Greek Yogurt is the Shit.

Yes, everybody. Greek. Yogurt. Is. The. Shit. You should eat a lot of it, specifically the nonfat variety.

WHY, WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

OH WHAT, YOU NEED REASONS? First, I will compare it to regular puny nonfat yogurt.

1. It has the same amount of calories. But.
2. It has TWICE THE PROTEIN.
3. and HALF THE SUGAR.

When regular sorry girlieman yogurt magically transformed into the badass Grecian yogurt monster, it literally doubled the thing that your muscles love most, and cut in half the thing that your stupid fat cells love most. This. Is. Awesome.

WHEN SHOULD I EAT THIS?

Well I just happen to have some options right here.

• for breakfast
• before your workout
• after your workout
• as a snack
• for lunch
• as a substitute for sour cream
• as a substitute for butter, mayonnaise, or cream cheese in baking recipes
• for dessert

SO EAT IT JUST PLAIN ALWAYS?

No. In fact, you should probably never eat it plain, because it tastes almost exactly like sour cream, and who would ever want to do something as ungodly as eating sour cream by the spoonful. No, you should eat it in any number of ways. Here are some of my favorites:

• with 1oz of jam (about a tablespoon): this is thicker and creamier than regular fruit yogurt. I use Bonne Maman jam, because it’s all natural and only has a few ingredients. Avoid the yogurt packs that come with fruit on the side if you can, it’s often processed and has a lot of added sugar. Make sure you read the label; if the fruit component has more than 5 ingredients, you can do better with a jam or all-fruit. I eat this for breakfast pretty much every morning.
• with a tablespoon of almond butter, a scoop of vanilla protein powder, and a few crushed walnuts: this tastes like cheesecake, and if you have a sweet tooth, this is a great way to curb it. I use Designer Whey vanilla protein powder because it tastes like candy. If you’re doing a lot of weightlifting, this is a great dessert. Greek yogurt has casein protein, which is slow digesting, and will feed your muscles allllll night long. However, watch your calories for the day–this is a great way to repair your muscles if you’re working out a lot, but also a great way to gain weight if you aren’t. Use this one sparingly.
• with BBQ Soy Crisps: you may remember this from my “Eat More Protein” post, but it deserves a mention here. This is like the healthy equivalent of potato chips and french onion dip. It’s salty, creamy, tasty, and easy to “make” (open that bag and dip the crisp into the yogurt container). And it’s healthy.
• with fruit and granola: a VERY ripe banana mixes in well and helps sweeten the yogurt. Cut strawberries are a nice choice too. I use a sprinkle of Kashi Go Lean Crunch to add some….crunch. Still a little too much of that sour cream taste? Add a teaspoon of honey (BUT DON’T GO CRAZY).
• with dill and cucumber for a tzatziki sauce, which is SO TASTY as a dip for pita, carrots, broccoli, and bell peppers, or over chicken at dinner.
• with grapes and chopped chicken breast for a really healthy, awesome tasting chicken salad. Those are the only 3 ingredients, plus salt and pepper to taste. I’ll do a recipe post of it later, but….you’re pretty much lookin at it.

There are a BUNCH of other more involved ways to use Greek yogurt (as a way to make any recipe creamy, basically). I’ll continue to post those. But above are the ways that you can eat Greek Yogurt as the main component of the meal. Again, make sure you grab the nonfat (this means 0%) version (this rule is generally true for all dairy products, but not a rule of thumb for everything–more on that later).

Okay get out of here, why aren’t you eating this yet.