Fage 2% Honey

My brother told me that he found the 0% Greek Yogurt to have an odd flavor. I have been doing really well on Weight Watchers this week and have some extra points, so I decided to give one of Fage's 2% flavors a try. I got the honey flavor as I hear this is one of the best ways to enjoy Greek Yogurt. The honey flavor was 5 WW points, but most of the 2% flavors are only 4. Since Fage keeps the flavors separate from the yogurt I was able to give the 2% a try.

Oddly enough, I did not like it as well as the 0% Fage. The 2% was creamier, a bit loser, but tasted more like sour cream. While I say I love sour cream, and I do when I'm cooking and eating, I do not like it plain. My husband on the other hand loved it. But he puts sour cream on almost anything and licks the spoon clean after getting some out of the container. There is just something about it plain that I don't like, and I think it's the tang. For whatever reason though the 0% is a tad less tangy and has a slightly thicker texture. It also has more protein I noticed. I'm happy to stick to the healthier 0%!

Adding the little honey well into the yogurt made all the difference though. I figured out that if you hold the honey well part in your hands for a bit, it comes out of the side container a lot easier. I didn't mix the honey in, but instead let is settle on the top. I then dug in and scooped from top to bottom to get an even disbursement of honey and yogurt. Yup, I could tell this one had fat. It was much creamier and tasted richer. Even though I don't like the Fage brand of yogurt as much, it has never disappointed after I mix in the sweet fruit or honey. This one was very good, but had 29g of sugar, most of which comes from the honey, but it still had added sugar. I'll save this one for splurges. They have a 0% honey flavor, and so does Chobani, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

A Relaxing Labor Day

Happy Labor Day!

Usually we have a cookout of sorts and either go to someone's house or have people over. Since things haven been so crazy lately and we are just now regaining control of time and still trying to catch our breaths, we decided to keep Labor Day quiet and relaxing.

A Much anticipated cold front came through yesterday dropping temperatures by about 15 degrees or more. We have had 60 days this summer where the temperature has been 100F or greater. It's been ridiculous. All kinds of records have been broken. The Norman Station at the Oklahoma Mesonet broke it's all time record high twice this summer, two days back to back. It ended up getting to 110F on August 2nd, 2011. Oklahoma broke the record for hottest July with an average temperature of 89.1F. Oklahoma ranked 2nd, only behind Texas, for the hottest summer on record. A bunch of cities broke records for number of days above 100F. It's been awful. So this cold front that came through dropping high temperatures into the 80's is very nice!

We are taking full advantage of this nice weather! We are dog sitting for the next week for a friend of ours, so we took our new doggie friend on a walk last night. It was gorgeous out and my husband enjoyed getting out of the house and just casually walking around our neighborhood talking. It was extremely relaxing and gave us a new way to connect. We came home and relaxed for a little while and it was so nice out we decided to sleep with the windows open. We got to sleep in this morning and woke up cuddling in a cool 70F room under our big down comforter. Newlywed bliss! It doesn't get much better than that!

To keep with our relaxing day, we decided to go see Our Idiot Brother mid afternoon since we were planning something new for dinner. This is going to sound weird, but before the movie started I was sent into a euphoric state because the big red curtains over the screen were illuminated with dark colors of orange, yellow and red, which were the colors of our wedding. Looking at the curtains for 20 minutes sitting next to my husband brought back so many great memories and feelings from our wedding. And with the cold front, it was like I was surrounded by fall, one of my favorite seasons! So the movie... it was good, not great, but a nice couple of hours out on a mid-afternoon date. We came home and started getting things ready for dinner!

Grilled Boneless Chicken Breasts with Lemon Vinaigrette:

This ended up being a really quick, easy, low point, and very good recipe! We have been buying the smaller chicken breasts at Sam's Club that are supposed to average 5oz so that it's easier to eat smaller portions than with the regular chicken breasts that can weight as much as a pound a piece! I'm also hoping that these smaller breasts have less hormones in them as well, but I can't seem to find an answer to that.

