Homemade Greek Yogurt (Updated)

True confession: I used to think greek yogurt was waaay overrated. It was just a fad, a fancy item to add to your grocery list so you could feel like you were actually buying something healthy and not just a sugary cup of pastel-colored, ultra-pasteurized dairy product.  Then one day I gave in, feeling on the desperate side of hungry & very nauseous, thanks to about 16 weeks of pregnancy.  I stood staring into the refridgerator case, and then reached for that little blue cup that cost a whole entire dollar.  And when I put my groceries away at home, I actually decided to eat it and see if it would stay down.  It was delicious.  It was also the first food that had followed the natural flow of digestion in about four months, and remained so for about another two weeks and you can believe me when I say I really took advantage of finding ONE food that I could keep down.  I bought it in bulk and ate it for every meal. 

Yes, greek yogurt may well have saved my life (well, at least my protein intake), so it has certainly earned its place as the focus of this blog post. (I don't think I've ever written a whole paragraph about yogurt before!).  It continues to be a favorite snack, but I've gotten really tired of paying $1 or more for an individual cup of yogurt - especially on our modest grocery budget.  Then a couple of weeks ago, I had lunch with a bunch of really neat ladies at the Trust Birth conference who were talking about making yogurt. What?!  MAKE yogurt?!  As in, do it myself, in my kitchen, and possibly even save some money and preserve some nutritive value in the process?  Yes, please!  So, without further ado and a couple of experiments later, here is the process that I have found works best for me.

Oh...important fact:  Full-fat yogurt is sooooooo much better for you than low-fat.  (News flash: Your body needs good fats! Milk fat = good fat.)  Use whole milk!

You'll need exactly two ingredients:

• Half a gallon of whole milk (as organic as possible & not ultra-pasteurized, or it will NOT set up right.) Update: I actually just used good-ole' Great Value whole milk from Walmart. It worked just fine.
• 1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt with active yogurt cultures.  Either use a 6 oz single-serving cup of store-bought yogurt (the last cup of expensive yogurt you'll ever have to buy! YAY!), or 1/2 cup leftover from your last batch (just make sure to use it within 7-10 days, or you'll have to revisit the expensive yogurt again).

You'll also need a few basic household supplies:

• A 5-6 quart crockpot
• A timer (or a good memory!)
• A whisk
• A bath towel (for insulation, not for clean up! :) Although I have used it for both... )
• A big colander that will fit down inside a larger mixing bowl.
• Flour sack towels or 2 or 3 paper towels for straining. (good quality, thick ones) 
• A container to put your yogurt in. (I re-used a large yogurt container)

Oh, and you'll need about 14 hours to make it.  This is a project you want to start around 5pm (or about 5.5 hours before bedtime) so that you can leave it overnight.

1.  Pour half a gallon of whole milk into the crockpot.  Put the lid on tight.  Turn the crockpot on HIGH for 1 hour, and then turn down to LOW for another 1.5 hours.  (This step takes a total of 2.5 hours to complete).

2. After 2.5 hours, unplug the crockpot.  Do NOT lift the lid. (I know it's tempting, but you must resist!!)  Let it stand on the counter for 3 hours.

3. Three hours later, you can remove the lid & whisk in the 1/2 cup of prepared yogurt.  (Don't worry that the milk still looks and feels an awful lot like...well...milk, at this point.  It will thicken up later, I promise!)  NOTE: the milk will have a very thin film (or "skin") on the surface.  This is normal - it's just what happens when you cook milk!

Please do not be tempted to flavor your yogurt at this point. Do not add any flavorings until ready to serve.

4. Replace the lid.  Wrap a thick bath towel all the way around the crockpot and over the lid to keep in as much of the remaining heat as possible.  Make a mental note of 8 hours from right now.  (Or 9.  Thankfully, yogurt is very forgiving.)  Go to bed. Zzzzzzz

5. In the morning, line a colander with thick paper towels or flour sack towels.  Place the colander in the sink or inside a larger bowl (best method, this way you can put it in the fridge) and pour the thickened, heavenly smelling yogurt into it.  Let it sit for at least an hour in the fridge to strain off the whey & to give it a chance to thicken up better. The longer you strain it, the thicker it will be. Strain for several hours for cream cheese texture. If you forget and it thickens up too much, you can scoop some of the whey from the catch-bowl and stir it back in a little at a time until you find the consistency you want.

