i love pudding… and i do understand that it is meant to be a dessert and not eaten for breakfast. but i keep thinking i’ve found the “pudding-like yoghurt” which CAN be eaten for breakfast. unfortunately, each time my hopes are dashed by someone in my life who reads labels - i have never been a big ingredient analyzer and now that i can’t see anything small like the print on a carton without my reading glasses, which are usually misplaced, i rely on my savvier friends to sort me out. in my twenties that someone was my roommate in san francisco who informed me that my strawberry yoplait had loads and loads of sugar. i LOVED my yoplait because it was french (or at least it had a french-sounding name) and it came in a tall, slender container that looked like a vase and it tasted like pudding. in my thirties we were living in amsterdam and that someone was my dutch girlfriend who let me know that the strawberry/vanilla “vla” i was eating every morning was, in fact, pudding with no yoghurt components at all. in my forties, we moved to colorado and i discovered noosa. noosa IS yoghurt and it is produced locally from cows no further than forty miles away from the noosa headquarters in northern colorado. it is DELICIOUS! it comes in a zillion yummy flavors (tart cherry, key lime, rhubarb, coconut…) but of course, my favorite is vanilla because i have the palette of a five year old. i was beside myself when i tasted the noosa because i was sure i’d found the holy grail of pudding-like yoghurt. colorado is full of food makers who are very thoughtful about health and organic ingredients so it didn’t occur to me to even try and find my glasses to read the label… i just loaded up my cart with noosas (mostly vanilla) each time i went to the market. and then one fall, after a particularly noosa heavy summer, i had trouble zipping up my jeans. i couldn’t imagine what could have caused this problem until i was talking through my eating habits with a girlfriend who does actually read the labels. once again, my pudding dreams were thwarted by a very high sugar content. when i started asking around, i found that i didn’t have a single friend who ate noosa for breakfast… they only eat it as dessert. i was pretty devastated. my girlfriend suggested fage, the greek yoghurt, doctored up with fruit. of course, fage does NOT taste like pudding at all, but i’ve found that when it is covered in the sauce i made from the plums on my farm (backyard) or doused in my raisen-free cranberry sauce, it is pretty good. so i am reposting the cranberry recipe - thanksgiving is coming up and the markets are filled with cranberries. as a yoghurt topping, i prefer the cranberry sauce blended in the vitamix after it is cooked down on the stove. i also sprinkle a generous amount of granola on mine, but i am not sharing the brand because i can’t bear any more bad news.

* if you like the cranberry sauce, make sure to stock up on the berries before the holiday. after thanksgiving, the bags of cranberries just disappear completely for the next eleven months… i learned this the hard way last year. i don’t understand how raspberries and blackberries are stocked all year round, but cranberries only show up for a few brief weeks…they are the unicorns of berries…

raisen-free cranberry sauce

there are few things in this world as disgusting as raisins. they look like droppings, get stuck in your teeth (marring your smile and causing cavities) and are notorious for popping up in all kinds of baked goods (scones, muffins, cookies) that should only have chocolate chips.  and unfortunately, because of their size and color, raisins sometimes appear to be chocolate, which is a terrible surprise for the unsuspecting consumer.

cranberries, on the other hand, are delicious.  sadly, many a thanksgiving cranberry sauce is contaminated with raisins (or orange peels or too many spices.) following is a simple, super yummy cranberry recipe that all of your thanksgiving guests can enjoy without fear of biting into a raisin. ENJOY and happy thanksgiving.

12 oz bag of fresh cranberries

1 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

12 oz bag of frozen raspberries

cook cranberries, sugar and water on the stove top until the cranberries pop (about 5 minutes.) stir in frozen raspberries and let sit a bit.  you can make the day before and save a little time on the big day.

for another healthy recipe click here