Instant Pot – Homemade Yogurt

Who knew yogurt could be so easy. Kalispell Creamery whole milk was on sale for $1.99 a gallon at my grocery store, I bought three gallons to try making yogurt.

The process was pretty easy, I was surprised. I love my instant Pot!!


1) disinfect your Pot first. Poor 3 cups of water into your pot and put the lid on with the seal closed. Press steam button, set to 5 minutes.

2) poor hot water out and allow pot to cool naturally or place in fridge.

3) once pot is cooled place back into instant Pot. Poor 1 gallon of whole milk into pot and press yogurt button. Adjust until you see boil.

4) whisk the milk often so the heat distributes evenly. Stirring helps the milk heat up faster also. Keep stirring every once in a while until instant Pot beeps. Check temp. Must be 180-185 degrees for a minute or so. If temp isn’t reached push the sautée button. Keep stirring until temp is reached. Once reached remove from instant Pot.

5) fill a sink full of cold water. Place pot of hot milk into cold water. Pot will float in the water. While monitoring the temp stir the milk until it cools down to 95 a 100 degrees. Once temp is reached remove pot from sink of water.

6) add 2 tablespoons of good quality yogurt with all the cultures to a small cup. Place some of the warm milk in cup with cultures and mix well. Stir into the rest of the warm milk. 

7) place pot back into the instant pot and cover with lid. Seal closed. Press yogurt button. Should read 8hrs and setting is on normal.

8) after incubation is finished remove covered pot and place into the fridge for 6-8hrs to rest.

9) after the rest period if you want the yogurt thicker strain it for several hours or over night in the fridge. You can use a yogurt strainer. I just place a strainer over a pot or large bowl, layer with cheesecloth  then poor yogurt into cheesecloth.  Gather the extra cloth around the edges and tie with a string or rubber band. Place in fridge and let the whey strain from the yogurt.

10) after straining is finished save your clear yellowish whey in sealed glass jars for up to 6 months in your fridge or freeze. You can find tons of uses for liquid whey on internet. Reuse it don’t throw away. 😉

11) add your favorite sweetener and fruit and you are ready to eat your very own homemade yogurt!!

1 gallon of whole milk makes about 2 quarts of Greek yogurt (strained) and about 2 quarts of liquid whey.


It seems like a lot of work for 2 quarts of yogurt but not really, a lot of it you are just waiting. To me knowing all the actual ingredients in my yogurt is worth it. ENJOY!!!

Solar Cooking – Zucchini Swiss Chard Fritatta

Morning Friends! This morning I am going to make another frittata for breakfast in my Solavore Solar Sport Oven. I am so enjoying harvesting the suns energy to cook my family meals. I set my solar oven outside at about 8am to preheat with the reflectors, since it is early morning time and the rays are not very hot at the moment.

TIP when cooking with liquid: Yesterday when I made my first frittata I didn’t have the solar oven level, so when I checked on my dish it was all formed up on one side leaving a very thin layer of egg matter on its opposite side. So make sure you have your solar oven on a leveled surface.

 

Zucchini Swiss Chard Frittata

• 1-2 cups thinly sliced swiss chard

• 1 small zucchini sliced into thin rounds

• 1 medium chopped bell pepper

• 1/2 – 1 cup chopped scallions

• 1/4 – 1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles

• 8 eggs

• Milk – optional

• Handful of minced herbs (I used oregano, dill & thyme)

• Coconut oil

• Salt & Pepper to taste

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Preheat your solar oven

• Sauté the bell peppers in a skillet, medium heat, with some coconut oil, until they start to brown.

• While the bell peppers are cooking, grease the inside of your dark 4 qrt. pot with coconut oil and layer the bottom with the sliced swiss chard.

• Cover the swiss chard with a layer of sliced zucchini rounds so you can no longer see the chard. Season with salt and pepper.

• Now add the sautéed bell peppers, scallions and minced herbs. Top off with the feta cheese crumbles.

• In a separate bowl blend your eggs together until well combined. You can add a little bit of milk if you desire. Pour over mixture.

• Season the top with salt & pepper.

• Cover with lid and place into your preheated solar oven for 1-2hrs.

ready to place in the solar oven
1hr and 45m later breakfast is ready!


 

7 Layer Breakfast

 
I like to bake an egg inside a half of avocado, this was my plan for breakfast this morning – but came up with this instead. Makes 2 servings.

