Wild Saturday Night

Why do I have a frozen teething toy on my eye, you ask???

After we put Turner to bed, Mike and I made ourselves a couple of cocktails and snuggled down on the couch to catch up on some Modern Family, because that is what hip parents do on Saturday nights and we are cool like that.  Anyway, after a couple of episodes and a couple of drinks, Mike thought it would be fun to pin down my hands and ruthlessly tickle me.  He thinks it is fun to hear me shriek in protest  - sadist.  However I prepared for my get a way; thanks to all my yoga [like my page, please :)], I geared up to kick my leg over my head to get free.  Sadly, due to my inebriation my awesome flexibility backfired and I kneed myself in the eye. Thus, the frozen teething duck on my eye.  I laughed and cried at the same time.  Lesson learned: do not operate mad yoga skills under the influence of Texas Teas. 

Spinach Smooties

I watched the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead a few months ago.  It really opened my eyes to the healing powers of food, or more like the poisonous effects fake processed food can have on our bodies.  The premise of the film follows this Australian guy who has an autoimmune disease as he goes on a juice fast while traveling around America.  Through this process he is able to wean himself off the steroids and other multitude of medications he must take just to manage his condition.  Along the way he meets a few regular folks, one lady suffers from horrible migraines, the other guy is a 400+ lb man who also has the same rare auto immune disease. The main character recruits these people into trying out the fast.  It was amazing to watch these very regular middle American people over come the ills that plagued them just by taking out the junk and replacing it with real food.   It is an eye opening film and I highly recommend watching it. 

The film inspired me to get more veggies into my diet.  Lots more.  I best way that works for me, is a spinach smoothie.  In one of these smoothies, I consume enough spinach as a giant salad, and while I like salads and all, who has time or the desire to much through a giant bowl of greens every single day, if not a couple times a day.  I find it is much more enjoyable to sip a fruity concoction that reminds me of vacation.  Who wouldn't like to feel like they're on vacation through out the day.  Me! Me! Me!

Here is how you make it. 
1.  Take your favorite fruit smoothie recipe. 
2.  Add a whole bunch of spinach (I use three big handfuls in mine and I've got big hands, so that is a lot!)  If your scared of the tiny green leaf start out with one hand full of spinach and then work your way up.  I promise you will not taste spinach.  My veggie fearing husband even likes these. 

Here is my specific recipe for most mornings, but again, you can use any smoothie recipe.  Just note that red and purple berries mixed with spinach will turn into a purpley brown color.  It still tastes amazing just don't drink it in a clear glass. 

 Today, I kept it super simple and decided to use just banana and about a cup pineapple juice (I keep frozen concentrate in the freezer).  If I have it on hand I will throw some frozen or fresh fruit in the mix.  It does add even more yumminess, but the banana is such a sweet fruit it can fly solo in this smoothie, too. 

This is the size of ONE of my handfuls. 
I do three of these. 








Throw it all in the blender.  This made a 24 ounce smoothie.  I love the green color...







A word of caution if you have a glass blender. 
Do NOT sick a spoon in the blender while it is running to try to get it to blend better.  Not a good idea, as I've learned from experience. 

How to make Greek Yogurt.

To follow up on my previous post.... yeah, I know it's been a while, but I've been busy working three jobs and I haven't had time to organize my thoughts into a written form in a few months. The five people who are going to read this, give me a break already, Gosh. OK, so I'm a little tense, but like I've said, I've been busy, but not too busy to keep making Greek yogurt. I'm telling you people it is EASY. So here is a how to.... It is going to take longer to write this post than the hands on time to make the yogurt.

Your tools.  8 Cups of Milk (makes 4 cups/32 oz of yogurt),  A couple table spoons of your favorite yogurt containing live cultures, a thermometer, a double boiler, or just two largish pots that fit inside one another, a towel, some tongs.

 While holding the smaller pot inside the bigger pot fill the bigger pot til water comes up half way of the smaller pot.  Make sure you are holding the smaller pot down.

Then take the pots to the cook top throw your utensils in the water and invert the smaller one over the big one and turn the heat on high.  Let the water come to a boil.  You are sterilizing everything so all that is growing is the good bacteria you want and none of the skanky ones.

While waiting on your water to boil,  take two table spoons, only two table spoons more is not better here, of your favorite yogurt and mix it with some milk in a bowl and leave it alone.

After your water is boiling for a minute carefully flip the smaller pot into the bigger one and pour your 8 cups of milk into the pot. 

You are going to get a facial from this.

Now heat the milk til it reaches a steamy 185 degrees.  Again, another step in killing all the bad bacteria.  It takes about 10 -15 min to reach this temp.  I usually do this as I'm making dinner, but you could easily put a little of the left over yogurt on your face to round out the facial you began with the steam bath.  I may try that next time...

Once you've sterilized your milk, its time to cool it down to a temp the probiotics will like.

There are two methods.

1. let it sit on your counter and

wait (it takes about an hour)

                                        Or

 2.  stick it in the sink full of

 cool water (about 10min). 

When you get to 100 degrees, it is time to add the yogurt milk combo that has been hanging out and let the party start.

Now, stick a lid on your pot and wrap it up in your towel.

 Turn on your oven light.  This will provide just enough heat to keep the probiotic party poppin.

Tuck your cozy cultures in the oven for 8-10 hours (i.e. over night).

In the morning you will have plain yogurt.  You can stick this straight in the fridge if you want and enjoy when cool.  We are making Greek yogurt, though.  Thick, wonderful creamy goodness.

.   

Anyways, on to the Greek part of Greek Yogurt....

You can forget all the above steps and just use your favorite store bought yogurt, if you would like.    

Your tools:  You need a large bowl, a colander,  and some paper towels or cheese cloth

Line the colander with the paper towels or cheese cloth and put the colander over the bowl.

Now, pour or spoon your yogurt into the lined colander.

Then cover, put in the refrigerator for a 6-8 hours (i.e while your at work) and then you have Geek Yogurt.

Here is the whey.  Lots of uses for this in things like bread making etc. but I'm not going to get into that. 

Spoon your yogurt into a container.   Sometimes, at this point, I will stir a little milk back into the yogurt if it got too thick in the straining process.  I hear Greek Yogurt will last in the fridge 3-4 weeks, but I always eat mine way faster than that.  Remember to save a couple of table spoons so you can make your next batch.

Now, sweeten with some honey or fruit preserves or use in place of sour cream.  Enjoy and never pay those ridiculous prices for Greek Yogurt ever again.