Drive Thru Sue Sourdough THM:E - Day #1, Mixing Day

(this post may contain affiliate links - please feel free to click!)

Please check out all the pages related to making THM:E Sourdough Bread!

Sourdough - the process

Wild Yeast Starter

Day #1, Mixing Day

Day #2, Baking Day

Tips and Tricks, Larger/Smaller Loaves
Complete Baking Instructions (all pages)

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So, I promised that this recipe would be easy enough for Drive Thru Sue, and it's true.  But, even Sue will need to slow down, and realize that while there is almost no WORK involved, patience is still a virtue.  Sourdough *is sourdough* because it takes time for the yeasts to work.  This recipe is in 2 phases - Mixing day and Baking Day (which can be ANY day, once you've got dough in your fridge!) Don't throw in the towel - you can do it! - but you'll have to ramp up slowly.  First, you need a Wild Yeast Starter. Go to the linked page, and take about 7-10 days of *virtually no work* and create a bubbly wild yeast starter.  If you already have one of those, then you can keep going!

This bread does include olive oil.  However, the 1 Tablespoon is divided among 4 small or 2 medium loaves of bread, and you'll only eat about 3 slices in a serving, keeping the fats down to very low levels.

Ingredients:

2 cups wild yeast starter (1/2 the quart jar, give or take a bit is fine)

2 1/2 cups hot tap water (NOT boiling)

1 Tablespoon salt

1 Tablespoon olive oil

5 cups White Whole Wheat (King Arthur is my favorite brand, and I'll always shop around until I find a store that carries it)

Tools:

For Mixing Day:

~14 Cup Tupperware container (for mixing and keeping dough in the fridge)

whisk

wooden spoon

For Baking Day:

parchment paper

wooden cutting board (NOT plastic) or a second baking pan

Baking stone (preferable) or flat metal baking pan
serrated knife
some ice cubes

optional: small (3.5 x 6.5) bread pan (not necessary to get started, only for medium loaves)

Notes:

This first recipe will make 4 small (family can mostly finish in 1-2 meals) or 2 medium loaves.  The link at the top of the page includes instructions for smaller batches and larger loaves if you find you do not eat the bread fast enough to keep up with the starter.

Instructions: 

This first set of instructions may seem lengthy, but that's just because of all the explanations.  It's very simple and easy to do, with very little prep or time spent actually working.  You'll need to be home for around 4-5 hours, but you'll hardly touch the dough.  You can totally run to the store and come back, too.  This recipe is very forgiving!

(Please forgive the jumping - my 6 year old was videoing!!)

On Mixing Day:

1. In your 14C container, place the starter, hot water, salt and olive oil.  Chop at the starter with the whisk, and whisk until blended into the water, just a minute or 2.  Get lots of air and froth into the mixture if you can!  If you end up with slimy strings just ignore them, they are a by-product of the starter.  Future batches will have very little to none of the strings.  They'll bake right up into the bread!
2. Now add all the flour and stir with the wooden spoon.  It might take a bit of muscle, but the dough should be very wet and stick to your fingers if you try to touch it.  If it seems stiff enough to knead, add more water.  The moisture content of your flour will depend on your local weather, and the water might need adjusted according to the season!  Once you've made a batch or 2, you'll know how the dough should look and can drizzle in extra water if needed.
3. All of the above should only take about 5 minutes.  If you pinch up a bit of dough, it should stick to your fingers, and break off of the dough easily with no stretch.  It should smell like wet flour, but nothing extraordinary.
4. Cover with the lid (but leave one corner vented) and rest for 2 hours.  Set the timer on your phone and run to the store, feed the kids, get a bubble bath, etc.  If it accidentally sits 2.5-3 hours, it won't mind.
5. Now comes the slightly more demanding part.  You'll stick your hand into the container 5 times, 30 minutes apart.  These are the "folds".  We are not kneading - in fact, that would hurt this very-wet dough.  We do need to gently stretch the whole grains to lengthen them into a softer dough, instead of leaving each grain of flour as a course, individual piece.  This folding technique is the part that makes it possible to have 100% whole wheat that is edible and not dense as a rock, AND that doesn't take the time, effort or skill of kneading.
6. To "fold"
1. Run your hand down one side of the dough container to the bottom.  Gently grip the bottom of the dough and pull it up, folding the dough over itself to the middle of the top.  It won't be pretty and will probably try to ooze back into it's original place - that's fine.
2. Rotate the container 90 degrees, and pull up the second side
3. Repeat with the third and fourth side.
4. This should take no longer than 30 seconds, and you should notice that the dough is a bit less sticky and is starting to smell like yeast instead of just wet flour.  It will also start to stretch instead of just breaking off like the original batch.  That's the yeast working!!
7. Congratulations, you've just performed your first fold - the most difficult part of this bread!  Seriously, if you can pull dough from the bottom to the top 4 times, you've mastered the hardest part of this recipe!  You'll need to do 5 "folds", around 30 minutes apart (or 45-60 minutes... again, very forgiving).  Here's a handy schedule you can scribble onto a piece of paper for your first few times and cross off as you go until you can get it into your mind:

• Mix dough, rest 2 hours
• Fold #1, Rest 30
• Fold #2, Rest 30
• Fold #3, Rest 30
• Fold #4, Rest 30
• Fold #5, place in refrigerator, covered with the lid cracked on one side (by this point the dough should be quite plump and stretchy and smell like good, yeasty dough!)

