Cheap-o Dinner #2

Cheap meal #2 is turning into a take-out night! I can count the number of times I let us eat take-out for dinner on one hand, but it was one of those crazy days where you sit in a doctor's office for 2 hours with a screaming baby and cooking sounds completely lame-o. So when I came home all bedraggled Beau quickly suggested we get burritos from a little Mexican place down the street. I think he really wanted a burrito and dinner was going to be late if I tried to cook so I caved and we headed out to El Mariachi.

When I was in high school, El Mariachi was the place to be! But what can you expect from a little town with 3 fast food places and not much else in the way of quick food? The truth is, the burritos are huge and they aren't bad tasting so guys tend to love it. It is not my favorite place in the world but if you really feel like being a fatty then the carne asada fries are exactly what you are looking for. It is this massive pile of fries topped with cheese and meat and all the fixins. Yum!

I was planning on all of these healthy meals this week so the fast food sort of threw me off a little bit, but I made up for it with my favorite good-for-you breakfast, homemade yogurt! So instead of a cheap-o dinner recipe, I will give you my recipe for my breakfast this morning. If you do not make your own yogurt, hop to it! Yogurt is fantastic for you and if you buy the stuff in the store it has so many odd ingredients in it who knows if it is really yogurt or just a little plastic tub of chemicals and preservatives? Plus, I like plain yogurt and for some reason that is terribly hard to find. I eat a lot of yogurt, so I invested in a yogurt maker from Bed Bath and Beyond. The best $30 I ever spent!

I used to make my yogurt with exactly 2 ingredients: raw whole milk and 1/4 cup of a good yogurt that I would use as a starter. Then I moved to So Cal where I could not find raw milk in the regular grocery store and my yogurt would never set up! It always came out runny and I hate runny yogurt. And then I discovered (insert heavenly music) The Yogurt Bible by Pat Crocker! And ta-da! The secret ingredient as it turns out to thicken runny yogurt is powdered milk! So for those of us who sadly do not have access to raw whole milk, here is a recipe for plain yogurt.

PLAIN YOGURT
(from the Yogurt Bible)

4 cups fresh whole milk (this recipe can easily be doubled. I double it for my yogurt maker that makes 7 little glass jars full)
1/3 cup instant skim milk powder
1/4 cup organic live-culture yogurt (I use Fage. It's not organic but it is plain and I get 2 batches worth out of it)

In a stainless-steel saucepan, heat the milk to 170 degrees over a medium-low heat, stirring often. Add the skim milk powder and stir until incorporated. Remove from heat and let it cool to 110 degrees, stirring often. in a bowl, combine the starter yogurt and add 1/2 cup of the cooled milk. stir to combine and add to the rest of the cooled milk. pour into the clean cups and place in the yogurt maker *or* a temperature controlled environment. I have heard of people wrapping the yogurt jars in a warm towel, leaving them in a warm oven (100 degrees) or all sorts of things. You will have to continue to check the temperature of the yogurt so it doesn't get too warm or too cold. Leaving it in the warm (but turned off!) oven overnight should do the trick! If you like Greek style yogurt like I do, strain it in some cheesecloth before eating and drizzle with honey.