I've made my own soy yogurt and yogurt from organic cow's milk.  I've eaten plain Dannon.  But nothing compares to the Fage yogurt I recently bought at my local organic store.  It has a tangy aftertaste that's just excellent.  The two types of yogurt I make and the Dannon seems to mild in comparison.

Does anyone know whether all Greek style yogurt is like this?  And why Dannon and my homemade yogurts don't have this same tang?  I have strained my homemade yogurt in an unbleached coffee filter to make it thicker.  But it didn't increase the tang.

I need a cool salad dressing recipe. I only need one serve.

I have
- Olive oil
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Various other vinegars
- A bit of plain yoghurt
- Capers
- Pretty much any dried herb or spice you could think of
- Lemon juice

wild blueberry frozen yogurt. made in a $17 ice cream maker with frozen wild blueberries, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla yogurt. not extremely sophisticated but still delicious.

i've frequently asked questions or commented, but never actually provided porn - here are some pictures of some of the simplest recent treats i've had! (i get as excited as the next person for new and exotic foods and taste combinations, but it's important to indulge in common pleasures too.)


the perfect nectarine.

( more summer treats behind the cut )

Tomorrow is my 25th birthday and I am baking disabled. Tonight I am having a potluck with a bunch of people and really wanted to make my own cake for once!



( Strawberry cake recipe )

( Frosting Recipe )

( Photos are delicious! )

I had a sore troath some days ago, but this definitely cheered me up!


Mmm...

Further food images in my blog with that topic

I yanked this simple recipe out of the "10 Superfoods" book. Have now made it twice, once using the mint and once using cilantro. The mint was good, but I thought the cilantro was better. Really a great recipe with distinct, bright flavors. They absolutely pop.

Cabbage and Apple Salad with Pomegranate Seeds

Serves 4
4 cups cabbage
4 carrots
1 Granny Smith apple
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1 teaspoon honey
fresh mint or cilantro
1/4 cup pomegranate, seeds

Combine cabbage with carrots and apple. Transfer to a serving bowl, add sunflower seeds and mix gently. In a small bowl combine lime juice with yogurt and honey. Add to cabbage mixture and toss well to coat. Divide onto four salad plates and sprinkle top of each with one tablespoon pomegranate seeds. Garnish with fresh cilantro or fresh mint.

Per Serving: 139 Calories; 5g Fat (29.1% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 22g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; trace Cholesterol; 53mg Sodium.

So, at the Mad Hatter Tea Party this past weekend (which my wallet enjoyed so much it has now decided to stay -- twice!), I got a chance to indulge my love of WTF cooking! Yay me!

This time wasn't so crazy. It was a variation of tortellini salad consisting of whole-grain gorgonzola tortelloni, capers, and black and green olives (the green stuffed with garlic!) dressed in Trader Joe's Organic Balsamic Vinaigrette, into which had been mixed (approximately) 6 tablespoons of pesto, 2 tablespoons each of jarred eggplant garlic and artichoke dips, 1 tablespoon of tzatziki, 1/2 tablespoon of Thai yellow curry sauce, and 1 teaspoon each of cream style horseradish and pumpkin pie spice.

A couple of people REALLY loved it, and those who had the strongest negative reactions never said it was bad, just too many flavors or too sweet. I rather agree with the latter, actually, though that could have been due to the measuring spoon's strange flatness, which forced me to eyeball much more than I would have liked. Still, I'm thinking I could cut the pumpkin pie spice down to 1/2 teaspoon and possibly the Thai yellow curry sauce down to 1 teaspoon (as it also has sweet in it). Also, I found the horseradish almost undetectable whereas I had been hoping for some bite, so I'm thinking of increasing that to 2 teaspoons perhaps.

Made a quick snack this afternoon using some strawberries we got at the farmers market this week, rasberries from Costco, frozen walnuts and some mint as a garnish. A cool treat for summer and healthy!

So, I have a tub of plain yogurt. I really like the texture, and the bite, but I'm finding it nigh impossible to eat by itself, as you may imagine.

So, what is everyone's favorite thing to cook or make with plain yogurt? I'm looking for any real use here, as long as it isn't too high calorie/fat.

Thanks in advance!

After being on second shift for nearly a year, my job has recently switched me back to days. In celebration of being able to do fun, social things after work, we ate out a bit more than usual, but I did manage to cook dinner a few times this week.

One night, we had a healthified version of a Barefoot Contessa recipe that my fiance's stepmom made for us a couple months ago. I increased the vegetables, left out the cream, and nixed the sliced lemons. I think my version was even better because it didn't have that ultra-rich "I AM MADE OF CREAM" vibe going on.



( Creamy Lemon Fusilli Salad )

Last night I really wanted to go down to this awesome little Mexican restaurant down the street and have some black bean nachos, but we had just gone out for burgers the night before. Going out to eat 2 nights in a row doesn't really fit in with my "eat out less" budgeting goal. So I stopped at the neighborhood Mexican grocery store and picked up a couple of things (tostadas, iceberg lettuce, Mexican crema, jalapenos) and came home and made dinner! Tostadas were faster to make than nachos, and I thought they'd be easier to pile up with crispy lettuce and homemade pico. I was right!


( Black Bean Tostadas )

For tonight's dinner, I'm trying to decide between bean tostadas again (they're that good, plus I have leftover beans and pico) or portabella mushroom mini-muffalettas. Just for good measure, here's my muffaletta idea...