Note on video - I took this video during my very first trial batch of dough, and I've made a few changes since then.  In my final recipe (the one written here), the dough is not quite as wet as this.  It shouldn't stick this badly to your hands.  After the 2 hour resting period the dough should hold together pretty well and fold over nicely, and not be a mushy puddle.  Also, I increased the recipe to make 5 'loaves'  (4 loaves and 1 starter piece) since I found I was needing to mix dough too frequently - I wanted a bigger batch!

Now your first day is done.  If you lost track of time or ran out of time, and only did 4 folds, that's also OK.  Try to stick as closely as possible to the recipe with the timing, but no worries if time got away from you.  The dough MUST rest in the fridge overnight to continue rising, and to allow the yeast time to finish it's work, souring the flour.  Come back tomorrow for baking instructions!

Please check out all the pages related to making THM:E Sourdough Bread!

Sourdough - the process

Wild Yeast Starter

Day #1, Mixing Day

Day #2, Baking Day

Tips and Tricks, Larger/Smaller Loaves
Complete Baking Instructions (all pages)

Drive Thru Sue Sourdough THM:E - Day #2, Baking Day

(this post may contain affiliate links - please feel free to click!)

Please check out all the pages related to making THM:E Sourdough Bread!

Sourdough - the process

Wild Yeast Starter

Day #1, Mixing Day

Day #2, Baking Day

Tips and Tricks, Larger/Smaller Loaves
Complete Baking Instructions (all pages)

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On Baking Day:

You can bake a portion of the bread any time in the next 1-4ish days.  There are a few considerations to how long the dough can hold up in the fridge, but I'll get to those in a later post.  For now, here are the basic instructions.

Start 2 hours before you want to have hot, fresh bread, straight out of the oven.

If you have a new batch of dough (already rested overnight) you'll first need to save about 1/5 of the batch as your sourdough starter which will rise your next batch.  That's right - you don't need any more of the wild yeast starter!  Your bread dough will be it's own starter!!  

You don't need to get all particular about cutting the dough - a piece that makes a ball that fits roughly between your 2 hands (about the size of a softball or grapefruit) is around the right size.  Again, this is very forgiving!!  Baseball sized would be a bit small, so make it softball sized and you're fine.  I usually take my starter piece and put it in a sandwich ziplock.  That keeps it from oozing back together with my baking dough, and keeps me from accidentally cooking it.

For the remaining dough, cut it into 4 roughly equal pieces.  You'll find that each of them are also around a softball size, maybe a bit smaller, but that's fine.  Usually I just take a sharp knife and cut the dough into 4 pieces right in the container.  Sometimes I roughly shape each piece into a ball and put them back, sometimes I just peel out the piece I want to bake today and leave the rest, flat and oozed into the bottom.  I don't think it really matters.

Now for the fun, easy, Drive-Thru-Sue baking instructions!

• For baking today, you'll want to tear off a piece of parchment paper (NOT wax!) and set it on a wooden cutting board, or the back of a baking sheet.  This will make it easy to move to the oven to bake, after it's risen.  You'll nee a piece around 8x8", but the whole width of the roll is fine - no need to trim it smaller.
• Take one of your 4 pieces of cut dough into your hands.  It will be cold and rather stiff and shouldn't really stick to your hands.
• As you form your loaf, you don't want to smash and deflate the bubbles, but you do want to form it into a ball or fat log.  The way to do this is to gather the dough into a rough ball, then smooth and stretch the surface of the dough, down towards the bottom.  Pretend that the center of the ball is solid and you're stretching plastic wrap over the whole outside, making it nice and tight.  Stretch and turn, stretch and turn, until the ball is rather smooth-ish and you've gathered something of a knot of extra dough near the bottom.  10-20 seconds is all it will take, once you've got the hang of it.  If you want a longer loaf - instead of turning it evenly as you smooth, just smooth down on 2 sides.  The ends might need folded under at the end to prevent them being too skinny and dry.  
• Place your dough onto the parchment-lined cutting board, and leave it for an hour.  From pulling your cold dough out to forming and placing on the parchment should take around 1 minute, once you've done it a couple of times and have the feel of it.
• After an hour, you'll notice that the dough hasn't really risen at all.  It won't even be much warmer.  But believe me, those yeasts are waking up and getting ready for their final big show in the oven.  If you have a flat baking/pizza stone, place it in the center of the oven now and heat the oven to 450.  Set the timer for 30 minutes.  The stone needs to be all the way to 450 AND the dough needs another 30 minutes to rise while it heats. (if you'll be baking on a metal pan, you can wait and add it to the oven about 2 minutes before the dough)
• After the 30 minute pre-heat, you're ready to bake!  Get about 8 ice cubes ready at the side of your oven.  The ice will melt and release steam when your bread goes in, and for 1-2 minutes after you shut the door.  The steam will keep the crust from drying out immediately and will let the loaf rise higher.  If you're using a metal pan, put it in now for just a couple of minutes.
• Bring the loaf (on it's cutting board) over to the stove.  Get a serrated knife, and cut about 4-5 slashes diagonally across your loaf, about 1/4 deep.  If you don't slash, the loaf will tear and split any-old-place as it rises, the loaf will look terrible, and might not slice very nicely.  Space your slashes about 1" apart, but don't get too fussy.  
• As soon as you have slashed, immediately open the oven and slide the parchment & loaf onto the baking sheet.  Toss the ice cubes right onto the floor of your oven, and close the door!
• Set a timer for 30 minutes, then turn on the oven light!  I still like watching the ice melt and trying to see if I can detect the bread rising!!
• After 30 minutes, the crust should be a nice light brown.  I usually just grab it with a pot holder and place it on a cooling rack, cutting board or kitchen towel.

