New year, new me?

The yogurt is "yo-ing"

Well like everyone else on the planet I am going to lose some weight in the new year.  It's more than that though, I intend to get back to some of my healthy eating habits that I so lazily have abandoned lately.  I have started a little three day cleanse, I thought that would kick off this new me quite nicely.  During these three days I will eat very light meals, veggie soups, lots of teas, water, etc. 

After that I will transition into what I hope will become pretty much my normal diet.  For now I am cutting out red meat and will eat chicken occasionally, getting my protein from other sources is not a problem as I love nuts and can tolerate soy and tofu in small amounts although I find it dreadfully boring.  I am also cutting my alcohol intake back to two days per week MAX.  I generally like to have a glass of wine with dinner or something but all that sugar is going right to my belly and I hate that.  For now I am completely cutting dairy out, with the exception of my love for cheese this is not an issue as I generally try to avoid dairy and all that crap that is in it.  The soybella machine will come in very handy in making my "milks" for coffee and other recipes.  I can cut back on bread but never really felt it was a problem for me, I think aiming to be aware of portion sizes would be more beneficial to me at this point.

Today started off with a bang and I am feeling very positive about these changes.  I had a cup of tea and 1/2 piece of peanut butter toast along with one cleanse pill oh and of course water!

As a late day snack I am making a nice light veggie broth.  In the pot I put water, a light sodium veggie cube, an onion and a ton of celery, maybe 5 pieces of so.  Then I added about 5 garlic cloves, paprika, oregano, salt and old bay seasoning.  It smells GREAT and is tasting quite nice.  Generally I would make soba noodles to have with this but since I am cleansing I am trying to do mainly a liquid diet for three days and will not add anything.

My next feat is my attempt at making coconut milk yogurt.  I found a site where the person was able to successfully make it so I am trying right now to do this.  My recipe differed from hers slightly because I love really thick creamy yogurt.

Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk (lite or regular)
3 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp guar gum (thickener)
1tbsp yogurt starter or probiotic packet (since this is a half recipe and my probiotic packs are for larger batches I opted for the tbsp of yogurt starter)

Equipment:
SS Spoon
1-2 qt pot (for this batch 1 qt is fine)
Thermometer
Yogurt making machine or something comprible

Directions:
Sterilize everything (i boiled water in my teapot and poured it over the yogurt containers and other equipment.
Boil coconut milk to approx. 160 degrees F  stir regurarly
turn off heat
Add shredded coconut and guar gum stir ALOT
Let cool down to about 110 degrees F before adding probiotic and stir again
Pour into yogurt containers and follow instructions for your machine, i am letting my yogurt "YO" for about 10 hours and will check on it then.

Wish me luck!  I will update later.

~CM