How to choose a healthy yogurt

Regular yogurt have around 6 grams of protein per serving, but Greek yogurts can have up to 17 grams per serving. This makes it a great source of protein and it can be the protein source for your meal. Protein helps contribute to feelings of satiety after a meal, so it’s important to always have protein at a meal

Some yogurts have a lot of added sugar, often listed as various names such as sugar, cane sugar, fruit juice, juice concentrate, and honey. Plain yogurts, while they do contain the sugar naturally found in milk called lactose, they do not have any added sugars. You can add your own fresh or frozen fruit to yogurt for a sweeter treat.

Yogurts with live and active cultures contain probiotics. These are bacterial species that are good for health and can help promote adequate quantities of good bacteria so bad bacteria can’t flourish too much. Look for a package that says "live and active cultures" or lists the bacterial species in the ingredients. 

Yogurt contains calcium, which we need for our bone health. Regular yogurt actually has more calcium than Greek yogurt, because some calcium is lost when the whey is strained out to turn regular yogurt into Greek yogurt.

Another yogurt dilemma, this time it's a pizza solution!

                It was again a moment of too much yogurt in the house. Again a question of how to put it in other dishes. I saw a video about pizza dough made out of yogurt and flour, so I decided to give it a try. The recipe called for equal parts of self-rising flour and yogurt; then, you add flour as needed until you have a dough. I did not have self-rising flour, but quick research showed me that adding 1.5 tsp baking powder and 0.5 tsp salt to 1 cup of all purpose flour will make it into self-rising flour.

                I started with 2 cups of flour, to which I added the baking powder and salt. Then I added the yogurt and started mixing. I had to add a lot more flour because the dough was too sticky. I think that this could be remedied by using Greek rather than regular yogurt, or straining my homemade yogurt to remove more of the whey and make it thicker. I’ll try straining my yogurt next time I make this pizza dough. Anyway, I kneaded my dough until it looked like pizza dough.

I divided the dough into 3 balls and rolled each one out on a foil-covered toaster tray that I lightly greased with canola oil. Instead of using sauce, I spooned on some canned diced tomatoes (leaving the liquid in the can.) Then I sprinkled on some cheese and topped it with assorted vegetables. My favorite vegetables for decorating pizza are onions, mushrooms, colored peppers, and zucchini. It is a good way to add vegetables to themeal, and of course, they add so much flavor to the pizza. I like to sprinkle the top with oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder for some more yumminess.

After baking the first pizza in the toaster oven at 375⁰ for 20 minutes, the crust looked browned and the vegetables were getting toasted. I cut the pizza and I saw that the dough had gotten soggy from the vegetables, though it was clearly cooked through. For my second pizza, I upped the temperature to 400⁰, and the result was better. The dough was firmer and the vegetables were fully roasted. I will try par-cooking the dough for 10 minutes before adding the toppings next time I make this...I think that might work even better.

Definitely the second pizza tasted better, though they both looked nice. This recipe was a good idea, but I think that with a bit of tweaking for the recipe and cooking, I’ll have a better pizza next try.

it became dough!

all rolled out

got the diced tomatoes and cheese

and some decorations

out of the toaster....(note that the decorations don't match the prior picture...this was the second pizza. that one was the first.)

now I cut it into slices

What to do With Yogurt

• Mix in some frozen fruit (they get nice and juicy as they defrost)
• Spoon over oatmeal instead of adding milk
• Chop in your favorite fresh fruit or add fresh berries (mango, banana, strawberries, blueberries…)
• Add in ¼ cup nuts or seeds
• Use as base for a creamy salad dressing or dip
• Mix in fruit and freeze for a yummy cold treat
• Add to mac and cheese instead of adding extra cheese to add creaminess
• Use thick yogurt instead of cream cheese in frosting
• Add to a smoothie
• Swirl in a spoonful of nut butter
• Use instead of mayonnaise in egg salad or tuna fish
• Add ¼ cup raisins, dried cranberries, or your favorite dried fruit
• Sprinkle with some cinnamon or coconut flakes
• Serve with dry cereal such as Cheerios, Chex, or Grapenuts
• Add ½ cup dry oats and 1 cup milk and leave in fridge overnight for overnight oats
• Stir in some jelly or jam
• Drizzle with honey, syrup, or some sugar
• Add some applesauce or fruit compote
• Serve over warm pureed butternut squash
• Use as a spread on toast
• Eat it plain

Lots of Yogurt

                Because my small batch of yogurt was fairly successful, I was ready to try a larger run. I bought a gallon of 1% milk from my favorite National Wholesale Liquidators that sells milk for $3.00 usually. I had in the fridge Stop and Shop brand low fat yogurt that contained live and active bacterial cultures. And I was ready!

                This time, I heated my milk up in a crockpot. It took close to 4 hours for the milk to reach 185⁰F. Then, somewhat foolishly, I attempted to cool the milk by immersing it into a sink filled with cold water. Big mistake! Immediately, the crock developed a hairline crack. I quickly, (with the help of SP,) transferred the milk into 2 cooking dishes, and then let them cool on their own. Unfortunately, I let them cool to lower than 115⁰F, so I put them into the oven to warm them back to that temperature. In the meantime, I put about ½ cup of the yogurt to be used as the starter into a bowl. As soon as the milk was 115⁰F, I mixed about 1 cup milk into the yogurt, and then poured half the starter into each of the 2 cooking dished. I covered the dishes, then draped them with a blanket, and put 2 pots of boiling water on top to help maintain the warm temperature. I let the yogurt incubate for 8 hours. Then, I strained the yogurt for about 2 hours.

                I was intrigued that the yogurt from each of the dishes came out different than each other. The one in the shallow pan incubated at a lower temperature (likely due to the increased surface area it had to let heat escape.) That yogurt was a bit thinner, maybe a tad thinner than typical yogurt, but still definitely a yogurt consistency. The other one was much thicker, closer to Greek yogurt consistency. And both of the yogurts tasted like…yogurt! It was not too tart. It just tasted like plain yogurt. And none of the slightly grainy texture I had in my first one. It made about 4 quarts of yogurt, which means that it costed about $0.75 to make 1 quart of yogurt. I was pleased.  

Now, I have to find another method of heating my milk. I might get a large pot to be used for just this purpose. 

thicker yogurt before straining

thinner yogurt before straining

the yogurts straining!

thick yogurt after straining...it looks like yogurt, right?