Here are the short instructions, for when you don't need too much detail:

1. Lay parchment on wooden cutting board
2. Remove dough from fridge, smooth into ball/log, place on parchment, rise 1 hour.
3. Place stone in oven, heat to 450, while rising 30 minutes.
4. Get ice, slash loaf, slide into oven, add ice to oven floor, bake 30 minutes

It really is as quick and painless as those short instructions make it sound!  ALL of the 2 hours total is spent doing something else while waiting for the bread to rise or bake.

Bread really does work better if you let is cool - at least a little bit - before slicing.  It's so hot inside

that if you slice it immediately, the very hot moisture in the bread will condense onto the bread's newly cut & cooling end and make it a bit gummy.  Also, all the remaining moisture will rush out into the cool air, leaving the bread drier.  If you can stand to wait, 30 minutes or so would be good.  Or not.  Sometimes it's worth a bit of dampness to eat your first bite of hot-out-of-the-oven bread!

Nutritional Info for 1/4 of the small loaf

Remember that this in an E bread.  If you're having NO OTHER FAT anywhere in your
meal/snack, you can have almost 1 teaspoon butter.  The nutritional info on the right is for 1/4 of the entire loaf!!  You can see that you're only eating 1.3g of fat (E limit = 5g) and 26 carbs (E limit = 45).  You can have a bit of additional fat (a smear of butter or elsewhere in your meal) and a lot more carbs to complete your E meal.  Also, you're starting out with a nice 4.8g of protein.  Not quite enough for an entire meal, so be sure to add some more!

Since I'm still partial to fluffy store-bought bread, I'm not the biggest fan of this bread as a sandwich.  Even when I made enriched 50/50 bread, I still never liked 2 slices in one bite - just too much bread to chew!  My favorite ways to eat this bread are:

• toasted (or not) with Peanut Butter Junkie (and banana!)
• toasted with a Laughing Cow Light wedge (1 wedge will thickly cover 2-3 pieces of bread)
• toasted (or not) with light mayo, mustard & lunch meat - like a sandwich but with only a bottom piece of bread
• toasted with no toppings, dipped in E soup

As you can see, this bread is nice toasted.  Toasting crisps up the crust and also lightens the interior of the bread very nicely.

Please check out all the pages related to making THM:E Sourdough Bread!

Sourdough - the process

Wild Yeast Starter

Day #1, Mixing Day

Day #2, Baking Day

Tips and Tricks, Larger/Smaller Loaves
Complete Baking Instructions (all pages)

Drive Thru Sue Sourdough THM:E - Sourdough, The Process

(this post may contain affiliate links - please feel free to click!)

Please check out all the pages related to making THM:E Sourdough Bread!

Sourdough - the process

Wild Yeast Starter

Day #1, Mixing Day

Day #2, Baking Day

Tips and Tricks, Larger/Smaller Loaves
Complete Baking Instructions (all pages)

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Sourdough in a Medium Bread Pan

I know what you're thinking.  "What?  Can it be possible?  I thought sourdough was a long, time consuming process, with long rises, and special techniques?  Don't you have to be an artisan bread baker to achieve sourdough?  Drive Thru Sue does NOT have time to knead bread, no matter how easy..."

Believe me when I tell you that Sourdough bread IS possible, for Drive Thru Sues, busy moms, and people who don't want to take the time to learn traditional bread baking techniques.

