Accidental Chef speaks about plain yogurt

One of the first adjustments we made during our detox was to stop buying any flavored yogurt. It is filled with sugar and all sorts of other stuff. This was tough. Yogurt was one of my “low cal diet” snacks. And now, it wasn’t allowed.

We only purchased PLAIN yogurt. And I can’t eat that stuff on its own. YUCK.

Eric began making his own flavored yogurt. He would blend up strawberries, blueberries, or a combination of both in the blender with a little honey. Then he would add that to the plain yogurt. Both he and C love this yogurt!

*I have been told that you can blend up the fruit and honey and freeze this puree in ice cube trays. Then you can keep a stash of fruit cubes to thaw and mix with plain yogurt. I’d love to try to do this during the summer with some fresh berries!

I began making smoothies with the yogurt every morning. I use the plain yogurt, fruit, milk, ice, and a little honey. DELICIOUS!

This is one of the first things that “stuck” in our house. We have not bought the flavored yogurt for the adults ever again. Period.

But, we had to give a little for the kids. T (age 6) and D (age 4) in particular are very picky eaters. And they both seem to have desperately a horrible sweet tooth.

Our compromise for them is vanilla yogurt only. I stopped buying Trix yogurt for D. (yes, I admit, I had bought him Trix for months, happy that he was at least eating yogurt) Now he doesn’t eat yogurt at all, but I think that it will change as he gets older and is willing to try a few things.

T eats vanilla yogurt daily. I’d love for her to eat some of the fruit flavored yogurt that daddy makes, but she claims that she doesn’t like it. So we let her have the vanilla.

We also continue to allow T and D to eat Danimals. They just didn’t like my smoothies. I looked at the ingredients on Danimals and decided that we would let that ride for a bit longer. Afterall, it was much better than the Trix yogurt.

On the other hand, K, C, and I LOVE a smoothie for breakfast pretty much everyday. YUM! These days I use half plain yogurt and half plain Chobani yogurt (the Greek yogurt). I tried using all Chobani, but that was WAY overpowering, so I use only half. I like incorporating this into the smoothie because K doesn’t eat a lot of meat and the Chobani has a HUGE amount of protein in it!

My smoothie recipe (makes 2.5 smoothies…Daniel eats about .5):

2/3 cup plain yogurt

2/3 cup Chobani plain yogurt

1 cup milk

1 cup crushed ice

9 strawberries and 1 whole banana (or whatever fruit you like)

*I love to use fresh during the summer, but right now we use frozen berries.

honey, to taste (I like a decent amount)

I blend everything EXCEPT the honey in the blender. Then, while it finishes blending, I add the honey (as the blender is blending). I have found that if you add the honey early, the blender just spins it to the side and it sticks there. In order to get it all blended you have to add the honey while the blender is spinning.

And that was the first healthy change that has stuck. Plain yogurt only, other than the vanilla exception for T and D. Easy breakfast. Easy snack. Full of calcium, fruit, and protein!

I’d love to try some more smoothie recipes and ideas. I tend to be a creature of habit, so if you have something to suggest, then please feel free!