I agree, let’s continue reporting back on natural yogurt finds. I’ll post in this thread when I have tried a couple of these ideas, assuming I can find the thread again. :)

Yeah, Kimu, the thing that sticks out to me that these meals always seem to be missing is fat! I don’t know how anyone can feel full on what many women eat at lunchtime. You need a little fat to make foods filling and tasty (I mean, you need it in your diet in general, but you know what I mean). Honestly those new “Twice the Veggies” Lean Cuisines aren’t too bad… they tend to have some fat and less sodium and a larger portion/larger variety of veggies and whole grains… so at least those are an option now when people are grabbing their lunch selections for the week.

My mom is a frequent “fake lady lunch” offender and I hate watching it happen. Most “fake lady lunches” are devoid of protein (and often of any proper nutrients at all), they seem designed to make sure the “diner” will be as hungry as possible as soon as possible. For someone like my mom who is older and doesn’t have the appetite or metabolism she once did, I hate seeing her “waste” calories on empty “virtuous” foods. It makes me worry the the B12 deficiency anemia or similar is not far behind. :(

At several gourmet markets around here (i.e. whole foods) I have been able to find Nancy’s individual yogurt that comes with a little attached thing of fruit sweetened with cane sugar. It is the most natural tasting I’ve been able to find and doesn’t strike me as overly sweet (although I’m not sensitive to such things).

Cons: expensive ($.79 – $.99 ea.) and wasteful packaging… I also suspect it’s pretty close to “Plain Yogurt + Fruit Preserves” So there you have it.

mizerychik, honey AND fruit! What an awesome idea. Just plain fresh fruit isn’t flavorful enough for me, but add any sugar and it starts to get sticky and too-sweet. Jam seems to work OK too but the honey-and-fruit idea is super. I will try it (maybe put the honey in the yogurt maker during processing and add fresh fruit just before I eat it).

sweetmachine, this topic basically never gets old for me (all the stuff about food as biological need, but societal expectations around women’s appetites, and also the social functions fulfilled by food, combining to create a very complex set of motivations for what we eat), so I am really looking forward to your post! It sounds really interesting.

Trader Joe’s organic full fat yogurt + local honey + whatever fruit I feel like adding = bliss. It’s the best combination that I’ve found that gives that real yogurty flavor and texture without added stuff. I’ve also added all fruit preserves when the fresh stuff is hard to acquire.

It’s definitely not as sweet as Yoplait, in that particular way that only HFCS is sweet, but the honey adds this nice flowery fruit flavor, particularly if you add blackberry honey, or some other that was made from a fruit plant.

But this stuff WAS good. If it wasn’t so darned expensive, I’d buy it more often – if for no other reason than health reasons (natural is better for you than commercially processed crap, after all).