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.

Spreading the (yogurt) joy

                I visited my parents for a weekend recently, and I made them a batch of yogurt. I tried out the double boiler method to prevent the the milk from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pot. They have a larger supply of pots than I do, so it was a good place to try this! I did stir the milk occasionally, but I never once began to feel burnt milk building up on the bottom. This definitely is a good idea in order to make yogurt-making a more hands-off project. I left the milk on the stove, and whenever I happened to pass through the kitchen, I stirred it. Once I inoculated it with starter yogurt, I left the milk incubating between two pots of boiling water covered in towels and went back home. I asked my mother to put it in the fridge the next morning. But before she did, she added it to her breakfast smoothie! After the yogurt was transferred to a container, I received a report that there was no burnt milk stuck to the bottom. 

the milk is in the top pot, and water is in the bottom pot

in a container

Salmon burger dinner....of course I got yogurt in there too.

                Usually, Sunday is when I have the most time to prepare more time-consuming dinners. Last week I made turkey burgers, so my mind was still on the burger idea, and I was thinking that I had not made salmon patties in a while. So that became the plan. Make the salmon patties and prepare homemade buns.

                Credits to my mother fot the salmon burger recipe. In a bowl, I mixed together a can of salmon with the bones removed, 2 eggs, ½ cup oats, 1 finely diced carrot, 1 finely diced celery, 2 cloves of fresh garlic, seasoned salt, onion powder, and pepper. I left that in the fridge overnight and then rolled and flattened them into 8 patties the next night. Instead of frying them, I baked them for a total of 30 minutes, turning them over after about 20 minutes.

               

                I wanted to make whole wheat buns, and I found this recipe that used mostly whole wheat flour. I did not fully follow the instructions. I allowed the dough to rise for 1 hour after mixing, and then again for 30 minutes after I shaped them into 12 rolls. Next time I make this recipe, I think I will try to make the rolls more flat/less round, so that they are not as tall when they are finished baking. This is the link to the recipe I used. 

                On Monday night, when the salmon burgers were baking, I decided that I should make a sauce to go on the burgers. And since I love yogurt, I decided to make a yogurt sauce. I combined about 1 cup yogurt with a few small squirts of lemon juice, about ½ tsp salt, and 2 cloves of diced garlic.

                To assemble the sandwiches, layer in this order: bottom bun, salmon burger, spoon of yogurt sauce, slice of tomato, scallions, and top bun. Yummmm….

putting on the "lid" and getting ready to eat!

Yogurt Routine

                I have gotten into a pretty good yogurt-making routine by now. The whole process takes many hours, but it is mostly hands-off. One area I’ve been having trouble with is heating the milk without burning it. If I do not stir the milk often enough while it is heating, it starts to burn to the bottom. Once, the burnt milk pieces come off the bottom of the pot while mixing the milk, and I ended up with little burnt flecks floating around the milk. To solve that problem, I strained the milk through a cloth to remove all of the burnt particles. I was glad that worked and I did not have to waste an entire gallon and a half of milk!

                I have read suggestions of methods to prevent burning the milk. They include heating the milk on a double boiler, stirring frequently, using a low flame, or heating it in a microwave. Until I invest in a very large double boiler, I will just have to be more careful about stirring the milk often, and of course not using a high flame.

                Even though I have made many batches of yogurt since I started making it a few months ago, I always am excited to see the results in the morning. For some reason, I am constantly surprised that the milk has yogurted!

looks like a science experiment...waiting for the milk to cool to 115⁰ F before adding the yogurt starter. 

the milk wrapped with a pot of boiling water on either side to keep it incubated all night 

it yogurted! you can see that it is thick because I am holding the pot tilted and the yogurt is keeping its shape

Post Passover…My Favorite Passover Foods

                One of my readers asked me to write about my favorite Passover foods. For starters, I will say that I have never gone hungry on Passover. There has always been an overabundance of food. The only thing I may have missed was pretzels. Actually, I definitely miss pretzels over Passover, but one week without them has always been more than fine. Especially when I am surrounded with such good cooks!

                I love my mother’s tongue that she serves for the Seder. This is the one time of the year that she makes this dish. Nothing says Seder meal to me more than this meat. Well, maybe the applesauce she serves for dessert can tie it as being ultimate Seder food.

                I always look forward to having matza lasagna during Passover. Instead of using lasagna noodles, square matza sheets are soaked in water and used as the pasta. This year I had matza lasagna twice! I was doubly fortunate. Maybe it makes up for the Passover a few years back when I did not have matza lasagna once.

                Because we are limited in the ingredients we can use for sides, I love that on Passover we tend to go overboard with the salads and vegetable dishes. I love having an entire course of salads at the meal before the entrée. My sisters make the most delicious and creative salads combining salad greens, fresh vegetables, sautéed vegetables, roasted vegetables, fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, dressings, and vinaigrettes. Of course we can eat salads year-round, but they are always exciting on Passover.

                What are some of your favorite Passover foods?

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

Sunbutter banana cake (peanut-free, gluten-free)

                Back in the fall, I was visiting my cousin and his family for the weekend. He is a great bargain hunter, and he had found a 5 pound container of Sunbutter on Amazon for a few bucks. Thinking that he would use it to make sandwiches for his daughters’ lunches, he purchased 2 containers. Unfortunately his daughters did not like it...but fortunate was I! He offered me the closed container, and I took it hoping to use it in baking. And I did! I made oatmeal cookies, thumbprint cookies, and a banana cake. But I definitely had not used up the entire 5 pounds of Sunbutter.

Yesterday, the baking bug hit me again, and I remembered that I had 2 bananas in the freezer that were waiting to be used in baking. I even had extra time today, because my office closed early for the falling snow… It was baking day!

This recipe is great, not just because it is yummy. It happens to be gluten-free, which makes it work for those with celiac disease. It also happens to be peanut free, which is awesome for those with a peanut allergy. It is definitely not a health food. It is a yummy cake that those who can and can’t eat gluten can eat. It looks like a cake, tastes like a cake, acts like a cake, and has a nutrition profile of a cake.

I got the recipe from the Sunbutter website. It was intended to be a muffin recipe, but I put it in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and baked it for about 50 minutes. For the ingredients and instructions, click here.

Sunbutter cake!

Wait, what is Sunbutter? It is a sandwich spread made from sunflower seeds. It looks fairly similar to peanut butter and spreads like peanut butter does. It is great for kids with peanut allergies and kids who go to peanut-free schools.