Happy Weekly Food Fun to You!
I hope you also had some fun with food last week.

I have to place my huge accomplishment first.
I am thrilled to announce that thanks to a friends help
I have finally been able to make my own yogurt!
I have tried in the past with multiple recipes and they were not good.
Thanks to her help it is really easy, and completely edible.

Heat a gallon of whole milk to 180  degrees, stirring every so often.
Cool to 120 degrees.
Place milk in quart jars.
Add 1/4 cup of plain yogurt per quart of milk.
Sit in cooler with several inches of hot water for 8 hours, then chill in the refrigerator and enjoy with your favorite mix in items.
Seriously, that is how easy it is.

Pouring yogurt starter into the cooled milk

Of course once I tried the yogurt in the morning and it was good, I knew I had to make some fresh granola to top it with.  The granola is oatmeal, chopped almonds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds.  The sauce mixture is honey, maple syrup, olive oil, coconut oil, water.  Bake at 350 degrees, stirring every 10 minutes.

The final product!  Fresh yogurt, a little bit of vanilla, honey, blackberries and fresh granola.

Another treat with the yogurt was Grilled Chicken Breast in Spiced Yogurt.  Recipe Here.  

Happy to say I almost followed the recipe, and amazingly enough I didn’t add any garlic.  My only adjustment was less chili powder since we don’t do a lot of spice in our meals.  I always get excited when I am able to go outside and put food on the grill in the middle of winter.  The chicken turned out very moist and tender.

My mint was from the summer harvests.  I dehydrate it then freeze it to use throughout the winter months.  For this dinner I just placed it in a bowl of water to re-hydrate. Then followed the recipe adding oil and shallots.  Happy to say the mint still had great flavor.

Next new food fun meal was Sweet and Sour Chicken. Recipe Here.

I didn’t have any peppers which I would have enjoyed in the meal, although my family wouldn’t.  I know even if I picked them out after cooking they would have added that extra layer of flavor.  This summer we will have them growing in the garden which will be so good in this meal.  I was happy with how this turned out.  Very flavorful, nice and sweet over plain white rice, topped with sesame seeds.  If I would have thought about it I would have added a little sesame oil into the mix when I put it all in the crock pot for that extra flavor.  That will be on the list to add next time.

Ahh, meatballs.  Although mine turned out a little like triangles, they still tasted good.  I put milk soaked panko breadcrumbs in them and I should have squeezed them out a little more.  Meatballs really are easy to make, yet I don’t make them very often.  My sauce was an easy cheat.  Hey, I was doing good to make the meatballs from scratch, it wasn’t the time to make the sauce from scratch too.  So a can of alfredo sauce, of course extra chopped garlic, basil, oregano.  Mixed all in the pan the meatballs were cooked in then they all went into the oven. Put over cute little bowtie pasta and topped with herbs and crumbled goat cheese.

And finally a family favorite, Tater Tot Casserole.  Have I said I like cheese?  Well, just a little.  Although, I think the picture shows I like it a lot.

Always enjoy the fun of food.