Homemade Yogurt

I never really liked plain yogurt, opting instead for yummy store-bought varieties like black cherry, strawberry banana, coffee, caramel, key lime pie, anything that sounded yummy and un-yogurty.  When I  had Gwendolyn, I knew I wanted to make homemade baby food, and got excited when I discovered you can actually make your own yogurt! 

Of course there are many resources out there on the world wide web, but the few recipes I  bookmarked mentioned sterilizing your equipment, heating the milk to a certain temperature (making sure it doesn’t burn in the process), cooling it to a certain temperature, adding your starter, and then maintaining a specific temperature in order to incubate the active cultures.  Needless to say, I wasn’t too thrilled with all these steps – but decided to undergo them nonetheless.  Having to babysit the yogurt and add more hot water so it maintained the optimum temperature was my undoing, and I finally decided to purchase a yogurt maker.

Following the steps that came with the yogurt maker was a no-brainer, and the little glass jars provided the perfect portions, especially for feeding the little ones.  I still bought my own flavored yogurt. 

When making some healthy changes last year, I decided to eliminate milk and milk products from my family’s diet (except for cheese, of course, which is its own essential food group).  Each step along the way has been a learning process, and when I learned about the benefits of cultured dairy products – specifically from reading Nourishing Traditions –  I slowly started adding some of these items back in.  We still don’t drink plain milk or use it in recipes, opting instead of almond or coconut milk, but I buy whole milk for making yogurt (and buttermilk!). 

Rachel over at Clean. recently posted a recipe for homemade yogurt, and I implemented her suggestion for using a small amount of starter (either from a store-bought carton or some left over from a previous batch) for the best results.  I always added a carton of yogurt, and was pleasantly surprised when the smaller amount yielded a better yogurt.

As much as I enjoy the ease of making yogurt in my yogurt maker, I’m limited by the amount I get – especially since one of the glass containers broke and I haven’t bought any replacements.  Now that both the kiddos and I often have yogurt for breakfast, use it in smoothies and baked goods, I go through yogurt much more quickly these days.  I was really excited when I came across another recipe for yogurt, and in discussing the directions with the author and some of her readers, learned that maintaining a temperature isn’t key to keeping the cultures alive.  I was all set to get out my canning jars and try a batch, when someone mentioned that her favorite way of making yogurt was in her crock pot.  Yogurt in a crock pot?  I have a crock pot!       

I already had a half gallon of milk and some yogurt in the fridge to use for a starter, so I decided to whip up my first batch of crock pot yogurt.  I was a bit nervous because I started it earlier in the day, which meant it sat on the counter for half a day and overnight… but in the morning when I removed the towel wrapped around the crock pot, opened the lid and peeked inside… it was filled with yogurt! 

I filled a couple containers, and strained the remainder to ake Greek yogurt/cream cheese.  

When you strain yogurt, the liquid that comes out is called whey.  I’ve used it in pancakes and baked goods for part of the liquid, for soaking beans and grains, but I’ve learned there are lots of different uses for this precious liquid which is packed with vitamins and minerals.  I would love to try making Ricotta cheese.   Don’t throw it out!  Just the other day I used some of it in the cooking water for pasta and again for cooking rice.       

Our favorite way of eating yogurt for breakfast is topped with frozen blueberries, ground flaxseed, walnuts, and honey.  And let’s not forget smoothies!  This morning, Gwendolyn comes out of her room and says, “My tummy’s sick because it’s hungry.  I want blueberries in my smoothie and blueberry pancakes and blueberries in yogurt.”  I reply, “So you want blueberries?”

I’ve got another batch of crock pot yogurt brewing right now.

The Face of Food

I used to think that people who bought organic foods were Food Snobs.   What, the regular stuff isn’t good enough for you?  Sure, maybe there are those who buy it as more of a status symbol, because they can, like buying brand name clothes just so you can have the label.  But you know what?  We can’t afford not to eat organic. 

Rarely do I “get involved” in politics, but there have been a couple issues that have called for action in my estimation, one of them being the face of food in our nation. 

I’ve been learning more and more about all the health benefits of truly natural foods – not only produce and whole grains being grown without toxic chemicals and pesticides, but also for the animal products we eat being raised in natural conditions.  Nourishing Traditions, the cookbook I’ve been reading and whose recipes I’ve been trying out, is a wellspring of information which speaks at length to the nutritional deficiency of your garden-variety commercial products.  According to author Sally Fallon, “the meat, milk and eggs in our supermarkets are highly contaminated and vastly inferior in nutritional quality to those available to our ancestors just a few decades ago…  According to the renowned cancer specialist Virginia Livington-Wheeler, most chicken and nearly half the beef consumed in America today is cancerous and pathogenic.”  Yikes.  And this only scratches the surface of the detrimental effects of processed foods.

