Stage 3!

Well, I've made it to Stage 3 on the Intro part of the GAPS diet.  I'm pretty proud.  Now I can have chicken broth, soft cooked veggies (almost any soft cooked veggie), soft cooked or raw eggs, boiled chicken (or other boiled meat), home made yogurt, home made kraut and honey.  I can have ginger and black/white pepper and salt to season my food.

My body doesn't feel great.  I woke up this morning with a pretty big migraine.  Didn't take anything for it but pushed on with my day anyway.  Had coffee and cream (not GAPS legal, but I'm trying to learn to listen to my body and I hear my body saying that it needs coffee!) and drove to Hamilton to assist with a child restraint check event.  Took 600mg ibu and am now home, sans migraine.

I cooked a yummy lunch for myself.  Put chicken broth in a sautee' pan.  Add thinly sliced chicken.  Add thinly sliced onion.  Add brussell sprouts.  Add an egg to poach.  Salt the egg and the chicken.  Added about 3 Tbs home made kraut to my plate.  Might sound kind of off flavor to you but for me, after over a week on mostly just cx broth and yogurt, it was really, really good!  And I was proud to know that everything I put on my plate and in my body was healing for my body.

Now, I'm making more yogurt.  We're going through a LOT of yogurt.  Little Bear eats up to 4 cups of it a day.  My Sweet eats it at least every evening.  And now I too eat it several times a day.  It's good!  But that means that I have to make a gallon of yogurt about every 2nd or 3rd day.

Wanna know how I make my most delicious yogurt?  I knew you did.  Ok, twist my arm.  I'll tell you.

Start with a clean large kettle.  Pour 1 gallon of whole organic (pasteurized because that's the only way we can get it where I live) into the pot.  Stick a candy thermometer into it.  Turn on the stove to half plus one setting.  Stir every very few minutes.  Watch the temp.  When the milk reaches 185 degrees F, turn the stove off.  Leave it on the stove so it can slowly begin to cool.  The longer the milk stays at 185 degrees, the thicker your final yogurt will be.  So, depending on how much time I have, I may let it sit there on the stove for an hour.  Anyway, let the milk cool (maybe put it in a sink of cold water if you're short on time) to between 120 and 110 degrees F.  At this temp, it's safe to add your probiotic, your culture, your starter or whatever it is you're going to use to ferment your milk.  Yes, yogurt is fermented milk.  I use a probiotic capsule.  Whatever kind we're using this month (different every month).  The kind I'm using this month takes longer to ferment the milk into a thick yogurt.  Some are quick.  Anyway, after you've added your culture (can also be 8 oz of store bought plain live yogurt or some whey from the last batch, or, yogurt starter, which you can spend lots of money on at a health food store), your milk needs to sit for at least 24 hours in a warm still place.  I find that if I set the oven to "warm" for a few minutes, it creates just such a spot.  I usually make yogurt in the afternoon.  So, to keep my milk warm over night, I'll sometimes pop the oven on "warm" for about 2 minutes before I go to bed, and again in the morning.  The milk needs to ferment for at least 24 hours for the good bugs to transform the lactose and casein into proteins that are easily digested.  So, there ya go.  Yogurt.

Have a good resta the day, eh?

hbk