M&S Yoghurt Drinks

Happy Yoghurt by lamazone

I have a confession to make. I HATE yoghurt. Nasty sour stuff - YUCK! I eat it because it's good for me, not because I enjoy it. Even after all these years of the anti-Candida diet, I still loathe it with a passion. I have always preferred those little pre/pro-biotic yoghurt drinks that come in dinky cartons. Convenient and infinitely yummier. But, more often than not, packed with sugar.

Well, imagine my joy when I discovered that Marks & Spencer's yoghurt drinks are sugar free (sweetened with fruit and fruit juice)!

I've tried the 'Blueberry, Acai & Rooibos' and 'Strawberry & Aloe Vera' flavours. Both of which are delicious. They come in packs of 4 and are currently 2 for £3. Get to your local Marks and Sparks tout suite!

Great recipe resources (and update)

If you're looking for some delicious and easily adaptable recipes, look no further than River Nene and Abel & Cole. Both companies deliver organic veg boxes in the UK (I get mine from River Nene), and both host a multitude of brilliant vegetable-based (but not necessarily vegetarian) recipes on their websites. I've been inspired by and made some really lovely dishes based on their recipes. A couple of my recent favourites are:

Swiss Chard and Walnut Lasagne and Green Soup (I've had a lot of chard to use up!)

With reference to my own Candida battles, as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I have been experiencing a (fairly mild) flare-up. Keeping to the straight and narrow AND eating plenty of yoghurt seems to be helping. I'm back on the supplements too. Oh lordy!

Fridge Fruit

Leading on from my previous post, at Somerfield today I discovered 'Fridge Fruit', manufactured by SPC, a 1 kg pot of pear, peach and pineapple in apple juice, and crucially, no citric acid (though it does contain ascorbic acid - no one has ever said to me, 'Djinn, you can't have ascorbic acid', so I don't worry about it!). Once opened it needs to be kept in the fridge and eaten within seven days. Good with yoghurt. Not personally keen on pear (don't like the gritty texture), but I lurve peach and pineapple. :)

Recipe: Yoghurt 'soured cream'

Well, less a recipe and more a handy hint really. A couple of weeks ago I really started to crave MEAT! So, I bought some superior beef mince and made a vat of chilli, which I've been slowly eating my way through since (I should add that I froze several portions!). I had it with tacos last night (Old El Paso ones are anti-candida diet friendly). I thought up a quick - and delicious - substitute for soured cream to accompany the dish (which is pretty obvious when you think of it):

Yoghurt 'soured cream'

2-3 tbs goats yoghurt
juice of half a lemon
freshly ground pepper

Spoon the yoghurt into a bowl. Add the lemon juice and mix until the yoghurt is runny. Add pepper to taste. Drizzle over meat filling.

Would work as a salad dressing and (sloppy) dip. Very tasty.

Frozen smoothie mix

I'm very penitent. Following my refined sugar slip-up the day before yesterday I've just been eating pure, unadulterated, healthy food. Though having said that, it was the first sugar I'd knowingly imbibed since 20th May. That's not bad going!

In my continued quest for something anti-Candida friendly and sweet I've discovered frozen smoothie mix from Tescos (see pic - from the Tescos website). I'm trying the Strawberry and Banana flavour at the moment, but they also do a tropical fruit and red berries version. The smoothie mix consists of just fruit, basically; chopped and frozen and packaged in individual bags. The directions suggest you defrost it slightly in the microwave and then whizz it up with fruit juice. I've been trying it with goats milk and plain yoghurt instead, and very good is it too!

A great find

During my very successful trip to Tescos last Friday I came across 'Clearspring' Organic Apple and Apricot Fruit Puree Dessert (see pic). They also do Apple & Blueberry and Apple & Strawberry varieties: two 100g tin foil trays of pureed fruit per pack, great mixed into yoghurt with a sprinkling of cinnamon. And they contain nothing but fruit...even better!

Sweet things

Finally I got around to trying out one of Pamela Singh's recipes. In desperate need of something chilled and sweet, I had a go at her kulfi recipe. Oh dear - wasn't very successful. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the recipe. Personally, I just don't like the favour of cardamon. Bit soapy, like Parma Violets - yuck! The actual coconut, (goats) milk, yoghurt mixture tasted a lot like uncooked victoria sponge mix - which wasn't altogether unpleasant. Shame, cos I wasted half a fresh mango on it.

However, I did find some all fruit snacks (fruit, concentrated fruit juice and natural flavourings) at Holland & Barrett yesterday. Here's a pic from Goodness Direct, so you can know what to look out for. I tried the apple and apricot and the apple and blueberry versions. Not bad - very sticky and quite sweet, but packed full of natural fruit flavour. I don't suppose it would be a good idea to eat them on a regular basis, but for an occasional treat I'm sure they aren't too bad and probably infinitely better than the odd bar of diabetic chocolate I've been known to scoff at weak moments!!