{foodie} Best Yoghurt Ever

This is a thermomix recipe for yoghurt, however yogurt is fairly easy to make and you don't need a thermomix to make, or an easiyo set up. On Easiyo....those packets you buy....pretty much really expensive sugar, starter culture and whatever else they put in there. Don't buy them, they are a rip off.

Ingredients

1-2 litres of milk, full cream or low fat, it doesn't really matter. How much yoghurt do you want to make? Keep in mind, if you drain the whey, you will not end up with what you started with.

2 Tb natural live yoghurt. This is your starter and you will need to buy some plain yoghurt or reserve some each time you make yoghurt.

 

How to

Pour milk in the thermo and heat 10min/80/speed2

Leave to cool until the 37 light switches off.

Add yoghurt starter. Mix 5sec/speed 3

Heat 10min/37/speed2.

Pour straight into your thermoserver or container to keep warm. This is the key. You need a nice warm environment for the yoghurt cultures to do their thing and for the yoghurt to set. You could place in a casserole dish, lid on with a towel wrapped around, or in a thermos. I use my thermoserve and place in the oven overnight.

Leave for at least 6 hours or overnight if possible.

*drain the whey through a muslin. This is optional. I prefer to do it and I use the whey in cooking or ricotta cheese making (I will post up a blog post!)

 

Now you have plain yoghurt. It should keep nicely for up to 5 days.

Flavourings

Plain yoghurt is fine, but you can have a bit of fun flavouring your yoghurt. I generally grind 1/2 MC of sugar 10secs/9 and add this to my yoghurt along with whatever flavour I want to make it. For example, vanilla:few drops of essence, strawberry:a large blob of strawberry jam. Stir through

Jam makes a great flavouring, as does fruits such as banana and peaches. I do recommend the sugar, but play around with the quantities, see how low you can go to get the desired sweetness.

Let me know how you go! If you have any questions, please ask!

 

5 Reasons YOU need to Get Some Chooks.

My Girls.

1. Chooks Reduce the amount of Garbage you put in Landfill

I could have been gardening god Josh Byrne (and my what a god...I have a celeb-crush on Josh) or perhaps gardening goddess Sabrina Hahn that said something along the lines of "if local councils were serious about landfill they would make it easier for homeowners to keep chooks". Or something along those lines.

And my goodness, whoever said it, was right. Chooks are natural scavengers. They love the cold mushed up weetbix left over from breakfast and your kids don't like crust?, no problems, chooks love them. I have 4 chooks. I think this is a good number for us. We produce enough scraps to feed the chooks, with layers pellets to supplement should the girls get a bit peckish.

I could go on and on about this point alone. Did you know that food waste in land fill is the number 2 producer of methane and that 38% of our garbage is food waste. Shamefull hey. Because food waste needs oxygen to decompose and in in landfill it gets buried, methane is produced. Methane is not so good for the environment. Yet, a simple and practical solution would be backyard chickens.

2. Eggs!

Fresh, produced in a happy environment, yummy scrummy eggs. And even when you factor in buying a chook and the layer pellets, they still work out cheaper than store bought eggs. This blog post from Leanne Daharja @ Hazeltree Farm shows you just how cost effective chickens are :)

3. They add character and warmth.

Even if your not an animal person, hearing the chickens bok and cluck is joyful. Mine see me at the back door and come running to the gate to see if I have any scraps. I love them :)

4. They contribute tothe gardens too.

They don't just produce eggs. They can be very much part of the garden cycle as well. I heap hay, weeds and grass clippings into my chook run in a deep litter style way. The chooks scratch and poop and general turn everything about. When it starts to look like it needs a clean out, I rake it all out and place in the garden and some in compost bins. Chicken poop can be quite strong, so when I clean this out (it tends to build up where they sleep), I pop it into the compost to break down some more. This all adds nutrients to the gardens, the garden produces nutritious food for the humans, the scraps go back to the chooks and it is one big happy cycle.

Just a couple of notes. Some plants and weeds are poisonous, obviously don't include these, or your chickens will be at the end of the cycle of life prematurely.

Also weeds may not die straight away. That is why they are weeds. Transfering them to the garden bed may give them a new lease on life. If in doubt leave in the coop longer, so the chooks can turn and scratch some more.

5.Chooks are an educational experience.

