I am always on the look out for good ideas on how to save money while giving my family the best quality food possible. Sometimes this can be quite a daunting task.
My children love yogurt! I was very happy when they tried the more protein rich greek yogurt and liked it. Having tried and made faces to the plain greek yogurt (who can blame them!?) I settled on the vanilla yogurt and have been buying tubs of that trying not to feel too bad about how much sugar was in it.
A couple of weeks ago I was walking through Costco and noticed that I could buy plain yogurt there for less money and my mind started to wonder...My husband is a chef and I have heard him talk many times about adding new and exciting things to his menu without negatively effecting his budget (food cost). To do this he works to create menu items that use ingredients that he already has in house. This allows him to diversify his menu without adding something new to his inventory that might go bad if it doesn't all get used. I started to think about how I might be able to apply this to plain greek yogurt and our daily lives (I know...way too much thought over some greek yogurt...). After a couple weeks of thinking and looking through what we have in the house, here is what I came up with.
I got out a bowl and my trusty immersion blender (a regular blender would work too...but then you wouldn't need the bowl) along with
Plain Greek Yogurt
Frozen Fruit
Vanilla Extract
Sugar
I started buying frozen fruit when my oldest was an infant and I was making her baby food. I had read an article (unfortunately I don't have it anymore to reference) that said that frozen fruits and veggies were just as good if not fresher than fresh produce because they're picked and frozen right away while fresh produce was picked and then shipped over the course of who knows how long. I read this article at a time when I was getting frustrated because I was buying groceries and throwing away produce that went bad before we could use it--it didn't seem to be lasting long at all. I started to buy a lot more frozen fruit and veggies so I always knew I would have it on hand allowing us to have well balanced meals without the fear of it going bad. Some recipes are much better with fresh produce that hasn't been frozen, but for the most part this has worked nicely. (I have even put frozen fruit in a container in the kid's lunchbox and by the time lunch comes around it has thawed...it is also a good healthy frozen treat on a hot summer day).
Getting back to the yogurt--All of the ingredients I listed above I have in the house and I use in other ways while cooking (even the plain yogurt!), so in terms of food cost and usability, so far so good!
I took about half of a container of the yogurt and put it into the bowl. I added about 1.5 tablespoons of Vanilla Extract and a teaspoon of sugar and mixed it all together. I then added about half of a bag of frozen strawberries and mixed it together with a fork. Then, the fun part. I got out my immersion blender (one of my favorite kitchen toys!) and started blending it together until it was the consistency I wanted it to be (I didn't want too many big fruit chunks). This recipe is completely to taste. I shared the amounts I used, but honestly it is not a recipe that I will get out the measuring spoons for. Next time I think I will even skip the sugar to see if the fruit sweetens it enough.
If you make this and eat it right away it is very cold and thicker because of the frozen fruit--it could almost pass for a frozen yogurt. After sitting for a little while the fruit completely thawed and it was back to a more typical Greek yogurt consistency. The kids had some with dinner tonight and it was a hit! I already have some spooned into small containers for their lunches tomorrow! I just restocked the freezer with frozen fruit and can't wait to try it with something else the next time. I may be wrong in my logic here, but I feel that this is giving my kids a healthier snack than some of the other yogurts I was buying because there is less sugar and less processed ingredients. At the very least, it is a fun way to make a snack with ingredients we have in the house! Happy New Year!
