Munchie Monday: Gastrus-Inulin Yogurt

Recently my sister sent me the link to a new kind of yogurt.  I decided that if the claims were true, I wanted to eat some of it.  Amazon was our friend and the two bottles of whatever they are  (Gastrus and Inulin) arrived quickly. 

The day after Transfers I made our first batch in our baby Instant Pot (3-quart size!).  The recipe said it might take 24-48 hours to ferment but still, I checked it at 17 hours.  Definitely NOT yogurt at that point. It went on fermenting until we got home some time after 24 hours.

This is what I did:

Smashed up 10 Gastrus tablets in a bowl with a spoon...not the fancy mortar and pestle I was tempted to get.  Well, I really was NOT tempted to get them because it would just be one more thing to 1.  spend money on and 2. have to find a way to get it home at the end of our mission or 3. leave it to make it someone else's problem.  None of these were appealing, thus the spoon and bowl.

Into this bowl of crushed Gastrus pills I put 2 Tablespoons of powdered Inulin.  Don't ask me what Inulin is, I just did it.  Maybe I should look at the label soon.

When that was ready I put one quart of dairy Half and Half in a stainless steel saucepan and raised it to well over 100 degrees F.  In theory I should have brought it up to just about boiling but did not. 

After it had gotten hot enough I now had to make it cool enough (100 degrees F.) for the pills not to be killed.  I set the pot in a sink of cold water and swished the thermometer around in it until I thought it might be ready.

When 100 degrees F. I put about 1/4 cup of the warmed milk into the pill mixture and stirred well to make a slurry.  The rest of the quart of milk I put into the stainless steel liner bowl, gently stirred in the  slurry, placed the bowl in the Instant Pot, put on the cover then pressed the Yogurt setting and went about my business.  For more than a day!

When it was done I put it in half pint glass jars in the refrigerator until I wanted to use it.

That next night I mixed 1 1/2 cups yogurt with 3/4 cup quick cooking oatmeal and 6 large frozen strawberries that I had thawed then ground up in the fabulous little Ninja food processor my sister gave me last year which I use for everything.  It worked great for grinding strawberries which I added to the yogurt and oatmeal, covered then shook the jar and put in it the refrigerator overnight.

 In the morning I added 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, a chopped banana, and a small handful of Megan's chopped pecans.  Dear One added sugar to his.

This is my bowl of mixed yogurt. It tasted very much okay.  It would not put it up there at the top of my most-loved-foods list, but I can say that one of the claims: that it makes you not want to eat again for hours, appears to be true. At least in my case.  (At the time we usually have supper Dear One said, as usual, "What is for supper?"  I thought briefly of making a remark, but then didn't.)

Since he had heard that there was a "new" meatless burger at Carl's Jr. he was willing for me to go pick up one or more depending on price. That turned out to be an adventure which ended up with two Carl's Jr meatless burgers, a veggie burger from Burger King, and french fries and onion rings from both places so that comparisons could be made.  I think we will eat veggie burgers at home for the foreseeable future...and no more french fries or onion rings.

So this yogurt seems to be successful.  We will let you know after a few more days of the overnight oatmeal. I am more ore less sure I don't want to eat it as plain yogurt...