As the first post after mentioning my intent to change the tone of content here on Facing Blend, I’ll kick it off with one of my new “obsessions” – new healthy stuff to try.  Now, this isn’t really a new thing.  I enjoy hearing about ways that I can change what I am doing to improve the health and well-being of my and my family’s life.  This has taken me down so many roads from different and fun new physical activities to improving the food that we eat.  (It also includes new ways to improve the health of my pets)

The latest change that we’ve been slowly integrating into our life is the use of yogurt.  The health benefits are numerous.

Up until recently, yogurt has been in basically 1 form: A lovely plastic cup which contains fruit and occasionally granola.  Sometimes it comes in a tube for my kids – but the contents and “application” of yogart has always been essentially the same.

Well that’s changed a bit.  I read an article on either Yahoo or MSN (can’t remember which, sorry!) which was one of those picture “articles” which listed 10 things which should be eaten more to improve your health.  Well, yogurt was one of them.  The article mentioned  the use of yogurt in other ways than just the cup of fruit – to use as part of the base for mashed potatoes.

So I decided to experiment.  I headed to the grocery store and picked up some plain WHOLE yogurt (not non- nor low-fat… I’ll talk about that in another blog), and proceeded to do just what the article mentioned – using yogurt as a replacement for the milk and butter.

What I found was that it was quite tasty – and a bit surprising.  It tasted like I added sour cream to my potatoes rather than the yogurt taste I was expecting.

Since my initial experiment, I’ve altered the quantity of yogurt.  Replacing ALL of the butter and milk was quite unbalanced in taste.  Instead, I add 2-3 tablespoons of yogurt and add butter and milk until I get a consistency which was appealing.  It’s certainly not an exact science, so if you try it, you’ll have to use your judgement.

 

Since, I’ve been trying different things with yogurt.

  1. Cheese sauce (pouring over broccoli)
  2. Cheese, Broccoli, Chicken & Potato soup
  3. White sauces in general including a lovely fettuccine sauce over shrimp & crab ravioli
  4. The mashed potatoes mentioned before
  5. home made ranch dressing (I still use some sour cream)

I’ve not discovered anything else where it sounded like yogurt could be used, but I’m still exploring this new ingredient to my cooking.

 

Oh, and btw: So far, all of the dishes have been kid tested and over the top approved.  My 1 yr old enjoys the food and my 5 year old asks for seconds!! (That almost never happens)  My daughter’s absolute favorite is when I make the cheese sauce and mix it in with rice, broccoli, carrots, corn, and shredded chicken(after boil-cooking it).

Yay yogurt!

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