Yogurt Take Two

In an effort to understand nutrition, our food, our bodies and to re-create a healthy understanding of where our food comes from, and the effort and the routines it goes through to get to our table, I've tried things like making yogurt, breads, & butter.  I did not grow up understanding farm life, that someone out there grew my food or what processed or unprocessed foods are.
  I think we can agree... the less processed a food is, the better it is for you.  I love learning about food and nutrition. Mostly, I have been successful in this quest... mostly. I'm not one to follow a recipe to the tee.  I often veer off the path those directions give me.  I think that I know better.  I will think my yogurt is getting too cold and I'll turn up the heat (only to have it on too long and kill my yogurt)... I'll use the palm of my hand as a measuring spoon, only to learn I'm not putting in enough sugar, salt or baking soda.  I'll put a loaf of bread in the oven to rise in a plastic bowl... only to learn that the oven is just warm enough to melt that cheap plastic bowl and ruin all my dough (Ok, I forgot it was in there and I turned on the oven to pre-heat it for some other thing I was baking) And so, I suffer the kinds of losses that come with being a bit of a goof-up.

I've made yogurt before with lots of successes and failures scattered here and there.  We mostly only buy plain yogurt since most of the rest of the flavored stuff is chalked full of fillers like gelatin, sugar, fake sugar, and fake fruit, not to mention all the chemical additives that I both can't pronounce or spell. I usually stand in the yogurt isle at the grocery store looking at labels FOREVER.  What I look for is a full fat, not sweetened with sugar or fake sugar yogurt.  There are very few out there that I have found that are good.  Yogurt sweetened with natural fruit juices and honey, like Lil'Ones and Nature's Treat, both by Dairyland boast that they have:

• No added sugar or fructose
• Sweetened with fruit juice
• No artificial sweeteners
• No artificial flavours
• No artificial colours
• No gelatin
• Has lots of real fruit pieces

On the other hand,  those Yoplait tubes.... GARBAGE.... I mean get some plain yogurt, taste it and then taste what ever it is in those tubes.  You can't get any more yogurt-less than that. Blech.

  Yogurt and cheese made traditional ways are actually tolerable to people who are lactose intolerant. High fat contents, yogurt bacteria, and the cheese fermentation process, contain lactase enzymes that actually consume lactose in cheeses and yogurt that are traditionally made.  Modern brands on the store shelves however add lactose back into their yogurts by adding milk solids or don't even reduce the lactose since they are not even made with actual bacteria... let's call them 'yogurt-like substances'.  Gelatin is used as a thickener in those cases.  Many of the yogurt and cheeses on the shelves in our stores are very high in lactose. 

It IS actually quite easy to make.... my kids eat yogurt like it's ice-cream and it gets expensive. Since it's soooo easy to make (from what I remember) I'm going to use a different recipe and try it a second time with some raw milk. I'm going to follow the directions and RESIST THE URGE TO SECOND GUESS IT. I'm going to use the light in my oven instead of a crock pot this time.

Yogurt takes a little bit of time to make. Not actual working time but time for it to sit and culture.  
If the temperature of your yogurt gets to high or to low then it will kill the culture. DON'T I KNOW IT. So it is important that during the incubation period that the temperature stays between 90 and 110 degrees.

Homemade Yogurt (modified by Kristi... woops. I did. I messed with this recipe. I said I wouldn't and I did. We'll see how it turns out. Good Grief.)  See the original recipe post here

by Crystal Miller

- 8 cups milk
- 1/3 cup powdered milk (this is optional but will make a thicker yogurt)
- 1/2 cup starter yogurt
Before you begin wash 2 quart-sized canning jars.  Have the lids ready to cover the jars when you are done.
Pour your milk into a large cooking pot. Heat the milk up to 185 degrees.

Allow the milk to cool down to 110 degrees. The cooling can take a long time. If you want to speed the process up fill your sink with cold water and place the pot of hot milk in the water and stir and stir. The temperature drops fairly quickly this way, so make sure to have your thermometer handy to keep checking.

