Season's bring about some changes in my cooking

Beyond the changing flavors of the produce that we will be eating now, my cooking changes dramatically between hot and cold weather.  In the winter, I like to bake things, keeping the house warm and cozy as well as keeping our tummies nice and warm.  In spring and summer I like the lighter brighter flavors, and the baking is left behind for soups, salads, and ice cream.  I think I will also have to make my own yogurt again.  I had been thinking about it, and then as if by design my sister-in-law asked about it over the weekend, and today I noticed that InCyst was discussing making your own Greek yogurt.
 
So this weekend I put making yogurt on my list of things to do.  I found two new recipes and I was going to try them, but went for my yogurt makers vanilla yogurt recipe instead.  It's tart, and maybe I should have used honey instead of agave, that way I might be able to resist adding honey to it for additional sweetener.  Right now I'm enjoying dunking my lemon splashed sliced apples into it, and letting the tang from the lemon and the yogurt fight it out.  It's deliciously addicting, even though it's a bit mouth puckering.

101 cookbooks.com: Yogurt
101cookbooks.com: A Frozen Yogurt Recipe To Rival Pinkberrys Recipe

This weekend I was busy making yogurt, jello for lunch snacks, deodorant, and salad for the new couple of lunches.  Of course I made hubbys lunch as well, did laundry and the dishes.  The one thing I have not yet done that really needs to be done is washing, cutting my dogs hair and nails.  They escaped the other night, and really freaked me out, and now I'm torn between their much needed bath time, and not upsetting them any further. :(  I'm just glad that DH and I were able to track them down and bring them home without spending hours and hours shouting into the dark streets of our quiet neighborhood.  I started to plan ahead for the week, and I will need to put those meal plans together during my lunch time.

I never talk about my work here, it seems to defeat the purpose of using this as a bit of an escape, but I am slowly catching up and that is encouraging.

I've also been pulling out the crock pot to make beans from scratch. I've found a new tutorial for you to look at if you need further convincing in order to try this yourself, she even includes the cost break down. crockpot365.blogspot.com: Cooking Dried Beans in Crockpot I'm not sure how to calculate my cost savings since I bought a huge bag at Costco.  We had a month where we had no money, and we were running out of staple in our pantry.  I had one of those moments, the Scarlet O'Hara fist in the sky "I will never go hungry again" moments  and I purchased some staples when we did have money, the kind that last for a very long time.

 Beans, rice, and canned tomatoes were at the top of my list of things to get.  They last and last, and together they form a complete protein, so if we had to we could live on them for a while.
If you need assistance in  knowing how long things will  last, click here:  Stilltasty.com

Or even FoodSafety.gov There are other things that last forever when stored properly, and other food times that one should always keep around. Sturdy Staples: 9 Foods That Can Outlast You And then there is another article about foods you can freeze that maybe you hadn't thought of before 10 Surprising Foods You Can Freeze  I would add cooked beans to that list, especially if you cook a big batch in your crock pot and can't use it all right away.

update May 18, 2011
I made a second batch of yogurt, the first batch became a bit to sour for my taste, the first bit I ate was enough.  So, I made another batch with the good milk, yep a local organic Dairy that delivers to the Nugget here. Straus Family Creamery I used the 1% and did not add the powdered milk, I think that's one thing that changes the flavor of homemade yogurt that makes it not my favorite.  I had the new yogurt today, and it was delicious.  So, as with all cooking, the quality of the ingredients matters!  The other store brand milk is more watery, and this was not.  I've used this milk for our homemade ice cream, and now it will be what I use for yogurt as well. No growth hormones, no watered down milk, no antibiotics, no pesticides. 

Coconut yogurt - First attempt

Coconut Milk vanilla yogurt

3 14oz cans of coconut milk (I used the full fat milk, since the LF version is mainly water)
1/4 Cup commercial plain yogurt with the active bacteria in it
2 Tbsp Honey ( I could have done 3, and I could have done agave)
1Tbsp Vanilla extract
1 Tbsp Vanilla paste

1- brought the milk to 150 F- I was aiming for 125F but it went up faster than I anticipated.

2 - Removed from heat stirred in the vanilla past, and the extract {also accidentally added in the yogurt :(}

3- Cooled to 110 F and added the yogurt to a part of the cooled coconut milk mixture. (yep, I added more since the bacteria were killed in the first mistake)

4 - Mixed the two together, the yogurt paste, and the coconut milk. Stirred thoroughly.

5 - poured the milk into the sterilized containers, and placed in the yogurt cooker unit. Let stay for 10 hours.

So, this was a combo of two different recipes and my yogurt is tasty, but very thin.  It's almost a sauce, so next time I will leave it for longer, and I might add in the Non-Fat dry milk that the other recipe asks for. I would also leave for the 24 hours.  I would have to work with my machine though and add time once I could since my machine only goes up to 19 hours.  I'm not personally dealing with allergies, and I can have some dairy fat in my diet, this is not a huge amount.  If I was doing a completely dairy free I would have to order the correct bacteria to add.

After being removed from the machine - see all the extra liquid, the full fat is thin enough

I liked the flavor much more than the milk version of this recipe though, it is more sweet than tart, and I like that.

Coconut Milk Vanilla Yogurt over banana with honey

Now I have a yogurt maker that has plastic containers, it was economical where I got it at the time, not even close to the same price as on Amazon.  I needed to make sure I would use the machine first, before going all out.  There is one I keep looking at on the Williams Sonoma site, and I found replacement glass containers for that machine.  So, I ordered some, and the yogurt starter.  I'm fairly certain that the starter is a dairy one, so the previous post has other sites to look up for the other type of starter to use.  There is a pectin that you can add to make your yogurt firmer, but I'm trying to leave mine as natural as I can and I don't mind it being a bit thinner.

There are other glass replacements you can look at online, and there are more economical ways to make yogurt than using the machine, although mine was a great deal at Tuesday Mornings, so there are ways to find them that will work with in your budget.  Thrift stores, ebay, amazon etc.  You have to decide if you are doing this for economy, or for health, or just for fun.  If it's only for fun, you will most likely loose interest.  There is a long process to making yogurt and if you can buy it quickly for cheap elsewhere you most likely will.  If it's for you health, and you are looking to reduce the amount of additives and fillers in your food, then do what you can to get a system that works for you.  I like having a yogurt maker, and now I will be even happier with the glass jars.  BPA messes with hormones, and that is something I need to eliminate.

So for those of you with food allergies or other health issues aside from PCOS, this is a way to have a non-dairy yogurt.  I will be trying the full non-dairy version at a later time. 

As an aside here, I was just browsing through the items for yogurt here on amazon and I came across this thermometer which also has a clip for the side of your pot, something I have appreciated about the candy thermometer I currently have.  But here is the link and picture if you want to check it out as well.