Milk Powder Yoghurt, Chocolate Chia Pudding

 Most of my readers will have probably perfected DIY yoghurt years ago, but this is for the ones like me who have had not-so-good results for years.
For a long time I wouldn't even try making yoghurt, other than from using sachets in the Easiyo maker, because I didn't think there was any point if I had to buy milk in plastic bottles. Since we can now get milk in glass I've tried again, but could not get it like the bought stuff, and ended up making a lot of chocolate chia pudding with the less than perfect results (recipe to follow). 

This recipe makes thick creamy yoghurt - from milk powder! 

Original poster Lisa Rogers says... Super easy! I know there are other ways, but this is how I do it in an esiyo maker (I always see heaps for cheap in op shops).
1. Use the FULL FAT blue milk powder - fill to the 450ml line on side of the esiyo jar (or weigh 200g)
2. Cover with luke warm water, add a dash of water from kettle that you need to boil anyway. Not stone cold, not too warm, just take the chill off. Put lid on and shake to mix.
3. Add 2 Tablespoons of FULL FAT UNSWEETENED GREEK yoghurt as your starter & top to litre line with water.
4. Mix again and place in esiyo maker with boiling water for 6-8 hours, or until set. Put in fridge - any liquid that forms on top can be poured off or mixed in.
You can then sweeten or flavour as you wish.
**Remember to save 2T from your batch to start the next batch.
**If it "cooks" too long it may go a bit lumpy, just whisk together in bowl and re-jar.
Cost: You can get 5 litres of yoghurt from a 1kg bag (Pams is about $8.80 at Pak n Save) === $1.76 per litre of yoghurt Super cheap!

We can buy milk powder packaging free here - so it's perfect. 
My lukewarm water was 35 degrees celsius (I have a thermometer) 
The culture can also be frozen as apparently it will only last for a few times of remaking before the culture becomes too weak.
Also I have read that it shouldn't be left in the fridge for longer than 2 weeks or the culture will die.

Chocolate Chia Pudding

1Tbsp of rice syrup (or 3-4 dates soaked and chopped)
4 Tbsp of chia seeds
1 cup of milk (or failed yoghurt)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all with a food processor or stick blender and put in the fridge for 3 hours or so to set. 

2 Tablespoons of Chia contain:
 64% more potassium than a banana
 2x the antioxidants of blueberries
 41% of your daily fibre
 5x more calcium than milk
100% more omega 3 than salmon
3x more iron than spinach
32% of your daily magnesium
info from www.riseorganics.co.uk

Plastic Free July 2019

I love to read about the plastic-free movement and how many people get switched on to it starting with a pledge to try Plastic Free July.
I've been gradually working towards being as new-plastic-free in my purchases as possible, and I'm still not there. Let's face it - it's hard.

One of my goals this year has been to find a sandwich bread recipe that is virtually no knead, like my other seed bread recipe Busy People's Bread. I have failed to find one, so this week I have bought a new-to-me bread machine. The first loaf was pretty good, and I'm on track to save bringing home 26 bread bags/year. I'll still be making the seed bread, four loaves at a time in the oven. A plus with the bread machine will be easier pizza dough.

My lovely helper holding the container - labels on the underside

A new thing here is being able to take a container to the supermarket and they'll make a bit of a drama about taking it away to clean it, then we can get items from the deli packaging-free.I'm loving buying feta and gouda like this. Just ignoring the drama..("have you got any other shopping to do...I'll be 5 minutes cleaning this" kind of comments). So I got them to put three things in it. It's a bit dearer to buy like this, but the feta's nicer than what I was getting.

My next change for P-F July has been making my own custard powder. Yes, I know you can make it with eggs etc, but it has to be sustainable and I'm not the only cook. The bulk bin custard powder was horrible so we reverted to packaged Edmonds. My challenge was to make something convenient that had to be as nice...success...recipe follows.

DIY Custard Powder

1 cup of icing sugar
1/2 cup of cornflour
1/2 cup of milk powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp of vanilla bean paste

Grind all to a fine powder with a stick blender or similar. Store in an airtight container. 
Use as for regular bought custard powder, but I did find I needed to use more. I'm going to try adding more cornflour to the next mix. You can also add a couple of drops of yellow food colouring if you want it to be more like the bought stuff.

Our last innovation, which isn't a plastic-free one, has been to change most of our light bulbs to LED. They have come way down in price recently (now only around $3-$4/ bulb) and should pay for themselves quickly with energy saving and they'll last longer, plus they don't give off heat. If you haven't done yours yet, look into it. #money-saving