I'm not a fan of the "get a pet to teach responsibility". It's a bit nonsense if you ask me. However chooks can provide an array of teaching opportunities for your kids. You have basic animal care, where eggs come from, food cycles, waste cycles, life cycles, bi-cycles....nah just joking.

Eggs can lead to cooking lessons, scraps can lead to lessons in healthy eating (don't want the chooks to eat bad food).

Don't have kids that need educating? Well share your eggs with your neighbors. Educate them!

So what are you waiting for...go get some chooks.

More on Breadmaking

Oh Belinda I spoke too soon!

The day after my previous post, I loaded up my breadmaker, pressed all the buttons and left it to make dough. Unfortunately the machine was sitting to close to the edge of the bench and during kneading it fell off the bench. The lid cracked and it couldn't be closed properly.

I recieved the breadmaker for my 19th birthday preasant, I'm now 31, so I have got a good number of years out it. But I was still disappointed.

Anyway, on the bright side, my making bread by hand is steadily getting better. Getting the bread to rise sufficiently has been a problem. It takes several hours and the dough is still not that well risen. The inside of my house is too cold, and I live in a coastal town, so although the sun is nice and warm, the wind has a cooling effect on the dough. Not good.

I read on another blog that placing a cup of water in the microwave, then zapping it to boil the water, then placing the dough in the microwave can work. And it does! The steam from the water combined with the contained space, creates a nice warm environment for the dough.

Hmm, I'm off to make bread ;)

Life

I've recently been thinking about life, about changes, changes for the good and changes for not so good. I've also been thinking about my place in the world, the example I set for my children, nephews and for my guides (well I am a role model for them too) and happiness.

Something that has bothered me for sometime now is the change in the type of person I am now compared to 10 years ago. Ok I admit 10 years ago I was a young fresh 18 year old with no children, but I did things differently then that make me kind of jealous of that 18 y.o I used to be.

I used to walk, ride, or public transport it everywhere. This was for practical (no car/licence), financial (no money for car) and environmental reasons. I used to be vegetarian (environmental and financial). I used to fanatically recycle, reuse and reduce in terms of consumerism. Nothing was wasted. Life was simple, and happy.

And although I am happy for different reasons now, more and more I find myself frustrated and unsatisfied. With an increase in income and life changes I seem to have become more busy, more materialistic, more consumerist. And I don't like this part of me.

I realise all mothers are busy, but life seems so fast with guides, scouts, dancing, school, playgroup, storytime, swimming lessons etc etc. I spend so much time driving from one event to another, buying the latest gizmo, buying clothing in 'acceptable' brands and the like, and I wonder is this what I want for my children. Do I want them to watch their mother compete with the other mums, yet never quite getting there because her heart really is not in it.

Yesterday my son and daughter did not want to do there after school activities, and being pregnant and tired and emotional, I gave in and said we are staying at home. You know what they did instead? Built a cubby and then taught there 2 year old sister to play hide and seek. The tv was off, they ate most of there dinner, they showered and then fell into bed. It was normal, happy, family centred evening.

Making a cubby!

I have been reading more and more blogs that express theses thoughts too. And as I am a doing person, I've decided that it is time to downsize and simplify some. I've started to put into place simple measures to do this.

The first is looking at how we spend our money. To much money is being wasted on over priced, over packaged goods that do nothing for my family anyway. I've cut out buying baby wipes, I'm going back to the simple reusable homemade wipes and water for my daughters bottom. I've investigated some homemade washing powder recipes, and this weekend we will be making up our own laundry liquid. I've looked at going back to cloth nappies, and although I will be using mostly disposables, I have got some PUL fabric ordered so I can start making my own nappies (the goal is to have the new baby in all cloth). I've cut the take-away to once a fortnight and that is going to be cut further to once a month then down to only on special occasions. I've stopped buying limited use washing up sponges and when we run out, I will be making reusable ones. I've cut buying the crap I was putting in the kids lunch boxes (like over packaged cheese dips, individual chipscrackers ect) in favour of fruit, home made cake, fresh cheese and a couple of crackers.

What I estimate I'll save from just this:

Cost (what it was costing) Yearly Saving

Baby wipes $6.50 p/w $338

Laundry liquid $20 p/m $240

Cloth nappies $ 15 p/w $780

Take-away $30 p/w $1200

Wash-up sponges $5 p/m $60

Crap school lunch $15 p/w $400

Total saving $3018

Just from those limited changes, we'll be saving $3018. That is massive!