Leftovers

     Last weekend, we had chicken soup. There was a fairly large amount of broth leftover afterwards, and I didn’t want to waste it. I had heard of people using soup broth to make other foods, so I decided to give it a try. First, I strained the broth to remove any leftover solids. Then I measured it—it came out to be about 5 cups. The perfect amount to make rice! I cooked the rice like I typically do. The resulting rice was so fragrant and delicious!

               

     Other uses of leftover soup broth:

• Cook any grains, including rice, quinoa, and barley in soup broth
• Use it to start another soup or stew
• Add a bit to mashed potatoes
• Use it to make stuffing
• Cook beans, lentils, or chickpeas in soup broth

Some yogurt troubles

            I have not written in a while, but let’s try to get back into it.

I recently made a failed yogurt. It seemed to be all right when it was done fermenting, but then it unexpectedly spoiled faster than any prior batch. I looked into potential causes of this, and I found that this can be caused by contaminated yogurt starter, improper storage of the finished yogurt, or the yogurt itself getting contaminated. It definitely was a bit discouraging, and I was disappointed to have to throw out about a third of a gallon of yogurt, but I am hoping it was a one-time fluke of the yogurt getting contaminated. Last night I made another batch, and it will be ready in a few hours. I hope I will have better yogurt this time.

I have been mostly using my yogurt in overnight oats that I eat for breakfast. I have also been using it to make a really quick homemade pizza dough that has been a favorite. I have also frozen leftover pizza dough for later use, and it froze, defrosted, and baked really well. I love decorating the pizza with all sorts of vegetables, especially onions, peppers, and mushrooms…yum…

Other exciting uses of yogurt are always fun to discover. It is such a versatile ingredient that can add protein and calcium to your diet.