A How-To: Making Greek Yogurt

Brad’s not a big fan of my homemade yogurt. It’s completely unflavored and if I’m being honest, a bit boring to eat alone. Recently he discovered Chobani Greek yogurt and I decided it was about time that I try my hand at it. He loves the consistency of the Greek stuff. It’s thicker and richer. Only problems? It’s expensive and then we have lots of yogurt containers that need dealt with.

Here’s what I do:

I make my usual plain yogurt using whole milk. Then I take 5 or 6 cups of it and hang it in several thicknesses of cheese cloth. I let about 2 cups of whey drip out. This takes about an hour, 2 tops.

You can check the consistency of it periodically. Don’t worry about draining it too long. You can always stir some whey back in to thin it out.

Then throw it in a bowl with the fruit sauce of your choice. I use homemade pie filling which I make using about half the sugar called for. Depending on the sweetness and fruitiness that you want, you’ll probably want to use 1 to 2 cups of fruit to the 3 to 4 cups of thick yogurt.

Stir it all up! Since the yogurt has been at room temp for a while, I always chill it before we eat it.

Fruit sauces we like: cherry, strawberry, and blueberry.

The verdict? He loves it! So do the kids and I. We are eating a lot more yogurt now that I’ve turned it Greek. The only problem is using up all that whey. Any good suggestions besides making bread and pancakes?

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Weekly Menu: 10/15/12

I know there are a million and one blogs out there that post every dish they are going to eat for each week but I am going to do it anyway. (Or at least try.) I’ve been menu planning for the last 8 months or so and have found it very helpful. With all of the food that I put up, it really does help me to go through it. Otherwise, I tend to go to the grocery store and pick up random foods that look tasty. Then, when I go to cook, I realize I have all of these things in the fridge that need. used. now. and I can’t pull anything out of the freezer or off of the canning shelves. (I’m aware this is a sign that we have a lot of/too much food. Yes, it’s ridiculous.)

I want to encourage you to menu plan, too. Even if you don’t preserve hundreds of quarts of tomatoes and peaches, I’m sure you have a pantry with random cans of veggies or bags of beans stuffed in the corners or a refrigerator with lost jars of tomato sauce or a couple of withered carrots lollygagging around. Don’t you? DON’T you? Come on, admit it. We all throw out food that should have been used a couple of weeks (months? years?) ago. I really feel like I’m throwing less out now that I have a bit of a plan.

Don’t you roll your eyes at me. I know you are probably thinking that you don’t have time for this stuff. I know I did. But then I started spending 10 minutes on the weekends jotting notes on scraps of papers about what I could possibly cook up that week. And it was fun. I would peek in the fridge and see if there was anything that might spoil in the next few days and put that on the menu for Monday or Tuesday. Then I’d fill in the rest of the week using pantry/freezer/seasonal ingredients, adding things to my grocery list that I might not have in stock.

I’m not a stickler. I don’t necessarily cook everything I scribble on my papers. Sometimes later in the week I’ll discover a jar of something I hadn’t seen in the back of the fridge. Or I’ll notice the tomatoes that are rotting on the counter so I’ll make a pot of spaghetti instead of the planned honey baked chicken. It’s a bit like a puzzle. A puzzle that ultimately saves me time and money. Who doesn’t like that kind of puzzle?

Something I should highlight here…our meals are not always logical. Sometimes they really don’t make any sense at all (just check out Monday’s plan if you need an example). I just try to have a protein, starch, and green veggie at each meal. I throw random dishes in that I really feel like cooking or if I just want to use up an ingredient.

So without further ado, here ’tis. Be inspired. Or maybe not.

This week I have some peppers to use up. Frost was threatening early last week and so I picked all of the peppers, whether they were red or not. So recipes featuring them are up for the beginning of the week. I also dug the sweet potatoes and have some damaged ones that need used up.

Monday: Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Baked Corn, Green Beans, Sauteed Mushrooms and Onions

Tuesday: Sweet and Sour Lentils with Rice, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Salad

Wednesday: Stuffed Peppers, Broccoli, Fresh Bread

Thursday: Meatloaf, Roasted Sweet and White Potatoes, Green Beans

Friday: Macaroni and Cheese, Stewed Tomatoes, Broccoli

Saturday: Deep Dish Chicken Pie, Cranberry Relish

Sunday: Negotiable

Note number 1: I don’t make a plan for Sunday. More often than not we either go to someone’s house or out to eat that evening. Or we will have gone away one night during the week and I’ll make that meal on Sunday night. Or we’ll eat something random and quick that I whip up. I consider Sundays a bit of an “off” day for me.

Note number 2: Usually I don’t pencil in desserts on my menus. I like to make sweets on a whim. Feel like a pumpkin pie on Tuesday? Great. Make one. Want some pudding on a Friday? Good because the milk needs used up ASAP.

Note number 3: We eat leftovers for lunch. I don’t very often have to serve them at an evening meal so that’s why we don’t have a leftovers night.

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Frugal Me: Free Calcium for my Chickens

I’m veering away from recipes for today and I’ll give you a lovely tip for feeding your chickens. Seeing as how they feed you, it’s only fair that you feed them.

1. Save your egg shells, placing them in an old cake pan as they accumulate. Each time you bake something, throw the pan in the still-hot, turned-off oven so the shells dry.

2. Mash the dried shells with a potato masher until they are less than 1/2 an inch.

3. Run your fingers through the pieces and enjoy the free calcium your biddies will devour.

4. When you have a few cups of them, march on out to the chicken house and dump them in the feeder. Proceed to watch your chickens go crazy.

I’m curious to know: I have 2 dozen chickens. I use probably half of the eggs they give and I feed them all of those shells. Is that enough calcium for them or should I still be purchasing oyster shells? If not oyster shells, is there any other free/cheap form of calcium I could give them?

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