Product Review: Banana & Pear Cho

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love Chobani. 

 

Funny story: I used to hate yogurt. Of pretty much any kind. Especially Greek yogurt. When I did eat yogurt, I would buy the bad-for-you  kind by Yoplait with high fructose corn syrup and other gross things. Not to say I've been eating incredibly healthfully recently (I haven't been), but now that I've tasted Chobani, that's pretty much all I buy.

I have to give Chobani props. They are the brand that first made me enjoy Greek yogurt! 

On that note - Cho has two new flavors - which they sent me to review (aren't they the best?): Banana and Pear. I received 6 of each flavor, as well as this nifty spoon with a cup of Cho engraved on the handle and "#tastereal" on the back. It was super high quality spoon too, made form heavy metal. Coolest. Spoon. Ever. 

Much like other Cho flavors, these weren't incredibly strong in taste. The pear was the strongest, and thus my favorite - crisp and sweet, with a strong pear flavor and crunchy pear pieces. The banana, which I expected to taste like banana pudding, was very subtle. If I hadn't known this was banana, I would have guessed it was plain or possibly vanilla. Nevertheless, it was good. 

My only criticism lies with the pear yogurt. The first one I tried was perfectly thick and creamy, but the rest were watered down and tasted like they expired (my roommate questioned if they had expired, when in fact, they hadn't). It just did not look appetizing and ended up being thrown away. I'm not sure what to attribute this too, other than pears are a naturally pretty juicy fruit, but I don't think that's the reason for this Cho turning out the way it did. 

Banana, however, was consistently thick and creamy with pieces of real banana. It was a win all across the board. 

I would highly recommend digging through Pinterest for a banana bread recipe that uses Greek yogurt or sour cream (there are a million) and trying it with this banana Cho instead. I think it would work really well! 

 

Cho has really been on a creative kick recently, coming out with a bunch of new flavors. Check out their new products here. Have you seen Chobani Bites? Those little, 100-calorie, 4 pack yogurts in fun flavors like Caramel with Pineapple, Raspberry with Chocolate Chips, Fig with Orange Zest and Coffee with Dark Chocolate? Those look incredibly divine. 

There is also Chobani Flips, which I haven't actually seen in stores yet. These, by far, look the best to me. Especially the Key Lime flavor - it starts with a base of key lime yogurt, and you "flip" part of the package to mix in graham cracker and white chocolate pieces. Sounds yummy, right?!

Aside from the rather watery pear yogurt, I am still impressed with the quality products that Cho always puts out. Thanks, Cho, for another great experience. 

What do you think about Cho's new products? What do you want to try the most? 

The Dreaded Weigh In

Today was the first of my dreaded weigh ins on my 30 Days to 130lbs. plan I made up. I knew the number wouldn't be good, but I thought it would be a little lower than it was. 

149.6 pounds. The number staring me blatantly in the face. 

Am I happy? No. Obviously not. I don't know if I lost any weight in the past week from working out and trying to eat less, but I'm guessing I didn't lose that much. 

This is a huge wake up call for me. I need to be really serious about this and take the next week to a level of high intensity. I need to start being serious about my health and the foods I am eating. 

The first thing I did was toss almost all of the sweets and chocolates in my food stash. This was really hard. I did keep a couple things for when I go back to school, but I stuffed them in a box underneath my bed to keep them hidden. Out of sight, out of mind - right? 

The next thing I need to do is be strict about my calorie intake. No more than 1200 calories a day. Period. I also need to make sure what I am eating is low in fat and very healthy. 

Working out is also extremely important. I have been doing really well with this the past week, and I need to now kick this up to the next level. It's really hard not having an elliptical at home - I really don't really like driving all the way to Xavier, parking a mile away, and then walking to the school gym every day. Honestly, it's a waste of gas. However, I don't feel like I'm burning enough calories with my Jillian Michael's DVDs at home. What do you guys recommend? Right now, my plan is to continue doing Jillian's Ripped in 30 DVD, Extreme Shed & Shred, and spending an hour on the elliptical at Xavier's gym. Not all at once, of course. At least with elliptical I can monitor how many calories I've burned. 

