Am I Becoming My Mother? - The Granola Years

When I was younger... sometime during the 80's.... my mom, Carol, went through what I like to refer to as "a phase".  It seemed like she woke up one day and decided the family needed to eat "healthier".  Suddenly, we were having whole wheat pasta with our spaghetti.  She was buying "all natural" peanut butter - the kind that needed to be refrigerated and stirred before it was used.  She was MAKING yogurt - sweetened with honey.  Our chocolate chip cookies turned into carob chip, wheat germ cookies. She brought home milk from my uncle's farm.  And pasteurized it herself.  She joined a health food co-op.  My mom went granola before granola was cool.  And I was miserable. 

I thought my mom had gone off the deep end.  I longed for bread that I could roll up into a ball and bounce of the ceiling - squishy and white and DELICIOUS.  And Jif peanut butter - cuz, you know, choosy moms choose Jif.  Instead, for school lunch, I had natural peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on home-made wheat bread - cut SUPER thick.  By the time lunch rolled around, the peanut butter had fused to the dry, thick, bread.  To wash it down, I had warm, lumpy milk (my mom was a "lazy ladeler" with that home-pasteurized milk... so there were chunks of cream floating in it).  And the best part? Dessert - that NASTY carob chip, wheat germ cookie. Awesome.  Just Awesome.

At some point, my mom outgrew the co-op and the health food phase.  We continued to eat healthy - but the carob, the wheat germ, the whole wheat pasta went away.  (The milk - it stayed for a while. Went away when suddenly everyone was supposed to drink 1% milk instead of whole).

I hadn't thought much about those "granola years" until recently.  I received a free copy of the book "No Impact Man".  It's a fantastic book - worth the read - about a guy, living in Manhattan, who decides to live an entire year making as little impact on the environment as possible.  He won't buy food that is packaged - no single use containers such as coffee cups, take out, etc.  The dude even goes so far as to make his own yogurt.  He makes significant changes to his life in order to make a statement about environmentalism.  It makes me feel guilty for all the plastic and cardboard containers that make their way into my house.  Which got me thinking.... 

Making my own yogurt can't be that hard... and it sounds kindof fun.  It would be more cost effective than the money I currently spend on yogurt.  Not to mention all those containers that may or may not be recycle-able.  And health food options have improved since the 80's (for example - have you TRIED Justin's Nut Butters?  It's a local company that makes the most INCREDIBLE Maple Almond Butter, among other flavors).  I'm sure I can figure out a way to flavor the yogurt so that it tastes better than the nasty stuff my mom used to force-feed me.

So tonight, as I sit writing this... I've got a crock pot full of ingredients that by morning will turn into yogurt.  Delicious, creamy, yogurt. (Maybe?  I'll let you know).  My husband is skeptical.  And concerned.  He's heard "the granola years" stories before.  He's been referring to me as "Carol" all day.  Did I mention that I made home-made wheat bread this week, too? And I've been trying to figure out a way that we can buy some farm fresh milk... Don't tell my mom I'm saying this because I'll never live it down, but... it seems that maybe my mom didn't have it all wrong - she was just a little before her time.

But carob chip, wheat germ cookies?  No way in hell.