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From Milk to Greek Yogurt to Frozen Yogurt

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:15:02 +0000

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Lately I’ve been on the search for some good crockpot recipes, you know, besides, pot roast. Imagine how delighted and excited I was when I found that someone has used their crockpot for making yogurt! I haven’t figured out how to deal with and purchase live cultures online, so I just purchased a container of yogurt (aka: starter) on my next shopping trip. Since it’s the weekend and you may have some time on your hands or inquisitive kids, I’m going to teach you how to go from milk all the way to frozen yogurt.

Turn Milk into Yogurt

Supplies

4 quart crockpot
A few large towels
1/2 gallon milk – regular or raw, whole or low-fat
1 packet gelatin, arrowroot, or agar – it is suggested as a thickener if you use a lower fat milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Instructions

Pour 1/2 gallon of milk into the crockpot/slow cooker
Cook on low for 2.5 hours
Unplug and let it set for 3 hours
(At this point I check the temperature. The optimum temp for yogurt cultures is 108-112 degrees F.)
Scoop out 2 cups warm milk and pour into a dish. Add the 1/2 cup yogurt and mix well.
Add back into crockpot. Stir the mixture into the rest of the warm milk.

Wrap the crockpot with towels and leave overnight or 8 hours.

In the morning you’ll have yogurt! (NOTE: It’s quite a bit thinner than what you get at the store.)

You can enjoy the yogurt as it is or add in fruit. I like to stir honey into mine. Or you can go a step further…

Turn Yogurt into Greek Yogurt

This is actually quite easy! Next, you’ll learn how to make delicious, thick Greek Yogurt.

Supplies

Cheesecloth (a couple layers)
Colander
Medium Bowl

Instructions

Place the colander onto the medium bowl.
Line the colander with the layered cheesecloth.
Pour the yogurt into the lined colander.
Let it set on the counter or in the fridge. Overnight the yogurt will separate. The whey will drip into the bowl leaving thick and creamy Greek yogurt in the colander for you in the morning.

This is delicious stuff! But yet, you can take it a step further. You can use the whey for baking and even making lemonade. You can also use the Greek yogurt to make wonderfully tart frozen yogurt!

Turn Greek Yogurt into Frozen Yogurt

Supplies

Ice cream maker (at least 1 quart capacity)
Mixing bowl
3 cups Greek yogurt (this is approximately 6 cups un-strained yogurt)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

Instructions

Mix together yogurt, sugar, and vanilla in mixing bowl. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
Refrigerate 1 hour.
Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Last step: Sit down and enjoy a delicious bowl of frozen yogurt that contains no high fructose corn syrup or un-pronounceable ingredients. You deserve it!

Homestyle Dog Food

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:31:42 +0000

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As I sit here typing, you’d think I would have a cat sprawled across my lap. Alas, it is my anxious, alpha dachsie, Gunner. Gunner was born at a backyard breeder then sold to one of my (then) classmates. In November 2006, the classmate couldn’t take care of him anymore – I’ve wanted a little weenie since forever, so of course I said, “I’ll take him!” Little did we know that when I brought him home on that icy night that he would have so many problems.

The little guy (then Buster) had not been keeping his food down. Imagine a 10 pound puppy eating large-breed adult chunks We thought we solved the problem by giving him Iams mini chunks. Yes, that worked for a while, but by February he was throwing up again. At that time I worked at a floral shop. It was Valentine’s Day and since I was at work pretty much the entire day, I came home to check on him briefly. When I walked in, the house smelled “wrong”. My break turned into a 45 minute clean up fest. That night on the news, pet food recalls were the highlight. We didn’t want to take the risk of commercial food anymore so we looked for alternatives.

When our second dog Reggie came to us, we started feeding it to him too – they love this stuff! We ran out after the first batch so I got a package of the refrigerated gourmet dog food that seemed most comparable to what we had made. Gunner eats everything (it seems), but he wouldn’t touch it! He went to eat it, froze, turned back around, and I swear he was glaring at me! When he was hungry he finally went back to eat it but not with the same zest as when he eats the homemade stuff.

You can see how it's brimming with nutrition!

There are so many dog food recipes out there and we picked what seemed to have the most variety. Please be careful of what goes into your dog’s mouth! There’s a lot more than just chocolate on the bad food list. What we found is now what the dogs known as “hamburger munch.” It contains meat, veggies, rice, oats, olive oil, and salt. So, I have posted the recipe in the recipes section of the site.

You can get it in a pdf file right here.

I would normally do a price comparison but we try to buy the items when they’re in the ad. The main cost is the hamburger. We use 5 pounds per batch – cost ranges from $7.50 to $10. When it goes on sale, I try to stock up for a couple months. Five pounds of hamburger lasts us about 1-1/2 weeks. The dogs are 16 and 26 pounds.

