Homemade Yogurt

I'm not a huge milk drinker and so there are times when I have some extra milk around that I need to use up quickly and while I don't love to drink plain milk--I do love yogurt but so much of it is loaded with sugar and the light versions have fake sugar. I just can't stand the taste of aspartame. I read about making homemade Yogurt in French Women Don't get Fat and it is fairly simple to do. It helps to have a candy thermometer, but you can do it without it.

1 half-gallon milk (I used 1% lactose-free milk since I am apparently lactose intolerant now)
2-3 tablespoons plain yogurt (Make sure it says active-live cultures on it)

Pour milk into a sauce pan and heat on low until the temperature reaches between 175-185 degrees F. You do not want the milk to boil so watch it toward the end. You are basically scalding the milk. You will see steam rising up and bubbles along the side.  On my stove this takes about 40 minutes on low heat. Then cool the milk for about 30-40 minutes until it reaches 110-115 degrees F. If you do not have a thermometer you can put your finger in the milk and hold it for ten seconds it is ready. This is amazingly pretty accurate. At this point stir in the yogurt. Then transfer the milk to an insulated container. I use a glass bowl covered with plastic wrap and then wrap the bowl in several dish towels to keep it warm. Turn on the oven for just a minute to take the chill off and then turn it off. Place the bowl in the oven for overnight or 8-12 hours. In the morning you will have yogurt! The longer you leave it the thicker and tangier it will be. It makes about 7 cups.

I really love the flavor of it and it is so smooth and creamy!!  In my experience, it is a little thinner than store bought, but it can be strained with a cheese cloth and a strainer (or in my case a paper towel and a strainer.) Often I leave it as is because it is the perfect consistency to add to smoothies. It is delicious with a little honey or some cut up or pureed fruit. Right now we have lots of left over baby food because my 7th month old takes 5 bites and is finished with table food so I just mix the rest of it into yogurt. Enjoy!

Book Accompaniment- French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano A great read that helps you appreciate quality food with great tips and recipes.

Serving size 1 cup
Calories  128 Fat 2.9g Sugar 14g Protein 9.3g
Note: These numbers come from the milk and yogurt in the recipe and they may be slightly off (especially the sugar) because the cultures eat most of the sugar.

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

The inspiration for this recipe comes from King Author's Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread, which looks amazing. I just so happened to have garden fresh zucchini from our CSA so I decided to give it a go. However, my husband won't eat a loaf of bread since he has to cut slices, but he will devour twenty muffins in a couple days. Plus the oven time for muffins is half that of a loaf of bread-so it saves money in the summer to do muffins. I also added some white whole wheat flour because I like to add fiber where I can--you could easily exchange regular whole wheat flour, it will just have a little stronger flavor. These babies are moist and delicious and are so good my husband's been calling them cupcakes instead of muffins.

2 eggs
1/3 c honey
1/2 c oil
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla or cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 c cocoa powder
1 c flour
2/3 c white whole wheat flour
2 c shredded zucchini
1 c semisweet/bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F. Grease Muffin tin pan or use paper muffin cups. In a large bowl, mix eggs, honey, oil, brown sugar, vanilla until it's nice and glossy. Then add salt, baking powder, soda, cocoa powder, flour, white whole wheat flour until well combined. I just used a regular old whisk and it works great. (One day I will get a stand mixer....but it is not this day) Then add the zucchini and chocolate chips. Mix to combine.  Fill Muffin tins with a heaping tablespoon and evenly distribute among tins. Bake at 350 for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.
Makes about 20 muffins.

Serving Size 1 Muffin
Calories  161
Total Fat   8.5g,  Saturated  2g, Polyunsaturated     1.7 g,  Monounsaturated   3.4 g
Cholesterol  19.5mg, Sodium  8.3mg, Potassium   12.3 mg
Total carbs 20 g, Dietary Fiber 1.2 g, Sugars 11.6 g
Protein  2.7 g

   

First Mother's Day

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

I was excited for my first mother's day. I was looking forward to the miniature reprieve from my mama duties. Of course--there is never really a break--but I got much more help than I had for the past month as my husband has been studying for his med school boards 24/7.

