Edited to add: A Morning uploaded the segment to YouTube. You can watch it here. :)
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Hello A Morning peeps! If you’re looking for the Shopping Embargo post, it’s right here. It’s an ongoing project which ends February 28, 2011. I’m logging all of my family’s purchases in the comment section at the bottom of that post. You can bookmark it and check back for updates to see how we’re doing.
If you’re looking for CheapEats Ottawa, here is the website for the book (you can order a copy right off the site), and the companion blog is here. We are starting work on a new edition for late 2011 and would LOVE to hear about people’s new finds and old favourites for consideration for the next edition. You can tell us about your favourite Ottawa cheap eat right here.
If you’re looking for my latest giveaway, it’s right here. Deadline for entry is tomorrow (Saturday the 22nd)!
Thanks for visiting!
Remember my sugar-free yogurt snack the other day?
It inspired me to try to make my own, and let me tell you, it turned out pretty awesome.
You may be asking yourself, why on earth would I want to make my own yogurt? I understand why you’re wondering. After all, you can buy yogurt fairly inexpensively at the grocery store, right? But consider this:
- If we did the math I still think homemade yogurt would be cheaper than buying.
- Making homemade yogurt is a pretty natural process, and does not contain a lot of ingredients that storebought yogurts may contain, like additives, colouring or gelatin … which may be of interest to vegetarians and vegans because unless something in the food industry has changed, gelatin is still made the old-fashioned way, out of horse hooves. Other ingredients may include corn starch for thickener, sugar, and other artificial sweeteners like aspartame.
- You can flavour homemade yogurt yourself and control the sweetness. Personally I find commercially fruit yogurts much too sweet for my liking. Like with my oatmeal, I prefer it plain and to add my own toppings. I thought my batch might end up tasting tart, like some commercial brands, but it wasn’t.
I made my yogurt -without a yogurt maker – exactly as written here. I even got out the candy thermometer so I could get the temperature right. It totally worked! I put my batch of yogurt in a very slightly warmed oven (with the light on) for about 8 hours before I put it in the fridge. The consistency was very good, although a tiny bit less solid than I would have liked it to be. I read somewhere that it’s better to throw a towel over it instead of using a dish with a lid (like I did). At this point I could throw it into a fine sieve and strain out some of the liquids, but I’m not sure if it bugs me enough to bother with this.
Some ways to use yogurt:
- Strain overnight through cheese cloth and use for a base for a dip or for tzatziki. It’s MUCH better than a sour-cream base. Here’s a great recipe from Canadian Living, which is pretty close to mine. (I grate my cucumber instead of chopping it.)
- Have it for breakfast. I had some this morning with strawberries (formerly frozen) and a liberal sprinkle of All-Bran Buds. (Kellogg should pay me for my slavish devotion to this stuff! But sadly, I need to inform you that the SECOND ingredient is sugar/glucose-fructose. KELLOGG, YOU MUST FIX THIS.) It’s also good with fresh blueberries and a sprinkle of slivered almonds. My mother used to make yogurt and serve it with a spoonful of jam in it. (Just an idea!)
- Use yogurt as a base for fruit smoothies. I bet it’d be really good whirled up in a blender with a few hunks of frozen banana.
Any other ideas?
What I don’t know is if this is better than storebought in terms of the number of active bacteria. I know this is important for some people. Regardless, I like it just the same.
Aaaaaages ago I won a Goodbyn from Raspberry Kids. Sarah has been using it for a few months. Someone at school asked me about it recently and it reminded me that I meant to write about it here. I really like it and I think some of you would too.
The Goodbyn is basically a large plastic food storage container with separate compartments. It’s intended to replace the traditional lunch box (and lunch bag, come to think of it).
Here’s a quickie snap of an example of one lunch I packed in the Goodbyn. (There are some really inspired lunches in the Goodbyn Flickr group, do check it out!) Pictured here: a veggie/cheese wrap, grapes, sliced pear, cheese, mini pretzels. There should be a drink container where the grapes are located (it came with it), but I took out it out because it struck me as kind of cheap, and it wasn’t very useful since Sarah gets milk at school.
After a few months of use I have to say I really like the Goodbyn.
- It has totally eliminated the need for a lunch bag…
- … and separate lunch containers and their easy-to-lose lids, which are annoying to track and store.
- It’s easy to wash. You can put it in the dishwasher but I just handwash in hot soapy water, and there are no nooks or crannies or seams that harbour crumbs or smears of cream cheese.
- It has a handle on top (easy to carry!), and the lid (which is the size of the container) is easy to snap on and pull off.
- It might seem large, but she just sticks the whole thing in her messenger bag. Fits just fine.
When I started packing lunches in this thing I had to slightly realign the way I think about lunch and how I pack it. It’s not about one big sandwich anymore, but that’s ok… Sarah doesn’t actually like sandwiches very much. I have packed her salads in this thing, and just put the dressing in a tiny glass bottle (the school would probably frown on that, but I don’t care) and placing a tiny fork along where the grapes are.
I think she’s secretly proud of her Goodbyn. It’s totally litterless, and she always gets some variety in her lunch, parcelled out in smaller pieces, which I think she thinks is more fun to eat. But I have to say, I’d be happy if she’d just eat a sandwich once in awhile.