I've been an amateur bread baker for many years now.  The definition of an amateur is someone who loves - but does not get paid - for their habit hobby.  Long before Trim Healthy Mama came my way, I was studying Peter Reinhart, keeping a bread journal, and measuring my ingredients by the gram.  THE GRAM.  7 grams of salt, 19 grams of yeast, 257 grams of whole wheat flour...  Of course all the while I was having babies, moving to new cities, and having a grand old life.  The bread baking would take a back seat for a year or more at a time (judging by the dates in my bread journal) but I always came back to baking, usually in the fall.  I have something of an OCD personality, and I have always been driven to discover the *perfect* techniques, and work until I could execute them flawlessly.  I take great pride in achieving great culinary arts - cooking has also been a passion of mine since I was about 15.

During one of my 'baking seasons' a friend of mine (with 5 kids under age 5 including triplet 2 year olds!) told me about Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  Or it might have been the sequel, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I can't remember which it was now.  In any case, I distinctly remember being rather sour about the whole thing.  I'd already put years into perfecting my centuries-old techniques.  I supposed that maybe a crazy-busy mom of 5 *might* need something faster, but really - 10 minutes to weigh and measure, 10 minutes to knead, 12 hours to rest, 15 minutes kneading in the Kitchen Aid the next day (I didn't even do it all by hand, only the finishing touches!), rising in a steam box with hourly steam changes and 2 different temperature settings on the stove - all to achieve perfect texture, mouth feel, density and crumb - were not all that difficult or time consuming.   I'd have no *easy answer* bread in my kitchen, thank you very much.

Fast forward a few years.  My passion came and went, and bread baking took a back seat again.  My 2 girls are now in 1st and 3rd grade, and I'm homeschooling.  Since that's not enough, I'm also directing our local homeschooling community of Classical Conversations.  I started THM several months ago, and while I haven't lost much weight yet, I know it's due to my own negligence and lack of self discipline.  I enjoy all the recipes in the cookbook, and have only made a couple that my family doesn't want again.  Almost everything in there is really, really good!  I read the breads chapter, and it piqued my interest in wild yeast starters again - of course, I'd already played with that several years ago.  I pulled out my bread journal and refreshed my memory about sourdough.

I had played quite a bit with whole grains, and had worked out a perfect loaf without any white flour at all, although it still contained fats and sugars.  The Peter Reinhart method had the grains soaking overnight to sour nicely, before mixing the final loaf with other ingredients, including more yeast.  But, it seemed that I'd never tried to make sourdough without any *extra* yeast.  Historically, there wasn't anything BUT true sourdough - powdered bakers yeast is a very new invention.  But I never tried it.  I detected a challenge!

By now, I have settled down in my ambitions, and I realize that I don't have time to cultivate my bread perfection like I did when the kids were still sleeping 14-16 hours a day.  I needed fast and easy homemade bread, or I knew I would put it on the back burner again.  I should probably visit with my long-time friend and apologize for any coolness she felt from me on that fateful day, years ago, when I couldn't figure out *what* she was doing with ALL that spare time...

My first move was to alter my recipes to use a bread machine.  They're fairly cheap to buy new and also available in any thrift store.  Lots of people get them for Christmas, use them twice, then they collect dust until you're tired of wiping them down and donate them to the Goodwill.  I found a high quality digital one (with 10 settings!) for $20, and brought it home.  I reduced my original quantities to fit my machine, switched to sprouted flour, played with the dough setting, baked longer and shorter, rested more and less, and after several weeks I had still not come up with a loaf that was even edible - let alone delicious.  Sprouted flour is expensive, too, and it didn't really save me much over just buying on-plan bread, especially considering all the work.  I went back to my shelf to grab Reinhart's book and read through his techniques again, when I spotted Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I had purchased it during one of my non-serious phases of bread baking, and it had worked out alright.  That's when the lightbulb went off.

The premise of the 5 Minutes a Day books is that you can mix up a big batch of dough, then pull out a chunk whenever you want bread.  The long refrigerated times not only make dough instantly available, but also allowed bread to be made without ANY kneading.  The dough can have a lot more water in it, since you'll be handling it cold and stiff, so the bread can rise more in the oven and be softer.  The reason they need 2 whole cookbooks is that you can take the basic idea, use different ingredients, and get many types of bread - soft sandwich bread, sweet breakfast breads, rolls, etc.  The first book used mostly white flour, and the "Healthy" edition used mostly whole grains.  I already knew that sourdough bread began as a yeast 'starter', which you keep alive in the fridge between uses.  You mix some starter with your flour and other ingredients, then the dough has to ferment slowly - typically 7-10 hours - to allow the wild yeast to rise your new loaf, and then you bake it.  The bulk-dough idea is absolutely perfect for combining the ease of the 5 Minutes a Day technique with traditional sourdough bread.

There were still a few hurdles to overcome.  100% whole wheat loaves tend to be heavy and dense.  Even the "Healthy" 5 minutes a day book only has 1 recipe that is 100% whole wheat.  All the rest are around 50/50 with white flour, to improve the texture.  Many of their recipes also used sugar or honey, butter and milk, so soften the texture and improve the rise.  These are all time-tested techniques to improve the flavor and texture of whole wheat breads!  Unfortunately, they aren't THM approved.