Even the cats like it

Downside:

The time it takes to make (15 minutes to mix everything together-the food processor grating attachment helps, 25 minutes for the rice, 50 minutes to cook)
We had to get Gunner a slow-down dog dish because he eats it so fast

Benefits:

You know what’s going into the food
No preservatives
Whole foods
No corn
No beet pulp
No animal “by-products”
Naturally balanced – the recipe was approved by my vet
Far fewer medical problems – the goodness of this food might be called preventative medicine
Fewer #2s – basically went from 3/day down to 1/day (this definitely helped with potty training)

Both our boys love this stuff

DIY Laundry Supplies Part 1: Detergent

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:45:24 +0000

I frequently look for homemade household cleaning products and recently came across one for homemade laundry detergent. It looked like a more eco friendly idea, fun, cheap, and practical at the same time so I decided to give it a try.

You’ll need to gather these supplies before you get started:

1 bar of soap (whatever you have around: Fals Neptha, etc. I used Lever 2000 because DH bought a lifetime supply last summer)
1 box of washing soda (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle at your local grocer – it’s a bright yellow Arm & Hammer box and will contain enough for six batches)
1 box of borax (this isn’t necessary, but it’s easy to find so why not boost the cleaning power?)
A 4-5 gallon bucket (preferably with a lid if you want to store it in the bucket)
3 gallons of tap water
A big spoon to stir the mixture with
A measuring cup
A knife
A 2+ quart pot (for melting the soap)

Instructions:

Part 1: Pour approximately 4 cups of water into a pot. Place on stove and heat on high until almost boiling. While the water is heating, use your knife to SHAVE the bar of soap into the heating water. (SHAVE – do not cut chunks of soap into the water – I learned this the hard way that small chunks do NOT melt!) Keep the mixture just below a boil. Keep stirring until the soap is dissolved.
Part 2: Pour three gallons of hot water into your 4+ gallon bucket. I used a spare one gallon milk jug. Mix the hot soapy water slurry into the 4+ gallon bucket. Stir to mix well. Add one cup of washing soda and stir that in well. Add one-half cup of borax and stir in well. Leave overnight to gel up.
Part 3: In the morning check on your mix… it’ll be kind of like soft gelatin. My mix was white since that was the color of the soap bar I used. Dump one cup in the washing machine and wash your clothes!

Here, you can see its gelatinous texture

So, I plop one cup into the washing machine with warm water – no suds…hm. At this point I’m glad I tried the recipe with towels instead of clothes. Later, after I hear the washing machine stop, I run down to see the results. The towels look fine. I had tossed in a very dirty towel – one with stains that Era hasn’t been able to get out – and the mix actually lightened the stains, but not the towels itself. I like the smell – it reminds me of fresh hotel linens.

My only problem with the mix is the washing soda – the nearest store that carries it is 1 1/2 hours away. I purchased two boxes while on a business trip – Jewel Osco in the Chicago area carries it for about $3. You can purchase the washing soda on Arm & Hammer’s website, which will set you back about $10 just for one box by the time you pay shipping

The math has already been done…

Three gallons will clean about 48 loads of laundry. If you do this six times, you’ll have used six bars of soap ($0.99 each), one box of washing soda ($2.49 at our store), and about half a box of borax ($2.49 at our store, so $1.25) and make 288 loads of laundry. This comes up to a cost of right around three cents a gallon, or a savings of $70.

Thanks to Trent over at the Simple Dollar for this great idea!

Stay tuned for homemade fabric softener and homemade dryer sheets.

How to Make a Free Compost Bin with Pallets

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:49:57 +0000

3 years ago I tried to build a compost bin out of 4×4′s and 2×4′s – big mistake! I only made one panel because it ended up being so heavy so I gave up on the idea. That following year D and I finished installing our 40 foot long retaining wall and we had quite a few pallets sitting in our driveway. These were something that our hired dump truck would not take away. About this time we had slowly started thinking more “green”. I wanted a compost bin now and had talked D into one.

Basically we made two attached topless cubes using 9 pallets. We had some snow fence, so we stapled that to all pallets to keep the compost better contained, but I have seen some pallet-compost bins without the snow fence and they’re doing just fine. All pallets were screwed together except the front pallets and bottom pallets. We attached the front pallets with some twine so we can easily pull them off and flip the compost. We just left the bottom pallets unattached – you may opt to not even have a bottom; we just put them there because we had extra pallets.

