Yogurt

Late last week we began really working toward buying even less processed food and things packaged in single use plastics. I cut my grocery budget in half shopping this way! It was crazy. We are very lucky to have a Mennonite market in our area that sells food in bulk and minimally packaged so I loaded up on flours, oats, sugars, molasses and other ingredients. Oh and peanut butter, super fresh peanut butter. Like, stand there and watch as she poured in the peanuts and filled my container with still warm peanut buttery goodness. OH yeah!
Sorry, I got distracted. I also added whole milk and heavy cream to my purchase from the farmers market. The plan is to make butter from the cream and use the buttermilk to make creme fraiche. I didn't want to wait to order yogurt starter powder so I picked up plain Greek yogurt to use as my starter. I followed the directions in Homemade Pantry with serious focus and had great success. Oh and did I forget to mention that I thought I ruined the whole batch?! Yeah, I was supposed to let it sit in a warm place for 5 hours, that would have been until 2:30. At 6 I realized I had forgotten it. I was incredibly relieved that all my hard work (and half a gallon of whole milk) had not been wasted, it was fine.

There are loads of recipes out on the web but I'll give you the basic order of things so you can see just how easy it is.
 You cook the milk to a certain temp and then cool it, add the starter, pour it all into jars, wrap them in towels and put in an insulated cooler in a warm place. Wait 5 hours and then refrigerate. That's it. So easy. This is totally doable, if you were on the fence, jump. You can make your own yogurt!
The taste is spot on and I can say with confidence that I know what's in it. I won't have to buy another starter for the next batch. You simply use a bit from this batch to make the next. So cool! There is something so incredibly liberating with this small discovery. We are on our way to being more responsible for what we eat and it's very exciting. Cheddar crackers and granola bars are on the list for this week.
I hope you are in the midst of a lovely Tuesday and that you are able to feed your body and soul with something homemade.