(Update : The best yogurt I made was the batch that I put into the fridge to complete the straining process and forgot about for about 3 hours.  The texture was FABULOUS.  Unfortunately, it was also fajita flavored, due to a bit of renegade fajita seasoning trapped in the lid of my crockpot.  Very sad day and waste of 16 or so hours. Not recommended.)

6. Put it in a container in the fridge & write the date on it.  It will keep for 7-10 days.  Don't forget to reserve at least 1/2 a cup as starter for your next batch, and use that within the 7-10 days!

(Update: There is no pretty way to transfer the yogurt from the colander to the container.  I suggest doing it over the sink. The best method I have found is to spoon as much of it as possible into your container, and then carefully pick up the flour sack towel and scrape and/or squeeze the rest into the container. Yes, it's messy. But your hands wash and so do the towels!)


Voila! Yogurt! And it's soooo easy. Literally, all you had to do was pour the milk and stir in yogurt and sleep. It's foolproof. (Unless you lift the lid!)  Serve it with granola or fresh fruit or jam or honey.  You can sweeten it with stevia or eat it plain. I also like to puree strawberries or other fruit with stevia or honey to mix in to my yogurt.  You can even use plain yogurt in place of sour cream - it's basically the same thing except not *quite* as thick.  Enjoy!

Bonus recipe: Baked Potato Salad (soooo yummy!)

Ingredients

• 3 large baked potatoes, cooled, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled ( I use the precooked kind)
• 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 2 green onions, sliced and then chopped ( green part only)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 dash celery salt or 1 dash seasoning salt
• 1 dash garlic powder
• 1 dash paprika
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (optional)

Directions

1. Gently stir together all the ingredients in a large bowl using a large spoon, reserving a little cheddar, green onion and bacon for garnish.
2. Transfer to a serving dish.
3. Top with reserved shredded cheddar, green onion slices and bacon crumbles for a beautiful presentation.

Chicken Stuffed Manicotti

Here's a recipe that came from a company cookbook at the bank I used to work for.  This may be one of the only positive outcomes of that particular job experience, but it's really yummy! This three-part recipe is a little more involved but really yummy and still fairly easy.  Read CAREFULLY before you start, and start a little earlier so you have time to cook your chicken.

Chicken Stuffed Manicotti

·         1 ½ cup chopped cooked chicken

·         1 cup small curd cottage cheese

·         1 egg, beaten

·         ¼ c. minced onion

·         2 Tbsp minced parsley

·         ½ tsp Italian Seasonings

·         ¼ c. bell pepper, chopped

·         8 manicotti shells (jumbo shells are easiest to work with!)

Before starting recipe, chop up your chicken and cook it in boiling water in a large saucepan for about 30 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon, saving the water/broth, and put it into a bowl with the other ingredient.  Cook 8 manicotti shells in the broth/water according to directions.  Remove shells from broth carefully with slotted spoon.  Drain well and pat dry with a paper towel.  Fill shells with the chicken mixture.*

*You can attempt to stuff the manicotti with a spoon, or you can cheat like I did and slice the manicotti shell open down one side, put the filling in, and roll it back up around the filling.  Put it seam-side down in the baking dish and no one will know!

Cheese sauce

·         3 Tbsp butter

·         3 Tbsp flour

·         2 cups milk

·         1 ½ cups monterrey jack or cheddar cheese mixture (just the shredded kind in the bag works!)

·         ¼ tsp salt

·         ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

Melt butter in a large heavy skillet.  Stir in flour, cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Add milk, stirring until sauce comes to a boil and thickens.  Add cheese, salt and Worcestershire sauce.  Reduce to low heat and stir until cheese melts.  Do not allow it to boil. 

