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Have you ever wanted to make homemade yogurt? We have been trying to eliminate added sugars in our house and homemade yogurt is an easy way to  use honey or other sweeteners to make yogurt healthier and it's way more economical to make it this way as well.  

What you need:

1 gallon milk

4 Tbs plain yogurt

4 quart jars

a candy thermometer

heating pad

towel

Cook the milk in a large pot until it reaches 180 degrees. Then let it cool to about 110 degrees.  Then you add the plain yogurt to the warm milk.  You can do this by shaking some in a jar.  My favorite way is to put it all in and use my immersion blender to stir it up, but I have also added 1 tablespoon to each jar.  This is the only recipe where it always seems to work!  After you add the yogurt starter you add the whole mixture to your quart jars and put them on the heating pad with a towel over them for 6-8 hours.  Put the lids on and refrigerate!

If you have lactose issues you can strain your yogurt to remove the whey.  This makes a creamier, Greek style yogurt.  You can strain for longer to make a yogurt cheese and add salt and spices too!  Let me know if you have any questions on this!

Do you ever buy too much milk and it starts to go bad before you can finish it?  With 5 kids it seems like sometimes we go through lots of milk and other times not so much. I'm not much of a milk drinker, but my kids go through phases where they drink a lot.  This is an easy cottage cheese recipe that I use to not waste sour milk! 

Heat milk to 120 degrees. If I'm using a whole gallon I heat it at medium heat for about 25 minutes.  This does not need to be precise!

Turn off heat and add 3/4 Cup of white vinegar to one gallon of milk.  If I have less I just guestimate.  Again, this is not precise.

Cover and let stand for at least 30 minutes.

Drain (you can save the whey if you want)

With the curds that are left you can salt and add cream to taste!

That's it!  Easy Peesy!

Breakfast cookies are a family favorite.  I typically make them when I have banana's that are overripe.  This year (2021) I am trying to eliminate added sugars.  I am allowing myself to use honey and stevia to sweeten things because I have found that they do have some health benefits and they don't have the addictive quality that sugar does.  I hope that you enjoy these cookies.  I have 2 variations for you to try!

Banana Oat Breakfast Cookie (original recipe)

1 large banana mashed

1/2 C chunky peanut butter

1/2 C honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 C rolled oats

1/2 C whole wheat flour

1/4 C nonfat dry milk powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 C dried cranberries or raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly coat baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray, set aside. In a large bowl stir together banana, peanut butter, honey and vanilla. In a small bowl combine oats, flour, milk powder, cinnamon and baking soda. Stir the oat mixture until combined. Stir in the raisins.

Cook for about 12-15 minutes. Can be stored for 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Variation 2

3 bananas mashed

1/4 C PB Fit or peanut butter powder

1/4 C Monk Fruit

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 C rolled oats

1/2 C GF flour

1/4 C sunflower lecithin

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup raisins.

Combine all ingredients and cook at 350 for 12-15 minutes!

This week's recipe is inspired from the Trim Healthy Mama protein Pancakes.  I've done a couple of things different from their original recipe, so I'd encourage you to check out their recipe and make it your own. 

These are a family favorite and I make them at least once a week! I personally love to top them with peanut butter and agave nectar, but sometimes I also top them with chia seed fruit jam (recipe below) and stevia sweetened whipped cream!

Recipe:

8 eggs

2 cups oats

2 cups cottage cheese

1 heaping Tbs. baking powder

2 tsp. vanilla

6 Tbs. monk fruit or 6 doonks of stevia

Put all the ingredients in the blender and blend together.  Heat a pan or griddle. Spray or use coconut oil and cook.  These cook like regular pancakes, but because they have protein they stick with you much longer!

I hope you enjoy! let me know if you try them!

We are trying to eliminate as much sugar in our diets as we can.  I don't know about you, but sugar is one of those things that we continually have to keep in check. All of us have a sweet tooth and this time of year I find it especially difficult to say no to all the treats and goodies.  I've found having something healthy and sweet to snack on can really help!  These are so easy to make and you can substitute out most of the ingredients.  If you find me on pinterest you can find some other related pins to this recipe as well.  

Recipe:

2 cups of peanut or any nut butter

1/2 c of chopped dates

1  Tbs of chia seeds

1 Tbs of cocoa powder (optional)

1/2 cup of raisins or dried fruit

unsweetened coconut

Combine the first 4 -5 ingredients and make them into balls.  Put the unsweetened coconut in a small bowl and roll them out!  Put them in a container in the refrigerator and enjoy! These aren't too sweet. If you'd like them sweeter you could add honey or stevia to sweeten!

I would love to hear if you come up with any other fun combo's for these yummy treats!

One of my favorite health swaps is chia seed jam. My kids love jam, but it is full of sugar, even home made is almost all sugar, but chia seed jam is so easy and full of nutrients and you can make it how you like it.  All you need for this recipe is fruit, chia seeds and sweetener of your choice. I typically use, agave nectar, honey or stevia, but you could even use sugar since it uses quite a bit less than regular jam.

Recipe:

2 cups of fruit

1-2 tablespoons of chia seeds

Sweeten to taste.

1. I usually heat the fruit for about 10 minutes just to get the juices flowing, but if you want a raw jam you can leave this step out.

2. Mash the fruit and add chia seeds. You can start with one table spoon and add more if needed. It can take a little bit for it to firm up, but more won't hurt the texture.

3. Add sweetener or not if you have really ripe fruit.  

4. Wait a few hours for it to firm up!

That's it.  This has changed my canning. Now I just keep fruit in the freezer and make jam as we need it! One thing to note is that this jam doesn't last as long because it no preservatives, so it needs to get used in 1-2 weeks or put it in the freezer.  

Enjoy!