 Whisk your starter yogurt with a cup of warm milk to get the lumps out before you add it to the pot.

After you reach 110 degrees add the starter mixture and stir until everything is dissolved very well.

Pour this mixture into your ready and waiting jars. Put the lids on and put them into what ever place you are planning to incubate and culture them.

I put mine into the oven to incubate covered in a towel. I heated the oven to 150 degrees and then turned it off and let it cool a bit.  I wrapped up my jars in a towel and put them in the oven... and I am to leave them for 10 to 12 hours; trying not to disturb the jars to much.  OK... THIS IS MY PROBLEM... I just want to babysit them too much.  Is the temperature right.... how are they doing? Is it thickening?  I HAVE TO KNOW THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS.... grr.  I am 3 hours in to this process as I type and I have to RESIST my very 'curious, goof-up, what the Vegt?' nature and leave it well enough ALONE!  

Like... I so badly want to post the next picture in this series, but it's still HOURS away.... hours. Killing me. I need to leave the house!!!!

And, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking... "Given your track record, Kristi, it's probably a bad, BAD idea to put a towel in your oven.... you will have a fire for sure. Please, please do not make this a habit."

Duly noted.


Stay tuned for the results.  If I don't post them by this time tomorrow, would someone please phone the fire department. Please?

Ground Beef Enchiladas - NO DRY SAUCE MIX HERE!

This was Dave's Brithday Dinner Request.  Again. I'm not brilliant enough to take photos, so I'll just post the recipe.  I consider it a HUGE success because the kids actually ate it without too much complaining. Remind me to make these when I run out of ideas.  I NEVER think to make wraps... I should.

Make 1&1/2 cups of brown rice ... as it's cooking make:


Sauce

2 garlic cloves (I like garlic)
1/4  onion - finely chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp sugar (optional, but it softens the flavor)
1/2 tsp chilli powder

combine in small pot and saute onions until clear then add

1 can crushed tomatoes
3-4 tablespoons salsa
and maybe a little water to thin it... your call.


 Beef Mixture

1 lb ground beef
Hys seasoning salt (no MSG in there baby)
pepper
2 cloves garlic
3/4 onion - finely chopped
2 cloves garlic


Brown the meat then add

1/3 cup of enchilada sauce (above)

Mix and take off stove

Warm wraps in damp towel in the oven or microwave (you'll need to preheat your oven anyway)

Grate 2 cups of cheese.
Add 3 Tablespoons of sauce to the bottom of of an 8x13 pan

WRAPS

In each wrap place:
meat mixture
rice
cheese
fresh spinach

Wrap up tucking in all sides and place in pan Making sure to put sauce in between them and on the sides of your pan so they don't stick so much.

Make a trail of sauce in the middle of the enchiladas... place remaining cheese on top of sauce.  If you're creative chop up some black olives and place on top.

Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted

serve with sour cream and the rest of the enchilada sauce

Yum. I can't believe the kids ate it. woop woop

Dry Enchilada Sauce Mix

So I recently came upon Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution show. I know. It's old, but I just found it so that makes it noteworthy. It's inspiring. Over the last year or so I've strived to buy and use less processed foods and to serve foods without packaging, without processing. Raw. Since moving to 2.5 acres in the Lower Mainland last June... just 10 months ago, we've raised our own chickens, pig, bought a side of beef, started a garden and have big BIG plans to raise our own meat, perhaps a dairy cow (aside: did you know you get 16 plus litres of milk FROM ONE COW!!!? What would I DO with all that freaking MILK?!), get a llama, some sheep or goats. We're not sure....when we moved in, the entire house was stuck in the 70ies... that little point deserves and entire post dedicated to it. For tonight, I'll just repeat a facebook post that I made.

When I look up a recipe on the internet, what I find really frustrating is reading on the ingredients list: "1 package dry enchilada sauce mix". I mean, that's why I looked up the recipe. I WANT TO MAKE IT! I don't want a package.... that's why I looked up the recipe. Duh.