Why is milk so prevalent in our society, especially for our children?  Pediatricians tell you to start supplementing with whole milk around a year (if not earlier), and milk seems to be the drink of choice for kids - it seem to be the acceptable progression.  When I read that humans are the only mammals to continue drinking milk after they’re weaned, it got me thinking.  I stopped giving my kids milk, using it sparingly in baking, substituting almond and coconut milks instead.  I wanted to try and give up all milk products, but we love cheese!   

Apparently, the milk controversy has been raging for quite some time.  And perhaps it started around the time we began drugging cows to over-produce, feeding them processed grains, pasteurizing and messing with the raw milk - just like we’ve done with every other natural product. It would seem the arguments on No Milk really should be directed towards commercial milk.

Raw milk has been called “white blood” for its nutritional properties, and cultured products made from raw milk (from grass-fed cows) are just as healthy – butter, cheese, kefir, yogurt, and buttermilk.  You can read all about the benefits on Real Milk, a site devoted to educating and informing people. 

Reading about all the health benefits of cultured and fermented foods, I’ve started making yogurt again, straining it to make thick yogurt or cream cheese.  The whey that separates can be used for soaking beans and grains (making them more nutritious and easier to digest) and other fermented foods.  My sourdough starter continues to thrive, and I make all sorts of baked goods from pancakes and muffins to bread and pizza dough.  It’s amazing that eating this way could reverse or eliminate allergies and food sensitivities.   

I got excited at the idea that I could make all these healthy, yummy things from raw milk, and got online to find a source.  I was chagrined to learn that buying or selling raw milk in the state of RI is illegal, and have been contacting a number of different resources to find out more about this legislation.

Recently I stumbled upon a  news article stating that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shut down an Amish farmer’s raw milk facility.  This article portrays the FDA’s destructive actions and overall attitude towards people who simply want access to natural foods and alternatives to processed foods.  In researching the FDA, I was sickened when I read this articulation of their beliefs:

a. There is No Right to Consume or Feed Children Any Particular Food 
b. There is No Generalized Right to Bodily and Physical Health
c. There is No Fundamental Right to Freedom of Contract

Does that shock you?  We are only allowed to eat what the FDA gives us permission to eat.  This makes me so mad.  I told Phil there are things I’m passionate enough about that I’m willing to learn – we’re growing gardens this year, next year we hope to raise chickens for eggs and meat, and I would like to get a goat so we can have our own fresh milk products.  We might as well take advantage of these rights while we still can; who knows when it will be illegal to grow and raise our own food.  There has already been concern in the USDA about the “safety of organic food.”  *shakes head*

In the political realm, I’ve always felt that my vote doesn’t really matter - I’m just one person, anyway.  How can I make a difference?  Shopping at the farmer’s market on weekends, trying to buy locally (being aware that natural food stores such as Whole Foods no longer means organic), reading labels, sticking with organic foods and avoiding possible-GM-foods – putting my money where my mouth is, as it were – I think this sends a powerful message.  Every time you shop at the store, you vote on the products you buy with the dollars you spend.  Money is a powerful language. 

Aside from those things, there are a number of petitions you can sign and messages you can e-mail to political officials, if you’re so inclined.  After writing a letter to the FDA, one of the first steps I took was to sign the Truth in Labeling Petition.  Please educate yourself about the food you’re eating, and don’t let the government decide what’s best for you!

EDIT: The safety of GMO and GM foods is another huge controversy, but my feeling is that when messing around with the molecular makeup of things – things we put into our bodies and depend on for growth and nutrition - you’re bound to create problems.  It isn’t natural.  Who knows the long-term effects of these mutations?  Unless you buy 100% organic, it can be difficult to assess whether or not a food is GM, since our laws don’t require labeling (which many people are trying to change – see above). 

There are lots of resources out there, and The True Food Network has a handy dandy True Food Shopper’s Guide which you can download (including an app for iPhone, if you’re into that).  There’s an extensive listing of all types of food, which ones are commonly GM, which specific brands are non-GMO, and which may contain GMO ingredients.  Here are the most common at-risk ingredients:

corn, soy, canola, cotton, and their many derivatives – corn flour, cornmeal, corn oil, cornstarch, corn syrup, fructose, dextrose, glucose, soy flour, soy lecithin, soy protein, vegetable oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil, beet sugar

Accoring to lovetoknow, because of the prevalence of these ingredients in common foods, it is estimated that 70% or more of the convenience foods contain GMOs.

