Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Wildwood Soyogurts



I am a big smoothie lover and in all of my smoothies there MUST be 2 specific ingredients: a banana and some plain yogurt. I then add my fruit of choice for the day...sometimes two. I usually use the Silk brand's plain yogurt to blend in my smoothies and I truly recommend it because of its healthy nutrition fats and smooth consistency.
Today I ran out of my Silk yogurt and only had time to run down the street to the Coop off of Central Avenue. I was disappointed to find out that they did not carry the plain Silk yogurt that I always use. The only soy yogurt they had in a large container was WildWood. I had tried WildWood yogurt once - a small container of vanilla. To sum it up bluntly, I hated it. It was really really sweet and the consistency was grainy. I never bought it again. I was sort of desperate as I needed my daily smoothie so I bought it, thinking "Plain yogurt is plain yogurt, right? How can you screw that one up?" There really wasn't anything added to the yogurt as well - it is actually the only soyogurt that has no added sweetener.
Well, let me tell you - that sweetener is there for a reason! I used my spoon to pour the desired amount of yogurt into the blender and I always lick the spoon afterward. The horrifying taste that followed stopped me in my tracks. Oh my...they weren't kidding when they said it wasn't sweetened. It tastes like...well, what I would expect playdough to taste like and yes, that same grainy texture was there. And the icing on the cake - the yogurt had a light tan hue. Now I'm all about being natural and healthy, but I also have to be able to swallow the stuff!
I decided to just LOAD the smoothie with very sweet fruits (pineapple, mango and dark, sweet cherries) in hopes that it would cover that god-awful flavor. In the end, I was able to SWALLOW the smoothie, but nothing will mask that grainy texture or the play-dough flavor entirely.
My one word summary: ICK!!!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Cherrybrook Kitchen Sugar Cookie Mix

Cherrybrook Kitchen touts itself as a "sweet solution for food allergies". Their baking mixes are dairy free, nut free, egg free and peanut free and they do have a line of products that are wheat free/gluten free as well. I figured I may as well give one of these baking mixes a shot. Cherrybrook Kitchen has baking mixes for cakes, cookies and brownies.

This easter, my sister decided to endulge those from my family who cannot handle dairy and made a batch of Cherrybrook Kitchen's sugar cookie mix. What a disappointment!! The cookie's consistency and texture was like cardboard and there was really no flavor whatsoever. I had two little bites and decided that the calories were not worth it - even for a measly little sugar cookie. My mom commented on how I could probably add a little soy cream to the cookie to make it taste better, but my response was, "Why should I have to do that? I may as well just have a bowl of soy cream then."

For those who tried the sugar cookies at Easter, we all agreed...not a good mix. Tasteless and dry. Do not waste your money.