Welcome To Foodie Friday - All About Easi Yo

One of my biggest guilty pleasure in life has to be QVC- not just for the beauty you understand but for pretty much everything. Over the years me and Mummy Lou have bought clothes, jewellery, home wears, cook wear and believe it or not food including the fabulous Easi Yo Yogurt system. After I featured Easi Yo Yogurt in one of my earliest Foodie Friday posts, I had a few comments both on my blog and on twitter from people who had seen the system and wanted to know a bit more about it.

Invented in New Zealand the Easi Yo system allows you to make super fresh yogurt filled with friendly bacteria in your own home without thermometers, or difficult measurements. The system is really simple, easy to use and difficult to get wrong.

The first purchase you need to make is a starter kit which contains a yogurt maker, a jar to make your yogurt in, and sometimes a yogurt sachet and a recipe book to get you started on your Easi Yo adventure.

Forget yogurt makers that you've seen in the past that need to be plugged into the main, this one resembles an extra large thermos flask. The maker is fully insulated and comes with a screw top lid, and a plastic baffle to regulate the temperature and keep your jar in place. The yogurt jars themselves are a clear plastic in colour, and feature a screw top lid, and measurements up the side. The jar hold one litre of yogurt.

Now all you need is a sachet of Easi Yo Yogurt and a kettle. The yogurt sachets come in loads and loads of different flavours, from natural, and Greek, to fruit flavoured, custard flavour, and toffee, and even extra low fat flavours and natural yogurt's. My favourites are the Lemon, the Greek, the Boysenberry, Sweet Greek, and Greek and Coconut which is from the new n' Bits range. Each sachet contains roughly 240g of dried yogurt base and cultures which makes around 1kg or l litre of fresh yogurt.

Ok I hear you cry but how do we get from a sachet of dry powder to fresh creamy yogurt - simples - here's my step by step guide to making Easi Yo - the flavour I'm making here is one of my favourites Sweet Greek, it's a lovely sweet and creamy natural flavoured yogurt :)

1. Fill your jar half full with cold tap water - there is no need for it to be ice cold, just straight out of the tap :)

2.In the meantime fill a kettle with water and put it on to boil - Then add the contents of the sachet to the half filled jar.

3. Make sure the lids on tight and give it a shake, it doesn't matter at this stage if there are a few lumps

4. Take off the lid and fill the jar up to the fill line with some more cold tap water

5. Pop the lid on and this time give it a good shake, until all the lumps and powder is absorbed, the finished mixture should look a bit like milk

6. Now fill the yogurt maker with boiling up the very top of the red plastic baffle - you can't see it too well here I'm afraid

7. Make sure your lid is on your jar nice in tight, pop it in to the yogurt maker and then screw the lid onto the maker - don't worry if a little bit of water comes out of the sides, sometimes it just does that x

8. Leave your yogurt maker on the kitchen table or bench preferably not on a windowsill or in draft though for between 8-12 hour to let it do it's thing. I normally leave mine overnight. Don't panic if you forget though you can leave it for up to 24 hours and it will still be fine - the longer you leave it though the tangier the taste, something worth remembering if your making a natural yogurt and you prefer it with a bit of a kick.

9. When your times up, take the jar out of the maker, empty the water out of your yogurt maker and give it a wipe, don't immerse your maker in water just give it a wipe and dry it thoroughly. Now you can eat the yogurt fresh from the maker but it will be a bit warm - I personally stick my jar in the fridge for about an hour- et voila

10. There you have it 1 litre of fresh yogurt, the consistency does vary a bit between flavours but the Sweet Greek is quite a set yogurt as you can see here

11. If you don't want it to have a set or thicker consistency all you need to do it give it a stir in the jar to loosen it up

Your Easi Yo Yogurt will last for up to a week in the fridge, normally ours is gone within two days, what can I say? we love yogurt - even Mummy Lou who often has issues with lactose has no problem with Easi Yo and even Jasper is a fan of the sweet flavours :)

The world really is your oyster when you have the system, their are so many flavours and variation to try with loads of new innovations coming out all the time. The n' bits range is new, and you can also get kits to make fruit mousse, cheesecake and jellies all with the Easi Yo system, and a range of fruit squirts to use with your Easi Yo or in recipes. You can also make Easi Yo Ice Cream but that involves a different kit and you don't need your yogurt maker - I have this kit and I'll try and review that for you too. A lot of the Easi Yo kits also come with smaller lunch takers so you can take your yogurt to work or to school with you, and many often come with a recipe book.

The recipe book gives you a lot of inspiration as to what else you can do with your yogurt other than just eat if for breakfast or as a dessert. Some of the recipes include obvious things such as yogurt based soft cheese and dips, but they also include more inventive things such as bread, cakes, and even chocolate truffles. The possibilities are endless - I use natural Easi Yo quite a bit in my cooking now to make things a little less fattening, such as in a dressing for a potato salad, or to replace the cream in a mushroom stroganoff. I also use it in my yummy Spicy Mexican Cornbread recipe - which is probably one of the most favourite things of all time to eat.

If you don't eat a lot of yogurt then no this isn't for you but if you were like us and bought pots and pots of the stuff every week then it's well worth it. Yes there is the initial outlay for the maker and you do need to buy the sachets but it does work out cheaper than buying pots of yogurt every week and think how much your saving on packaging. We've had our maker for about 4 years now and I can easily say that it's one of our best ever QVC purchases and it's something we use at least once a week.

You can get  Easi Yo starter kits from around £15 from various retailers including QVC, Lakeland, and Holland and Barrett, it's also worth checking out your local independent health food or greengrocers shop too, the one in my closest tiny town is also a stockist :). You can also find out more and purchase from their UK website :) Have you ever tried Easi Yo? Do you love yogurt as much as me? let me know in the comments x