Homemade Yogurt Treats

My favorite kind of yogurt is the fruit-at-the-bottom kind, chunky with sweet fruit. This is probably one of the most unhealthy kind to buy at the store, also! With that in mind, I have come up with a healthier, homemade version that tastes very similar...



Start with about 1 Tablespoon homemade (or organic, store-bought) preserves. I used homemade strawberry preserves- made with organic Louisiana strawberries that my kids and I picked ourselves! Then, top with 1/2- 3/4 cup of homemade yogurt. Mix up and enjoy :)







My second favorite way of enjoying homemade yogurt is in a smoothie. The one I made this morning is an Orange Julius type, which includes:

1 c yogurt
1 banana
1 handful ice (or you can omit and just use a frozen banana)
a splash of orange juice
1 t raw honey

My all time favorite smoothie has 1/2 frozen peach instead of the banana and no ice. You can substitute any frozen/fresh fruit or berries for the banana!



This post is part of Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist

Homemade Yogurt

I used to bring yogurt to school for lunch almost every day! I remember, my math teacher used to call me the "Yogurt Girl" whenever he saw me at lunch- blueberry, strawberry, banana, they were all my favorite!

Little did I know, those packaged, store-bought, flavored yogurts were packed with sugar and artificial coloring. So, when I discovered I could make my own yogurt just a few years ago, I went hog wild and have been making it at home ever since!




Step 1: Heat your milk. I am using 1 quart of raw, unpasteurized milk, so I do not heat it to over 100F. If you are using pasteurized milk, feel free to heat to 180F since all the enzymes are gone to begin with. This assures that your store-bought milk is sterile. When the milk reaches desired temperature, remove from heat.




Step 2: Measure out your yogurt. This will be the starter culture, so get a good organic brand. If you have homemade yogurt, use it! I am using 1/8c of yogurt per quart of milk.



Step 3: When your raw milk reaches 100F-OR- when your pasteurized milk cools to 100F, mix the yogurt starter with about 1/2 cup warm milk in a quart-sized mason jar.

Step 4: Pour the rest of your warm milk into the mason jar and screw on the lid tightly. Make sure lid is secure, as you will be placing this jar into water!

Step 5: Place your jar into a large thermos or a small cooler. Surround jar with very warm water and screw on lid.

Check on your yogurt after 8 hours. If it is still too runny, replace the water in thermos with warmer water and leave yogurt in thermos for another 4-8 hours. Yogurt will thicken even more once you store it in the fridge.

In my next post, I'll show you the finished product and how I love to enjoy it :)

This post is part of Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist!

The Face of a Happy Homeschooler

Gabe's favorite thing is writing on his dry-erase board. Here he is showing off his name :)

School is going well, and the kids are enjoying books, play practice, ballet, cooking classes and play dates with their friends...

Operation: Save the Larvae

Even the ditches in front of the houses on our street are full of life! If you look closely at this picture, you can see lots of tadpoles... Elena also found a strange slug-like thing living in the water. Here's a close up look:

It turns out these are Dytiscid Larvae, which is a local diving beetle! As strange as they look now, they will grow up to be beetles and help control the mosquito population. Elena has taken it upon herself to save these creatures since the ditches tend to dry up pretty quickly in the summer heat (It will be summer-like until probably mid-December around here!). Anyway, she had the garden hose out yesterday filling up the ditches, in hopes of maintaining the "ponds" long enough for the beetles to emerge as adults.

Here's Elena bringing another jar full of water out to the ditch... It rained briefly today, so we didn't need to make extra trips this afternoon.

My future ecologist, Elena, making faces at the camera :)