The recipe calls for 4-6oz breasts (1 1/2 lbs). We like having left overs, and I can easily fit 5oz of cooked chicken breast into my Weight Watchers plan, so we made 6 of our smaller breasts which came out to 2 lbs. They were each rubbed with some olive oil, and then seasoned with a mixture of coriander, sat, and pepper. Even though we added 33% more chicken, we didn't alter the recipe in any other way.

My husband who has become great at the grill threw these on a split fire where only one burner was on and the chicken was placed on the cooler side to cook slower. Right before the chicken was done it was moved to the hotter side of the grill to finish cooking and brown it. This resulted in ultra juicy chicken!

The Lemon Vinaigrette was a simple mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, Dijon mustard and sugar. Alone we were not impressed as it had a very herb-y flavor. But when drizzled over the chicken, the flavor of the Dijon mustard came through in combination with the seasonings on the chicken. I had a generous portion of 5.25oz of chicken with 2 teaspoons (which was plenty!) of the Lemon Vinaigrette for only 7 WW points. We served it with steamed haricot vert (French green beans), and steamed red potatoes. It was a very filling and delicious dinner.

And for dessert? You guessed it... more Greek Yogurt!


Chobani Greek Yogurt - Strawberry:

This was much better than the Yoplait Strawberry Greek Yogurt I had on Saturday! Unlike the Yoplait brand, this one had real strawberry chunks in it, was not too sweet, and had a more natural consistency of the fruit. I do have to make a note though about the color as I wrote horrible things about the color of Yoplait's Strawberry Geek Yogurt. Chobani's Strawberries also had an off color. They too were darker and had a bit of a brown tint to them. It was not nearly as bad as Yoplait's, but after some reading, this is the normal color for strawberries when they are not in their whole fruit form anymore. This made sense after thinking about it more as you get the same problem with Strawberry cakes when you try and make them with fresh berries. So I guess I can't hold the color of the strawberries against Yoplait anymore. But it doesn't change the fact that appearance aside, Chobani's Strawberry was much better!

This flavor ranks 4th for me in the Chobani flavor lineup: Lemon, Peach/Blueberry, Strawberry, Chery, Vanilla. Fage's Blueberry falls between the Lemon and Peach flavors by Chobani. I will be sticking mostly to Chobani, but I do plan to try some of the other Fage flavors.

Off to the duck pond to take our doggie friend on a more eventful walk and an opportunity to feed the ducks and geese... something I love doing!

Are You Sick of Greek Yogurt Yet? I'm not!

I will be the first to admit it... I'm obsessed. It's a little sad really... but something so delicious, only 3 WW points, and so much protein... do you blame me?

I'm making my way through the Chobani 0% flavors. So far Lemon is my favorite followed by Peach. I wasn't a huge fan of the Vanilla, but am going to give it another try now that I'm fully immersed in this whole Greek Yogurt thing.

So today after lunch I tired the Cherry. I was really surprised how good this one was since I'm not a huge cherry fan. It had just the right amount of sweetness and tart and ranks 3rd for me now, knocking Vanilla down another notch. This flavor had nice cherry chunks and was wonderful when all mixed together. I would buy it again.

And then later after dinner I finally got a chance to try to Chobani Blueberry! I had been anticipating this one for a while. While on an impromptu trip to Sam's Club Friday night, I found a 12-pack of Chobani Greek Yogurt (Blueberry, Peach, and Strawberry). I was quite excited as I cannot contain myself with this stuff. I had previously tried the Fage Blueberry flavor and really liked it. So I was anxious to see how this one compared. As I have stated before, I like the Chobani Greek Yogurt plain better than the Fage. So I expected to like the Chobani Blueberry better than the Fage Blueberry.

Not the case though. While the Chobani Blueberry was delicious, the Fage Blueberry was a bit sweeter, which I think made it taste a bit better. As I have mentioned before, Fage uses sugar though, while Chobani only uses evaporated cane juice. What I find interesting is that Fage only has 16g of sugar while the Chobani Blueberry has 20g of sugar. Fage's website has an asterisk next to the listing of how many grams of sugar and then state: "Naturally occuring lactose sugars, no added sugar." (yes, that is their misspelling of the word occurring). But on the product, under ingredients, it lists sugar. That's a bit puzzling.

Since I'm able to get Chobani in bulk at Sam's Club, and because it doesn't have sugar added, I will stick to the Chobani Blueberry. It's still really good! This flavor is currently tied at number two with Peach.

