Home Made Yogurt!!!!!!

i blame the Activia commercials. There's something innately wrong about people sitting on a big comfy couch talking about their digestive health. so of course i had to try it. and i'm not going to get into why i'm still eating yogurt every day, ut suffice it to say i'm spending a small fortune in yogurt every time we get groceries.

since one of my mottos is 'if you can't make it yourself, you don't need it' i ebayed different yogurt makers. there were a couple of different brands out there, and since i'm only buying it once i wanted to make sure i got the best one i could. so where do you go when you want to ask an opinion or solicit advice?

facebook.

that's where andi aka judgementalhippy (and yes, very nearly hippy is a nod to her. i am half the hippy she is. not even half. 33%, tops) told me about a blog that had instructions on making yogurt in your crock pot. i read through the instructions, and they seemed simple enough, so i gave it a try.

the scaled down version (and please, click HERE for the blog itself, it's amazing) goes like this:

take half a gallon of whole milk (i used vitamin d) and put it in your crock pot on low for 2 1/2 hours. turn it off and let it sit for 3 hours. then take 2 cups of the warm milk, and whisk it into 1/2 a cup of yogurt that has live active cultures. add it back into the crock pot, mix it all up, and wrap it up in a towel. still leaving it unplugged leave it sit for at least 8 hours.

PHENOM!!!! it tastes 100 times better than the store bought yogurt. it's not super sweet, and there's no weird after taste that you get with most commercially bought yogurts. if you don't notice the weird after taste, try home made yogurt, you will!!

i've been eating it for a few days in the mornings, and even made yogurt chicken a couple of nights in a row. i am never going back to store bought yogurt. and while i haven't figured the numbers yet, i KNOW it's cheaper to make it yourself.

and for good measure, here's the recipe for yogurt chicken (yummy):

2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
2 tbl oil
salt/pepper
1/2 cup of home made yogurt
2 limes

put the oil in a dutch oven and add the salt, pepper and the shredded chicken. quarter the limes and add to the pot, crush the limes as best you can. add the yogurt, stir and cook on low for 30-40 minutes, stirring every once in a while. spoon into a bowl and enjoy!!

*** added May 31 from a question on facebook**

From Jen P:
Curious if you've had issues with hot and cold spots in your yogurt?? I was just eyeballing a yogurt maker and it said "eliminates hot and cold spots" so I want to know if those are even an issue.
Are you using pasteurized milk?
Yogurt is one of those mystical things to me. We eat tons of it!! (plain stuff from WF but it is still expensive)

From VNH:
i've never had any problem with temp 'spots'. and i'm using the pasturized stuff i grabbed from the grocery store. i finally crunched the numbers, and a 1/2 gallon of milk from Super Target cost me $1.79 and a 1/2 cup of greek plain yogurt cost $1. it made 12 half cup servings. for the same amount of the cheapest yogurt i could find (yopliat) at .50 each, I saved just over $4. if the yogurt lasts me two weeks (at slow yogurt consumption, i'll run out before that) at the end of the year i will have saved $104, and reduced not only my consumption of chemicals and preservitaves but saved oddles of pounds (not sure how many) of waste from going to a landfill.