Wednesday 1 August 2012

Food for the Whole Family - Total Greek Yoghurt

When I heard on the social media mummy bloggers grapevine that Total Greek Yoghurt were having a session for bloggers at the Cheshire Cookery School, I was green with jealousy! Fortunately for me, my best blogging friend, and afternoon coffee partner Sim at Sim's Life  got me on the list!

I have to confess that I am already a regular consumer of Total Greek Yoghurt. I first discovered it soon after I moved to the UK. Initially only the full fat version was available, but being that it's only 3% fat, this wasn't a huge issue. And as we discovered through the talk we were given by Total's nutritionist Martin, fat is not the enemy, your body needs fat to thrive, its keeping that fat low in saturates, and in balance with the other macronutrients that is important. Now there is a 2% a 0% and varieties with honey and fruit purees as well. They are truly delicious!

The Kitchen Mechanic, Sunniva and I trying not to swear at the food processor!

It's no secret that I love to cook, but balancing all the dietary needs of a family is not always easy. If you have a premature baby, then ensuring they get nutritionally sound, calorie rich food is important. As women we are all concious about our weight, but if we have exercise goals as well, knowing what to eat can be a minefield, and then as we get older too, our nutritional needs can change.

What I love about Total Greek Yoghurt is that its very versatile. It has a rich creamy mouth feel. Substitute Greek yoghurt for cream in your curry and instantly you have reduced the calorie count and made it nutritionally more balanced. Make a cookie crush with the amazing cookies we baked on the day, with Greek yoghurt and you have a dessert far more rich in nutrients than say tiramisu, but with a similar mouthfeel. You have saved calories, added rich sources of fat that make you fuller longer and supply your body with nutrients, without feeling deprived.

We learnt other tricks too. Controlling carbohydrate intake is a challenge for many of us. This is what we served our Thai Green Curry with. Looks like rice yes? It's cauliflower. You grate or battle with a food processor and whizz up the cauliflower, bung it in a bowl, cover with cling film, pierce the cling film, and throw it in the microwave for 4-5 minutes, with NO water! Hey presto!

The focus of the day was cooking healthy meals for weightloss, good nutrition, and meeting exercise goals, not specifically feeding babies or small children, but I will definitely share some of the ways I use Total in a seperate post.



I cannot tell you just how many recipes and good ideas are on the Total website, so go and have a look and a browse and give it a try!

Here is the simply brilliant cookie recipe!



Chocolate Chip & Almond Cookie Cream
By Martin MacDonald
Ingredients
100g TOTAL Greek Yoghurt (to serve)
2 Medium Free Range Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Essence (at home I would use extract or vanilla bean paste)
300g Ground Almond Flour
70g – 100g Stevia
1tsp Baking powder
Pinch of salt
50g Coconut oil
80g Dark chocolate (higher than 65% cocoa)
Or unsweetened dark chocolate chips

Method
1. Pre-heat your oven to 375°F/190°C/Gas 5.
2. In a bowl beat your eggs with the vanilla essence.
3. Add in almond flour, Stevia, baking powder and salt and mix together.
4. Melt your coconut oil by placing into a bowl and heating on full power for approx 1 min.
5.  Add the oil to your mixture and combine. (N.b. It will clump together very quickly).
6. Add in your chocolate chips (or smaller pieces of chocolate).
7. Mould your dough into round cookie size shapes, slightly bigger than a tablespoon in size and
place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Cook in oven for 15 minutes.

Break your cookies up in to pieces and mix with the TOTAL Greek Yoghurt.

All photos used courtesy of Total Greek Yoghurt.



2 comments:

  1. Jealous. And I HAVE to make those cookies!

    ReplyDelete
  2. 3 Researches PROVE Why Coconut Oil Kills Fat.

    This means that you literally get rid of fat by consuming coconut fats (including coconut milk, coconut cream and coconut oil).

    These 3 studies from big medical magazines are sure to turn the conventional nutrition world upside down!

    ReplyDelete