Sometimes I feel weird sharing my more simple ideas here on the blog so I just instagram and post them on Facebook and twitter. But then, I forget not everyone is confident in the kitchen, and I start to get questions like, do you have the exact recipe?
This is one of those ideas. So to make me feel better about sharing this super simple recipe, I'm going to give you my philosophy on flavoring your own plain yogurt and then challenge you to buy a non-flavored tub (if you don't already) instead of flavored, sugar or artificially sweetened cups.
But first you should know, buying tubs of yogurt didn't come natural to me. This is an excerpt of a post I wrote 2 years ago called Tubs of Greek Yogurt and Bags of Kale Don’t Lie:
I started with yogurt cups, eating whatever lite ones were on sale. After a while I decided I didn’t want all those artificial sweeteners in my system so I started to switch to ones with just plain old sugar. Then I turned to Greek for higher protein. The flavored Greek cups are great (like Chobani and Oikos,) but when I went to BlogHer Food this year I had my first plain Greek yogurt parfait and fell in love. Now I buy tubs of the plain Greek and top it with fruit, nuts, seeds, honey, whatever! Honestly, there’s no going back to light flavored yogurt cups for me ever again, but without them I would not be eating homemade Greek yogurt parfaits today.
I really have been obsessed with making homemade yogurt toppings ever since, so much so I did a #DailyYogurt challenge on Instagram and had a blast!
The key to flavoring your own yogurt without getting too heavy handed with sweeteners, at least in my opinion, is a thin layer. I always take a cup or ½ cup, depending on how hungry I am, dollop it in the bowl and then spread it across the bottom, almost like I was icing a cake. This creates more surface area allowing you to drizzle honey or maple syrup or chocolate or whatever on the top lightly. The sweetener is the first thing to hit your tongue and you don't have to overload on it to counteract the tartness of the yogurt.
Once I did an experiment and mixed honey into a small about of yogurt. I needed almost 5 times the amount to mix in then I did to drizzle on top!
When I eat my yogurt now I usually add something crunchy, something chewy and then a drizzle of something sweet. Here's my latest obsession:
- ½ cup low-fat Greek yogurt (113g)
- 1 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut (I used Bob's
) - ¼ oz (7g) cocoa nibs (I used TerrAmazon)
- ½ tbsp homemade chocolate syrup -- click here for recipe
)
)Spread the yogurt in the bottom of your bowl. Sprinkle the coconut and nibs on top. Drizzle with chocolate syrup.
Ta-da!
SO stinking good! And the slightly higher fat content does keep me fuller longer although you could replace with non-fat yogurt if that's your thing.
| Servings | Amt per Serving | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Entire Recipe | |||
| Calories | Fat | Fiber | WWPs | |
| 190 | 9g | 4g | old: 4 | new: 5 |
| Sugar | Sat Fat | Carbs | Protein | |
| 9g | 7g | 18g | 13g | |
Yum! I've never tried chocolate with my yogurt before. My mix lately has been to add some cut up strawberries and nectarines to yogurt with a drizzle of honey on top. Some of the fruit I've gotten this summer has been so sweet I don't even need the honey!
Yum! This looks like it would be good in oatmeal too! Thanks for the great ideas as always! 🙂
Genius! I love the spreading of the yogurt tip! If I had the Greek yogurt "deep" in my bowl, i would definitely just eat the stuff on top and probably not be able to handle the plain yogurt on the bottom. But spreading solves that! Can't wait to try this - thanks! (Keep those tips coming - frozen/grated lemons, frozen leftover spinach, spreading yogurt - you are brilliant!) 🙂
Wow. One wouldn't know your recipes are so simple to make just by looking at them. This yogurt thing looks so decadent.
Fascinating tip! about mixing vs. drizzling!
I love your so-called simple recipes! They give me ideas that I wouldn't think of on my own. I also evolved to eating plain, Greek yogurt and mixing in fruit or honey or an oatmeal muffin. It is so much better and now if I taste one of the artificially sweetened ones, it tastes very bad.
I love simple! Simple also means quick to me, so it's something I can take to work. I will try this!! (Awesome idea on spreading out the yogurt too.)