• 1 cup or more mashed avocado

• 2 chopped up tortillas or 4 corn to make gluten free

• salsa

• shredded cheese

• 2 – 6 eggs

• seasonings to taste: lemon juice, salt, pepper, chili powder, Italian seasoning etc.

Take individual portion oven proof cups and grease with coconut oil. Set aside.

Chop up 2 tortillas or 4 corn tortillas. Divide into 4 portions. Add one portion to each cup to form the bottom layer.

Take the mashed avocado and add some lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Divide equally into cups to form a nice 2nd layer of goodness.

Next add a small layer of salsa then the last two portions of tortillas.

Next add a layer of shredded cheese. 

For the eggs I recommend cracking individual portions (1-3 eggs depending what your cup can hold) into a separate bowl in case any shells are left behind. Once all small shell pieces are removed transfer into cup. 

Sprinkle with more cheese and season to taste.

Bake at 375 degrees until eggs are cooked about 20-30m. Keep checking after 10-15m. Try to keep the inside of the eggs runny. 

  ENJOY!

Gluten Free Pancakes – 4 Ingredients!

  I have made these a few times, I now have tweaked the recipe and finally have it the way I like it. It is kid approved too!

The Basics:

• 2 banana 

• 4 eggs

• 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 1-2 tbl chia seeds

Extras: cinnamon, ginger, blueberries, etc.

Method:

Mix everything in a bowl. Let the chia seeds set for about 5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. Makes 8-10 pancakes. Enjoy!

Maya’s Pancake Adventure

I’ve been having little miss Maya help me in the kitchen lately. Last night we made a pot roast in the pressure cooker and this morning PANCAKES!

  

I like to make tons of pancakes at once and then freeze them flat on cookie sheets. Once frozen I vacuum pack them and keep in the freezer. Then they are ready to grab and pop in the toaster for a quick healthy breakfast. 

   

 

We made banana, apple cinnamon and blueberry pancakes. 

  

We made them all from scratch. We even grinded our own flour from organic wheat berries. She had a blast learning ingredients and how things worked and came together to make batter. 

   

 

  

We made a large bowl of the batter without the goodness. Then we split the batter into 3 smaller bowls then added the mashed bananas to one bowl, Apple and cinnamon to another and lastly the 3rd bowl with blueberries.

   

I have a few pans going at once then cooking time is cut in half!

   

Pancake Base – makes about 8-10

• 1 c whole wheat flour (or 3/4c wheat berries ground into flour) 

• 3 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp sea salt

• 1-3 tbl organic surgar

• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1 egg or 1/4 c egg substitute

• 1 1/2 tsp coconut oil 

• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 c non-dairy milk

• 1-2 c of fruit of your choice

Blend all the dry ingredients in one bowl and wet into another. Combine dry and wet ingredients until batter is smooth. If too thick then add more liquid. If too wet add more flour.

Enjoy for many breakfasts!! 😀

Raw Breakfast

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1tbl Chia Seeds
1 Banana chopped
1 Apple chopped
Handful of Blueberries
Sprinkle Cinnamon
3 Oranges Squeezed for juice

Place everything in a bowl in the order listed. Let your breakfast sit for about 5 minutes or so for the chia seeds to soak up the juice. 

ENJOY!

Young Coconut Kale Smoothie

Young Coconut Kale Smoothie
Young Coconut Kale Smoothie

SO EASY AND SO YUMMY!

•   One Young Thai Coconut (Meat and Water)

•   Half an apple

•  One Banana

• Handfull of Kale

Blend everything in a high-powered blender and enjoy! How thick your smoothie is depends on how much water and meat your coconut has.

Ruth’s Chia Goodness – 88% Raw Breakfast

What a great morning so far. Woke and did my normal fresh squeezed lemon water drink. Yoga in my newly cleaned rearranged room. Elliptical for 20 minutes, and now for breakfast!

I decided to break open a young thai coconut and use the coconut water in Ruth’s Chia Goodness Cranberry Ginger Raw Cereal!! (the original flavor is 100% Raw). I have been eating this stuff for about a year now. I love it. It’s not just for breakfast. It’s an instant Raw cereal you can eat cold or hot, so it is perfect to carry around with you for when you get hungry or need a powerful pick-me up!

Ruth's Cranberry Ginger Chia Goodness Cereal, Coconut Water, Young Thai Coconut Meat, Apple & cinnamon.

Cranberry Ginger Ingredients:

Chia (salvia hispanica), buckwheat, hulled hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, currants, cranberries, org. cane sugar, ginger, celtic sea salt.

 

Gotta try some. For folks here in Livingston, Foodworks carries it!!