The summer I lost my most weight I was a member of a gym about five minutes from my house. Now that the gym no longer offers student summer memberships, finding an inexpensive summer gym membership is a challenge. Sigh. 

What suggestions do you guys have for me? 

I'm really feeling upset with myself for letting myself gain 10 pounds. A couple summers ago, I was down to 140. Actually, there was a time when I was 135. It's crazy thinking back to that now. I can't even imagine what that looked like. My end goal is ideally 125 pounds, but I'd be very, very happy with 130 :)

Sorry for that little rant. Quick switch over. Let's talk Chobani. Have you tried their new Chobani Champions?

Talk about scrumptious! Cho sent me a huge box of their Champions line to review, and of course, I Was more than happy to review them! They sent four flavors: Orange Vanilla, Verry Berry, Vanilla Chocolate Chunk, and Honey Nana.

As you can probably tell from the packaging, Chobani Champions are geared towards younger kids. The vibrant packaging and the kid-friendly flavors make that obvious. However, I think these are perfect for grown ups as well! Out of all four flavors, my favorite was the Honey Nana. This surprised me because I don't usually like banana flavored things. However, the banana did not taste artificial at all! It actually tasted sort of like a banana cream pie. A banana cream pie that is only 100 calories, of course. What a great substitute for a sweet tooth!

Surprisingly, my least favorite was the Vanilla Chocolate Chunk - a flavor that I thought would be my favorite. I found the vanilla to be a bit too strong for me. It overpowered my taste buds. Don't get me wrong - I love vanilla. And I think this is a good flavor - kids will probably love it. It is just a little too strong for my taste. As far as the two other flavors go - how can you go wrong with citrus and berries? They were both delicious.

Thanks, Cho, for the chance to review this line - I don't think you've ever let me down. Long live Chobani! :)

The Daisy Scale

4/5 daisies

Thanks again for listening to my little rant - any thoughts you have would be super helpful! Thanks loves and talk to you soon!

Much love, 

21 Days of Giveaways: Chobani

**Please remember that all winners will be announced on the WIAW post next week, Wednesday June 20 when I return from Washington DC**

Today's giveaway comes from one of my favorite companies - Chobani! 

I love this company simply because they are so friendly and put out a delicious product. Whenever a recipe calls for yogurt, I grab Chobani. 

Their yogurt is creamy and comes in a wide variety of flavors. I love all the fruity flavors!

I'm sure we all know what yogurt tastes like, so I will just cut to the chase. One reader will win an entire case of assorted Chobani! Awesome!

Here's how to enter for your chance to win...just a leave a separate comment below for each entry. Thanks!

MANDATORY: Follow Passing Daisies and Chobani on Twitter and tweet the following: "Enter to win a case of  @chobani on PassingDaisies.net! http://bit.ly/nQkq1N #21daysofgiveaways @cityxlights13"

Want more chances to win? Who doesn't? Here are more ways to enter: 

1. Subscribe to Passing Daisies. If you subscribe, you get three extra entries!

2. Tell me something you would like to see more of on Passing Daisies. Recipes? Reviews? Workouts? Anything?

3. Tell me anything you want. Anything at all.

4. Follow me on Blogger.

5. Pin this post on Pinterest and mention PassingDaisies.net in the description.

THE WINNER OF THIS GIVEAWAY WILL BE POSTED WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20.

THIS GIVEAWAY ENDS TUESDAY, JUNE 19 AT 11:59PM EST.

Sorry, open to US residents only.

That's it! Side note - don't forget to like us on our newly updated Facebook, if you don't already. Thanks kiddos and good luck! 

