Giant Eagle Greek Yogurt

I'm not sure when I started to eat yogurt, but I can remember in high school that I would bring it to lunch several days a week. You see, one of my friends, who was also a 'cool' kid brought in yogurt and well, I wanted to be part of the group. I remember at the time, I pretty much would only eat lemon. There was something about the lemon flavor that 'masked' the yogurt for me. Maybe it was because I expected a sour flavor, that it helped detract from the astringency of the yogurt.

Over the years, my tastes have matured and I have rather come to enjoy yogurt. There are so many more options, both in varieties and flavors, than there used to be. I tend to stick with the low fat/no-fat regular varieties of yogurt. I tend to stick with blended yogurts if I am getting regular yogurt, but like the 'stacked' parfait style yogurts with sprinkles.

My children were introduced to yogurt at a young age and it is a go to hold me over to dinner snack, when we are running out the door for sports and meetings, before we can eat a dinner. They also like it as a 'dessert', a lunch box treat, and a middle of the day snack too.

One of the types that I have been trying lately are the Greek Yogurts. I really like the idea of Greek yogurt - "which is strained extensively to remove much of the liquid whey, lactose, and sugar, giving it its thick consistency—does have an undeniable edge. In roughly the same amount of calories, it can pack up to double the protein, while cutting sugar content by half."

For a while, the only one that I could enjoy eating was a Key Lime flavor. Again, much like my high school experience, I was using the lime flavor to mask the yogurt. My experience with the Greek yogurt was that it was more astringent than regular yogurt - or maybe, because it was thicker it would hang on my tongue that extra bit and makes it seem more astringent. Either way, I felt a bit like I was forcing myself to eat it (sometimes grimacing as I did), because I knew it was probably that little bit better than a standard yogurt.

Much like my experience with regular yogurt, my tastes matured (or I got used to the change in texture and astringency) and started to branch out to other flavors. I have concluded that if there is fruit that I prefer it on the side or the bottom, not mixed. I am okay with the vanilla yogurt, but feel like I need to have some fresh fruit on the side.

I recently discovered a new Greek Yogurt on the shelf at Giant Eagle, Giant Eagle Greek Yogurt. "Giant Eagle Greek Yogurt has 0% fat, is gluten free, an excellent source of protein and comes in seven delicious varieties: Pineapple, Black Cherry, Strawberry, Peach, Raspberry, Vanilla and Plain." It carries their 100% satisfaction or Double Your Money Back Guarantee, too.

Currently, it is on promotion at 10 for $10. When we stopped in the store to pick up cheese for dinner the other night (we were having pizza and were out of mozzarella!), I grabbed a few varieties to check them out. My daughter chose Strawberry for her flavor and I grabbed Peach, Vanilla and Plain.

I was very pleased with the flavor and texture of the yogurt. The 6 oz cup was the perfect size. With 14 grams of protein (the plain has more), it really helped me on my way to meeting my daily target of protein. In fact, that is more protein in the cup of yogurt than some of the protein shakes I use and at a lower calorie content - I just might have to make a swap to eating my protein.

The vanilla was a little astringent to me, but when paired with some fresh berries, it was very balanced. (As an aside, I was at a party this weekend and someone had a bowl of fresh fruit and reached into the fridge and added a scoop of vanilla yogurt to the top - that is a great idea, I never would have thought of that. I frequently will have fruit on the side because I pack both in my lunch, but never really on top of my fruit like that.)

I really enjoyed the flavor of the peach fruit. The peach is on the bottom of the cup. I don't actually stir my yogurt, I dig down to the bottom on the first bite and then scoop a bit of the fruit with each bite. I feel like it delivers more fruit punch per bite that way. The size/shape of the cups allowed me to easily eat it in this fashion (I'm sure that I am strange for not mixing it - but, so be it).

I can't wait to pick up some of the other varieties to check out.

No compensation was received for this post. Giant Eagle provided information about the product and promotion, as well as a gift card so that my family and I could experience the new product. All opinions expressed are solely my own or that of my family.