Buttered crumbs

·         2 Tbs (or more! J ) butter

·         1/8 tsp. paprika

·         1 cup soft bread crumbs (about 2 pieces of bread, torn up into small pieces)

Melt butter in small skillet.  Stir in paprika.  Put bread crumbs in and turn until well coated.

Assembly:  Spoon about ¾ cup cheese sauce into a 9x13 baking dish and place stuffed manicotti shells on top of the sauce.  Top with remaining cheese sauce, then top with bread crumbs.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or heated through.

(Note: I had a little leftover spaghetti sauce from the night before that I also poured over the top of the cheese sauce.  It tasted great!  I also sprinkled some grated parmesan cheese on top when it was done baking.)

Creative, Easy chicken dinners

This week I have eaten three of the most delicious meals I’ve had in a long time, all suggested by Taste of Home (found a free subscription!) and prepared by Yours Truly.  I finally got fed up with spending millions of dollars {only a small exaggeration} on a bunch of ingredients and started looking for easy, inexpensive recipes.   We eat a lot of chicken in our house because it’s cheap, full of protein, and yummy.  But your average chicken and rice, grilled chicken, shake-n-bake chicken, and ho-hum chicken start to get a little boring after a while.  So I set out to find easy chicken recipes that were a little different than my normal culinary routine (let’s face it, I think we all sort of get into a rut of making the same 5 dishes over and over until our families want to scream “NO MORE!!”).  Also on the criteria list were ingredients that are inexpensive or at least pantry staples (read: budget friendly), and not anything outrageous or hard-to-find.  I shop at a country grocery store and South African veal is a little hard to come by.  Not that I would ever eat that anyway.  Anyway, let’s just say that I succeeded in making a very happy husband this week with a few new experiments that were easy to make, even with a tiny helper strapped into a baby carrier.  (She’s gonna be a great cook someday if she keeps watching me make all these recipes!)

Here are two of the three recipes.  The third one will follow in a different post.

Cheddar Bacon Chicken: 
**I love any kind of smothered, “loaded”  chicken recipe, so this was right up my alley!
Dip 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts in ½ cup teriyaki sauce.  Place chicken on a greased baking sheet.  Bake, uncovered, at 425 for 13-18 mins until thermometer reads 170.  Spread chicken with ¼ cup barbeque sauce; top each with 1 slice cooked bacon and 1 slice cheddar cheese. Return to oven and bake for 3-5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

(Notes:  You can cook your bacon while the chicken is in the oven.  And instead of sliced cheddar cheese “product,” I had a block of cheese that I grated coarsely.  A little extra elbow grease is worth having real cheese on your chicken!)

Seasoned Green Beans (side dish) 

Place  3.5 cups fresh or frozen green beans (about 1 pound) in a steamer basket; place in a saucepan over 1 in. of water. Bring to a boil; cover and steam for 7-8 minutes or until crisp-tender. In a small bowl, combine:

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt  (such as Lawry's seasoned salt)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon onion powder 

Drain beans; add butter mixture and toss to coat.

(Note: add extra seasonings to taste.  I added some coarse sea salt & gresh ground black pepper)

Chicken Philly Sandwiches 

Cut ½ lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts into strips.  In large skillet, sauté chicken in 2 tbsp olive oil until no longer pink. Sprinkle with ½ tsp each salt and coarsely ground pepper.  Remove and set aside.  In same skillet, sauté 1 halved and sliced large onion and 2 julienned sweet red peppers until crisp-tender.  Return chicken to pan, reduce heat to medium.  Cut 6 slices of provolone cheese into strips and add to pan; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Serve on 4 split whole wheat hoagie buns.

(Notes: I think I used about 1 lb of chicken and had a little leftovers for lunch.  To each his own, but salt and pepper makes boring chicken.  I gave it a generous shake of Kroger’s grill time chicken seasoning and it was amazing.  I only used one large red pepper & it was more than enough.  I used Sargento’s provolone cheese slices, because at least they take the time to create semi-real cheese.)