Homemade doesn't always equal better...

...Sometimes it just equals different.

Like this interesting yogurt mixture I concocted recently. Which actually tastes pretty good, but only after a little doctoring.

I eat yogurt almost every day and I've converted Kody into a yogurt-eating-machine, so we go through a lot of it here.

I had seen that you can make yogurt in a crockpot, but hadn't gotten around to trying it because we never buy plain yogurt (which you need as a starter). But since I'd broken out the crockpot for my homemade applesauce, I figured I might as well give it a try!

I followed the instructions and suggestions here, but basically what I did was put about a half gallon of skim and 2% milk (only because that's what we had on hand - the recipe calls for whole milk) into my crockpot and cooked it on low for 2-1/2 hours. I then unplugged the crockpot and let it sit for 3hours with the lid still on. Then I woke up at 1 a.m. (because I always plan these experiments with perfect timing) and took 2cups of the warm milk and mixed it with 1/2 cup of the yogurt starter or plain milk. Now that I've made my own yogurt, I can use my homemade yogurt as the starter. You then put the lid on the crockpot and wrap it with a heavy bath towel, so that it's completely surrounded. Then the magic happens overnight (or after about 8 hours) and in the morning you have yogurt!

It was crazy to see how the consistency changed into real yogurt!

The Verdict: We test tasted our homemade plain yogurt versus our store-bought plain yogurt and they tasted almost identical! Only problem - we thought both tasted pretty gross.

We put some of the yogurt into the blender and added frozen fruit, along with some sweetener (we tried a few like Splenda, sugar and honey). The blending changed the consistency to a drink and it tasted pretty good! Not really yogurt, but more of a drinkable yogurt smoothie.

I have to imagine that this yogurt is probably healthier than the store-bought kind, which is pretty awesome. And it is definitely cheaper in the plain form. But I have to imagine the frozen fruit racks up the price a bit.

Either way, we've got a second batch cookin' in the crock right now!