Pretty Little Apron

plain greek yogurt

Almond Joy Greek Yogurt

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almondjoy1

Store bought yogurts typically contain tons of  added sugar and unnecessary additives.  Most brands have jumped on the Greek Yogurt bandwagon, however a lot of the flavored versions contain GMO’s (modified corn starch), and preservatives (potassium sorbate). I have even seen mono and digycerides (hidden trans fat), natural and artificial flavorings (unknown ingredients), and fake sugars all packed into seemingly harmless Greek Yogurt.


The best thing to do is buy a plain yogurt and flavor it yourself. You will be surprised how much better this tastes then any of the already flavored stuff! If you’ve tried the Pinned It, Did It cookie dough Greek Yogurt and liked it, this one is even better! Almond butter can be expensive but I’m telling you, it is so worth the extra dollar or two. I could eat almond butter out of the jar for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and be happy about it!

I should also mention to choose your chocolate chips wisely. Most chocolate contains soy lecithin as an emulsifier, and most soy is GMO. Here are the chips I use. A few chips go a long way!

 

Pinned it, did it! Cookie Dough Greek Yogurt

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cookieyogurt I saw this on Pinterest at 10:30 last night and decided to give it a try since I had all the ingredients on hand. Chocolate chips do have added sugars and soy in them so I eat them very moderately. The great thing is just a few chocolate chips make this awesome! I’m on the search for a good quality chocolate chip that doesn’t contain soy lecithin. If anyone knows of a brand let me know!

When I tasted this yogurt I was super surprised how good it was! I ate it last night for a snack and this morning for breakfast, and packed it in my son’s school lunch, obsessed much?? Here is the recipe… I dare you to not eat this for every meal for the next few days!


*Just to note, make sure you are using a good quality peanut butter that does not contain partially hydrogenated oils, or trans fats. Most big name brands do contain this ingredient so steer clear of those products. Just for the record, choosy moms DO NOT choose Jiff!

Creamy Caesar Dressing…. Mason Jar Style!

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ceacar Have you ever checked the ingredient list of the dressing you are using? Thankfully, I have… and all I can say is I will never be consuming store bought dressing again! Something about dumping a bunch of chemicals, artificial flavoring, and preservatives on a beautiful mound of spinach doesn’t make sense. Another reason I will never be purchasing store bought dressing again is the false advertising I have seen from the companies making these products. When I searched for the ingredients I went to the website for Ken’s Steakhouse and they were promising to be using “only the most select ingredients.” They have very clever phrases printed on their packages, for instance “Chef’s Reserve.” This gives the impression your dressing was handcrafted in a steakhouse just for you but unfortunately everything about Ken’s marketing is an illusion. Here are the 26 ingredients in the creamy Caesar:

INGREDIENTS: Soybean Oil, Water, Distilled Vinegar, Egg Yolk, Parmesan Cheese (Pasteurized Part Skim Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Garlic, contains less than 2% of: Salt, Olive Oil, Sugar, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Spices, Natural Flavor, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate and Calcium Disodium EDTA as Preservatives, Onion*, Xanthan Gum, Propylene Glycol, Alginate, Molasses, Corn Syrup, Caramel Color, Anchovy (Fish), Tamarind, Titanium Dioxide (for color). *Dried.


Not exactly the select ingredients I thought Ken’s was talking about! I bolded all of the ingredients I consider questionable in this dressing, and there are a lot! Essentially your consuming genetically modified soy and a bunch of other unknown ingredients. Soybean oil is highly refined, unhealthy, and cheap so I choose not to consume it at all. For more on soybean oil click here.

I purchased a special glass bottle to make dressing that had a bunch of recipes printed on the bottle. In theory this was a great idea but trying to put thick ingredients into a small hole just doesn’t work out so well. I resorted to a half pint wide mouth mason jar and it was perfect! It fit just right into the jar and I realized this made it super easy to make without creating a bunch of dishes and a mess!