foods we can't have (like the mashed cauliflower or using spaghetti squash as spaghetti noodles)?

this and that

Time continues to fly by and plans are becoming more concrete for my trip to Paris! If I think about it too much I get so giddy and excited I can hardly stand it. I try to not give it too much thought for that reason beyond logistics. I've been accepted by Mission Nannys as a part of their team and go with the full backing of their mission board. They are printing up prayer cards for me and everything. :) If you would like one just let me know and when they come in I'll get one to you.

It feels more real because I'm going to actively be putting aside the money for my plane ticket now. I have a goal amount and a date to have it saved by, and it's awfully close! I work best under pressure though as far as saving money goes. With no deadline or specific goal I tend to just waffle around with money. I need to be better about following a budget although I've found I don't work as well with Dave Ramsey's plan. Or maybe I just didn't try hard enough long enough? Anyhow I decided my own little thing was working out well enough, maybe just using his principles and sticking to my plan (which is better than NO plan!) was the best way to go.

I've been having fun cooking lately, trying new things and expanding my horizons in the area of food. I made the most amazing dinner tonight if I say so myself!! I made Pioneer Woman's Linguine with Shrimp, the Food Network's Garlic Sauteed Spinach, and creamed corn. Oh my goodness. I have to say though, Pioneer Woman talks about how fun it is to put the linguine & shrimp in the foil and how cute it is and all that--I don't know what she's talking about because that wasn't very fun, it seemed like more trouble than it was worth. Seems like it would be easier to just leave it in the pot and cover the top with foil. Same difference yeah? I will try that next time. Oh and it makes A TON so I probably won't double it. Also the spinach was a bit salty so I'd probably double everything but the salt next time. It still made for an epic dinner and everyone else agreed it was amazing. Score for me. :) Next time I get brave I'm going to try asparagus. :D