So, I can make my own yogurt. I know, the crafty-ness and the cake decorating-ness, it's all blowing you away, and now I make my own yogurt? Yeah. I go off and on with the yogurt thing. It's a little more work to make the yogurt kid-friendly, since all I can make is the plain stuff, so if it's an ok price at the grocery store, I'll still buy the commercial, fruity, sweetened, thickened, ingredients-I-can't-pronounce stuff off the shelves, but then I start to get worried about all that extra crap the kids and I are eating in our yogurt (D doesn't really eat yogurt) and I make some of my own again. I'm doing that today.
I make it in my crockpot, using this handy little recipe/tutorial. It's not a simple crockpot recipe (as in leave it and fuggetaboutit), but it does only require coming back to a few times a few hours apart and then overnight. It's best to make it on a day when you're going to be home.
I've never been able to get store-bought consistency out of my homemade yogurt, it's usually a fair bit thinner, but excellent for use in smoothies and other recipes. Speaking of other recipes, I finally read the ingredients on my canned soups... and Campbell's mushroom soup has MSG in it. I'm not terribly surprised, I suppose, but I don't like it. Anyway, apparently yogurt can be used (along with some other flavourful ingredients) and a nice substitute in recipes that call for creamy soups. You can also use this recipe (at the end of the post).
Other than smoothies, my favorite thing to make with my homemade yogurt is healthy homemade orange "creamsicles." They're perfect in summer when you're looking for a frozen treat. I often use leftover smoothie to make smoothie popsicles for the kids. We all love them and they're way better for us than storebought popsicles.
Orange Yogurt Creamsicles
Homemade (or store-bought) plain yogurt - I don't know how much, maybe 2 cups?
Orange juice concentrate - a couple of icecream scoops
1 ripe or overripe banana
If you don't like the banana taste in your creamsicle, you could sweeten with honey or sugar instead. Blend it all up in your blender, pour it into popsicle molds and freeze.
