Fresh Start Day 19: Make Yogurt (and arm your gut!)

We’re “starting fresh” this January, completing 22 mini-challenges in 22 days for a cleaner, fresher and healthier kitchen and grocery budget. Just joining us? Read about the what’s and why’s on the mini-challenges, as well as the previous days tasks, and jump right on in!

With 80% of our body’s immune system resting comfortably within the workings of our intestines, why do we wait until we’re ill before consuming food with healing properties?  Whatever happened to preventative measures?

Let me back track for just a brief moment to explain how our digestive system works – in plain English.

1. We eat food and it goes into the stomach.
2. The stomach contains important chemicals and acids to break down the food into tiny, tiny little pieces.
3. The tiny little pieces of food reach our intestines, where over the course of 30 feet, our body uses good bacteria to identify, attack and hopefully destroy the variety toxins and foreign substances found.
4. Toxins that are identified and attacked, yet NOT destroyed, are passed to the liver where the body makes a second attempt to neutralize them so that these toxins don’t hurt the body when they’re sent back out into our general circulation.
5. When the liver is overworked and cannot process the toxins well, chronic disorders develop.  Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, chemical sensitivities and cancer are naming just a few . ^(source)

Consider the good bacteria found in our intestines a small army.  This small army has enough ammunition to last on its own a week or two, but without replenishment, the army will be overtaken by the bad bacteria also found naturally in our intestines.

We have two choices:

1. Re-supply ammunition to our army, often, so that our intestines can properly fight off toxins and foreign substances without overworking other parts of our body in the process, or
2. Wait until our army dies and our body is damaged, and then attempt to heal our bodies without relying on medicine.

Day 19 – Make Yogurt

Today’s challenge is to choose option #1 and make yogurt.  Lactobacillus Acidophillus and Bifidobacteria are the two generals of our good bacteria army.  It just so happens that these two guys are found in yogurt!

But there’s a bigger reason to make your own:  The Benjamins.

Buying quality (i.e. full-fat and organic) yogurt can be expensive – $4.78 for 32 ounces. ¹ If you prefer the thicker Greek yogurt, the bill is even higher – $9 for the same 32 ounces! ²

What if there was a way to supply your troops with ammo and prevent illness AND do it all for a fraction of the cost?

I’m guest posting at Kitchen Stewardship today talking about the why’s and how-to’s of making yogurt – including Greek yogurt.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t always on board with helping those troops either.

• Katie’s recipe uses a big cooler.  Nope, don’t have a cooler.  Guess I can’t make yogurt.
• She calls for quart jars.  Don’t have those either.
• Her pot is big enough to hold four quart-sized jars.  Besides not having the jars, my pot is too small.
• Oh, she offers the crockpot method too… Oh but that yogurt turns out runny, and I don’t want runny yogurt.
• Some people add powdered milk to make it thicker?  Nope, not taking the chance on that one.  Something about oxidized cholesterol when the milk goes through all the tiny holes.  Not sure what that means, but it doesn’t sound good.
• Wait, you can make it in the oven?  Nuh-uh, with my luck I’ll forget it’s in there and preheat the oven for pizza night (550 degrees) and then have cooked yogurt.  And that’s just gross.
• Some have had success using a heating pad?  Wait, I have a heating pad…
• Whole milk can make it thicker without using powdered milk?  Um…
• Any size jar will work.  Well shoot.

You can read the entire post here.  And be sure to do it.  It is today’s challenge after all!!

Day 18 Update

There have been a few opportunities over the past couple weeks to save money, including the vacuum purchase.

• Didn’t shop the last week of our grocery budget cycle.  At all.
• Sent Mr. Crumbs for dry white beans, from a new-to-me grocery store (bought for $1.58/lb, 61¢ less than the “old” store!).  Once cooked, this will yield about four cans worth of beans.  With each can costing $1.59 locally, making my own will save me well over $1 on each!
• Instead of replenishing the oatmeal when the grocery budget reset, I opted to NOT buy it until the oatmeal was completely gone… wondering if I can stretch the 4 cups or so that we have left until next grocery cycle.
• Visited a local farmer’s market for organic apples.  Advertised for $1/lb (score!) so weighed out six pounds.  Farmer only asked for $5, making each pound only 83¢!  Super score!
• Took six pounds of apples and made six pints of organic maple vanilla apple butter (saving at least $27 when compared to this online shop).
• Bought one used video game instead of new (saving over $26).
• Meal planned for the next four weeks – saving a lot of money AND sanity!!

What is your experience with making yogurt?  Are you willing to supply ammo to your gut?

Sources 1, 2

This post is shared at (Mon) Natural Living Mamma, (Tue) Cooking Traditional Foods, Premeditated Leftovers, Granny’s Vital Vittles, Real Food Forager, Like a Mustard Seed, (Wed) This Chick Can Cook, Gastronomical Sovereignty, Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Day2Day Joys, Frugally Sustainable, (Thu) Beyond the Peel, GNOWFGLINS, The Nourishing Gourmet, Thank Your Body, (Fri) Food Renegade,Allergy Free Alaska, Small Footprint Family,My Cultured Palate (Sat) The Pistachio Project