Greek yogurt review...

So I love yogurt, the regular Yoplait type that is.  After surgery I tried greek yogurt and YUCK!!!!  totally disgusting.  For some reason I picked up Dannon Oikos Fruit on the Bottom Greek Nonfat Yogurt and mixed it up... OMG it is soooo good. 

I know there have been tons of recipes to add to the yogurt but I have shied away from them.  1 because i like opening it and eating it, usually at my desk so adding things just is not convenient.  2 because the first bite I had after surgery turned me off of it. 

So for those who were wondering yes this stuff is good, I must warn you that it does have 20 g of sugar in it.  I am ok with this, some will not be.  But on the plus side it does have 12g of protein which is triple what a container of Yoplait has. 

 The sugar is primarily from the milk.

In the case of fruit on the bottom yogurt, maybe about 10, maybe 12 grams is from the milk. The rest is from the sugar from the fruit and the sugar they add TO the fruit.

Unfortunately, though, some folks systems don't make the distinction between too much sugar and 'some of it is milk sugar' and will dump regardless. So be warned. 20g is a lot for such a small container of food.

 I've not been able to try the oikos yogurt yet, the store in my town doesn't carry it yet. But if I ask, they will. they're so good to us! Anyhow... I do like the Fage (I believe taht's how it's spelled.) yogurt. It is plain yogurt on one side, and a little bit of the fruit/sweetness in another container on the other side. (but it's all together. lol) They're absolutely AMAZING! I love strawberry, and the strawberry one they have is great. And it doesn't have too much sugar, you can decide how much you want in your yogurt anyway! I usually use about half of what they give me, but i'm just being careful. 

Here's a picture of the yogurt.

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1280&bih=909&tbm=isch&tbnid=SDaOoe2c-M7SxM:&imgrefurl=http://erincooks.com/fage-yogurt/&docid=7Gm4EeN4fc3LzM&imgurl=http://media.erincooks.com/images/2009/04/fage2.jpg&w=525&h=349&ei=A_R6T9mcJIGG8QTAnLH6BA&zoom=1

You can mix it in, or scoop or whatever. It's just my favorite. I used to think i liked chobani... I was lying to myself until i had the Fage. Even the PLAIN yogurt tastes wonderful! 

Chobani also has fruit on the bottom and you can mix it in - in my humble opinion it is much better than Oikos. I love the Oikos Key Lime though!!

I'm a Chobani girl!  Eat one every single day!  If I need some crunch, I throw in a handful of plain Cheerios.

I love them all except passion fruit and pomegranate.  I don't have issues with the sugar and have been eating them since pretty early out.

I also love Chobani and didn't care for the Oikos.  I think its just individual taste buds.  Glad you found one you like, it's a good "fast food" choice!

Individual preferences do vary but I would encourage you to at least TRY some add-ins if you have not already just to make absolutely sure you do not like it.

My favorite way to make Greek yogurt is this.

Nuke a tablespoon of lowfat cream cheese for 15 seconds or so until it soft. (True fact: a tbsp cream cheese has less calories and carbs than a tbsp of cheesecake pudding mix.)

Add a generous squirt of lemon juice and some sweetener.

Finally add the Greek yogurt. I DARE you not to love that. It is essentially cheesecake without the eggs.

BUT. And curse me out if you want. The whole "I eat it at work so add-ins are inconvenient" sort of sounds to me like an excuse. If work makes eating a healthier choice (of any variety) inconvenient, then don't eat that food at work. Eat it at home where you can make it the healthiest you can.

Again, it's NOT about the yogurt. If you start making accommodations like that it can be a slippery slope.

In the end I'd defer to your eating plan. If your NUT is ok with you eating yogurt with 20 grams of sugar, everything I said is a moot point. If not, you need to make some accommodations if you want to keep yogurt in your life and your plan.

Just my two cents.

:) Curse you out.... never... LOL  It is an excuse, because I can barely remember to grab the yogurt in the morning.  At least twice last week I forgot it in the fridge at home. LOL  Which I know is my fault, I just dont see it changing anytime soon. 

My NUT is not involved in my life, we broke up when I had my surgery, because she told me I can absorb all kinds of protien, which I know to be false. 

Do you use just plain greek yogurt?  That stuff tasted like thick sour cream to me.  When you say generous squirt of lemon juice do you mean like a tsb or more?  I am gonna give this a try and get back to you on it.  ;P

Well...look. Sometimes folks like to curse about this stuff and that is absolutely fine. (doesn't mean I'll respond well but it's still their right!)

I am ashamed to admit I use the little lemon squeezy thing. I just do about a 3 second squirt on it but I'd say a teaspoon (I think a tbsp would make the situation worse!). Lemon is that thing that makes cheesecake taste like cheesecake!

Essentially real cheesecake only had a few ingredients: cream cheese, sour cream, sugar (or Splenda), lemon and eggs. So with the yogurt tasting like sour cream it already plays into what is in cheesecake. And using the tbsp of cream cheese as opposed to pudding mix saves you, I believe, about 6g of carbs and 5 calories.

I said nuke the cream cheese because it makes it easier to mix in. I usually nuke for about 20 seconds then mix in the cool lemon juice ****ep my squeezie in the fridge). If you add the yogurt directly to the nuked cream cheese it will curdle a bit. I usually top it with some sf apricot preserves and Fiber One. When I feel like a treat, I do this crushed cereal that tastes like a graham cracker. I imagine sf cherry pie filling would be lovely too.