Trying better this time

to keep up with this and see if there is any interest and if it can keep me organized. We shall see. Today I happen to be making Greek yogurt, so easy! If you have a crock pot there is no reason to buy yogurt, it is just not worth it.

The recipe I use is from this amazing site. If you haven't looked around on her site, make sure you have time because there is a lot of good stuff to see!

Anyway, here is what I am doing today. You are going to need a crock pot, 1 gallon whole milk, 2 C powdered milk, 4 oz plain Greek yogurt, whatever size jars you want/have

1 gallon of whole milk poured into the crock pot (on low)

2 C powdered milk whisk into milk (fortifies milk with extra proteins and helps thicken later)

Cook this until the temperature reaches 180 degrees (takes the most time, I leave it for about 3 hrs, then I check it periodically)

When the milk has reached 180, turn off the pot and cool the milk to between 115-95

Whisk 4 oz of plain Greek yogurt into a small amount of milk until there are no clumps

Add to the rest of the milk, pour into jars

Place in oven with the light on, UNcovered, overnight (or 8-12 hrs)

It should be smooth and look pretty solid in the morning

Cover and refrigerate.

This stuff is so versatile! We use it in place of sour cream and cream cheese. We mix our homemade jams, purees, and vanilla with it to make a yummy yogurt. OH! and honey, cannot forget honey!

There are a ton of recipes out there with Greek yogurt! Enjoy!

I have decided to be more aware

of everything.

My kids have been watching too much tv. Netflix that is. We do not have cable/satelite and never will. However, netflix is a problem. We are a movie loving family, we used to get the movies in the mail. Recently we invested in an internet connection for "banking". Yeah right! I would let them watch a show to get something done around the house. Then one show turned into two and so on.

No more. The tv is on right now, playing music. I am going to hold firm! There will be fights but when arent there :) My two year old acts like the three year old, and he will have his way. I'm in for a long day! So to distract myself and the babes we are going to make and bake.

This is the second area that needs a little help in our household. Food. We eat fairly well. The worst thing I give the kids are popsickles. I am getting tired of cereal however and we definatly need better snacks than nutella on a slice of bread (oops! should not have shared that).

So Penny and I made hummus! Totally easy and really yummy! My kids love it! My recipe is as follows:

1 15 oz can garbonzo beans (strained)
6 small garlic cloves roasted
2 Tbs lemon juice
2 Tbs tahini
2 Tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

I put everythign is our small food processor and whizz it up til smooth. Makes about 1 1/2 C to 2 C. We eat it with everything! I even put it on sandwiches! and of course you can tweak it however you want! roasted red peppers, eggplant, olives...the possibilities are endless!

The last observation I had today (so far) was how lazy Liam was/is this morning. He just wants to watch tv, so because I created this monster, I need to fix this. Penelope is one of those whirl wind types that goes form thing to thing and leaves a distructive path behind her. To solve both of these problems we have been having imprompto excerise times. Today, even if they didnt know it, was the first morning workout. Pilates will be repeated daily! It was a lot of fun! Showed me how out of shape and unflexable I am! Those babes can twist!

Time to go reiterate the fact taht we are in fact not going to watch a movie and that they really shouldnt be touching the DVDs...sigh

Giving it a go...

I thought, "What the heck!, everyone else is doing it". Might be nice to send my thoughts out into the nether and see what bounces back. I love reading other blogs, there has got to be one person who would find me funny and/or entertaining. I've got nothing to lose.


That is how is rationalized starting my own blog. I've been thinking about it for some time and this is me giving it a shot. I have no idea what I'm doing or what I'm doing to do here. It'll be fun and organic, which is how I try to live my life.


Hopefully I can inspire people the way others inspire me. So here we go...