It's winter here in Wisconsin, though I think someone forgot to tell that to Mother Nature. The past few weeks have been summer temperatures. Today's normal high is 40 and they are anticipating our actual temperature to be 83 today. It's crazy and I love it, but it also makes me scared that it can't last and it's going to freeze again and my fruit trees aren't going to bare fruit AGAIN this year. They are just starting to bud out now. My plants are all coming up and it's looking more like May than March out there.
That being said, I have more energy (presumably because I'm outside and soaking up more vitamin D), and I am ITCHING to get my hands in the dirt. Along with nice weather, I always feel like eating better. Last night, I introduced my boys to a HEALTHY salad and they loved it!! It's soooo super easy and I want to try to keep things in the house to make it because it's an easy snack when I want something RIGHT. NOW. Enjoy!
Strawberry Spinach Salad with Orange Poppy Seed Dressing
Dressing:
1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 tbsp poppy seeds (more or less, depending on your preference. I skipped them last time because I didn't have any in the house and it was still good!)
1 tbsp honey (Skip this if you're using vanilla yogurt)
Salad:
3 1/2 cups baby spinach leaves, rinsed
4 strawberries, chopped
Top salad with 2 tbsp of the dressing. Easy peasy!
Showing posts with label yogurt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yogurt. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Lemon Yogurt Muffins
I made these yesterday for Riley's class snack. They turned out really well and were AWESOME warm. I'm sure they'll be good cold, too but I haven't tried them yet that way. Riley thought they were super good and so did Rugby. Judging by the way the babies inhaled them, I think they liked them, too. lol!! (And, they're good for you!)
Lemon Yogurt Muffins
1 1/2 cups ap flour
1 c rolled oats (I used quick cooking)
1/2 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 c plain yogurt (I used the yogurt that I made a couple days ago! YUM!)
1 egg
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 lemon, peeled and chopped. Remove as much of the pith as you can.
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 fresh lemon for zest, chop the zest fine
Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
Preheat oven to 400.
In a large bowl, mix flour, oats, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and soda and salt. Set aside.
In another large bowl, mix yogurt, egg, 1/4 cup lemon juice and the chopped lemon.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix only until blended. It will foam up a bit, don't worry about that!
Fill 12 (mine made more) well greased muffin cups (paper liners should be greased also if you are using them). Bake for 15-20 minutes or intil a tooth pick comes out clean.
While they are baking, prepare the syrup. In a saucepan, mix 1/4 cup sugar, lemon zest and juice of the 1/2 lemon. Bring to a boil. Set aside until muffins are done.
When muffins are baked, used the toothpick to poke lots of holes in the muffins. Do not remove them from the pan until cooled. Brush the hot muffins with the syrup. Enjoy!
***EDIT: These are even better the next day!!
Lemon Yogurt Muffins
1 1/2 cups ap flour
1 c rolled oats (I used quick cooking)
1/2 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 c plain yogurt (I used the yogurt that I made a couple days ago! YUM!)
1 egg
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 lemon, peeled and chopped. Remove as much of the pith as you can.
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 fresh lemon for zest, chop the zest fine
Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
Preheat oven to 400.
In a large bowl, mix flour, oats, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and soda and salt. Set aside.
In another large bowl, mix yogurt, egg, 1/4 cup lemon juice and the chopped lemon.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix only until blended. It will foam up a bit, don't worry about that!
Fill 12 (mine made more) well greased muffin cups (paper liners should be greased also if you are using them). Bake for 15-20 minutes or intil a tooth pick comes out clean.
While they are baking, prepare the syrup. In a saucepan, mix 1/4 cup sugar, lemon zest and juice of the 1/2 lemon. Bring to a boil. Set aside until muffins are done.
When muffins are baked, used the toothpick to poke lots of holes in the muffins. Do not remove them from the pan until cooled. Brush the hot muffins with the syrup. Enjoy!
***EDIT: These are even better the next day!!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Homemade Yogurt
Here's the first installment of my inner Martha coming out. I was cruising the blog-o-sphere last week and found a recipe for homemade yogurt in the crockpot. My kids BIG HEART yogurt. All of them. So, since we go through 16 yogurt sticks and a 32 oz container of yogurt every week, I thought I'd make some. It didn't sound that hard...
Homemade Yogurt
8 cups (half gallon) milk....they recommend using whole til you get the hang of it then you can use a reduced fat version if you wish but people posted that they used 1% and skim with good results...more on this later)
1/2 cup yogurt starter (this can be 1/2 cup of active culture store-bought yogurt or yogurt starter from the health food store...guess which option I chose?)