In the Kitchen, Out & About

Though I’m eating probably as healthy as I ever have these days, I realize there is always room for improvement.  I’ve lost the baby weight I gained with the kiddos, but now I’m just hovering.  Stagnant.  I have no desire to add an exercise routine other than getting out and about when the weather is nice.  When I stop and think about it, I realize I get a lot of exercise just going up and downstairs, vacuuming, lifting Josiah, carrying bags and baby, bending over to clean food off the floor and retrieve the same toys over and over again.     

I like to browse magazines and websites for new and interesting recipes to try, though I tend to stick to familiar favorites.  I bookmark awesome craft ideas, thinking one day I’ll get around to making that.  In just the same way, I earmark healthy tips and resources for making changes; save an article here, bookmark a blog there.  And the more I find out, the more I realize, not only are these changes beneficial, but necessary.  It scares me, how much crap we as society are literally fed from the Higher Ups; there’s always an agenda, and it’s not in our best interest.

I’ve been especially concerned with the amount of carbs we take in, even in the form of whole grains – pancakes for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, pasta for dinner.  I’ve been trying to find a way to improve upon this, at times substituting ground nuts for flour, as in the case with the fluffy flatbread (though I didn’t know I was supposed to add the egg yolks back in – oops!). 

I frequent a number of blogs, one of them being Passionate Homemaking, where I originally found a recipe for homemade toothpaste when I was on a quest for healthy toothpaste.  I got to browsing, and discovered her section on soaking grains.  Initially, I was overwhelmed just reading about it – I don’t always know what we’re having for dinner at dinnertime, how would I plan ahead and soak my grains hours in advance?  But I decided to try… and have been excited at the results.  I already use wheat flour, and often grind oats and brown rice for flour, so I was already a step ahead in the game.  

Somewhere along the line – I don’t know if it was related content on one of the websites I was browsing or just leafing through my cookbook – I decided to make a sourdough starter for bread, which is basically building on the idea of soaking. 

I used the simple recipe in my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, something like this one, though I used wheat flour instead of white.  It’s been brewing for over a week now, and I’ve already made a plethora of goodies – pancakes, muffins, pizza dough, and finally… bread.   

In Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (love the title!), I was excited to read the many benefits of fermented foods, the traditional method of preparing things such breads, yogurt and other dairy, vegetables, beverages (beer, anyone?).  Though we don’t drink milk anymore, I’ve started making yogurt again from whole milk, straining it to make what basically amounts to Greek yogurt or homemade cream cheese – yum.

I’ve been leafing through Nourishing Traditions, taking note of the fact that saturated animal fats (as well as tropical sources – coconut and palm oils) such as butter are actually healthy for the body (in moderation of course), especially when compared to all the popular fat sources we have today, namely vegetable oils, margarine, shortening, fake spreads.  Grass-fed beef and eggs from free-range chickens are also one of the healthiest protein sources, whereas the kind you get in the store is missing so many essential components.  I’ve known that milk from the store is basically crap - but more than that, it’s actually harmful, in the it leaches nutrients from the body while trying to process it.  On the other hand, raw milk is ”white gold” – and I’ve been disappointed to learn that buying raw milk is illegal in my state.  Discover the truth about milk at Real Milk.

For dinner, I decided to try one of the recipes in Nourishing Traditions.  Sourdough bread fresh from the oven accompanied the brown rice that had been cooking on the stove with a lovely aroma of spices, carrots and chicken broth.  The kiddos and I devoured the rice – it was so good!  It will be my new staple rice recipe, and I’m already thinking of ways to tweak it. 

The family has been excitedly awaiting some green to appear in our garden after planting lettuce, spinach and peas.  Just the other day we finally saw some green poking out of the ground.  And in the kitchen, I’ve been experimenting with microgreens and sprouts, which I’ve been researching here and there.

I always forget that we have a year-round, indoor farmer’s market, but I get excited about going when the weather is nice and plants and produce are plentiful.  We’ve already been to the markets a few weekends now, and last weekend the kiddos and I were delighted to see baby bunnies and a baby goat. 

We had to get a bag of kettlecorn for Gwen and Josiah to fight over… er, share… and I picked some carrots and a big ol’ parsnip.  We kept going back to the baby animals.  I had rabbits growing up, and we’re considering getting ‘em for the kiddos. 

I take Gwen to storytime at our library every week, and last week we were fortunate to have it at local farm.  Gwen got to plant some seeds and flowers…

we looked at the horseys…

then peeked in the greenhouses at the gorgeous flowers.  It feels so good to get out! 

Healthy foods, sunshine, the promise of a self-sustaining crop in the future – invigorating!  Looking forward to the weekend, even though Phil will be working Easter Sunday (boo).  Continuing to read Benjamin’s Box leading up to Sunday, and Gwen has a little wooden box where she keeps the treasures from the Resurrection Eggs. 

