Yogurt!

I've been meaning to try this for a while now, but for some reason I thought it would be harder. Jacki, resident crafty homemaker on my Mom's board described it as "so easy you'll feel silly", so I finally decided to take the plunge. She was right, it really is stupid easy. I don't know why I waited so long.

I used the recipe in my favorite cookbook in the whole wide world The More with Less Cookbook.

First I boiled my jars and lids. It'd been a while since I had used them.

I decided to try a small batch first to make sure I wasn't going to waste a ton of milk on a flop of a project. I started with four cups of milk, and heated it to 180 degrees.

When it reached 180, I let it cool to 110 degrees. It took about 20 minutes.




Then I added 1/3 c. of plain yogurt that I already had on hand. Per Jacki's suggestion on her blog, I'm going to put the rest of this yogurt in an ice cube tray to use as a starter for future batches.



I stirred 1 c. of the warm milk and the yogurt together, then added the rest of the milk. I poured it all into two jars. I put both jars in my hot garage overnight, and by morning, I had yogurt!

I sort of felt like Tom Hanks in Cast Away when he's yelling "I have made FIRE!" I guess turning milk into yogurt isn't as cool as making fire when you're stuck on a deserted island, but I was pretty excited about it :) Anyway.

My plan was to have one plain batch for us, and a flavored batch for the kids. Ethan will not eat plain yogurt even if it is topped with fruit or honey. I still won't buy those squeezable yogurts or the "kid" yogurts, because I don't want him eating all that sugar and artificial colors. I give him a little bit of the plain with some yogurt and fruit and make him eat it, 'cuz I said so. Gotta love Moms.

I had half a bag of organic frozen strawberries that I bought at the dollar store ages ago. I threw those and a few spoonfulls of frozen orange juice concentrate into a blender with a little bit of the yogurt. I blended it up and mixed it back into the jar with the rest of the yogurt and one packet of stevia.

And guess what?! My healthy- yogurt hating child said, "YUM!" and ate every last bit of the bowl I gave him! I think it helps that it's pink.

I've been looking for other healthy lunchbox options and will definitely be making this often!

And the best part, you ask?! Well, the price, of course! I did a little math and I made that amount of yogurt for about 52 cents. Those teeny-tiny cups of generic yogurt were on sale at Kroger today 2/$1. Woo-hoo!

My kiddos, getting in on the yogurt-making action:


Andy:



Ethan:



And Foxy is never far away when someone is in the kitchen: