Pumpkin Pie Yogurt

Hello all. I apologize for the lack of posts. Undergraduate and graduate work has been consuming my every minute; and, sadly, my creative juices recently have been sucked right through a bendy straw. However, today is a wonderful day because it's December 1st without a flake of snow on the ground and I can finally take a breath and relax. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day and enjoyed time with their loved ones. I was feeling reminiscent of the holidays and craving some pumpkin pie this morning. Well, I didn't have pie and it was terribly sad; however, I did have yogurt. Hmm. Can I make yogurt taste like pie? Probably not but I can try, dammit. 

I'm adding: pumpkin seeds  

                  + cinnamon 

                  + chia seeds 

                  + flax seeds 

                  + agave nectar to my vanilla Greek yogurt

                  = a whole cup of yummy

The seeds give it a pumpkin feel , the cinnamon enhances its pie-like taste, the seeds add a crust-like crunch and the agave gives it an umph of sweetness! Plus it's way healthier than indulging in half a pie (not that I would, ahem, do such a thing....)

FUN FACT ALERT!

Cha...cha...chia! Yes, these are the same seeds that have been used to grow hair on Chia Pets. You're probably thinking ew and wondering why they're on my yogurt. Yes, they are edible and surprisingly packed with nutritional benefits. For a visual, they are the little black rounded seeds below.  These little guys are provide a huge kick of fiber and can keep you full for hours. They also have more Omega-3 fatty acids than flax seeds. They'll have you doing the cha-cha all the way down the health food aisle.

Spice up your bland yogurt and you'll be satified until Christmas dinner--- then I highly encourage digging into the real thing, I will.

Enjoy!

Stevia: The Sweet Superman

When looking for something to spruce up my coffee or tea, I am a victim of no calorie sweeteners. It's a fact that sugar imitations like Sweet n' Low and Splenda aren't good for you, but it's so hard to avoid them when you want something sweet without all the calories. I love agave nectar on my oatmeal and greek yogurt, but a few squirts can add at least 80 calories (or more if you have a mouth full of sweet teeth like moi). Plus it's processed and high in fructose (70-80 %). If you don't want to give up agave, like me, look for products with 30-40% instead.

The Sugar Imitation Villains (yeah, we're on to you)

Ugh, I feel so stuck in my non-sugary sugar options. Can the health gods answer our prayers? Well, they may have. It's a bird! it's a plane! No, it's Stevia! Yay...finally a natural, zero calorie sweetener to save the day!

If you've seen the Truvia commercials with the cheesy jingle, that sweetener is only partly made of the Stevia plant. 

*FUN FACT ALERT* 

Coke and Pepsi just got the green light to use Truvia instead of Splenda (sucralose..bad!) to sweeten their diet drinks. Thumbs up for a slight step forward in making soda kinda-sorta healthier; I actually am really excited about this because I also am a huge victim of diet sodas. Sigh, no one's perfect.

The question on everyone's mind (or perhaps not) is: what exactly is a Stevia plant? Well, I Googled it and it's a plant from South America whose leaves are 30x sweeter than sugar; many companies are starting to use it because of this. It looks like any other plant you'd see outside, but hopefully it can be the sugar superman to beat all the imiattional villains.

Hm, now what to do with all those Sweet 'n Low packets? 

Here's an idea:

Have a Sweet Hump Day!