I started researching other methods of softening whole grain loaves, and found myself at The Fresh Loaf, one of my favorite bread forums, dedicated to amateur bread bakers and both traditional and newer techniques.  I read a fascinating article there about a baker who was trying to improve his dough by making it as wet as possible (sound familiar?) and then NOT KNEADING IT (familiar again!) because it was too wet to knead anyway.  He did just a few folds, then let the dough rest at room temp.  I had found my *perfect* technique, and it worked brilliantly.

What you see on the next page has been tested and eaten in my house for almost 3 months now.  My kids beg me to let them eat "Mommy's diet bread"... (I can't get them to just call it sourdough!)  I've kept it going since I started the very first batch, and have not needed to find or eat any store bought bread for THM.  I've discovered that the '5-Minute' technique - combined with the quick and easy folds from The Fresh Loaf - are a very forgiving combination, and stand up very well to partial neglect.

Without further ado, I present:

Day #1, Mixing Day

Complete Baking Instructions (all pages)

Homemade Greek Honey-Vanilla Yogurt

I've been making homemade yogurt for a while, and even though there are loads of recipes/methods online already, I thought I'd add mine anyway.  This is for all my friends who have asked about my yogurt making!!

Non-fat Greek yogurt is a wonderful food to have while losing weight.  The 'Greek" part means that the extra whey has been strained off, resulting in a thicker and creamier yogurt.  Most of us have tasted regular non-fat yogurt at some point, and it is easy to recognize the non-fat taste.  Acidic and tart, and not at all yummy.  When the yogurt is strained, the acidic whey is removed and the milk solids are condensed, resulting in much better flavor!  Because it is condensed, Greek yogurt also has 2x more protein than regular, helping you to feel fuller for longer, so you can eat less food!  It's a win-win!  My other favorite power-food for dieting is 2% cottage cheese (which I can't make...yet...) 16g of protein in only 90 cals!!  I'll give the nutritional info for my Greek Yogurt at the bottom of the recipe.

Don't let all the steps scare you!  Yogurt is a lot of hurry up and wait.  20 minutes of work... wait an hour... 5 minutes of work... wait 12 hours...  A stay at home mom will have no trouble, and a working person can do it, you'll just have to fit the steps into your schedule.

 Also, here is the price breakdown
24oz tub of name-brand Greek yogurt ($3.50) / 6 servings = $0.59 per serving
1 gallon skim milk ($2.75) / 16 servings = $0.17 per serving
(the first batch requires a small tub of store bought yogurt, but after that you save your own!)

1/3 the cost!  I do add honey and vanilla, which makes the price go up a bit, but I think I have room to wiggle with that price!!

Homemade Strained Honey-Vanilla Yogurt

To Make Yogurt:

1 gallon skim/non-fat milk
1 container plain, non-fat Oikos yogurt (Brand makes a difference!  See notes in the recipe.)

To Stir In:

1/3 C honey (raw & local is best!)
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Equipment needed:

6 Qt. pot
10 qt pot
Heat-proof rubber spatula
Cooking Thermometer (not candy making)
Whisk
Large cooler (large enough to hold your pots, one at a time)
High-Quality Cheesecloth (or 4ish layers of store-bought cheesecloth OR very thin, large kitchen towel - not terry cloth)
2-3 XL rubber bands
8 C measuring mixing bowl (like the PC batter bowl)
2-3 empty 1qt. yogurt containers OR canning jars OR Tupperware, for storage

1. Pour the entire gallon of milk into the 6qt pot.  Heat over med-high heat, stirring every few minutes and scraping bottom with rubber spatula until temperature reaches 180 degrees F.  This will take appx. 20 minutes.  This sterilizes the milk, just in case there are hostile bacteria that missed the pasteurization process, or were introduced during bottling.  Stir to keep the bottom from scorching - heat may be lowered if you are likely to be distracted while heating ;-)

(note - if your milk does scorch, taste it.  As long as it tastes fine, your yogurt will be fine.  Just don't scrape up the scorched bits during the remaining steps.  If your milk tastes burnt, it's up to you whether you are OK with the flavor, or if you need to start over)

2. Cool the milk to 125 degrees F. This can be done quickly or slowly.  If you remove the pot from the heat, it could take an hour to cool, depending of the temperature of your house.  To cool quickly, fill a large bowl with ice water, place in the sink, and set the milk-pot inside.  Stir frequently and temp until you get 125.  This could be as short as 10-15 minutes, or less.

3. WHILE MILK IS COOLING Prepare your cooler.  It is convenient to place it near a door, or in a bathtub you won't need for about 12-24 hours.  Place about 2 gallons of hot water in the cooler.  Check the temp of your faucet - if it's close to 120, that will be fine.  If not, you may need to boil a small pot of water to add to make the cooler water reach 120ish.  You will only need to check this first time - next time you make yogurt you will know how hot your water is, and how much boiling water you needed to add.  My hot tap water is fine at 117.

