Saturday, January 21, 2012

Homemade Frozen Yogurt

In just a couple of days, I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out. Most of my friends have horror stories associated with their experience of the extraction of their third molars--but I'm hoping I won't have any to report. And while I'm hoping and praying that everything goes smoothly, I'm well aware that my eating habits are going to have to be tweaked, just a little bit, while my mouth heals.

My friend, and author of Just Nourishment, has been looking forward to my surgery--not for any malicious reason having to do with the pain, or anything, but because she's gone through the experience and has volunteered to be my caretaker the day of. Her favorite part about getting her teeth removed was all the frozen yogurt she got to consume while she was healing; getting to hang out with me as I recover has given her the excuse to indulge a little more!

Now, you know me. I'm a very intentional eater. (I actually realized the other day that I'm kind of a food snob; I never meant to become that way--but now that I make pretty much everything I eat with my own hands, I'm reluctant to eat a lot of things...anyway!) While I know that most people eat lots of mashed potatoes and frozen yogurt and--well, that's all--for the first few days after surgery, I can't do that. I require a well-rounded diet, to satisfy me both mentally and physically. So, over the next couple of weeks, I plan on trying a few new soup recipes, I'm going to make applesauce for the first time, I'm pretty stocked up on ingredients to make smoothies, and I'm good on soft fruit--like bananas and pears. Of course, I will be sharing with you my cooking experiences as I try out new recipes that hopefully yield some delicious light meals. But for now, I'd like to tell you about the frozen yogurt I just made.

It should come as no surprise that I've opted to make my own frozen yogurt instead of going to the store and picking up a carton or two. Homemade frozen yogurt is doable--so I couldn't help myself. For the past couple of days I've been doing a little research. I found a couple of recipes, read a couple blogs, went to the grocery store, bought some ingredients--and this morning, I just winged it. There were a couple things I had mentally jotted down as I started throwing things into my blender. I remember I read somewhere that the yogurt mixture should be sweeter than you'd usually like, because when it's frozen it'll be less sweet; I remember reading someplace else that I had to make sure I had good chocolate if I planned on making chocolate frozen yogurt; and I remembered that--since I don't have an ice cream maker--that I was going to have to be patient and persistent for a few hours, in order for me to end up with my desired sweet treat.

I made two different kinds. And, while they are in the process of freezing and I haven't had the chance to try the finished product, the mixes tasted pretty good. I'm hoping they are just as delicious when they're frozen. Here are my recipes:

Homemade Vanilla Frozen Yogurt:

32 oz plain, low-fat, Greek yogurt
5 tablespoons agave nectar (which probably equals an easier measurement, like a forth of a cup, but I was winging it, remember? So I just kept adding until it was as sweet as I liked. You can do the same!)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients together (I used my blender, but I'm sure you could just do it in a bowl). Then, stick it in the freezer.

Like I mentioned before, I don't have an ice cream maker. So, for the next couple hours, I have to keep an eye on my dessert; every hour I will take it out, scrape the frozen mixture from the sides with a fork, and then stir it vigorously. I think in 2-3 hours it'll be set. If you do have an ice cream maker, I'm guessing you can just put the mixture in there and you'll have yourself some frozen yogurt in no time.

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt:
(because I'm a sucker for chocolate/peanut butter ice cream...)

32 oz vanilla, non-fat, Greek yogurt
1 bag of good semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons agave nectar
5 tablespoons peanut butter (I use the creamy Earth Balance brand)

Melt 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips; take the melted chocolate and mix it with the remaining ingredients. (Again, I used a blender--and for this one, it'd probably be easier than mixing by hand.) Take the left over chocolate chips and mix it with the yogurt mixture, then freeze!

Now, I did a little math and got a calorie count for you. For the vanilla frozen yogurt, if you break it down into about 8 servings, it's about 130 calories. For the chocolate peanut butter, if you break it down into about 10 servings (because it yields more), it's about 290 calories. Not bad, eh?

Well, I'm off to go stir my freezing yogurt. I'll be back to let you know how it turns out!

Update: So, the chocolate peanut butter frozen yogurt turned out to be oh-my-goodness tasty! The vanilla turned out...well, like vanilla; next to the chocolate peanut butter, it didn't compare--so I tossed in a cup of milk chocolate chips to give it the necessary chocolate kick. And then I thought, Well...I could have done the healthy thing and thrown in some fruit, instead. That's when it hit me--You still can! So, I took a cup of frozen raspberries, tossed them in the microwave for a couple minutes, mashed them up really well, added a little agave nectar, and mixed it into the frozen yogurt. BAM! Raspberry, vanilla frozen yogurt with chocolate chips, for the win! 

 Rosalyn

1 comment:

  1. This looks really good! I will have to try this; maybe next weekend!

    ReplyDelete

 

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