GREEK YOGHURT

UPDATE In San Francisco, Total Greek Yoghurt is available, again, in Trader Joes stores. I found plenty in the SoMa branch on Sunday November 7th. The SoMa branch of Wholefoods, however, has yet to get Total back on their shelves. Total has a long shelf life so you can stock up for several weeks at a time.

September 2004
Total greek Yoghurt is currently unavailable in the US due to licencing problems.
Read the news report here
In the meantime I stocked up on enough of the 0% fat variety to last about a month.


One of my weekday breakfast ingredients



There are some schools of thought which say eating 3 portions of dairy a day can aid weight loss . Whether you believe this or not, it's not a bad idea to make sure you get enough of the calcium that is provided by dairy products into your daily diet. With this in mind, I try to eat a yoghurt every day. I generally dislike all yoghurt except for Greek Yoghurt. Luckily this is now available in the US (it wasn't when I arrived 3.5 years ago). My fridge is full of Total 0% Greek Yoghurt which I buy from Wholefoods. I buy it in in bulk (12 or so pots at a time) because they often run out in the store. This is ok because the use by dates are normally about a month away. I think it is only about 80 calories for the pot.
Greek yoghurt is also perfect for use in cooking. Why? Because unlike other yoghurts, it doesn't curdle and it's thick and creamy and delicious without that sour yoghurt taste.
A savoury idea for greek yoghurt is to mix it, cold, with some chopped green chilli, grated lemon zest and some deskinned cucumber slices (that have been covered in salt and left to drain first to get rid of the excess water - pat off the salt before use). This makes a great topping for hot pan-fried chicken. [thanks to Nigella Lawson and How to Eat for that idea which is just from memory and may not be exact as I left that book in my mum's attic in England]

GREEK YOGHURT