Homemade Greek Yogurt

Last year, I started on the Trim Healthy Mama diet.  I hate to say diet because people automatically tend to think that it's just a "short term" change but Trim Healthy Mama is a lifestyle.  It's been amazing for me and this past September my husband joined me on the THM journey.  He's lost about 30 pounds since then and has had no problem keeping the weight off.  Sadly, making healthier changes to your eating can also mean spending more money.  I wish healthy food wasn't more expensive than the prepackaged, processed, unhealthy foods but in most cases it is. 

One of the foods I started eating after I started Trim Healthy mama was Greek Yogurt.  It is high in protein and low in carbs and works with any meal type in the THM plan.  It's so filling so you can eat less of it but still get full.  The only problem is that I had to spend $4.98 per each 38 oz container at Sam's Club.  Believe it or not, that is actually a lot cheaper than you can buy it at some other stores.  Anyways, Nathan and I can go through 38 oz of yogurt or more in one week.  It was getting really expensive.  So I decided to ask my friends on the Trim Healthy Mama Facebook Fan Page (they are amazing by the way!!!)  if anyone made their own Greek Yogurt, if it was easy, and if it really saved money???  

I had such a big response to my question.  Seriously, the fan page is awesome.  It's so great to have a place to go to ask about any questions you may have and the sisters' who wrote the book even answer questions sometimes.  It's just such a huge support system and I love it!  Ok back to my question... a lot of people answered back saying how much they loved making their own yogurt and that it only costs whatever you have to spend on a gallon of skim milk basically.  For some women who have an Aldis near them, that was $1.39.  For other women it was around $2.50.  And they said they got way more than 38 oz of yogurt for that price.  Awesome!!!

A few women posted a few different links to blogs with instructions on how to make it.  I read them all but ended up going with the one that I thought had the simplest instructions.  I'm all about keeping it simple and easy. With three kids, being pregnant, and homeschooling I need simple!  

Brianna Thomas' blog was one of the blogs I was directed to for instructions on making Greek yogurt and that is the one I went with.  You can find the link here.  She has a video of her making her yogurt as well as written instructions.  I loved that she had both.  I do so much better when I can see things done visually and read them.  The video is about ten minutes long but I recommend watching it.  I followed her directions exactly as she said to and my yogurt turned out perfectly!  I was SOOOO happy that it turned out the first time I made it.  That's doesn't always happen so I was very thankful it did with this.  

I thought I would post some pictures of my yogurt making process just so you can see how mine looked. 

 The first step was take take a whole gallon of skim milk and bring it to a slow boil.  My took exactly one hour to come to a boil. 

  Then once it comes to a boil you remove it from the heat, and let it cool for an hour. 

  After it cooled I added 1/3 cup of Greek Yogurt and whisked it in. 

* I had to use Greek Yogurt that was store bought because this was my first time making it homemade.  Now that I have a homemade batch, I'll just use 1/3 cup of that yogurt for the next batch I make.

  Then I covered the milk and put it in my oven with the light on all night. 

* It was in the oven from 8PM-about 9:30AM.  It took me a while to get the kids fed and the kitchen cleaned that morning so it sat in the oven a little longer than I had wanted it to but it worked fine. 

*Oh and please excuse my VERY dirty oven.  I love to keep my kitchen clean but somehow cleaning the inside of the oven always gets overlooked.  

This is what it looked like when I took it out of the oven.  It had come together in one big curd and a bunch of whey was sitting on top. 

  I needed to strain the yogurt over a strainer in the sink using a cloth to catch the yogurt and strain out the whey.  I wasn't sure what kind of cloth to buy so again I asked the ladies on the fan page what they used and I got a lot of responses.  Most of the women said they used flour sacks to strain it.  I found some flour sacks at Walmart and I've been so happy with them.  They were $4.98 for a 5 pack.  They were in the kitchen isle with the cloth napkins and hot pads. 

  Then I had to put a wooden spoon across the cloth and tie up the corners of the cloth up over the spoon to form a bag and place it over a tall container to catch the whey.

*I didn't have a container that was tall enough to catch the whey without the bag touching the bottom of the pan, so my husband put the strainer in the pan (same pan I cooked it in) and then we placed the "bag" in the strainer, which kept the bag several inches from the bottom of the pan.  I love my husband.  I would not have thought of this and was actually rushing off to Walmart to find a new container when he did this for me.  :) 

I let it hang in the container in the frig for about 2.5 hours to strain.  This is what mine looked like when I opened up the cloth. 

 Then I took the yogurt and scooped it into my old yogurt containers.  I filled an entire 38 oz container and about half of a 32 oz container.  I figured it was about 50-55 oz of Greek yogurt.  And it only cost me $2.19!  

Don't be intimidated by all the steps.  It really was very simple and I'm so happy I finally decided to give it a try. 

I'm going to be giving this yogurt to my kids as well as Nathan and myself now.  It's cheaper to make this yogurt than to buy and it's very healthy so I think the kids should be eating it as well.  

Please head over to Brianna Thomas' blog for the detailed instructions and to watch the video.  It really is great!  She also has a ton of other amazing recipes on her blog. 

I like to add Truvia to my Greek yogurt to sweeten it and then mix in either thawed frozen fruit, fresh fruit, or all natural peanut butter.