STRAWBERRY YOGURT SMOOTHIES

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Sometimes when you’re on a restricted diet, you can easily be at a loss at what to eat. When you’re just getting started on a diet free of grains, starches, lactose, and refined sugar, you also get hit by cravings pretty easily. This is the point at which it’s easy to fall off the horse and make mistakes because you’re simply hungry and if you haven’t prepared for that, you have nothing readily available to eat. Homemade yoghurt was one of the foods that helped me beat my cravings. Early on in the diet, I started making 24-hour yoghurt. The yoghurt is fermented for a full 24 hours to ensure that it’s lactose free and has the highest possible amount of gut-soothing probiotics. The yoghurt, and later fermented heavy whipping cream, gave me a whole new dimension on how to juggle the diet. I used it to make healthy and delicious breakfasts, desserts, treats, sauces, and dips. I even bought a second yoghurt maker to make sure that there’s always yoghurt available in my house. Whenever the kids had food cravings, they could simply mix yoghurt with honey and vanilla extract for a simple and satisfying snack.
From there, we started exploring more and more recipes, and this smoothie recipe is one we developed just recently after I had some minor dental surgery and was unable to chew anything crunchy. Usually, I eat a lot of raw foods, but chewing was painful and took forever. At first, I simply ate less and only soft foods, but then I started getting really hungry. Eventually I started making smoothies and it was a great relief when I finally felt full after one large strawberry yoghurt smoothie. It tasted so good that we kept making them for the whole family for the next couple of days. Next, Amelie started freezing the smoothie in an instant popsicle maker and I know I will have to keep buying strawberries for a while since it’s become one of these food trends in our house that seems to last for a while.

MAKES 2
INGREDIENTS
2 cups fresh strawberries hulled and cut into pieces or frozen strawberries
2 cups homemade yoghurt (see recipe below)
1/4 cup honey
1 small banana (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

tools: Vitamix

INSTRUCTIONS
Add the strawberries, honey, banana, and yoghurt to a blender. Blend for 30 seconds until smooth and creamy. Pour into glasses and serve with a paper straw.

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HOMEMADE YOGHURT

For this recipe, I use a yoghurt maker to ensure that the fermentation temperature is accurate. Here are two options - I actually have one of each since the whole family enjoys the yoghurt and I make a double batch at once.

Tools:
yoghurt maker with one large container
yoghurt maker with single glass jars

INGREDIENTS
1 quart whole or skim milk
1 pint heavy whipping cream ( If you want it with less fat, you can also replace heavy whipping cream with milk)
7 oz SCD legal yoghurt or other yoghurt starter

note: For strict SCD, it is recommended to avoid yoghurt starter containing bifidus.

INSTRUCTIONS
Place the milk and heavy whipping cream in a saucepan and heat at high heat until bubbles appear on the edges. (Do not boil!) Stir often to prevent the milk from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Remove the pot from the stove and let cool until it has reached room temperature or below (about 64-77° F or 20-25° C).

Spoon the yoghurt starter into a mixing bowl and add one cup of the cooled milk. Mix well until a thick paste forms.

Add the yoghurt/milk mixture to the saucepan and stir well to distribute evenly.

Fill into yoghurt maker containers and place in the yoghurt maker machine. Make sure to follow the manual of your specific yoghurt maker. The mixture must ferment for at least 24 hours to ensure that all of the lactose has been broken down by beneficial bacteria.

Take out of the machine and refrigerate for at least two hours before using. Keep refrigerated!

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