Yogurt and Porridge Experiments

So I haven’t been a very good blogger lately. I have been very busy and accomplished a lot cooking wise, gardening wise, decorating wise and life wise. I have documented everything but yes I have failed to blog about it.
I have become a regular yogurt maker. I have perfected my method by incubating the yogurt in my oven. Low and behold the oven I curse most days is able to keep a low temp of 110. It has redeemed itself.
So I have experimented with all sorts of Yogurt dishes. Helaina and I have yogurt for breakfast most mornings. To keep it fresh, I have been trying some different ideas. Like strawberries with cracked pepper and balsamic glaze. It was tasty but not very attractive. I only had frozen strawberries, so they were mushy. I think this idea will be more successful when strawberries are in season.
I have yogurt dishes that are my morning go to recipes. Bircher Muesli and Fruit and Granola parfaits. Parfaits are great with frozen berries. I prefer fresh fruit but when berries are out of season having last years harvest frozen in your freezer creates all sorts of possibilities.I have to say though raspberries are my go to favourite.
Rhubarb is  in season right now so we have been eating our yogurt with Stewed Rhubarb and Helaina loves it.
Here is how I stew my rhubarb:
3 cups diced rhubarb
Juice of one orange
zest from one orange
4 tablespoons agave nectar
Put all the ingredients in a medium saucepan on medium low heat and cook till rhubarb breaks down (about 20 minutes). Adjust agave nectar to the sweetness you prefer. I don’t like mine overly sweet so I cut it down to 2 tablespoons sometimes.
Finally then I found this lovely recipe on Nourishing days for Raw Carrot Cake Breakfast Bowl.
We got on such a yogurt kick that I ran out of yogurt and I made two large batches. So I made porridge one morning. I had forgotten how much I loved porridge and it helped with Helaina learning to chew. She has graduated to textured food. She loves porridge and so does Brendan.

A couple notes about making porridge. I always use old fashioned oats not instant. I love steel cut oats but Helaina isn’t ready for that texture yet.
I also always add a up to a tablespoon of Virgin Coconut Oil. I have hypothyroidism and through months and years of research found that Virgin Coconut oil has a positive effect on the thyroid. To have any benefits though you must ingest a few tablespoons a day. Porridge was a great way of incorporating it into my diet and it makes it very creamy.

Cherry, Pecan and Vanilla porridge

3/4 cups old fashioned oats
1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cups water
2 tablespoons dried cherries
2 tablespoons finely chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
seeds from 1/2 a vanilla bean
Mix all ingredients in a medium sauce pan on low to medium heat. Stir frequently. I have to admit I eye my ingriedients, I don’t measure often. So if it seems to thick add a little more liquid. If it seems to runny add a little more oats. I find it needs to cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove from heat. I sever my porridge with a little milk and maple syrup.

Sometimes life deals you a little perspective

I have had a challenging couple of weeks. First Helaina got a whopper of a cold. I am talking greenish coloured ooze dripping from her nose at all hours, difficulty breathing due to ooze and up all night coughing. So we had many sleepless nights,

On top of that I am pretty sure my fridge is about to go, it keeps making a whir whir sound when I walk by. Last week my eggs were frozen and all my produce went off in one fell swoop.

These all felt like big things at the time, then  I had one final blow that put things into perspective. My grandfather, mentor, professional and emotional touchstone was ambulanced down to here from Up Island with blockages in his legs. I can’t put my finger on it but I am feeling a lot of similarities from when my grandmother was dying and what my grandfather is going through now. Everyone says he will be fine but I can’t shake this feeling that the end is near.

I am not afraid of death, its a natural part of our lives, being with someone when they die can be a eye opening experience. I was with my grandmother when she passed. That night I learned of our mortality and it became perfectly clear to me that we are not our bodies. When my grandmother died, the lifeless body that laid in front of me was not my grandmother, my grandmother was gone. In my head I can logically think that my grandfather is 91 years old, he had a great life and he appears to be at peace with his life.

What I am having trouble with is the idea of not having him in my life. He is a big part of my life, he gives me advice all the time, he is the greatest story teller and a great thinker. He and I have always had a close bond. He would often joke that we could solve the worlds problems in just one visit, if the world would just listen to us.

Last night at the hospital my grandfather admitted to me that he was lonely and some of the delusions he was having, he wonders if its because he is lonely. How brave was he to admit this. I stayed with him until they had to take him into surgery and I held his hand and caressed his hair  and face with my hand. He melted at my touch and I could see tears forming in the corners of his eyes. My heart broke as I watched the tears form in the corner of his eyes. I think sometimes we forget the power of touch and as humans how much we need that physical connection with others. My grandfather is 91 years old I don’t think he will be leaving me in the next week or month but I feel the end is near and I wish I could tell you why.

