Monday, February 4, 2013

GREEK yogurt for sour cream?

Our daughter said, “Mom, did you know you can use Greek yogurt in place of sour cream?”

She tried it in French Onion dip and on a baked potato, giving both a thumbs up. 

I liked the thick creaminess it gave fruit smoothies.   

The true test? Baking!

I bake gluten free and rice flour is gritty when compared to wheat flour.  Using either sour cream or Greek yogurt as part of the "liquid" in a recipe made a creamier batter, thus creating "softer" baked goods. 

The Greek yogurt worked well in my gluten free DARK chocolate cake,
but my gluten free Sour Cream Pound Cake wasn’t the same. 

The flavor was good, but the texture was....
  • more springy & spongy,
  • not the usual flaky, dense texture of a pound cake, 
  • and the "crust" wasn't the same.
It may have been because the original recipe used "whole milk" sour cream and the only Greek yogurt I found was "non-fat", but the pound cake was wonderful buttered and toasted the next day for breakfast! 
_______________________________________________________________________

BTW, our Blendtec® Kitchen Mill creates super-fine flour, even from gluten free grains like rice and amaranth!  Check it out HERE! (*at our website of www.grainlady.com) or HERE! (*at our affiliate link http://www.blendtec.com/?cjaff=7275373)
_________________________________________________________________
 
One interesting note:  Greek yogurt has a much higher protein content - 23 g in a cup verses 9g in regular yogurt. 
________________________________________________________________________

In comparing two yogurts and one sour cream, here’s what I found –

·         Daisy Sour Cream – 2 TB (30g) has 60 calories, 5g fat, and 1g protein.

·         Stonyfield Organic Plain Whole Milk yogurt – 1 cup (227g) has 160 calories, 9g fat, 9g protein.

·         Chobani Greek Plain Non-Fat Yogurt – 1 cup(227g) has 140 calories, 0g fat, 23g protein.

_______________________________________________________________________
 
Daisy sour cream writes, “* Made with milk from cows not treated with the growth hormone rBST.”   Go HERE! (*or  http://www.daisybrand.com/products/pure-natural.aspx) to read it for yourself. 

Chobani also writes on their container, “Milk from cows not treated with rBST”.  Read more HERE! (*or at http://chobani.com/products/faq/).  

Some say there’s no significant difference nutrition-wise, while others like HERE, contend potential health risks for humans, (or at http://www.organicconsumers.org/rbghlink.cfm).

Stonyfield dairy says rBST can affect the cow’s health, too, on their website HERE (*or at http://www.stonyfield.com/healthy-people/our-yogurt/why-we-oppose-rbst).

The less chemicals going into us, the better, I say.
DISCLOSURE POLICY

I’m Cindy.
This blog is simply me.

I think somewhere I read that it's imperative to "disclose" things like whether a product was given to us free for review or whether we make a living off the blog, etc.

Our family owns a small business (www.grainlady.com) where we sell "favorites". 

If we find a "favorite" product, we might write about it.

If they offer an affiliate program, we might join and add their link to our page. 

If a favorite business sends products for review, we just might. 

Let’s get real – it takes  money to survive in this world. 

The time spent blogging is time away from other means of earning a living.
If I can find a way to “marry” the two, I simply must so sometimes we may get paid a bit of income from it ......hopefully.

I’m writing this disclosure on Day 1 of this blog so I don’t really have a full grasp on what it will become. 

But... if we ever get paid for ads, sponsors, paid insertions, or other forms of compensation, no one will be controlling the content except me and I will do my best to be as honest and upfront as I possibly can..….

While I might take suggestions to heart, it’s still my little world here, ok? 
And I'm a bit of a control freak.  
 
In other words, it’s going to be the truth as I know it, simply sharing the good things that come across my desk. 

Also, let me make it clear that I'm not a doctor, nurse, nutritionist, etc. so –
absolutely nothing  - is intended to diagnose, prescribe or treat. 

Please, please, please see your health care practitioner for that. 

Use all information on this blog at your own risk.  We can't be responsible for anything, including culinary flops. 

Any claims on products must be verified with the manufacturer for they are constantly changing stuff like that.  I simply cannot stay on top of it all AND find time to write, create recipes, etc.  so we simply can't be held liable for all the things in this world we cannot control. 

Thanks for understanding our need to protect ourselves. 
It’s a shame we have to, but our world has changed.
Welcome to the "maiden" voyage of our Grainlady blog!

It's been years in the making because every time God nudged me to create it, I pretended to not hear Him.

Today, I listened .... and actually tried to get my husband to create it FOR me! Ha! 

Oh well, we pray it blesses SOMEONE! 

Cindy