Here are a couple of the photos! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

As requested, here are the tools needed:

9 pallets
All weather screws – we used 12
Drill
Fencing (snow, geogrid) – if using
Stapler – to attach fencing if using

Where to find pallets:

Big home improvement stores (Lowe’s, Menard’s, Home Depot, etc.)
Grocery stores
Warehouses
Shipping / transporting companies
Electronic stores (Best Buy, Staples, Office Max, etc.)
Subdivisions/where homes are being built
Craigslist
Put out a “wanted” listing in your local newspaper
The Wooden Pallet Recycling Exchange

Remember to talk to a manager and also find out if you can have them for free. Some places may charge you for them since it cost them money.

Now that you have your compost bins, what do you do with them? Read the next article in composting to find out!

A Beginner’s Guide to Making a Kentucky Derby Hat

Sat, 02 May 2009 01:57:41 +0000

Although the Derby is tomorrow, it’s not too late to make a very special hat. Once you start thinking creatively, you’ll be able to make wonderful hats for any upcoming event with limited resources and limited funds. I don’t have hundreds of dollars to be spending on a hat that I’ll wear once so I decided to create my own. This was my very first attempt at creating a (somewhat) fancy hat and I’m quite proud of it. I’ll definitely be making more of these in the future!

Handy helpers:

Scissors
Hot glue gun
A large mirror
A clean space for assembling

Some ideas for materials:

Fabric – satin, silk, tulle, ribbon, chenille, crinoline
Feathers – peacock, dyed chicken
Flowers – a single big bloom, many small blooms
Paint – according to the morning news shows, a popular trend this year was two colors on one hat (for example: 1/3 white and 2/3 black or 1/2 and 1/2, not including the embellishments – similar to this one)

Step 1 – Get some inspiration and gather all materials. Going to your local craft and fabric stores can help you get ideas too.

For inspiration, you can visit:

Step 2 – Trim extras off the hat if needed. Mine had “decorative” straps that hung off of it and a tag.

Step 3 – If you’re doing a band around the base of the hat, it helps to either wear the hat or have something wear it for you so that you have a steady work surface. I rolled the fabric, wrapped it around my head and then knotted it once. I took the hat off and placed a dab of hot glue under the knot and also on the opposite side of the hat to keep the band from slipping.

Step 4 – Now we have to hide that ugly knot! This is the place for a cluster of flowers, a single large bloom, or a big bow. I chose a single large bloom. I purchased the stem and once home just plucked the bloom off. I used hot glue to place it over the knot.

Step 5 – I really like the way the hat looks right now, but I think it needs a little something more. I hot glued the ends of feathers and then placed 3 black ones behind the band by the flower.

Step 6 – You’re done! Take a photo and then go show off!

This photo just doesn't do the hat justice!

Dollars and $ents:

Designer Kentucky Derby Hat – $100-$800+

My imitation hat:

Hat – $7.00 at Walmart
Fabric – $0.25 ($0.74 for 1/4 yard) at Walmart
Flower – $2.00 at Dollar General
Feathers – $0.34 ($2.74 for pkg of 24)
TOTAL: $9.59 +tax

Update: My hat got a lot of compliments at the party on Saturday! It cost under $10 and took less than 30 minutes of my time to create!

How to Install Laminate Kitchen Countertops

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:05:26 +0000

The cheapest way to update the look of a room is by applying a fresh coat of paint to the walls. The second cheapest would be upgrading the electrical – outlets, outlet covers, and lighting. The third cheapest way to make a huge impact in the room is through new countertops. Stop! I know what you’re thinking. Countertops are so expensive! Indeed, they are, but through research, we found many options that we hadn’t considered. Here’s what we found from expensive options to cheaper options:

Granite countertops
Granite overlay – a thin sheet of granite that is laid over the existing counter
Granite tiles
“Solid surface” countertops such as Corian or Silestone
Pre-made laminate countertops
Laminate sheets
Ceramic tiles
Paint existing countertops. I’ve even read about faux painting granite on countertops, but I’ve only seen a couple photos of this technique. If you’ve done this, I’d love to see how it turned out!

After weighing our many options, budget, and design concerns, we decided on special ordering WilsonArt’s High Definition countertops in Sedona Trail. Our massive U-shaped countertops cost only about $400 to completely revamp to a faux granite look. We were both impressed at how well it turned out, so I would recommend this to anyone. If your budget is tighter, you can install in-stock laminate sheets for less than $100! The only catch to installing the sheet is that you have to have straight-edged countertops, not curved or drip-edge.

Closeup of WilsonArt's HD Sedona Trail

To view the process, see page 2 and page 3. To jump straight to the end and see the final result, as well as all of the wonderful carnivals I’m participating in, visit page 4!