Yogurt FAIL, Creative Eating, and MORE!

So I found several blogs and youtube videos about making homemade yogurt.  I love the idea to save on money and control what's in my food.  In the last 2 days I tried it twice....and both times were a fail...and now I'm searching for recipes to use up my "buttermilk".  Oh phooey!  I'll probably try whole milk and a different brand of yogurt for the starter.  I was trying with skim milk and I know it CAN work...something just didn't jive.  I saw a youtube video on how to make yogurt from dry skim milk...if you can make it from powdered, then I shouldn't be having a problem.  We'll see, once I'm done using up my gallon of buttermilk, I'll give it another try :P

For the next month or 2 a big challenge I've given myself is creative cooking.  We're pretty good, thanks to couponing, at having food storage.  What we're not so good at: cycling our food storage.  I've got a box sitting in front of me with foods that are so expired that I'm too scared to try them...luckily most of them were free with coupons...but still!  Last night we used up some stovetop stuffing that had expired by mixing it with ground beef and baking it as a sort of meat loaf stuffing.  It was pretty good and I stayed in my calorie limit :)  I've got so many tasty ideas lined up, I'll have to share some of my successes!  My goal over the next couple months is to spend less than $10/week on groceries, and that will be on fresh fruits and veggies as well as dairy.  So far I've only bought the milk and yogurt for my "buttermilk".

I also want to work on a food storage plan this year.  My church recommends having a 1-year food storage for your family.  It's invaluable in disasters-whether natural, political, or personal.  I got really pumped when I found TONS of videos on youtube about how to cook with the basic food storage stuff (like make cheese out of powdered milk-no way!) so I know I can come up with a rotation menu and schedule for items before they expire.  For example, if I have a 10# can of dried whole eggs and its shelf-life is 5 years...I can plan recipes involving those eggs and calculate how many times I need to make that recipe in 5 years to keep cycling.  Does that make sense?  Sometimes things just bounce around in my head like a pinball machine...So if said egg canister has 12.5 cups of dried egg powder, then I'd have to use about 1/5 of a cup of the powder a month for 5 years to deplete a can.  Here's the site I'll reference with information on how much food a person needs in a year for storage and how to store safely.

In other news, I'm excited to say that I just signed the hubby and I up for a membership at the Y!  I did it mostly for the pool because I love swimming, but I'll enjoy taking advantage of all of the resources there and trying new things.  It was a little intimidating...I haven't been to a gym in about 5 years.  I know I can continue to lose weight without a gym, but it's harder in the winter and I want to get started training for the sprint triathlon I'll be doing in August with my brother! 

On the topic of health and exercise, here are a couple "fitsperations" I made today:

 This was me at the end of the year-30 lbs down.  I'm excited to keep slimming down!