REVIEW: Homemade Yogurt Starters

Remember how, as an experiment while making one of my first batches of homemade yogurt, I put my starters in the freezer?

 Traditionally, a starter is only good for a week and has to be made into yogurt the following week after it has been set aside. After that it starts getting very tart and you'll end up with yogurt that will make you pucker. There's no way our little family of three can go through a half gallon of yogurt in one week, so into the freezer went my starters. Guess what? It worked! Every week and a half to two weeks, I was able to use one of my freezer starters to make a new batch and it always turned out perfectly! I was so excited to see that on 5/23 I was able to make yogurt with a starter from 4/23. Yes. My first starters lasted in the freezer a month. How awesome is technology? Bless the person who invented the freezer! I'm so glad the simple solution worked. Otherwise we'd be a long time in between yogurt batches if I had to purchase a starter every time. I usually make yogurt in the evening, leaving it to culture overnight. So on yogurt making morning, I put one of the frozen starters in the fridge to thaw and by the evening, it's ready to be stirred into the brewing batch to complete the fermenting process.

Anyway, all that to say, put those starters in the freezer and give yourself a little leeway. Yes, we chose to be a one income family. But sometimes I feel like my schedule runs on every one else's. My kids, the bills, my husband's work schedule, even dinner time. It may not seem like much, but making things more convenient for myself like this is stress prevention. Have you made homemade yogurt yet? It's so easy (and cheap!), that I can't believe I always paid for it before. Here's the recipe. Go have some yogurt making fun, you homemaking diva, you.