My house is a disaster, I have dishes in the sink, books pulled off the shelves by Helaina and I will have to admit I got take out this week but I don’t feel bad. My grandfather needs me and right now my house can suffer a little while.

Sweet Chipotle Vinaigrette

Brendan came home for lunch today starving. He will not listen to me about eating breakfast I managed to get some lemon aloe vera juice in him this morning by claiming it would help fight off the cold that Helaina has.

Normally I have soup or something in the fridge but not today. So I whipped up some quick Baked pasta with cheese and a salad.

Now with Brendan you would think that the pasta and cheese would be the show stopper but no! He devoured the salad that I made. It was a simple salad greens, carrots, red peppers, chia seeds and vinaigrette. He declared his love for the vinaigrette, which kind of made me laugh. It was a “what do I have in my cupboard to make a quick vinaigrette” but it was a success!

Sweet Chipotle Vinaigrette

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsps. Agave nectar

juice of half a lemon

1 1/2 teaspoons dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon chipotle hot sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a glass jar with lid (I use an old mason jar for my vinaigrettes) Shake until well mixed. Drizzle on salad and toss!

Sunday Brunch

I started a new tradition this weekend with some dear friends. Sunday Brunch!

When I lived up island I used to do this with a group of friends. We would get together every Saturday morning for Brunch at my house. Everyone would bring fruit, Bottled Green sparkling water, sausages, etc…  The point being it was a group effort. We also had a core group of people in the brunch group and we would invite others to join us. We ate well and then we would debate world events, talk about life or share stories. It was great by the time I left up island we had close to twelve regulars every Saturday.

I asked some friends here in Victoria if they would be interested and every one was more then game. So I sent out an email last week explaining how it would work and that for this Sunday I would provide everything food wise and we would go from there.

Our menu this weekend was:

Chocolate Raspberry Muffins ~ Simple Bites

Broiled Grapefruit

and my play on a black forest cake in the form of a yogurt and granola parfait.

We served cinnamon coffee and sparkling water.

The brunch was very successful. Everyone enjoyed their food and we talked until dinner time!

Broiled Grapefruit

3 large grapefruits

brown sugar or agave nectar

Cut the grapefruits in half. With a small knife section the fruit. Place each half in a ramekin. (I have broiled them without a ramekin and its messy) place a couple teaspoons of brown sugar or drizzle agave nectar on top. Place under broiler for five to ten minutes until edges start to brown.

Serve immediately!

Black Forest Granola Parfaits

1 tub homemade yogurt or store bought

1 can sour cherries in syrup

agave nectar

Granola

I make a very basic granola but I add 1 tablespoon of cocoa to the mix. Its a very subtle flavour but it gives it a lovely dark colour. Which inspired the black forest parfaits.

I serve my parfaits in regular glasses. I start with a drizzle of agave nectar at the bottom of the glass. Then I layer a 1/2 cup of yogurt. I then take some of the cherries and layer them on top making sure the cherries show on the sides. I drizzle a little of the syrup from the can but not much (it can make your parfaits soggy. Then layer 1/4 cup granola. I put a dollop of yogurt on top with a drizzle of agave nectar and one cherry on top.

I am not the best food Blogger as I don’t stop when I am serving to take pictures. The conversation was just to good and I didn’t want to miss it.

Garden update!

Last week the seeds I planted sprouted. It is always so exciting when new life emerges. Seeds are such incredible things they seem so lifeless really but in the right conditions big things can happen.

I will have to re plant a couple pots because the cat knocked them over when he tried to escape out the window.

Here for your viewing pleasure are my new tomato and zuchinni seedlings

I will have to plant the basil and eggplants this week. Sometimes there just never enough time in a week!

Hidden Clutter

When Tsh at Simple Mom announced that this weeks hot spot would be our choice, I was lost. My house is doing pretty well on the clutter free front these days. Decluttering has been a journey I have been on for over a year now. I thought I did a good job last year when I was expecting. Now that Helaina is crawling and mobile, I realized I needed to do another overhaul. The word decor doesn’t belong in  house with a crawling baby. Unless your decor is up high. Anything within Helaina’s reach has had to be put away. So Tsh’ s challenge came at the right time. Helaina learned to crawl and I learned to declutter with a purpose beyond scaling back.

