Our girls are like little hobbits. They love to do breakfast, then second breakfast, and often go for thirds too. They eat like teenage boys, and all I can say to ease the pain is “they must be growing”. Luckily for us they are good eaters. They understand the unwritten rule that they can only have sweet breakfasts (ie nutella or fruit loops) every couple of days. However, the problem with this food frenzy that they go through every morning is the cost of it. Sure some things are still reasonably priced in the Virgin Islands, but one of their favorites, yogurt, is on the higher end of the scale. It seems as soon as the dairy is processed that food item is more expensive (like the $8 block of cheese or the $5/4pack of yogurt). But we don’t want to discourage healthy eating just because of the cost of it, so we found an excellent work around.
We have started making our own yogurt. I had read through a couple of recipe books about how easy it was supposed to be, but when the recipes started asking for live bacteria and milk thermometers it looked a bit too arduous to me. For me it’s got to be simple. Then we were introduced to the Easiyo. This contraption is easy. And like Eben always says, “if you make it easy for the consumer then they will buy it”. Call me lazy if you want, but this is yogurt making at its easiest.
I have seen many upsides to using the Easiyo. The first, with us being on a boat having fresh yogurt is not the simplest of things, unless we have made a recent trip to town to buy some. But with this system all we have to do is throw in a yogurt packet (which just sit in our cupboard waiting to be made), add some water, and wait. The second plus, it is super easy!! I mean SUPER easy. And the third is that it is cost effective. The amount that one batch makes (1kg) is enough to feed our hobbits for a week’s worth of breakfasts (which means we are also saving on gas not having to go to the grocery store as often!).
The Easiyo website has many different recipes you can try, or if you want to make a science project out of it, you can jump online and there are tons of forums taking about other recipes and variations to try out using this system. We are extremely impressed with this yogurt maker and highly recommend it to anyone who is a yogurt fan or has several hobbits to feed.
You can see in the pics just how easy, EASY is.
Choose your flavour
add mix to water
shake
full body shake if you prefer…then add more water to fill container.
add boiling water to top of red piece
add your yogurt mix
close and wait 8-10 hours (Eben wanted to model too!)
I have an older version of this and make yogurt at home all the time. You do not need their starter. I use NIDO powdered milk. Do not get the Kinder, get the Fortificada style. Do NOT try Carnation – it WILL NOT WORK. I fill container half full of cold water, add 1-1/2C NIDO, whisk it carefully to keep the foam down, add 2 T non-fat non-flavored yogurt (or some of the yogurt you made from this recipe), whisk and add cold water to the top. Close it and shake it. Hot water in the thermos container and 8-10 hours later. I toss in fruit and mix. Some purchased yogurts as starter may be quite tart – I have settled for Dannon and that is bought only when I forget to keep it going. I like that it has no sugar and I do think it's cheaper. The dry milk keeps from having to heat the milk, and no need to refrigerate the powdered milk.
Thanks, I haven't tried with using my old yogurt as a starter for the new one, I will try it this next time. I guess we were lucky when we randomly chose Nido to make it last time because you seem to have done the trial and errors. The girls did find the one version I made to be tart but I added honey and that fixed it for them
I have an older version of this and make yogurt at home all the time. You do not need their starter. I use NIDO powdered milk. Do not get the Kinder, get the Fortificada style. Do NOT try Carnation – it WILL NOT WORK. I fill container half full of cold water, add 1-1/2C NIDO, whisk it carefully to keep the foam down, add 2 T non-fat non-flavored yogurt (or some of the yogurt you made from this recipe), whisk and add cold water to the top. Close it and shake it. Hot water in the thermos container and 8-10 hours later. I toss in fruit and mix. Some purchased yogurts as starter may be quite tart – I have settled for Dannon and that is bought only when I forget to keep it going. I like that it has no sugar and I do think it's cheaper. The dry milk keeps from having to heat the milk, and no need to refrigerate the powdered milk.
Thanks, I haven't tried with using my old yogurt as a starter for the new one, I will try it this next time. I guess we were lucky when we randomly chose Nido to make it last time because you seem to have done the trial and errors. The girls did find the one version I made to be tart but I added honey and that fixed it for them