Greek is Good

I've been a Yoplait fan for a long time. I really loved their custard style yogurt - thick texture instead of thin & runny. I stopped eating it because I just couldn't justify the extra fat & calories. I'd buy it and promise myself that I would eat it for dessert but it was too easy to cave on that if I had a lack of time or options in the morning (or any other part of the day for that matter).

The less fat variety isn't much better for you - super high in sugar derived from the dreaded High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). I kept eating it because the flavors are pretty good. When I started working at the high end grocery store, I found two new flavors - Guava and Passionfruit. They nailed them both, which is so often not the case with tropic inspired products. I started to realize that I was getting that sugar-sick feeling not long after I ate it and so I stopped buying it altogether. Sadly, it is definitely not a feel better food.

I decided to check out Greek Yogurt after I read that it is high in protein. My first try was the Fage brand - I tried hard to like it but it was just too runny. This could have been partially my fault as I saw the 'Do not stir' note after I stirred in the honey that was included in seperate compartment. Gave it another try, not stirring this time, but instead dipping the spoon in honey and then in the yogurt. I found it either too tart or too sweet with no happy medium and it was still on the runny side.



Last week I found Voskos Greek Style Yogurt and it was perfection. Only slightly sweet with a hint of honey aftertaste and most importantly a whoohoo-worthy thick texture. How is it possible that it could be good for me too? The label tells the tale...it's got 13 grams of protein to 16 grams of carbs and no fat. I have it with almond granola and a few fresh raspberries if I'm lucky enough to have them on hand. I recently read that Raspberries are good for staving off diabetes because of their low glycemic index and natural fiber.



Today, I read a entry on the Food Network's Blog about an Icelandic yogurt called Skyr. Some guy named Siggi started producing it using skim milk and Agave (my favorite natural sweetner). Thick yogurt with no fat grams or refined sugar...where do I sign up? I got excited when I saw that it is carried by Whole Foods. Flavor combinations like Orange & Ginger and Pomegranite & Passionfruit almost had me blazing a trail to the nearest Whole Foods until I saw that it is only available East of the Mississippi. So sad....Until Siggi's distribution reaches the Pacific...Greek it is.

Fresh & Easy (and cheap too)

Dropped into the new Fresh & Easy market down the street. It's a different kind of grocery store - kind of like an expanded Trader Joes. Even the fruit & veggies are packaged...not sure how I feel about that - although one upshot is that your stuff hasn't been manhandled by a string of unknown persons. Somewhere Adrian Monk is smiling...

A lot of things are made fresh with no hardcore preservatives. They have a large variety of ready-to-eat & ready-to-cook entrees. The look of some of the sauces threw me a little but then they don't add any artificial colors or preservatives so that could be the difference. The portions are perfect for couples or single people like myself. People with a full house to feed might find it too pricy for family dinners but then again I guess that's relative. You could probably get 3 Ready to Eat entrees to feed 6-8 for $20-24. which is cheaper than most restaurants.

In the meat section, there were 2 perfectly portioned filets of salmon packaged with a marinade in a seperate pouch. I saw a package of 4 skinless organic chicken breasts that looked so fresh & appetizing I almost took them home. (While I eat meat, I generally don't cook it myself for a myriad of reasons...so this temptation was significant for me.)

On the front of the refrigerated packages there is a large use by date. It threw me at first because the dates come up so quick. Again it occured to me that the lack of preservatives would require you to consume it sooner...and that's a good thing. Kind of gets you into the Big City/Euro way of living - buying and consuming only what you need for the week.

The prices are pretty good too. Here's some things I purchased:

Organic Yogurt .98
Almond Butter 4.98
Garlic Hummus 2.19
Bowtie Pasta 1.09
Wheat Pizza Dough 1.19
Olive Tapenade 2.50
Honey Wheat Pretzels 1.38
Blue Corn Tortilla Chips 1.68
Tapioca Pudding Cups 2.89
Vanilla Almond Granola 2.69
House Ranch Dressing 1.59
Bag of 12 Key Limes .94


I had to try the Ginger Limeade - made with Water, Fresh Organic Lime Juice, Organic Cane Sugar and Organic Ginger Juice - the sugar was the third ingredient down and you can taste the difference. It's super tart with a nice amount of ginger to offset the citrus zing. Only 4 ingredients and no neon green food dye...gotta love that.

