1. breakfast bars are eaten for ease of use only. They're ok for work days but not weekends and vacations!
2. Americans cannot afford diets such as NutriSystem and Jenny Craig anymore.
3. I graze all day and stop usually at the end of the work day. I guess that's "planned" snacking.
4. America's aging public is concerned about constipation. People under 40 don't understand.
5. All year ALWAYS grilling season even if I have to knock the snow off the grill.

I would eat yogurt for breakfast if I could get plain, full fat yogurt easily. Instead, I have to eat cottage cheese.

I don't get breakfast bars. They are just regular candy bars with some oatmeal and some vitamins sprayed on top. They aren't tasty, nutritious or cheap.

Lissa, Whole Foods has about 4 or 5 plain whole milk yogurts and even plain sheep and goat whole milk yogurt. Mmmm .. goaty. Most yogurt is garbage.

if I could get plain, full fat yogurt easily.

Lissa, plain full fat yogurt is available even at the evil Canton Safeway. Maybe not in individual-serving-size containers, though, if that's what you're looking for.

Hal, I think all Safeway's are evil. I'm not sure why but I know Owings Mills has the parking lot from hell and if the line you're in has more than 5 people one of the open lines will close.

Lissa, Stonyfield makes a great plain full-fat yogurt that even my Giant carries. Mmmmmm ...

Thanks for all the recomendations, folks. I've tried a couple from Whole Paycheck, and they were watery. The evil Canton Safeway sometimes has Stoneyfield Farms, but it isn't consistant (not the last 3 times I've been in, for example). They do carry Dannon, sometimes, but it is, well, weak. And, yeah, I'm all about the family size.

I haven't found a Giant I can get to easily. I'll have to poke around a bit. Stoneyfield Farms, despite having sold out (I remember when they were a very small regional brand available only at granola co-ops and Bread and Circus) makes some good yogurt. Yum...cream on top.

I was getting it at the JFX market, but the folks I got it from showed up a few times in the spring, then stopped. I'm not fond of the Amish schtick, but it was decent yogurt.

Finally, this diet fad ends. Now, all I need is for elastic waist pants to make the fashion list of what's hot, and the revolution will be complete.

Lissa,

Have you tried Fage? I eat the non-fat but it comes in all plain varieties. It is greek yogurt which is so much better than American yogurt. Really thick and creamy. I'm addicted to it. I keep a large one in the fridge at work and home. I just add a little honey. I do drain it before eating tho, some people mix the liquid in. Even my outdated Food Lion sells it.

Lissa, Stonyfield makes a great plain full-fat yogurt that even my Giant carries. Mmmmmm ...

Yes, Sis! And it even has the cream on the top. I buy the 32 oz and portion it for the week. (And try not to eat all the cream on top at one time.)

I got that email too (about the dining trends), only it was from Harris Polls. Kinda wondering how I got it, but it was interesting.

I've had Fage, Carey. Whenever I can make it to Prima's, I grab a few big tubs. It is pretty decent stuff.

Trader Joe's used to have a yogurt that was better than Fage (and a lot cheaper), but they stopped making it. Not that I can get to TJ's.

This thread is obviously showing a market for good yogurt in Baltimore.

Lissa - Plain Greek style yogurt. Giant has it. It substitutes well for creme fraiche and sour cream. Thick, creamy and delicious.

Thanks, Kitkat, I obviously have to find a Giant.

Now I'm flashing on the Jolly Green Giant commercials of my childhood...oh, dear...

Yogurt is easy to make on your own. Collect a bunch of old containers or glass jars. Go to Whoa Foods and find the yogurt that has the most kinds of bacteria, because why not. Get whole milk and heat it to kill any bad bacteria. Keep covered and let it cool. Add a bit of starter yogurt to your containers, fill with milk and seal containers. Put them in a steady warm place (in oven with pilot light) overnight or longer and you've got good yogurt for half the price or less. If you can get your hands on high quality local grass-fed milk then this is better than anything in a store.

I've considered making my own, OMG. What has stopped me is the inability to get good local milk. I think High Grounds in Highlandtown has some, but their hours are bad for me (their coffee is excellent, however).

I think that engineer kitty would love the challenge of getting to the yogurt, and dairy kitty would help. The mental stimulation would probably add years to their lives.

omg,

How old is your oven that it has a pilot light?

Unlike Lissa I am very fond of the Amish schtick. Now I'm not Fond - a - Jane but that's a different story. I really enjoy going to the Dutch Market on York road for meat and baked goods. Pies about half the price of Wegman's and better tasting.

Trader Joe's still has Greek yogurt...several different varieties too. (I think they have full fat, 2%, and non-fat) Totally yummy and much cheaper that Fage. Eat it every morning with my flaxseed granola, fresh fruit and clover honey. The only breakfast that keeps me full until lunch.

Lissa - I am pretty sure that the Greek yogurt I mentioned is Fage. Hope your not disappointed or wasting your time searching for it.

Kitkat, that's cool. I still want to find a Giant to look for schmaltz, although I'm probably too late.

