Home-made Crockpot Yogurt!

I enjoy making yogurt in the crock pot.  Ryan could eat it all day, so it's nice to be able to make an entire quart of it. 

(Ryan's caramel syrup yogurt right before he stirred it)

Instructions:
Pour 1 quart of WHOLE milk into the crock pot.  Turn on low for 2 1/2 hours.  Then turn the crock pot off and leave for 3 hours.  Take 1 cup of store bought PLAIN yogurt and 2 cups of milk from the crock pot and stir together.  Dump this back into the crock pot.  Wrap a heavy towel around the crock pot for insulation and let sit overnight.  Chill in the refridgerator.  Before you eat it, mix in fruit, honey, or any type of syrup.  We love to add strawberry, caramel, or chocolate syrup to ours.  It is a little thinner/runnier than store-bought yogurt... this is normal and how yogurt is naturally.  Thickeners are added to get the store-bought consistency.  If you use less than whole milk, it will still turn out, but it will be runnier.  I'm thinking.... drinkable yogurt.  Either way it is very yummy and healthy!

P.S.  I've never added dried milk, but I've read that you can add it to thicken the yogurt.

Extra chewy Granola Bars

Extra Chewy Granola Bars

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup of flour (I use wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup of butter, softened
1/2 cup of honey
1/3 cup of packed brown sugar
2 cups of choc chips (or raisins, dates, you could also add nuts)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9x13 inch pan.  In a large mixing bowl combine ingredients.  Pat into pan and bake for 18-22 minutes.  Let it cool for a few minutes; cut into bars.  These could  wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen.
Mine never last long enough though to do that.  They get devoured!  A good idea would be to make a double batch if you wanted to freeze them. :-)

Thrifty Idea: Easy Home-made Yogurt Recipe

When I heard of people making home-made yogurt for the first time, I thought... eek... that seems kind of risky! But after hearing of several people making it at home, I decided to give it a try. I am so glad I did. It is very easy! You just need to give yourself 5 1/2 hours for mixing and setting and then 8 hours for it to completely finish setting. Read the recipe below to see what I mean, and then plan accordingly :-)

Here is the recipe:

SLOW-COOKER YOGURT

8 cups (half-gallon) of milk (The recipe recommends using whole milk until you get the hang of yogurt making, but 2 percent worked fine for us. Just don't use ultra-pasteurized "long-life'' milk.)

1/2 cup store-bought natural, live/active-culture plain yogurt as a starter.

1 packet plain gelatin (optional, I don't use this, but it will give your yogurt more of a store-bought consistency if you are picky about that)

Plug in slow cooker and turn to low. Add the milk. Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours.

Unplug cooker. Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.

Scoop out 2 cups of the warm milk and put it in a bowl. Whisk in yogurt and gelatin. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crock-pot. Stir.

Put the lid back on the cooker. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around it.

Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.

Chill in a plastic container in the refrigerator. Your fresh yogurt will be good for seven to 10 days. Save 1/2 cup as a starter to make a new batch.

For more thrifty ideas, visit Generation Cedar

Pizza Hut style Bread Sticks

Boy, these are good!

Pizza hut style bread sticks

1 stick of real butter
1 Tablespoon of oil
3 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of salt
1 Tablespoon of baking powder
optional : 1 tablespoon of yeast

3/4-1 cup milk (I have used water if I ran out of milk)

Melt butter and oil in a 9x13 cookie sheet.

Stir together dry ingredients first. Add milk. Knead very little. Roll into a flat rectangle (you can do this on wax paper or aluminum foil). Place rectangle into pan and cut into strips (like Pizza hut's bread sticks). Sprinkle with garlic salt and parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Sprinkle again with shredded cheese if you have it and dip in marinara (pizza or spaghetti sauce!)

YUM!

Coffee Cake using potato dough

I made a coffee cake last night from the Potato Dough I had in the refrigerator.

Before you make a coffee cake you need to decide how much you want. My coffee cake was huge :-) But you may want a regular loaf-size.

Pinch pieces from potato dough and pat down into pan. Allow dough to rise (I allowed mine to rise for 2 hours).
Poke holes into dough. Melt 1 stick of butter and pour it over the dough.

Bake in a 375* oven for 25 minutes.
While bread is baking, decide what kind of glaze you want? I made a maple glaze:

1 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
2 tsp of maple flavoring
2 tbsp of milk (or more) for desired consistency.

Pour glaze over warm bread! Yum!

All Purpose Potato Dough

I recently read in The Tightwad Gazette where the author made potato dough. The potato added acts as sort of a preservative so that you can refrigerate the dough and use it for several days. The author said that she was able to make a variety of goods throughout the week. I believe she made bread-sticks one day, cinnamon rolls another day and I think she made some rolls on another day. Since breadmaking takes so much time, it would be a big time-saver to make one huge batch and use it all week. This is very helpful for a busy housewife!


I would much rather have home-made bread around than store-bought. It is healthier and you can add your own flax-seed, oatmeal, wheat flour, soy flour, or whatever you like.

I found the recipe below, halfed it (since my mixer isn't big enough for a full batch).


I made some biscuits one day and a very large coffee-cake for Michael's breakfast for today. It was very helpful for us today because Michael had to get up at 1:30 a.m. for work! I normally get up with him at 5 a.m., but he told me to stay in bed this time.


I made the cake last night and it was waiting for him when he got up to go with his coffee.

My variations were to substitute some rolled oats & ground flax. He told me how good it was when he kissed me goodbye this morning. :-)


I found the recipe at

http://www.simpledebtfreeliving.com/frugal-recipes.html#potatodoughrecipe


Below is the halfed potato dough recipe. I halfed everything to make it a smaller batch:


Edna Ruth Byler's Potato Dough Baked Goods

You can bake goods all at once (saving time and energy) and freeze baked goods to warm up for future meals or treats.OR........They can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Immediately after kneading, oil top of dough lightly, cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Refrigerate, punch down occasionally as needed. When you're ready to bake, simply take what you need for desired recipe, shape accordingly, let rise until doubled and bake.Usually about 2-2 1/2 hours for cold dough.

Dissolve: 1 1 /2 tablespoon dry yeast in1 cup lukewarm waterMix in large bowl 4 cups scalded milk

1 cups mashed potatoes (no milk added)

1 stick of real butter

1/2 cup sugarLet Cool to luke warm, then add:Yeast mixture 3 cups FlourLet stand until mixture foams up (about 20 minutes).Add:1 Eggs, beaten

1/2 Tbsp. Salt

5 1/2-6 Cups additional flourA little more flour may be needed, but dough should be soft. Turn out on floured board and knead until satiny (I just kneaded mine for a few minutes in my KitchenAid! around 7 minutes). Let raise in warm place until doubled (2 hours) in bulk or refrigerator for later use as stated above.