Yay yogurt!

I just had a yummy breakfast! What was it...I'm glad you asked. I had a big old bowl of home-made yogurt I made in the slow cooker yesterday! I have wanted to make my own yogurt for years, but am too cheap to buy a yogurt maker and every recipie I found to make it without one seemed so complicated it scared me off. I found a recipie on A Year of Slow Cooking over the weekend and tried it out yesterday. It took all day, but there is very little you actually have to do, it just has to hang out in the crock pot a lot, so it worked out great! I was so excited to taste it this morning, I had some with strawberries and the last of my local honey I bought at New Day Meadery...need to stop in and buy more. The yogurt was good and very mild, If it is left to sit longer before refrigerating, it will be more sour if you like that. I had read that it comes out thin, so I added a packet of gelatin to the mix, and it seemed to be normal yogurt consistancy. I am going to try to strain some with a coffee filter in a colander to make thick, Greek-style yogurt. The recipie in on the slow cooker blog here, I reccomend it if you like yogurt...easy, cheap and yummy!

B.A.B. halfway mark!

I am halfway through my Body After Baby challenge, and I am really doing great. Check Mama Notes to see how the Red Team is doing! This morning I weigh 266, which means I have lost 15lbs of my 20lb goal! I am not quite where I want to be lifestyle change wise but I said I wanted slow and steady. The water and exercise have been hit or miss, but I have been doing good making small changes in my eating habits that add up. I did a lot of research over the weekend on new slow cooker recipies because evening is when Mojo is worst with the colic crying and dinner is a challenge that is too often solved in a drive thru. I found a great site called A Year of Slow Cooking with some great ones, even one for making yogurt which I have been wanting to do and will be trying this week, so check back on that one! I also want to get going on doing my dance workout videos this week, if all else fails I think I could do the bellydance ones with Mojo in the sling if I had to...how funny will that be! Will post a pic if that happens. I am really getting excited because I am doing well and am not killing myself working out or starving myself, which I have done time and again, and then burning out and gaining it all back plus 20. I just keep telling myself this is a lifestyle change, and I can't go the rest of my life with no ice cream, for example, but I can learn to be satisfied with a small dish instead of mindlessly eating half the container, barely tasting it because I am watching T.V. I am finding that if I want something and really concentrate on enjoying it, I can have just a little and be full. I have even noticed that when I eat fast food, if I slow down and taste it I don't finish it all...which is huge for me, I mean throwing away french fries! Amazing! Especially since I have been struggling with post-pardem depression and a colicky baby keeping me up all night...the fact I am not bingeing to comfort myself is really awesome, because I have turned to food as comfort all my life. Oh no! The Elwood Glass Festival is this week and the park behind my house will be full of fair food...elephant ears and polish sausage literally steps from my back door...yikes! Be strong, Tori, be strong!
H.W.