DIY Go-Gurt and Instant Oatmeal Packets

Last week I worked on two projects, both of which I think turned out pretty well. 

First, I made yogurt.  I initially heard about this when I followed “A year of slow cooking” and I thought it was interesting but never did anything.

Then I heard about it again at a Relief Society activity and again ignored the idea.

Then I saw it yet again on Money Saving Mom and finally decided I’d try it. 

I followed the recipe shown here, starting with half a gallon of milk (I also added powdered milk as Money Saving Mom suggested) and my crock pot.  The next morning I had yogurt and I was surprisingly pleased at how it turned out.  It really did have the consistency of yogurt.  I basically made a half gallon of yogurt for about $2!

But I didn’t stop there.  I froze 2 cups of it in ice cube trays to hopefully use in smoothies later.  We ate some for breakfast (added honey to some, raspberries to others).  The rest I made into go-gurt as suggested by Money Saving Mom.  I added a package of strawberry jello and put about 1/4 c each in a dozen snack bags and they are in the freezer now! 

The boys ate some for lunch this week and they liked it, but didn’t love it.  They didn’t like it so much for breakfast either, but I did.  I probably won’t make it again anytime soon, but I’m sure I will make it again someday!

When I finished that I took a page from Life As Mom and made my own instant oatmeal packets.  My boys love oatmeal and will each eat 2 packets in the morning!  Do you know how expensive that can be!  Well for the same price as a box of 10 generic instant oatmeal packets I can buy a container of quick oats and make 60 homemade packets.  (I didn’t make that many though!  I started with 20!)

I combined a few recipes here…started with 2 cups of oats, then ground an additional 2 cups to powder.  Then I added dried milk, salt, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Then to half I added raisins and to the other half I added dried apples (which I’ve had for years in my food storage from the cannery.)  Each packet has a little more than 1/4 cup oatmeal and to that I added 6 Tablespoons of hot water to make our breakfast. 

In hindsight, I added too much cinnamon…it’s fairly overpowering.  I might re-empty them all, add more oatmeal, and repackage them into more packets, but haven’t done it yet.  I really do hope to get this right because this will save me a lot of money!