4. When milk has reached 125, scrape your Oikos yogurt into a medium mixing bowl and add 2 cups of the warm milk.  Whisk well to remove lumps, then whisk all into the pot of warm milk.  I use Oikos because it has no additives - additives cause grainy batches of yogurt.  You can experiment with other brands, but Oikos is safe to make good yogurt.

5. Place the lid on your pot, and place it in your cooler of hot water.  The level of the water should be about the same level as the yogurt, if not top it up - and make a note of how much water you will need next time.

6. Leave the yogurt, undisturbed, for about 12 hours.  This time is relative, anything over 6 hours will be fine, but the longer it sits the more firm it will become, and the more yogurt you get for your trouble!  I find it perfect to make my yogurt after dinner and have it done when I wake up in the morning.

7. After 12ish hours, you will find an entire gallon of non-fat, plain yogurt!  If you like "regular" yogurt (not strained) then your work here is done!  The yogurt will look like a solid mass with some yellow-ish liquid floating on and around it.  This is the whey, and it is the water-part of the milk - the yogurt starter converts most of the milk solids into more yogurt, and this is what is left.  It is quite healthy and mild.  If you are going to eat your yogurt here, just whisk the whey into your yogurt.  You'll need to stir it when serving, as it will separate again.

8. If you want to make strained yogurt, you need to chill the yogurt first.  If you have room in the fridge, great!  If not, dump out the warm water from the cooler, add cold water and ice, and put the pot back in for 3-4 hours.

9. Now prepare your larger pot.  Place your cheesecloth over the pot and secure around with 2-3 large rubber bands.  Let the cloth dip down into the pot about 4", to hold the yogurt.  Use the spatula to scrape your cooled yogurt into the cloth, watching to make sure you don't overflow!  You may need to adjust your cloth up or down.  You want to yogurt to be all the way up to the rim, so there is lots of room for the extra whey to drip down without the yogurt sitting in it.  You'll get around 2" of whey at the end, so make sure there is room.

9. Refrigerate for 3 hours while draining - if there is not room in your fridge, put it back in your cold cooler with more ice water.

10. After 3ish hours (set a timer - I always forget to check it!) look at your yogurt.  The sides should have curled in, away from the cloth, and the middle should be sunken from draining.  Perfect!  Search google for ideas of what to do with your whey, but DO NOT pour it down the drain if you have SEPTIC!!  Very harmful to the tank and the bacteria doing their job.  I feed it to my chickens, or just pour it in the yard.

(note here:  if you continue to drain the yogurt, while refrigerated, for many more hours, you will get yogurt cheese!  It can be used like cream cheese in cooking and spreading.  Search google for recipes and uses.  It is much lower calorie than regular cream cheese because it was made from non-fat milk, not cream.  I have not done this myself, but I do know it works.  Not sure about flavor and melting ability, but I'm pretty sure if you made it flavored (garlic powder and chives?  Crushed pineapple or strawberries?) and added a bit of sweetener or salt, that it would be pretty amazing!)

11. Scoop the yogurt into an 8C measuring-mixing bowl.  If you don't have one, you'll need to measure the yogurt as you remove it from the cloth.  You want 8C total - if your yogurt has drained too much, just add the right amount of whey back into the yogurt and whisk, to get 8C. (this is not so important if you aren't worried about the calories per serving and getting exactly 8C of yogurt.  However, if you do drain it too much it will be quite thick and gloppy, and more like thin cream cheese.  Just add whey and whisk until you like the consistency)

12. Before adding your flavorings, remove 6-8 oz. of plain yogurt to a small container, cover and place in the fridge for your next yogurt starter!!  Label with masking tape, "Oikos Starter x1" meaning this was the first saved starter.  Use this to make your next batch.  Next time save and label, "Oikos Starter x2", etc.  After 5-6 batches, you may notice the quality going down - grainey, loose, etc. - the culture is just getting too old to properly convert the milk.  At that point, I go buy a new cup of starter.  If your quality is still good, keep saving!

13. Now whisk in 1/3C honey and 1 tablespoon vanilla.  You're done!  Place in storage containers and place in your fridge.

This recipe can be doubled (if you have big enough pots!) or cut in half (if you don't have many mouths to feed) but yogurt keeps for several weeks in the fridge, and I hate to do all this work for one measly half-batch of yogurt!

Once you've done this a few times, you'll find that it really fits nicely with other household tasks - most of the time is spent waiting, not doing active work on the yogurt, so even though it takes 2 days to complete it is not that much work.  And all the pots and bowls and large and very easy to clean, so no filling up the dishwasher, or spending hours cleaning the kitchen.

Happy Yogurt Making!!