Church on Mother's Day was great and I received a tasty chocolate bar that I was expecting to share with Harry, but he surprised me saying: "It is all for you." He also made dinner and took care of our little guy, sticking him in the playpen in the kitchen while he made steaks. I'd bought prime steaks that were reduced for quick sale. I thought it would be a nice, pretty simple mother's day meal. I told him to get the pan hot and then sear for 2 mins a side. Well he followed my instructions and got the pan really hot. So hot when he put some oil in the pan it burst into flames!! He calmly starts calling my name, "Dan, uh Dan, there's a fire." I rushed in the kitchen to see the biggest fire I'd experienced in the kitchen. Luckily, it burned itself out before I had the chance to put the lid on the pot. It burned fast and hot. We got out a new pan and I took a more advisory role in the process than I had while just laying on the couch. Dinner ended up being delicious with steaks, rice, broccoli, and a blue cheese sauce poured over the top. The best part of mother's day though was that I did not have to clean a single dish!! Our pattern when we first got married was that I cooked the meal and Harry cleaned up, but with the craziness of med school lately, it's I've been cooking and cleaning. (I suppose it's pay back for around this time last year when I was first pregnant when doing dishes made me sick and I rarely cooked anything and Harry was in the middle of finals.) Anyways, it was a real treat to not clean up.

The other nice part of Mother's Day (and not doing dishes) was that I got to call my mom and grandmas while dinner was being cleaned up. It was wonderful to talk to my both my grandmas, whom I don't get to see very often. It was wonderful to hear their voices and appreciate all the wonderful lessons they have taught me. It was also fun to talk with my mom and tell her about the fire that occurred and have a good laugh about it!! She told me I should write it down, so that's what I'm doing. Because I want to always remember that even during my husbands busiest time in his life up to this point, he still took the time to start a fire for me!! That's true love...

I must say it is truly wonderful to me a mom. I am so blessed to have a happy and healthy baby boy. He brings love and joy to our house. I am so grateful to be a mother and stand with all the wonderful mothers that have come before me. I just hope I can be half as good a mother to my little boy as my own mother is to me.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm still trying to lose the last of that baby weight --but I still need a treat every now and then. So these cookies are reasonably healthy--and completely delicious. They are the perfect chewy, yummy cookie.

Every great showpiece needs accompaniment:
If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff illustrated by Felicia Bond is the perfect companion for this recipe!!

2 Tbls  Butter room temperature
4 oz.  Cream Cheese room temperature (I used 1/3 less fat)
2/3 cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 1/4 cup Rolled oats
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking soda
1-2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I did 2 but it was a lot-I'll do 1 next time)

In a large bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese. Then add sugar continue to cream together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. Then (if you want to dirty more dishes) in a separate bowl, mix whole wheat flour, oats, salt, and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to butter-sugar mixture. Mix until just combined scrapping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Don't overbeat!! Mix in chocolate chips and refrigerate for 30 min-2 hours.

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Use heaping tablespoons to put dough onto a baking sheet. I prefer to use parchment paper/silicone pad on top for an easy cleanup! Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool. Then Enjoy!!!

Makes about 24 cookies.
According to myfitnesspal 1 cookie has 134.8 calories, 6.8 g fat, 1.2 g fiber, 2.0 g protein

Once Upon a Time...

This blog is a long time overdue. I've been meaning to start this since I became a wife, and now that I'm a mother I've realized an interesting fact: if I don't do something it doesn't happen. I also realized that if I don't write something down- I forget.  So amid all the craziness that encircles day to day life, I wanted to create this blog to reflect on the things that matter most- the simple, everyday joys of life: family, faith, food, fiction--and yoga. 

When I was an after-school teacher, I developed different curricula that helped teach kids to learn, have fun, and take action. One of my favorites was Books and Cooks. This idea for this blog is loosely based on those experiences. As the home is our first classroom, I believe that it is where we learn the most important lessons. We can learn a lot from cooking. We learn math, science, history--unraveling the mystery that all started with a big ...... Ha! In all seriousness, I believe cooking and eating together brings families closer together. Some of my fondest memories are sitting on the kitchen counter making cookies with my mom and siblings.   So although right now I only have one little nugget and he's only four months old- I plan to teach him to appreciate cooking and eating; reading and playing; learning and loving. Hopefully it all works out and I have happy, healthy, well-rounded adults someday in the distant future. This blog will be about that journey with a hodgepodge of good food, books, and fun ideas for family time.