I do it myself!

More and more these days I've been discovering the pure joy of doing things myself. And this is my latest discovery: making yogurt in the crock pot! I've read about yogurt making for over a year now. But I was caught in a tough spot. One, I was completely intimidated by the process; heat the milk to x temperature, let it cool for x amount of time keep it and x constant temperature in the oven for...EVER. Two, I am completely against expensive kitchen appliances which take up room and don't multi task, so that meant a yogurt maker was out of the question. But this recipe looked SO easy, and it WAS. It pretty much makes it's self. I had heard that making your own yogurt saves money, and I was pretty skeptical about that too. But it does! I got a gallon of organic milk for $5, I used half of that for this batch of yogurt, and a small container of organic yogurt as a starter for $1. (I won't have to buy that for the next few batches, I just use some of my own, but at some point I will run out of the yogurt cultures and have to buy another container of yogurt). Out that I figured I got over 30 oz of yogurt, and a half cup of cream cheese. Yup, I made my own cheese. So easy too! The yogurt had a lot of whey in it (you know that watery stuff in your yogurt), and I don't like runny yogurt. So, a took a small bowl, and set a sieve in it. Then I laid a piece of cheese cloth (they call it this for a reason) in the sieve, and I dripped some of the yogurt and all the whey I could find into the cheese cloth and let it drain. After most of the initial water came out I tried up the cheese cloth with a rubber band and hung it on one of the knobs on the kitchen cabinets, and left a bowl below it to catch the whey as it dripped out. The next morning I had cream cheese! And it's pretty tasty too! I found out the whey is incredibly healthy for you, so I put it in a jar in my fridge and used it as part of the water needed when I baked bread. So I used everything! How great is that? I feel like I'm three again and just proudly learned to dress myself, lol. You've got to try it. Oh, and by the way, my yogurt did taste different than store bought. It was less tangy and tart...more mild. I had some with fresh raspberries for breakfast :) Blessings!c