What have you been up to?

Simplicity Parenting Book Club – Chapter 1

I’ve been devouring Simplicity Parenting, and am currently in chapter four.  Our lil’ book club has started its discussion on chapter one, and I’m sharing my thoughts here. 

I have two kiddos, ages 3 and 1, and I’ve gradually begun simplifying and enriching things a little at a time.  I forgot how it started – probably a little over a year ago when I was trying to eat healthily and lose some baby weight.  Making small changes for the better makes you want to carry that over to other aspects of your life (a fact that the book points out as a sort of natural progression).  I, too, feel “allergic to clutter” as Liz said, and I get edgy and stressed out when things are strewn around all over the house. 

In wanting to be a good wife and mother, keep my family happy and healthy, I’ve been researching things here and there about health, hygiene and diet.  We’ve been progressing on our journey into eating more healthy, less-refined foods (aside: I just got Nourishing Traditions from the library, and it’s such an eye-opener – I hope to write about some of my findings here at a later date); but there’s always something that could be changed, tweaked.  Let’s face it, no one’s perfect.  There’s always room for improvement! 

At such young ages, my kids already have lots of Stuff – mainly given by other people, but also from my desire to provide good, “educational,” “stimulating” things for them.  Rachel’s Downsizing Challenge really got to me, and it came at just the right time when I was already thinking something had to be done.  It was SO refreshing paring down toys and possessions, not holding on to every single article of clothing “just in case.” 

In chapter one, the correlation Dr. Payne made between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in war-torn countries and the exact same symptoms of children in the Western world was simply staggering, shocking.  I will be honest – I find it hard to disagree while not judge at the same time, and I know every situation is relative.  I’d probably feel different if I were in another person’s shoes.   But when Dr. Payne spoke of ADD, ADHD, etc. and its prevalence in society, I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly that it’s mainly the result of the environment in which we live.  In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that many of the negative things we experience – sickness, allergies, “disorders” – are due in large part because of our choices not only as individuals, but as society as a whole.  We may take steps – baby steps, big steps, whatever – to make changes here and there, but it’s difficult to change your way of thinking about everything to which you’ve become accustomed.

I sincerely believe that our instinct to protect our children will be what motivates us to change.  For me, that’s so true.  In the past, I may have thought this healthy change would be nice, or one day I’d get around to doing thus and so… but it really hits home when you’re striving to make changes for your family, your children.  Spending more money on healthy foods is a no-brainer when you’re concerned with the welfare of your children.  The more informed you are, the more educated choices you can make as a parent.  Once you realize less is more, it gives you the freedom to unload all the Stuff bogging you down – both physically and mentally.        

Children nowadays grow up so quickly, and as Dr. Payne writes, the pace of our daily lives is increasingly misaligned with the pace of childhood.  In essence, children are losing their childhood.  As a mother, this scares the heck out of me.  Not only do I want my children to retain their innocence as long as possible and have happy memories; but I want them to grow up in a safe, nurturing environment, one that will help shape them as creative, loving, contributing individuals.  Since the outside world is seriously lacking and terribly misguided, it’s my job to create that environment for them.        

This paragraph towards the end of the chapter sums it up nicely:

Why simplify?  The primary reason is that it will provide your child with greater ease and well-being.  Islands of being, in the mad torrent of constant doing.  With fewer distractions their attention expands, their focus can deepen, and they have more mental and physical space to explore the world in the manner their destiny demands.

I am being inspired to make these changes for the better both because of the progress I have already seen and in the excitement I feel in anticipation of what the future holds.  It feels refreshing, invigorating, freeing, shedding the excess and unwanted, making room for the things that really matter and having the energy to focus on those things.  Hoping to homeschool one day definitely has its own impact on my choices as a mother, since I will be with my kids All. The. Time.

What frightens me the most is not being able to shield my kids no matter how hard I try.  There’s always some new study, fads touted as gospel, and if I don’t go along with them I’m a “bad person.”  For instance, my pediatrician was taken aback when I told her I stopped giving milk to my children to drink.  And people are often surprised that my young children are with me all the time as opposed to being socialized in daycare.  The truth often seems hidden behind what the government, Big Business, wants us to know – the truth about refined foods, antibiotics, education, and so forth.

Susie’s comment resonated with me when she said that ”Simplification for me is about letting go of the ‘thought-clutter’ of modern life and letting the littles in to fill that space.”  Too often I’m caught up in what I need to get done, cross of my list, that the kids are almost a nuissance when they want my attention.  I’m always trying to plan ahead, and while this can be a good thing, it can definitely get in the way of treasuring each moment.  This is probably the biggest simplification hurdle for me - the change within.