Greek Parfait-ion
Brian eats yogurt every day for breakfast. Every. Day. He says that it's the only food that truly fills him up in the morning. My good little, nutritiously minded husband, opening up some berry flavored yogurt each morning before he heads out to work. Me, I'm more particular (surprise, surprise!). The wholesome nature, the sustenance of yogurt, is exactly why I don't partake of this morning ritual. Many times it's just too much for me, all those milk products first thing in the morning makes my stomach gurgle with lactose intolerance. Give me a piece of toast anyday!But for every rule there is an exception. And that exception for me is Greek Yogurt. Thick, whipped almost, with exceptional body, and a delicate, slightly sour taste, this yogurt I love...in moderation. It's true, that traditionally, Greek yogurt is made with an obscene amount of fat. It could be equated with tipping your head backwards, holding your mouth agape, and squirting in enormous amounts of whipped cream in-- straight from a can. But there is a low-fat variety, and this is perfect. So perfect in fact, I find myself making morning parfaits, and gobbling them up with a restrained gusto.
What do you make these morning treats with, you may be asking yourself? When the crunch of an apple is too startling a soundtrack with which to start your day, and a tangerine, is still hollow, and woody in flavor, there is only on thing to do, and that is, to make your own apple-pear sauce to layer in the parfaits. I used a tried-and-true recipe for making the sauce. Scented with a vanilla bean, for depth and interest, apple-pear sauce is chunky and hearty, and so simple to make.The sauce stores well in the fridge, so I made these parfaits for a few days afterward. A spoonful of my precious Greek yogurt, and a dollop of the fresh, homemade sauce, and I too had a little breakfast ritual, with only the minor gurglings of lactose intolerance!

5 Comments:
Greek yogurt is my fav too. We have tons of really great yogurts in London...I try to have it at least a few times a week...snack, breakfast, lunch, desert...it's all good. And much of the best yogurt is organic which makes me even happier. The sauce you made sounds like a lovely addition - I just add honey & granola or something like that.
I loooooooooove greek yogurt, but haven't seen the low fat stuff.
i realy love your blog. this apple pear sauce sounds right up my alley esp with greek yogurt, love it with honey. i see that you live in ny now. i hope you are enjoying al of the good food it has to offer. sadly, i moved away from ny over the summer and sorely miss it.
According to Steingarten in It Must've Been Something I Ate, fermented dairy products, including yogurt (and cheese) contain no lactose! He also cites studies that prove that very few people are actually truly lactose intolerant. For more details check out the essay, called "Fear of Formaggio", an informative and entertaining read!
Austin
Love your blog! I just had to pipe in on the lactose discussion.
"Though yogurt contains large amounts of lactose, it often is well-tolerated by lactose intolerant people. This may be so because the bacteria used to make yogurt contain lactase, and the lactase is able to split the lactose during storage of the yogurt as well as after the yogurt is eaten (in the stomach and intestine). Yogurt also has been shown to empty more slowly from the stomach than an equivalent amount of milk."
Source: Medicinenet.com
So, although it may be true that far less people actually suffer from lactose intolerance than claimed (and I can sympathize with Steingarten's annoyance at people grossly exaggerating all sorts of food issues) it is simply false that yogurt contains no lactose. Easier to digest, yes...
If you want to read the study cited by Steingarten, here it is: New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 333:1-4, No. 1 (July 6, 1995).
It makes for lovely reading with a frosty glass of milk.
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