Nutritional Info:

1/2 C greek yogurt (including the honey)

109 calories, 0.2g fat, 5mg cholesterol, 18g carbs, 9.3g protein

(if you eat the yogurt PRE-STRAINED you can eat 1C for the above totals)

Mini/Maxi Italian Stuffed Bell Peppers

These are wonderfully flavorful, and the whole thing can be made ahead - for the refrigerator or freezer!!  It's very healthy, with brown rice, turkey sausage, and the only other fat coming from the cheese on top (which you could leave off, I suppose) I had most of a bag of those cute mini sweet bell peppers leftover from another dish, and this was the perfect way to use them up.  But you could also just use regular large bell peppers and cut them in half (for the maxi).  I've made lots of extra stuffing in the pan for kids, or others who aren't fans of bell peppers.  These could even be healthy appetizers at a buffet - enjoy!


Mini/Maxi Italian Stuffed Bell Peppers

2C dry brown rice + 4C water (or 6C cooked leftover rice)

about 12 mini sweet bell peppers, or 6 large ones, cut in half
    note - you could probably use 3-4 doz mini peppers or more, but i wanted lots of 
    extra filling for the kiddos ;-)

1 20oz package turkey italian sausage (sweet or hot)
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 teaspoons dry mustard powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon marjorum
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt

28 oz diced or crushed tomatoes
8ox tomato sauce

2C shredded provolone or mozzarella cheese (or about 12 slices) (or sub cheddar, but it will be less italian ;-)

1. Heat the oven to 350.
2. Start your rice - place 2C dry long grain brown rice and 4C water in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook slowly for about 45-60 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the liquid is gone.  You can turn off the heat when there is just a small amount of liquid left, but leave the lid on to steam for about 15 more minutes.
3. Meanwhile, begin to brown the Italian turkey sausage.  If you have links, slice the skin open and remove it - cook the ground meat until it begins to brown.  Add the onions and all the spices and cook until the meat is cooked through. note - this seems like a lot of seasonings, but remember we are mixing it with all that plain rice and plain tomatoes.
4. Also meanwhile, make a long slit into the side of each mini pepper (or cut whole peppers in half, and clean out the veins).  Place the slit side down on a dinner plate, add a couple tablespoons of water, cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 5 minutes.  Remove from the microwave to cool, but leave them covered with the wrap to continue steaming.
5. Put it all together - in a large mixing bowl, place the hot cooked rice, seasoned meat and diced tomatoes.  Toss well until combined.  Stuff each pepper with filling - it's fine to have the seam a bit open. (I tried using a small spoon, but honestly, my fingers worked better)
6. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with oil.  Pour the rest of the meat/rice filling into the dish.  Arrange the peppers on top, seam side down, squishing them down into the rice a bit.  Make them in rows, or a fun pattern!  Spoon the tomato sauce over the peppers - this keeps the skins from burning, and makes a kind of caramelized sticky crust.
7. Spray a sheet of foil with oil, then cover the dish (oil side down, of course)  Bake for 45 minutes.
8. Remove from oven, uncover, and sprinkle the whole dish with cheese (or lay slices over all).  Return to the oven (do not cover) increase temp to 400, and bake about 15 more minutes, or until cheese is bubble and browned.

For buffet appetizers, use enough mini peppers to use all the stuffing, and place them slit side up with just a drizzle of tomato sauce, and uncovered on a baking sheet.  Roast at 400 for about 20-25 minutes When they are tender and beginning to blacken, sprinkle with cheese and broil.  

The whole dish can be made ahead and kept in the fridge.  Bake for 1 hour the first time, then 15 minutes with the cheese.

To freeze, instead of spraying a casserole in step 6, line it with heavy foil.  Assemble the whole dish (without cheese) and place in the freezer until hard.  Pop the foil out of the pan, then wrap well with more foil, then plastic wrap, label and place back in the freezer.  When you are ready to cook, remove the outer layers of plastic and foil, and plop the original foiled casserole into the original pan. Bake, covered at 350 for 2 hours, then 15 minutes with the cheese.

Garden's Bounty - Summer Bean Salad

So, I've been trying to come up with ways to eat dry beans in summer.  Everyone knows that beans and rice are a super great meal (unless you're carb restricted).  They are:

• low fat
• low GI
• extremely filling
• a complete protein without meat
• very inexpensive
• easy to prepare

But in the summer, it's just not fun to sit down to a steaming bowl of soup beans.  It's way different than, for instance, hot grilled chicken, or hot spaghetti - something about eating all that hot liquid just makes you sweat.  That's why we eat beans in the winter time!

So, I've had "black bean and corn salad" and this is really just a thrown together version of that.  I used a bag of 15 bean soup (without the packet of gross seasoning) and lots of produce from my garden.  I really enjoyed the different flavors and textures of all those beans.  And I had way more ideas for ingredients that I would love to add if I had them!  I'll list them at the bottom of the recipe. 

Enjoy a filling, low fat, fresh and cool bean salad for dinner, as a side dish, leftovers for lunch - anytime!

