Festive Yogurt by YOU keeps ingredients in check

                           

  My mom passed me a meme to the effect of “People are saying mean things to me, like ‘Try this kale.’ ” I laughed, but don’t get me started on people who won’t try new things or can’t imagine a snack that did not come from a vending machine.

                             Today I’m talking about yogurt. If you grew up before the ‘90s, you may consider yogurt a white, sour, bland blob. This was before colorful plastic single serves that load up on artificial additives and sugar and market to kids.

                             I’m talking about the pure stuff, with my favorite being non-fat Greek. I keep a big tub of it at all times. Sometimes I make my own yogurt. It’s pretty easy.

                             Of late, I’ve mixed yogurt into breakfast eggs, toted it to lunch with berries and big, crunchy walnuts and even substituted it for milk in a boxed side dish.

                            A sweet, quick dessert is another trick yogurt can perform. This week I dished some into a stemmed glass, topped it with fruit and dusted it with cocoa powder. A drizzle of honey and a pinch of honeycomb was the topper. Enjoy this in small bites and get a cool, natural treat.

                             If you need to differentiate from “bland” memories, call this creation “festive yogurt.”

                             Rau Chocolate

                             For those who like reading up on your food, Rau Chocolate has a story, inspired by Mayans. And now, you can pack a salted caramel or mint version of a superfood into your lunch box. But I’m leaning toward the cocoanut as my favorite.

                             Makers say their bottled beverages are the result of  “hand picking organic, fair trade cacao beans straight from the tree, infusing them with pure organic spices; creating a concoction inspired by the Mayans – naked of all unhealthy refined sugar, dairy, and preservatives. Our superfood drinking chocolate is designed to fuel a truly clean energetic lifestyle. Bottoms Up!”

                        It’s a cold-pressured cacao beverage with the trendy “clean label”  stamped non-gmo, certified organic and fair-trade. It’s non dairy, but imagine the texture as a thin chocolate milk in additional flavors such as original, semi-sweet and cold brew mocha. Read more about what it has and doesn’t have at https://drinkrau.com

                             Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie ready to try (almost) anything. But she’ll always come back to Greek yogurt. Forward hot tips and questions to her at darraghcastillo@icloud.com