Maybe it was the Mediteranian style TJ's yogurt I was so fond of?

I think I need a yogurt tasting party...

I don't think the people who run the "Amish" market are really Amish. Because real Amish people drive buggys and that would really jam up York Road in the morning. I think they may be Mennonites actually.

Lissa - I wish I could remember the name, but I believe there is a dairy out of southern PA that now delivers to some places in Baltimore city. I think a while back when I went on their website to plan some future outing (like in the spring) that they deliver to at least one market and to some homes.

I made yogurt once. It came out a little thin. I'm not sure if I didn't get the yogurt hot enough or if I had too high a milk to starter yogurt ratio.

Lissa, Atwater's in Belvedere Square carries organic milk, which probably would help in your yogurt-making efforts.

EEL, EVERY gas oven has a pilot light.

EVERY gas oven has a pilot light.

Not true, Dottie. Many if not most modern gas ovens do not have pilot lights. They have electric ignitors that cost several hundred dollars to replace when they break.

My oven is old and so it does have a pilot light, which is not always lit.

If you want the cream on the top then you need non-homogenized milk. Good luck. Real raw milk is the most healthy. Pasteurization is completely unnecessary and homogenization harms the structure of it also.

There is an underground railroad that brings raw milk and farm fresh meats down from Pennsylvania.

RoCK, store yogurt is usually thicker because they add thickening agents like pectin. The only ingredients in yogurt should be whole milk and lactobacillli. The reason milk gets thicker when it naturally becomes yogurt is because the lactobacilli turn lactose into lactic acid which gently unfurls the tightly bundled milk proteins without hurting them. Sort of like what gluten does in bread flour. The milk proteins are easier to digest in this way, possibly being segmented into easier to digest amino acids components, but mostly by expanding their morphology from tight balls to fluffy chains creating a lattice-like solution that we observe as thicker.

So my advice would be to make sure that you have the optimum temperature, no need to add more starter, just let it sit longer and it will thicken up.

I stand corrected. I really like the Mennonite schtick.

Thanks, Dottie. I have no idea where Belvedere Square is, so it probably isn't in the SE, but they must have buses, right?

Modern gas ovens are just wrong. You can't light them with a piece of newspaper, either.

The best stove I ever had was a 1920's era Caloric gas stove. It had a built in water heater, and was approximately 7' wide. It was awesome to cook on, as you could have 3 huge pots and a wok going, and still have plenty of space in the middle to cut stuff up, put pots, for the cat to nap in, etc.

I miss that stove.

Belvedere Square, I believe, is near York and Belvedere. Does the #8 bus still run up York Road?

Amish only wear black, white and maybe grey. Amish don't use zippers either -- too modern and technological, plus a huge number of buttons slows down any unchaste behavior. Any colored clothing however simple is Mennoinite or another retro-sect. Of course the Amish are anabaptists so people under 21 can do what they like to a certain extent and have been known to have parties where they raise the (barn) roof. There was an interesting situtation a few years ago where Amish teenagers were running a drug ring with the Hell's Angels. Really.

And check out the little known rite of passage known as rumspringa where 16 year old Amish are allowed to go nuts on sex, drugs and alcohol.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/inside/3660/amish-rumspringa

At a rest stop on the PA Turnpike, somewhere between MD and Pittsburgh, there was an Amish or Mennonite standing in the parking lot, smoking a cigarette. I pulled out my camera and was lining up a pretty good shot of him (really rude and tacky behavior, I know, but when I'm in artsy-fartsy mode, I sometimes become thoughtless) when he gave me a really, really mean face and turned his back. I was reminded of Witness and began to speculate on whether he might be an underworld figure hiding out as an Amishman.

It's considering extremely rude (wth good reason) to take pictures of them (or me) without their permission. You're not on safari. It's an act of objectification.

OmARFR:

Since my brother lives up there in New Holland, surrounded by the buggy-riding folk, he told me all about that ritual. Supposedly, after it, they have a choice. They can continue living the life of the English (us) or they can go back to being Amish. If they choose the former, they are shunned, forever banned.

But I didn't know its name, thanks!

All right boys and girls, I just returned from Whole Foods in Harbor East where they had five kinds of whole milk plain yogurt. One of them (Whole Foods label) had a bunch of crap in as filler and thickener (tapioca starch? blech.), so I skipped it. In fact I scorned it out loud. I don't care what people think, that's how me and my cultured milk products roll.

Given that I found it physically impossible to review my gifty dinner at Salt (it was great), I will write a review of these four products probably tomorrow, since I have way better plans for tonight than yogurt tasting. Imagne that.

May all your bacilli be lacto until then.

M Hibou, I look forward to your creamy goodness report.

The one with the blue ink, from some far, is the one I think I keep buying there, accidentally.

I thought I hated yogurt ( no low-fat ANYTHING, please!) until I had my son and fed him yobaby- this is the best yogurt I ever had and it comes in the perfect size with a little layer of cream on top. Mmmmmm! You gotta try it! Evn better, everyone carries it.

yobaby why you gotta be like that?