I have a few more flavors to try, so I'll be posting about those later this week. Then I think I will be done talking about yogurt for a while.

I think I'm a Yogurt Snob

In my curiosity of Greek Yogurt that started a couple weeks ago, I picked up 3 brands for the first purchase. The Chobani rocked my world so much that I bought more of it before I tired all 3 brands. Seems as though I tried the best one first.



The last in my Greek Yogurt sampling was the Strawberry from Yoplait. I should have tired this one first because It's not good compared to the others. It's somewhere between their regular yogurt and good Greek-Style yogurt. Upon opening it, I instantly noticed a consistency difference where this one was more runny. When I tasted it plain, it was much sweeter than the others. Yogurt alone, Chobani is still my favorite, and I had already made up my mind I didn't like this brand. It also has sugar added which was a negative mark for me as well. I prefer the natural sugar of evaporated cane juice. So I dug into the bottom to mix in the fruit... repulsion! The "strawberries" at the bottom were this dark, reddish-brown color and it was the consistency of a loose jelly... Is this even in date? yes... wow... No chunks of fruit, only a few sporadic seeds. I fully mixed in all the fruit, and now my "Greek-Style Yogurt" was not much different than their regular yogurt: super smooth and loose yogurt that almost seemed watery and was very sweet. Only difference I could detect was that it had a bit more tang. That and it didn't seem to fill me up as much. If you're wanting good Greek-Style yogurt, do not buy this brand.

No, thank you, Yoplait. Stick to what you're good at... regular yogurt. I will be sticking to Chobani and Fage, unless I find something better.

More on Greek Yogurt

So I'm making my way through the flavors of my favorite brand (so far) of Greek Style Yogurt. Tonight I had the Lemon. ...Hang on while I finish licking the carton...



So far I think this is my favorite flavor of yogurt. I didn't expect it to be so good. Instead of the fruit being at the bottom, it has lemon pulp mixed in. When I opened it, I thought it had gone bad and had to do a recheck on the date because it wasn't smooth like I'm used to seeing. I stirred it up, and with the grainy, almost lumpy texture I reluctantly took a bite... heaven! The pulp gives it an unexpected look, but it's still the same creamy, smooth yogurt as the base with bits of flavor mixed in. Not too tart, not too sweet, the tangy-ness of the yogurt comes through but is muted a bit with a wonderful lemony overtone. Simply delicious!

yes... I'm obsessed...

My Husband Found Stir-Fry That I Like!

Apparently my weekend of cooking was not enough and I needed more. After work tonight my husband and I decided to try a new recipe. Actually, we had intended to do it last night but in a moment of weakness went out for dinner instead. This broke my streak of 7 days of not eating out. I will attempt this again next week as this week I have a birthday dinner celebration for a friend at one of my favorite Italian places, and agreed to eat at a favorite Asian restaurant for lunch later in the week. At least my eating out splurges are now on favorites and are not a regular part of my eating habits anymore. So back to dinner tonight...

I received the Healthy Family Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen for Christmas last year. I have had very little time since then, and what time I did have was spent making delicious meals that where anything but healthy. While I very much enjoyed my splurge of cooking and eating for 5 months, my weight did not. Now it's back to Weight Watchers for my husband and I and back to getting creative in the kitchen while not sacrificing flavor.

My husband loves veggies and stir-fries, while I'm not a fan of either. I have warmed up to asparagus and carrots lately (if cooked to my picky tastes), so he thought I might like this recipe.

Stir-Fried Shrimp and Asparagus with Lemon Sauce:
This recipe uses fresh asparagus, carrots, ginger, garlic, scallions, lemon juice, and pepper to create a full flavored, fresh tasting dish.

The shrimp quickly marinated in a mixture of low-sodium soy sauce and Chinese rice cooking wine. We could not find Chinese rice cooking wine so we used their substitution suggestion of dry sherry. We let them marinate while we prepped everything else.