Pour the milk into a crockpot (4 or 6 quart works well) and turn it on low for two and a half hours. Unplug and leave covered for 3 hours. Scoop out 2 cups of the milk and whisk in the yogurt starter. Pour that mixture back in with the milk and stir to combine. Replace lid and wrap the crockpot in a heavy bath towel. (I wrapped mine and put it in the oven that I had preheated to 100* and turned off) Then allow this to sit for 8-12 hours (go to bed, leave it alone). The longer it sits, the tangier it gets....so closer to 8 hours will be sweeter than 12 hours...TADA! Yogurt!! That's it. Easy peasy, right?! I thought so.
Riley was my first guinea pig and he didn't roll his nose up at it! Mine sat for close to 13 hours so it wasn't "sweet" but the soury tang was good. I used whole milk and it wasn't too thick, but wasn't watery either, the lower the fat content the thinner the yogurt will be. There are two possible remedies for this....when whisking the starter into the milk, add two tbsp dry milk powder (not instant!) or an envelope of unflavored gelatin. Many people have had good luck with those options. Or a third option is to line a strainer with cheesecloth and strain your yogurt. This will make it really really thick like sour cream. I believe this is what they call "greek yogurt". The whey that you strain out can be saved for other uses. I know that it works for making dog treats if you do that....
Now, who likes plain yogurt? Not me! At the very least I like it vanilla. Some fruit is nice, also. Here's where the fun part is! Stir in some flavor. I used strawberry freezer jam in part of the batch and that turned out really well. I didn't have to add sugar to the yogurt since the jam has plenty to spare. This morning, we added some raspberry jam to the plain and it was awesome! A little vanilla a powdered sugar might be nice, too. Maybe mango? The possibilies are only as limited as your family's palate! Mine like fruit...maybe you have a baby and want to mix in some sweet potatoes or something. Can't hurt to try, right?!
Oh, and I made this Saturday and finished it Sunday morning. There's about one cup of yogurt left right now....I think they liked it.
OH! I almost forgot! You can use the yogurt that you made for starter on the next batch one or two times if you used store bought yogurt or longer if you use the starter from the health food store. And your homemade yogurt will keep as long as 7-10 days....if your family doesn't eat it all by then! Enjoy!!
Homemade Yogurt
8 cups (half gallon) milk....they recommend using whole til you get the hang of it then you can use a reduced fat version if you wish but people posted that they used 1% and skim with good results...more on this later)
1/2 cup yogurt starter (this can be 1/2 cup of active culture store-bought yogurt or yogurt starter from the health food store...guess which option I chose?)
Pour the milk into a crockpot (4 or 6 quart works well) and turn it on low for two and a half hours. Unplug and leave covered for 3 hours. Scoop out 2 cups of the milk and whisk in the yogurt starter. Pour that mixture back in with the milk and stir to combine. Replace lid and wrap the crockpot in a heavy bath towel. (I wrapped mine and put it in the oven that I had preheated to 100* and turned off) Then allow this to sit for 8-12 hours (go to bed, leave it alone). The longer it sits, the tangier it gets....so closer to 8 hours will be sweeter than 12 hours...TADA! Yogurt!! That's it. Easy peasy, right?! I thought so.
Riley was my first guinea pig and he didn't roll his nose up at it! Mine sat for close to 13 hours so it wasn't "sweet" but the soury tang was good. I used whole milk and it wasn't too thick, but wasn't watery either, the lower the fat content the thinner the yogurt will be. There are two possible remedies for this....when whisking the starter into the milk, add two tbsp dry milk powder (not instant!) or an envelope of unflavored gelatin. Many people have had good luck with those options. Or a third option is to line a strainer with cheesecloth and strain your yogurt. This will make it really really thick like sour cream. I believe this is what they call "greek yogurt". The whey that you strain out can be saved for other uses. I know that it works for making dog treats if you do that....
Now, who likes plain yogurt? Not me! At the very least I like it vanilla. Some fruit is nice, also. Here's where the fun part is! Stir in some flavor. I used strawberry freezer jam in part of the batch and that turned out really well. I didn't have to add sugar to the yogurt since the jam has plenty to spare. This morning, we added some raspberry jam to the plain and it was awesome! A little vanilla a powdered sugar might be nice, too. Maybe mango? The possibilies are only as limited as your family's palate! Mine like fruit...maybe you have a baby and want to mix in some sweet potatoes or something. Can't hurt to try, right?!
Oh, and I made this Saturday and finished it Sunday morning. There's about one cup of yogurt left right now....I think they liked it.
OH! I almost forgot! You can use the yogurt that you made for starter on the next batch one or two times if you used store bought yogurt or longer if you use the starter from the health food store. And your homemade yogurt will keep as long as 7-10 days....if your family doesn't eat it all by then! Enjoy!!
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