Make Your Own Greek Yogurt

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

We've all heard that statement before. But have you heard the lesser known version?

When your grocery store runs out of greek yogurt, make it yourself.

No? Well, you should.

It all started when for the 2nd week in a row, my grocery store was completely out of all types of greek yogurt. Apparently they decided it would be a good idea to rip out and remodel their yogurt section right about now.

So for the past two weeks in a row I've been desperately searching every nook and cranny of the store for where they might have stuck the greek yogurt....to no avail.

I knew I couldn't go another week without my beloved greek yogurt. I've been eating greek yogurt for breakfast EVERY MORNING lately. With fresh peaches and granola and a drizzle of agave nectar. YUM.

Needless to say, I was becoming desperate.

So instead of my missing greek yogurt, I picked this up:

Plain old regular yogurt. YUCK. For some reason I seriously can't stomach regular yogurt but I LOVE LOVE LOVE greek yogurt. I think it's something about the watery nature of regular yogurt that I hate...which also explains why I love greek yogurt because it's not watery.

I know it seems irrational but I never claimed to be a rational person.

Anyway, I bought the regular 'ole yogurt and had a plan up my sleeve.

You see, I'd once read somewhere that you could easily strain your own yogurt and make it into greek-style yogurt. I just so happened to have cheesecloth on hand (yes, I'm serious and yes I know I'm a foodie dork who hoards things like cheesecloth "just in case").

However even if I didn't have cheesecloth, I've read that you can do this with a coffee filter or a thick paper towel too. So don't despair if you don't keep things like cheesecloth on hand like me!

I lined a colander with two layers of cheesecloth and then placed the colander inside a glass bowl to catch the water that drains out. Then I piled in the yogurt and stuck it in the fridge overnight.

When I woke up in the morning, I found this gloriousness:


I was SHOCKED by how much water came out of the yogurt overnight! SHOCKED. And really excited.

The consistency was PERFECT and it tasted just like greek yogurt.

I proceeded to pile half of it back into the container and half of it straight into my mouth.


Now there's no reason to distress if the grocery store runs out of greek yogurt.

PHEW!

Major relief.

Now THAT'S making lemonade out of lemons!