The Honey Wheat pretzels are great. The Vanilla Almond Granola is tasty - it sweetened up the Organic Yogurt which was on the tart side. I wasn't expecting to like the Tapioca but it was good - creamy & less starchy than the commercial stuff.

There aren't any checkers so you have to ring yourself up, which I don't mind. I didn't have to bag my stuff though. There was a nice guy at the end of the conveyor who split his time between me & the lane next to me. I was bagged & ready to go before I finished my transaction.

I plan to have the Hummus with Chips & Baby Carrots for lunch tomorrow - I hope it's good. I'm going to make a BBQ Chicken Pizza with the wheat pizza dough & the cooked chicken slices I got to go on it. I may have to freeze it until next week - no day off or night home until Sunday. My current work/life schedule doesn't allow for home-cooked meals. But when it does, I'm definitely going to be having more fun at the grocery store.

Why I Need to Feel Better

For many years, food has been an enemy of sorts. At 19, I developed an ulcer that wreaked havoc on my life for 4 years. It seemed the only foods I could eat without paying dearly were white rice, cream of wheat and graham crackers. Life was better once it healed up but I was gun-shy for a long time. It took me almost a year to add a decent variety of real food back into my diet.

Even before the ulcer, I never felt right eating in the morning. In fact, for several years I would make it to 3 or 4 in the afternoon before the first hunger pangs kicked in. Even now, some days I can just feel it. I know if I push it, I'll pay and so I put off eating until I absolutely have to. If I'm feeling ok, I don't want to rock the boat. Things seem manageable until I eat and then all bets are off. It's the same reason I have an aversion to taking vitamins. I feel sick so often that I can't bear to willingly take something that will spin me out.

Not being able to tolerate most veggies doesn't help much. I do Broccoli, Carrots, Corn and Potatoes of any variety and that's about it. It's the texture that I find the most objectionable but I also find that I am immediately grossed out by the greeness of the flavor. Visually, I find them appealing - especially cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, aparagus, artichokes and the list goes on - but I physically just can't do it.

To top it off, I am extremely sensitive to narcotics & stimulants of any kind. Caffeine is not my friend. I've got all kinds of sensitivities - sight, smell and touch. Smells are the worst - coffee, onions, asphalt tar & other chemicals - I have an immediate reaction to them. Serious Nausea.

In 2003, I was diagnosed with Lupus and that only exacerbated my existing food issues. I had unbearable fatigue and no appetite for weeks at a time. I started drinking smoothies with immunity boosters but I seemed to be getting worse. I did some research and realized I was boosting my already over-active immune system. Smoothies were the only thing I could bring myself to down but I couldn't justify taking in all that sugar with so little to show for it - besides a week's supply of Vitamin C.

Somehow I stumbled upon Acai. The poster of a cold sweaty glass filled with dark purple slush is what drew me in but it was the exotic berry flavor that had me at hello. The gigantic bonus was how it good it made me feel. No acidic burn or sugar sick crash. It's like it got me back to even. I actually felt good for a long while after and found that I got a 'safe' energy lift that didn't have a discernable end.

Sambazon Acai was my first real 'feel better food' and by far the best. That might explain why I am so sold-out on it. I sing it's praises to anybody who will listen. I know what it does for me and others who have humored me and given it a try. It definitely lives up to the superfood hype - Omegas, Fiber and more Antioxidants than anything else on the planet. (If it is processed correctly - frozen within 24 hours of harvesting, like Sambazon does. I'm sold on it for more reasons than one.)

Discovering Acai got me interested in finding other things that work. So I'm going to get back to what I know & keep searching for ways to break out of this nutrition-free zone I find myself in.