You’re Not Making Your Own Yogurt Yet?
Why it’s worth doing this admittedly bougie thing
My toddler’s favorite food is yogurt.
I realize this sounds like I’m gloating — no chicken nuggets or ketchup for my precious boy! — but I assure you I am not. Artie’s other favorite foods are fried things, mac and cheese, bananas, and Chex. Almost all vegetables have to be concealed in other foods. He has not yet caught on that I’m putting shredded carrots in his applesauce.
But he has always loved yogurt, and because I’m keenly aware that Big Food loads almost all processed products — even those intended for children — with a ton of added sugars, I’ve become even more obsessive about reading labels since we started feeding him solid food. That woman poring over the nutrition facts on every container of whole milk yogurt at Target? That’s me.
I settled on Chobani’s whole milk Greek yogurt because it contains only 4 grams of sugar per serving, all naturally occurring, no added sugar. This was all fine until Artie, now almost 2, started blowing through a quart of yogurt a week. (Every time he gets hungry, he looks at me plaintively and says, “apple yo-yurt?” — a request for the aforementioned carrot-applesauce mixed with yogurt.) At $5 a pop, it’s not cost-prohibitive for us, but we’re easily spending $20 or $30 a month…