Slice some zucchini and portabella. Broil or grill until done. Finely chop some spicy mixed olives into relish. Split and toast some ciabatta rolls. Spread one side of the roll with olive relish. Layer on zucchini slices, portabella, and arugula. Spread the top of the roll with soft garlic/basil goat cheese.

I'm trying to decide what to have with that sandwich. Nothing that requires the use of the oven, as it heats up my house too much. I'm thinking maybe some kind of cucumber salad. Any ideas?

Hello everyone,

I have some questions about homemade cheeses. Hopefully one of you has some experience about this? I've been searching the web but I haven't found answers to my questions yet.

First, I was wondering about yogurt cheese. Do you have to use plain yogurt, or can you use flavored yogurt to make it? I'm told it comes out like a soft cream cheese and I love flavored cream cheese on bagels. Can I simply use flavored yogurt and cut out the step of adding flavoring later?

Second, I read about a cheese that is simply made with lemon juice and milk. I don't have any whole milk on hand. Is it ok to use any kind of store bought milk on hand to make it? If not I don't mind making a grocery run but my car hasn't been running well as of late.

Last, are there any other types of easy to make homemade cheeses I haven't heard about? Those are the only two I've heard about while surfing the web.

Thanks to any and all help offered!

i have a month-old, unopened ultra-pasturized half gallon of milk, and will be going to the grocery store friday.  i'd like not to throw out the milk, but i know i won't use it as milk. 

is it possible to make yogurt from lactose free milk?  will the bacteria eat the other sugars in the milk?

apart from a steady diet of bechamel sauces, any ideas apart from yogurt? 

I scored this yogurt maker at goodwill yesterday for $3. It came without a manual, but I left a message with the company so hopefully I'll be getting one!

For those of you who make yogurt (the lazy machine way or by hand) , what are your favorite techniques and recipes? I've been googling but I like to hear tried and trues from you folks as well.

tzatziki!

( Read more... )

My first real food_porn entry!



I stole the recipe off Cooks.com or some site like that and improvised a crust using some Nilla wafers instead of graham crackers. Unfortunately ersatz, but I had to use them up.

( Idiot-Proof Lemon Cheesecake )

The texture of the pie is almost like a meringue...if you see in the photo it kind of collapsed in on itself on one side. How do I keep this from happening next time? Apparently it isn't entirely idiot-proof. D:

I'll let you know how it tastes in four hours!

Also, thanks to everybody who advised me on what to do with all my cilantro...despite all the recommendations to make cilantro pesto, I decided to use it up making Aloo Gobi according to this recipe. I'll find something else to do with the portabellos. Wish my boyfriend were here so I could feed him! D: The frozen olive oil/cilantro infusion idea was brilliant though; I'll try it once I get some room in my freezer.

i made this for dinner tonight. no mind it's rachel ray. i like her recipes (the ones i've made) and she has a section in her mag for meals that don't cost much. she had a little breakdown for this one and it turns out it costs a little over $2/serving. and it is REALLY good. i highly recommend it, even if you're not on a budget. and i think it will be even better once the tomatoes start producing out in the garden...

Who says eating healthy has to be boring?

Last night we had grilled curry burgers topped with cucumber raitas (no buns) and a fresh chickpea and tomato salad - it was SO GOOD and, as far as I'm concerned, virtually guilt-free.

I wish I could give you the recipe for the curry burgers because they are unbelievably delicious, but they're sort of my other half's creation and he always makes them, so the seasoning blend is something of a mystery to me. I CAN tell you that he uses super-lean beef, and mixes finely minced fresh garlic and onion into the beef along with a certain blend of curry powder, coriander, cumin, salt, black pepper, and I believe some turmeric and liquid smoke. Then he just forms them into patties (generally about 1/4 lb each) and grills them until they're a bit charred on the outside and still a little pink on the inside. He also almost always throws some soaked wood chips over the coals in the grill for a smokey flavor that neither of us can seem to get enough of.

The raitas couldn't be easier, though I'm not sure how traditional it is since I was just sort of following my gut. To make enough to top 2 burgers, I grated up about a third of a peeled cucumber and squeezed out a decent amount of its liquid. Then I added about a tablespoon of finely minced red onion, a pinch each of salt and white pepper, a teaspoon of lemon juice, and about 2 tablespoons of nonfat yogurt. Mixed all together and spooned over the hot, savory burgers, it was creamy and fresh and - I think - a far better accompaniment than any sort of cheese would have been. Plus, it was totally fat-free! I dare you to find a fat-free cheese that would actually taste good enough and melt well enough and complement the falvors of the burgers well enough to do a better job that this quick little sauce did.

The chickpea salad has become one of my stand-by's. I make it to snack on or to bring for lunch at work, and I never seem to get tired of it. I think it may just be because of my relatively new obsession with chickpeas - I never liked them as a kid, but recently I've discovered how many wonderful uses they have aside from just filler in canned soups, and I just can't get enough of them. Pureed in falafel or hummus, or whole in curries and stir fries, salads or soups, or seasoned and roasted into a crispy, savory snack, I love them all. This particular salad is fresh, savory, acidic, and biting, all at once - a beautifully complex flavor to go with all sorts of meals. And again, I consider it quite good for you, aside from the bit of oil used in the dressing. I imagine you could switch up the seasonings to give it a different flavor profile that would stand up well in a Greek/Mediterranean/Italian meal as well. Add cooked and shredded chicken and perhaps a bit of cooked couscous or bulghur wheat for an amazing lunch salad that will keep you going all afternoon.

( Recipe behind the cut )