Okay back to the hotspot challenge I didn’t think I would be partcipating this week. I am happy with the state of my home. There is not much more I can get rid or repurpose I have scaled back and I have made my house baby friendly. I now don’t panic if Helaina decides to crawl out of a room I am in. I know she is okay! So I said that's that not participating. Then I opened the cupboard under my sink. Oh My Goodness! what a disaster. This is where I keep all my cleaning supplies.

 

Now when I was expecting Helaina I decided to switch to all natural cleaners. I didn’t want to have anything in the house that was harmful to babies. So I found a brand that was sold at the hardware store right by my house that was natural.

Well as some of  you may have experienced when you have a baby the grandparents, aunties and so on come over and help. It seems in my case they went and bought new cleaners for me. Their hearts were in the right place but now I had this cupboard of cleaners, most of which I never used.

Also after reading Tsh’s book Organized Simplicity I decided to try homemade cleaners. I was very sceptical but I am the newly converted. Works wonders and smells good too. I am not wasteful though so throwing out all these cleaners people bought me seemed wrong. It was time to do a once over on the house so I tried each of the products to see I would use it. They were smelly to the point of needing to air out my house. So the offending cleaners have found a new home in my dining room closet up high until I can find a place to recycle such things.

So here is what my cupboard looks like now!  

I cleared out so much room in there I found a new place for my pressure cooker. Which I have now started using more regularly since having a baby.

I now have two bottles of homemade cleaner down there. One is an all purpose cleaner and the other is glass cleaner. Both are scented with sweet orange essential oil. I ordered some chalkboard labels after doing my pantry last week from etsy. I received a notice that I had not one but two packages to pick up at the post office today, so I held off on posting. Hoping they were my labels but alas they were my new cloth diapers and books. Which I am excited about as well.

After I did this I decided to get rid of some of my cookbooks as well. I put 12 cookbooks on the yard sale pile this week. 

Now there is more room on the top of my fridge for important things like cookies and granola!

I showcased my most favourite (and Canadian) ones in the dinning room!

Well a big thank you to Tsh Oxenreider at Simple Mom for inspiring thousands of us to get our homes in order. I know I feel great!

Yogurt, Who knew it could be so simple!

  So I had read about making yogurt own months ago. Every blog about local eating, simple living, food I went to seem to be saying you can do this  and its easy.

My first attempt at making yogurt was yesterday. I decided to use the slow cooker method, reason being was I didn’t have to go out and buy something new to try it.

There are some excellent links out there. Do a Google search on making yogurt and you will find many.

Yesterday Helaina was not feeling well and we were destined to spend a day at home. So I thought no time better then the present to try making my own yogurt.

I poured two litres of milk into my slow cooker, turned the heat to low and set my timer for two and half hours.

When the timer went off I went and unplugged my slow cooker and set the timer for 3 hours. I wanted to take Helaina and Finn for a walk to the beach at this time but poor wee Helaina was just feeling yucky and fell fast asleep. So I worked on my hot spot number five decluttering. Pictures and a post will be up tomorrow. After a little while I got tired too. My timer had thirty-four minutes left on it. I decided to take a nap the timer would wake me up.

Unfortunately I did not hear the timer. I guess I was really  tired. At this time I I mixed 1/2 cup of yogurt that had active bacterial cultures in it with one cup of the warm milk. Then I poured it back into the slow cooker. I wrapped the slow cooker in a large towel and let it sit for 8 hours.

It had definitely turned into yogurt but it wasn’t very thick. As you can tell from the picture above. I put it into jars for the night.

This morning when I woke up it seemed a bit thicker. I spooned some into a bowl, drizzled some agave nectar on it and then poured some raspberries from the freezer in the middle. It was delicious but still to thin for my liking. I imagine this was due to the fact that I fell asleep and let it cool to much.

So I decided to try and save this batch of yogurt. I got out my colander lined it with paper towel and spooned in my yogurt. I let it drain all afternoon. What was left in the colander can only be explained as incredible.

I have heard rumours that fresh yogurt tastes amazing plain. I was not a believer plain yogurt is sour.YUCK! This afternoon though I scooped out a spoonful and I could not believe how wonderful it tasted. I keep going into the fridge and taking spoonfuls! This stuff is amazing.

I am hosting a Sunday Brunch, so I have decided to make a second batch tomorrow. I am going to follow Sofya's method at The Girl’s Guide to Guns and Butter tomorrow.

The great news is this is one less thing I have to purchase from the grocery store. The cost savings is incredible. 2 litres of milk cost about the same as one thing of yogurt and from this batch I got two large jars! Just imagine how much I might get if I don’t fall asleep next time!