TLC and a Smoothie

Favorite Food Finds Friday is all about rushing today.

Your mother told you that breakfast was the most important meal of the day and you know she was right. But sometimes mornings can be so chaotic that you just don't have time to eat a balanced meal. That's where my favorite food find comes in...it's a grab and go breakfast that when paired with a yummy yogurt smoothie becomes a tasty quick breakfast.

Today's favorite food find is...

Kashi's Tasty Little Chewies (TLC) all natural chewy granola bars.

When our local Whole Foods opened last year, the week before the grand opening was a fundraiser tour week. Where for $5.00 you were given an inside peek at the new Whole Foods and the money raised would be donated to assorted local charities (isn't that a brilliant idea?). Each person who toured was given a cloth shopping bag filled with various samples and coupons. One of the samples in my bag was a Kashi TLC bar. Not being someone who can turn down a free food sample I tasted my Kashi Honey Almond Flax bar that very day.


Loved it. It was sweet and chewy (with 4 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein). The bars have become my breakfast in a rush go-to. The bars come in several varieties: Cherry Dark Chocolate, Honey Almond Flax (my favorite), Peanut Peanut Butter and Trail Mix. There are no partially hydrogenated oils and no high fructose corn syrup.


What's the perfect way to "wash" one of these babies down? A yogurt smoothie. Made quick and easy in my (favorite mini-appliance) The Magic Bullet, this smoothie and TLC bar breakfast is ready in 5 minutes. (Oh I've been known to eat this for lunch too).




Yummy Yogurt Smoothie



1 (6 ounce) container raspberry yogurt
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 ripe banana
1/4 cup skim milk
3 ice cubes

Combine all the ingredients in a blender (or Magic Bullet) and blend until smooth.

Yogurt for Dessert

Yogurt is a food I had to teach myself to enjoy.

When I was pregnant and nursing my children, like any responsible mother-to-be, I wanted to make sure I was getting enough calcium so I decided to add yogurt to my diet. The initiation was a gradual one. I began with the whipped variety of yogurt-its light and fluffy texture made it seem more like flavored whipped cream than yogurt and certainly seemed more palatable to me. I cut the yogurt with fat free Cool Whip to lessen what I perceived as a sour "yogurty" taste and to make it more like a mousse. The amount of Cool Whip was then gradually reduced to none and after a time I was able to enjoy regular yogurt. Fast forward a few years and now I think yogurt is so tasty, I serve it for dessert.

While I now enjoy many varieties of yogurt, at the moment I am a big fan of Yoplait's Yo Plus Digestive Health yogurt. I like that it has some fiber in it as I am making a conscious effort to add more fiber to my diet.Yo Plus is a new yogurt in supermarkets that, according to Yoplait's web site, combines:

probiotics-active cultures to regulate the balance of
microorganisms in your digestive system and prebiotic cultures for a
healthy digestive system.
prebiotics- natural dietary fibers.

It does contain added sugar, but I am using it for dessert. Perhaps the 3 grams of fiber can make up for the added sugar-that's what I'll tell myself anyway.

Cherry season is in full swing, so I whipped up some Cherry-Almond Yogurt Parfaits. If the fat and calories from the whipped cream scare you, feel free to substitute some fat free Cool Whip, or if you would like to make the parfait for breakfast, just skip the cream completely.

Just a few cherry pitting pointers:

• You can use one of those cherry pitters that are out there but quite honestly they are a lot of work and don't seem to work all that well.
• I just quarter the cherry with the pit in and then pull apart and discard the pit.
• Or if you are really lazy (and sometimes I am) just halve the cherry, pull apart, eat the part with the pit in it (spitting out pit) and just halve the remaining half for your recipe...it will take you twice as long, but mmmm-mmm.

Cherry-Almond Yogurt Parfaits

1 cup chilled heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 pound fresh cherries, quartered, pits removed (your choice of method)

4 (4 ounce) containers cherry flavored yogurt (I used the Yoplait Yo Plus)

1/2 cup slice almonds

Beat the heavy cream and sugar using an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form; fold in the almond extract.

Divide 1/3 of the whipped cream between 4 parfait glasses. Add a layer of cherries followed by a layer of the yogurt, using half. Scatter a layer of sliced almonds. Repeat with a layer of whipped cream, cherries, yogurt and almonds. End with whipped cream followed by the remaining cherries. Serve immediately or chill until ready to serve.