Summer Bean Salad

1lb bag of beans (I used 15 bean mix, but black beans are a natural here)

1 ripe tomato, chopped (or 2 if you're a big fan)

1 cucumber, quartered and chopped

2 cobs corn, cut off the cob (or about 1C frozen, thawed)

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 large can black olives, chopped or sliced

salt & pepper to taste

about 1/2C balsamic vinegrette

1. Cook your beans - rince and sort out any bad beans, then cover with about 2 inches water.  Add some salt - stirring it in later will help, but it's not quite the same.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer until beans are done.  It will be a shorter time than for bean soup, and you want the beans to hold their shape, not go mushy.  Mine needed about 1.5 hours or so.  Set a timer to start checking them early.   
2. Drain in a colander, spread the beans up the sides and set the colander on a plate and put it in the fridge until cold.  Mine got about 2 hours and were cold enough.
3. Chop all your veggies
4. Pour the beans, veggies, seasonings and dressing in a large bowl and toss gently - try not to crush the beans.
5. If your beans were nice and cold, you can eat it now.  Or, refrigerate for an hour up to a few days! 
6. Serve with bread and butter or crackers to complete the protein (other foods will also work!!)

I would have loved to add any of the following to my salad:

• diced ham
• shredded chicken
• feta, goat cheese, Parmesan
• chopped avocado
• onion of some type (maybe green onions or chives?)
• leftover cold rice (complete that protein! Add extra dressing to soak in)

 

Cucumber Dill Salad

My favorite thing to do with just a couple of garden fresh cucumbers.  Originally found on Allrecipes.com.

Cucumber Dill Salad

cucumbers (the sauce below will cover 2-3 medium)
1 onion
1C white vinegar
1/2C water
3/4C white sugar
1T dried dill, or 2 fresh or dried heads

1. Slice cucumbers and onion very thinly.  The slicing blade of a food processor should work well for this.  I don't have that blade, so I used the slicing side of my box grater.  Perfect.
2. Bring remaining ingredients to a simmer.
3. Pour simmering liquid over cucumbers and onions.  Toss well, and press down into juice.
4. Cover and refrigerate until cold, stirring once or twice if your cukes are not fully under the liquid.  Keeps for days refrigerated!

Yeast Bread that ANYONE can make

So you're a single guy... or a super busy mom with toddlers and infants... or a 2 income family who really struggles to get healthy food on the table before you cave and bring home a pizza after work.  Most of these types of people think that bread is waaaaay out of their league.  Takes too long, too messy, too finicky.  NO MORE!

This recipe is straight from one of my favorite food bloggers - Heidi Swanson over at 101cookbooks.com.  Se makes incredible stuff, and this recipe is no exception.  This is a batter-type yeast bread.  That means is a "real" bread (not baking soda like biscuits) but there is no kneading. Also, most of the ingredients are pretty "normal".  Buy some yeast and flour, and the rest of the ingredients you probably already have. It takes about 10 minutes to prep, 30 min to rise, 40 min to bake.  Hot and fresh bread on your table in less than 1.5 hours, and you didn't have to learn anything new, or mess up the kitchen!  Most of the time is waiting (to rise, to bake...) so you can finish prepping dinner, clean the kitchen, and have good homemade food for your family.  Ready?  Here is Heidi's recipe, copied straight from her site.  There is a link over there to subscribe to all her wonderful goodness!

Easy Little Bread Recipe

1 1/4 cups / 300 ml warm water (105-115F)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (one packet)
1 tablespoon runny honey
1 cup / 4.5 oz / 125 g unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup / 5 oz / 140 g whole wheat flour
1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g rolled oats (not instant oats)
1 1/2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted, for brushing

 Below are the amounts for a 1.5x batch - perfect for my Pampered Chef stoneware loaf pan!

•  1 7/8C hot tap water
• 3 teaspoons yeast
• 1.5 T honey
• 1.5C white flour
• 1.5C wheat flour
• 1.5C rolled oats
• 2.75 teaspoons salt
• EVOO spray for pan (works great!)

In a medium bowl, sprinkle the yeast onto the warm water and stir until the yeast dissolves. Stir in the honey and set aside for a few minutes, until the yeast blooms and swells a bit - 5 - 10 minutes.
In the meantime, mix the flours, oats, and salt in a large bowl. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir very well.

Brush a 8-cup loaf pan generously with some of the melted butter (I used my pampered chef pan, and it had room to spare - a metal grocery store pan should be fine). Turn the dough into the tin, cover with a clean, slightly damp cloth, and set in a warm place for 30 minutes, to rise. (the back of the stove while it heats...)
Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C, with a rack in the middle. When ready, bake the bread for 35-40 minutes, until golden and pulling away from the sides of the pan. I finish things up by leaving the bread under the broiler for just a heartbeat - to give the top a bit deeper color. Remove from oven, and turn the bread out of the pan quickly. Let it cool on a rack so it doesn't steam in the pan. Serve warm, slathered with butter.
Makes 1 loaf.