Coconut yogurt a success!

I tried the coconut milk yogurt this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was AWESOME!!!!  I set the yogurt machine up to run for 10 hours but hubby accidentally unplugged it somewhere around the five hour mark and I did not catch it until way later.  I decided to just throw it into the fridge and see what it became.  Even with that hiccup it was creamy and had that yogurt tang that I love.  The shredded coconut that I added gave it great texture too, I will definitely be making this again!

As a re-cap here is the recipe i made:


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 regularly
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.

Again, 5 hours ended up being fine for this, I iwll try for longer next time to see what the difference is.

Happy yo-ing!


~CM

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

Coconut Yogurt

This weekend I took a shot at making yogurt using coconut milk. I am sitting here today enjoying the fruits of my labor. I think I still have a little experimenting to do to make it thicker and creamier, but as a first attempt I find it to be palatable which is an excellent step in the right direction.

What I used:
2 13.5oz. cans of light coconut milk (next time I will use regular, I think that will help with the thick and creamy issue)
2 tbsp honey
2 bananas, finely diced
shredded, unsweetened coconut, approximately 1/2 cup
In my blender I blended the coconut milk to warm it to the right temperature, it came close, but was a little under, this may also have made a difference in thickness
Once it was approximately the right temperature I added the honey, some shredded coconut and let it blend a little more. Then I added the yogurt culture and pulsed the blender for 5 long pulses.
Next i added approximately 1tbsp of shredded coconut to each yogurt cup and 1tbsp diced banana to each yogurt cup and i poured the coconut milk mixture int each. I gently stirred the cups to mix the fruit into the liquid.
I left the individual lids off each cup, put the main lid on and let it do it's yogurting for about 10 hours.

Ok I am going to finish my yummy yogurt now
City Mouse ;)