Homemade Yogurt

Homemade Yogurt with Granola and Bananas





I’d been wanting to make homemade yogurt for years.  After MUCH trial and error I finally figured it out (thanks to the One Good Thing by Jillee blog).  I took Jillee’s recipe plus comments posted under the recipe and I had the perfect recipe for me.  The only problem is that the end product was too sweet for me and there was too much of it. 

I needed a small batch of unsweetened yogurt.  Now I have it:

Homemade plain yogurt (Small Batch)

For this recipe you will need:

2 cups of non fat milk

½ cup powdered milk

2 tablespoons of yogurt with live and active yogurt cultures

Food thermometer

Microwave

1 clean, dry bath towel

Mix milk and powdered milk in a pan.   Heat to 180 degrees.  Remove milk from heat and allow it to cool to 110 degrees.  Whisk in yogurt.  Pour mixture into a container (I use a Ball canning jar).  Heat a cup of water in the microwave for 2 minutes.  This step is to raise the temperature inside the microwave.  Wrap the milk jar in a towel and place it in the warm microwave.  Close the microwave door and leave it closed over night (or approx. 12 hours).  

Add powdered milk to milk

Use plain yogurt with Live and Active yogurt cultures







Heat water in the microwave to warm the oven

Wrap warm milk in a towel





Place towel wrapped yogurt inside the microwave

Make sure the microwave stays closed overnight

In the morning, your yogurt is all done

YUM!

Banana’s Foster

1 medium ripe (not over ripe) banana – sliced

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1 Tablespoon milk or soy milk

¼ teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

Cinnamon

Heat bananas and butter over medium heat until butter is melted.  Make sure that all bananas are coated with butter.  Sprinkle brown sugar on top of bananas.  Stir until the sugar is melted.  Add milk and remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla and salt.  Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Homemade Granola

There is ALWAYS granola in my house.  For this recipe I simply garnished with a handful of my standard peanut butter granola.  Here's the recipe.

Homemade Peanut Butter Granola

2 Tablespoons butter or margarine

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup honey or brown sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

1½ cups rolled oats

Pinch of ginger (optional)

Pinch of allspice (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a saucepan or skillet melt butter, peanut butter and sugar.  Remove from heat.  Stir in cinnamon, salt, ginger, allspice and vanilla.  Stir in oats.  Make sure the oats are fully coated with the peanut butter mixture.

Spread oat and peanut butter mixture on a cookie sheet.  Bake until the edges are brown (about 20 minutes).  Remove from the oven and cool.

Break cooled granola into pieces.  Store in an air tight container.

 

Home Made Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

I should start this post with a disclaimer.  I'm not an Oreo fan.  Never have been.  (Not even as a little kid).  I don't hate them, they're just not my thing.

Mama-made Sandwich Cookies

My kids, on the other hand, LOVE all things chocolate, all things cookie  and all things Oreo.  When my 6 year old asked for Oeros in his lunch box, I knew I needed a plan.

Have you ever read the label on a bag of Oreos!?  Yuck!

Oreo Label - Yikes!

Let's be real here:  I knew they weren't health food but fully half on the ingredients didn't seem to be real English words.  And so I came up with a compromise.  I'd make mama-Oreo's.

I LOVE to cook and bake but can't stand a recipe that's too precious.  I need a "toss the stuff in a bowl and mix" kind of recipe instead of a "sift this, gently fold that" kind of deal.  I found one and here it is:

Crispy Chocolate Cookie

The Cookie

Crispy Chocolate Cookies

3 dozen

1/2 cup melted butter  (that's 1 stick)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 small egg

1/4 cup honey (I use powdered honey)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/8 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (heaping)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix everything in a bowl.

Cookie Scoop (optional)

Cookie Balls in the Oven

I like to use a cookie scoop, but you can roll the dough into balls, or scoop it out with a spoon.  Just make sure that your dough balls are evenly sized.  Place dough balls on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cool completely before frosting.

Easy right!

Now for the filling:

Vanilla Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  The frosting will be stiff.  Use a mixer to make the job go faster.

Once the cookies are cool, complete your sandwich cookies!

Done!

Double Stuff Version

The real test of the recipe is kids.

Cookie Judges Love THEM!

Our 2 judge panel agrees that they're GREAT!

Lunch Box Ready!

These cookies are so easy that I made them this morning to lunch time today!

PRO TIP:

These cookies freeze BEAUTIFULLY!!  To keep the kids from going into cookie overload, simply stack room temp cookies in a sandwich bag or plastic container and pop into the freezer.  Defrost at room temperature.

Freezer Ready

SUPER PRO TIP:

Both the cookie dough and frosting freeze well.  If you don't have time to bake today, make the dough and freeze in balls.  When you want just a few cookies bake as many frozen cookie balls as you need. 

Home Made Tater Tots

Home Made Tater Tots

 I saw the recipe of Diners, Drive In and Dives. The recipe was SUPER easy and I made them from memory after watching the show.

Here are the basics:

HOMEMADE TATER TOTS

3 medium size potatoes (shredded)
1/2 large onion shredded
1 Tablespoon corn starch
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Paprika
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Oil for frying

Soak the shredded potatoes in water then drain. Squeeze excess water out by hand then add seasonings.

Toss the potatoes in the corn starch and seasonings until well mixed. Put to potatoes in a 350 degree oven on an oiled cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes to dry them out a bit. Remove from the oven and let them cool.

Heat frying oil to 350 degrees in a pan. (you will be deep frying so the oil will be 1/2" deep).

Once the potatoes have cooled squeeze them into balls. The cornstarch makes them stick together nicely.

Deep fry until golden brown (about 1-2 minutes).  Remove from oil and place on a plate that has been covered in paper towels to absorb the extra oil.

Salt the hot tots and enjoy!

Basket of Home made Tots

Blog Post Courtesy of Mocha Kathy W.