Less than 2 tablespoons of canola oil were used in this dish, and was used to help cook the shrimp and veggies. The shrimp were partially cooked first, then the asparagus and carrots were cooked until crisp-tender. The center of the skillet was cleared and the other seasonings were added to bloom and then were mixed in to the veggies. The lemon sauce which contained chicken broth, lemon juice, Chinese cooking wine (I used dry sherry again), low-sodium soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch and pepper was then added to the skillet. Everything was cooked a few more minutes to finish cooking the shrimp and thicken the sauce.

This was an excellent dish that was very complex. I served mine over a bed of brown basmati rice while my husband has his over whole wheat thin spaghetti. I'm now has me on an Asian kick. We used to eat Thai food once a week and I have tried creating it at home with no luck. Maybe this will start teaching me how to build Asian flavors so I can start creating my own dishes.

UPDATE: This keeps surprisingly well in the fridge!




Fage Yogurt:
For dessert, I again went to my Greek Style Yogurt. I tired a new brand: Fage. While I didn't like the yogurt by itself as well as the Chobani, it was extremely good when I mixed in the blueberry acai segment. I will be buying it again!

Instead of fruit on the bottom like the other Greek Yogurts I have seen with fruit, this brand keeps it in a separate compartment. It did however, allow me to try the yogurt plain. This brand's yogurt is much stronger, tangier, and thicker. I really liked the thickness of it, but it was a bit too tangy for me. I think I might appreciate this yogurt funk flavor more when I get a little more used to it. I hear it takes a little time. The only real thing I didn't like was that this brand uses sugar, where Chobani only uses evaporated cane juice to supplement the sweetness of the fruit. I will have to try the Chobani blueberry flavor to see which one I like best.

I think I have a new Greek Yogurt obsession starting. I guess it makes a better dessert than what I used to eat!

Cloudy and Lazy Sunday Morning

I have been in a serious cooking mood all weekend. So this morning I decided to dig out an old recipe to see how I could make it better now that my cooking skills have greatly evolved and my tastes had changed.

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins:
Back a few years ago I needed whole wheat flour for something, but then had a ton left over. In search of what to do with whole wheat flour, I ran across a recipe for Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins on Cooks.com.

It's definitely a recipe you can play with. Taking a tip from a pumpkin break recipe my mom makes, I used fresh OJ instead of milk. For the other ingredients I used natural applesauce without any sugar added, unsalted butter (because it was less Weight Watchers (WW) points than the oil), probably 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 2 1/2 Tbs sugar. I played with the points on WW before settling on the sugar amount, and it's a little less than half of the optional amount.

The OJ gave them a unique flavor that in my opinion just didn't work with the other warm flavors, so I think I will try the milk next time. They are not out of this world or anything, but was a nice change from my bowl of oatmeal I eat every day.

It's definitely not enough for a breakfast, but at 3 WW points these make a great snack. I did one of these, a hard boiled egg, and a new flavor of Greek Yogurt and was very satisfied all for 8 points. It was a nice brunch.

Chobani Greek Yogurt: My new love!

I recently picked up 3 brands of fat-free Greek Yogurt to see what I thought of it, and to find a brand I liked. I figured I would start with fat-free before I feel in love with a full-fat or reduced-fat version. I got Fage Blueberry acai, Chobani Peach, and Yoplait Strawberry. The Chobani Peach was so good that I bought more in the Black Chery, Vanilla, Lemon, and the 2% low-fat Pineapple flavors. The next one on my list was this vanilla one (3 points).

Normally I like the "fruit at the bottoms" ones for some extra natural sweetener, but I decided to give this Vanilla one a try. It was a bit too tangy for my tastes, so I took a tip from my brother and added some honey. I just happened to have some fresh honey from a former co-worker and his wife. Great stuff! Just a small drizzle sweetened the yogurt just enough.

I don't think I will be buying this particular flavor again until I get a little more used to the extra tang in Greek Yogurt. I never did like just plain American Yogurt before, but the Greek Yogurt is so much more complex I think I might really get into it.

This weekend definitely focused on food for me and I very much enjoyed it. I hope now that life is not so hectic right now and we are finally settling down into a routine that weekends will once again be used for food creation time!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Why, Hello Greek-Style Yogurt!

I have recently discovered Greek-Style Yogurt, and the fact that it's not really 'Greek Yogurt' unless it is made with cream and sheep's milk! :) YUM!