Yogurt Whip

I've been eating sliced fruit topped with yogurt for years.  My favorites being sliced bananas, strawberries and/or kiwis topped with vanilla or strawberry yogurt.  Now that I'm on a full fat sugarless kick it is next to impossible to find off the shelf whole milk yogurt that doesn't have some form of sugar added to it.  Bums me out.

During the fall I did dabble in making my own yogurt with great success using Viili room temperature culture from Cultures for Health and mixing in mango puree.  However, due to a sudden illness in December that has lingered and a bad med reaction this past week I haven't had the energy to get back to making yogurt from scratch.

Not wanting to forgo one of my favorite healthy snacks I did manage to find full fat plain organic yogurt in large tubs.  So I got that and some bananas and strawberries.  And today I made this which turned out absolutely delightful.  Making it in the food processor adds air into the yogurt making it light and fluffy and a wonderful treat.  Of course, with the banana it doesn't need any sweetener at all so this has no added sugar.  Woohoo!  Success!!

Of course, I've listed a ton of substitutions so feel free to get creative.  I'm seeing all sorts of odd combinations in the supermarket.  I can hardly wait until the local farmer's market opens again so I can experiment with different kinds of in season fruits.

This can be made in slightly larger batches and kept in mason jars in the fridge for later use.  I would only make enough for a day or two since berries tend to not last very long once they are chopped up.  Of course this doesn't last long in my house anyway so I haven't tested the upper limit on storage yet.

On another good note, having the fat combined with the fruit slows the absorption of the fruit sugars into the blood stream.  Way less of a blood sugar spike after eating it and the sensation of fullness lasts longer.  According to WAPF the fat also aids in the digestion of the vitamins in the fruit.  For more about fats in the diet see: Weston A Price Foundation website.

Ingredients
serves 1-2

1 banana
generous handful of strawberries
1-2c organic, plain, whole milk yogurt

1. Wash and hull strawberries.
2. Peel banana.
3. Puree fruit in blender or food processor.
4. While processor is running, add enough yogurt to fully incorporate fruit.
5. Don't worry about it being lumpy.  So you actually have a chew an odd piece of fruit here or there.  Eat up or store in mason jars in fridge for later.

Substitutions for the fruit:

• Fresh pineapple or canned in its own juice
• Organic, no sugar added, applesauce
• Other berries such as blackberries or raspberries
• Kiwi and banana
• Mango or papaya with shredded coconut
• Orange or clementine segments (but the covering has to be removed from the segments)
• Peaches, plums and/or nectarines (pits removed of course)
• Figs, persimmons or pomegranate seeds for something exotic
• Shredded organic coconut
• Lemon curd (except this has sugar in it unless homemade)

Substitutions for the dairy:

• Full fat organic coconut milk (comes in cans or frozen: if buying cans looks for BPA free)

Add ins:

• Extracts such as vanilla, orange or lemon
• Powders such as vanilla or cocoa
• Local organic honey
• Expeller pressed organic coconut oil or coconut cream
• Nut butters such as almond or cashew