How to HOMEMADE YOGURT

First off- thank you to our guest blogger for today, Jenna!

(our guest bloggers are awesome, yeah?!) 

I've know her since Mr. What's-His-Name's class for math in Jr. High.   I'm pretty sure I failed that class, (dang you MATH!) but we had a pretty great time writing notes and talking-tee-hee-hee!

I saw her post on FB and immediately knew I HAD to have her share her healthy yogurt makin' talent with you all!  

And for Healthy Food Week? PERFECT!

Without further ado...

Jenna!

Oh boy, Where to begin?

Ashlie had recently contacted me because she had read my facebook status about me making homemade yogurt. Why was I attempting such a thing? Well, there is few things I actually excel in in life. In fact for the most part I am horrible at way too many things. For example, I have tried over and over the be a pet owner and after a few miserable and traumatic failed attempts I began to realize that just wasn't for me. (Let just say if we have our pets in Heaven I'll have a 1000 fish a few dogs and even a crab that I just flushed down the toilet) But for all the millions of things I am horrible at in life I have a few good things I excel in, one being eating healthy. I grew up in a home where every meal was made from scratch and for the most part they were relatively pretty healthy. I learned my basic habits there, but I didn't put them into play until I had children. I had once read a study on cancer and it had said that 70% of cancer cases are due to you're diet! 70% People!!! This is huge! (Whether this is true or not, it lit the fire under my butt!)

Ok, back to the yogurt...I have a son who LOVES, LOVES, LOVES, yogurt and would eat it for Breakfast, brunch, snack, lunch, Snack, Linner, Dinner, Midnight snack...You get the point, he would base a diet around yogurt. However, it is a rare occurrence when we have yogurt in our house for two reasons:

1. It's doesn't fit in to my grocery budget. (It's way over priced if you ask me!)

2. It truly is unhealthy for you (GASP) I know "they" say it's healthy! Who really is "they" anyway?

If we understood what was contained in that tiny packaged container we would throw it all away. But because I'm the loving mom who can't stand to let her little boy down I figured I'd find another alternative for his yogurt fetish.

Oh and did I mention it's SUPER EASY and SUPER CHEAP? Well it is!

Ok here we go...You don't even need to write
this down, YEP it's that Easy!

Ingredients you will need: (you may have seen other varieties, but this is the way I like it)

--8 cups (half-gallon) of whole milk--pasteurized and homogenized

is fine, but do NOT use ultra-pasteurized. (The fattier the milk the thicker the yogurt will be. I use 2% for the kids and Husband, I use skim for me!)

--1/2 cup store-bought natural, live/active culture plain yogurt (you need to have a starter. Once you have made your own, you can use that as a starter) I actually have used vanilla and it works just great.

--frozen/fresh fruit for flavoring

--thick bath towel

The Directions.

This takes a while. Make your yogurt on a weekend day when you are home to monitor.
Plug in your crockpot and turn to low. Add and add the entire half gallon of milk. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours.

Unplug your crockpot. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.
When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in a bowl. Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.

Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.

Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.

In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened---it's not as thick as store-bought yogurt, but has the consistency of low-fat plain yogurt.

Chill in a plastic container(s) in the refrigerator. Your fresh yogurt will last 7-10 days. Save 1/2 cup as a starter to make a new batch.

Now here is the part that gets tricky and you can use your own judgment on what you care to do. You will want to add some sort of sweetener. I just add fruit and it's is sweet enough for our family. (I don't add sugar to anything, so my kids are use to that)

In my opinion adding Honey would be good or liquid stevia. But please, pretty pretty pretty please don't add sugar or splenda:)

My favorite thing to do with the yogurt is make a smoothy! I love cream based smoothies. I add a little yogurt, a little fruit oh heck and a little spinach and you've got a great healthy smoothy! (my kids love it too AND they know there is spinach in there! Wahoo)

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do! I was shaking with excitement when I made this, it may be the topic of conversation for me for the next month or so!