My Weight Loss Journey – Week 46

I’m a bit late posting this week because I took a little extra time for me.  You see in addition to being my 46th weigh in, Monday was my birthday, so I took a break from blogging. And then yesterday evening I had an appointment so that put me even more behind, but I have good news to report! Happily, after my slight gain last week, I was down 1.9 lbs this week, for a total of 89.7 pounds. Yes, I’m .3 away from the 90 pound milestone, and I’m currently sitting at 196.3 pounds!

This weekend I started shopping for clothes for my upcoming cruise. I was looking forward to shopping for the first time in many years. Most years, the stores have some warm weather clothing for those who travel to warmer climates, in efforts to escape the icy cold, but this year I’m having trouble finding anything. I did find a new tankini style swimsuit, so that’s one item down, but still lots to buy!

I also took Truffles, my Yorkie to meet the family he’ll be staying with while I’m away. They’re co-workers, and friends of mine here in Ottawa, and I think he’ll probably be spoiled by the time I get back!

Last week I told you all how excited I was about my new Instant Pots and I’m even more excited today! On Monday morning I started my first batch of home made yogurt in my 6 quart machine, and it was finally finished cooking, setting, and straining late yesterday afternoon. This morning was the first I got to taste it, and it’s amazing! So thick, and creamy, and with just the right amount of tang…I can actually eat it plain, which I have never been able to do with any of the store bought yogurts.

There are two methods to make yogurt in your Instant Pot, mostly dependent on what milk you start with. I started with plain old skim milk, so I had to use option where you have to heat your milk first. If you use ultra pasteurized you can do a cold start, but for my first try I did the traditional method with regular milk. I figured if it failed, it would be a less expensive failure.

I followed the directions by Frieda Loves Bread to make my yogurt and they worked perfectly! I didn’t take any pictures as I was cooking my yogurt, but this is what it looked like immediately after cooking and before I put it into the fridge to set.

After heating, cooling and adding my starter, I incubated my yogurt for 8 hours. Then I let it set in the fridge (covered) for about another 8. After that it was still too runny for me, so I lined a colander with several layers of cheesecloth, and strained it over a large pot in the fridge for about another 8 hours. Afterward, I had a little over 2 liters of yogurt, and about 1.5 liters of whey. All of which I packaged up and put into the fridge.

This morning I ate some for breakfast with some frozen blueberries, and it was better than any store bought yogurt I’ve ever had. At lunch time, I used up some leftover salsa pulled chicken (I will share that recipe once I’ve perfected it, it’s not quite there yet) for open faced chicken taco sandwiches, and added some of the yogurt in place of sour cream. It was perfect!

Yogurt will be going into the regular rotation…I just need to figure out a schedule for it! I can hardly wait to try cooking and baking with it to see how it works out!