Much love, 

Product Review: Chobani Greek Yogurt

There is nothing quite like finding a big box of Chobani Greek Yogurt on your front porch.

I've never been a big fan of Greek yogurt. It's a little too thick for my taste, so I never buy it - even though I have only tried it a couple times. After returning to vegetarianism, I decided to give it another chance. After all, everyone in the healthy blogging world raves about this stuff. Why shouldn't I like it? 

Chobani was more than happy to send me their three new flavors to try: Apple Cinnamon, Passion Fruit, and Blood Orange.

Likes: 

Super high in protein (14g per cup!)

No fat

Fruit on the bottom

Creamy and thick - how Greek yogurt should be

Not too high in calories (Approx. 140 per cup)

Filling

Dislikes:

Kinda watery when you open it - but once you stir it's perfectly fine

Blood Orange:

Not sure what I think about this. The taste threw me off; I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it was a little weird. It grew on me after a while, though. The fruit on the bottom was mostly orange pulp. My mom liked this one more than I did.

Apple Cinnamon:

So good! This is my favorite...but I'm always partial to cinnamon. Large chunks of apple, tons of cinnamon flavor, super creamy... this is really delicious.

Passion Fruit:

Not gonna lie, I was really nervous to try this. My mom was not a fan because of the crunchy passion fruit seeds, and she compared it to bedbugs (weird comparison...), so I wasn't sure what to expect. I actually really liked the flavor, and this was my second favorite of the three flavors. It was tropical and unique, although I also was not a fan of the seeds. I tried to avoid them, but there were too many to do that, so I just started swallowing them whole instead of crunching them. This is delicious but would benefit greatly from getting rid of the seeds! 

Overall this was a pretty good Greek yogurt experience! I would like to try some of their other older flavors and see how they are. I'm still not the biggest Greek yogurt fan (it's a consistency thing, I think) but I definitely like it and would purchase this product again. Anyone who loves Greek yogurt will love chowing down on some Cho! 

The Daisy Rating

4/5 daisies

How do you like to eat your Cho? 
Much love,

WIAW #21: Fruits & Veggies

Welcome to the last WIAW of February! I actually have been eating more veggies this week, thanks to my lack of sugar and fattening foods. It has been a real challenge to avoid sweeteners of any kind - so I'm think I'm going to give up all refined sugars instead of all sugar. Jenn - you will be excited  about my abundance of fruit and veggies this week! 

{breakfasts} bananas with raw pecan butter, Chobani, TJ's shredded wheat cereal with Cho and blueberries {post-workout snack} almonds {lunch} large salad with hummus, grapes, and marinated veggies {dinner} TJ's Vegetable Panang Curry

 Crappy phone picture of my roasted carrots with garlic, EVOO and lemon juice (and Parma)

{not pictured} Barbara's fruit-juice sweetened bars, garlic hummus, crackers, cinnamon applesauce, Mediterranean pita with veggie burger and tzatziki 

I'm pumped that for March our WIAW posts will be themed green! Hopefully I will remember this and will be able to eat as much green as possible! I won't be here next week though, since I will be in Virginia for a week working for animal rights and welfare :) There will be a brief post explaining this trip on Friday! 

So, I've been continuing my Couch to 5K challenge. I'm trying to pack two weeks into one this week, since I will not be able to work out much, if at all, next week while in Virginia. This week has been really hard for me, and I've had to take a couple brief breaks while running, but I have definitely been working hard and burning more calories than last week. It's the running for five minutes at a time that gets me, with less walking time in between intervals. I know five minutes doesn't sound like a long time, but it's been hard on my legs, and I'm not sure what to do to make them stronger. Any good calf stretches you could recommend? 

I've also been working hard on my abs and arms. I love reverse crunches! They actually make me feel like I'm working my abs. Plus, regular crunches just hurt my neck. I also just started working my triceps today - my biceps are looking good, and hopefully these chair dips I've been doing will tone up those lower arms! 

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Much love,