a simple real food tip :: homemade yogurt cups

I know that school lunch packing is winding down to an end (yay for making it another whole school year mamas!). But I’m hoping that by sharing this time and money saving tip, that your summer camp, work lunches, daycare lunches, or park outing lunches might run a little smoother for you this summer, and you can save it in your back pocket for next school year!

I don’t have school lunches to pack yet, but I do like to be sure my hubby who works so hard has a nourishing lunch to take with him every day. He would most likely go all day on an apple if I didn’t make sure lunch options were readily available, so this is one of my secrets to getting an easy put together lunch for him during the work week.

Why make yogurt cups when you can buy them in the store you ask? Great question! Here are my thoughts:

• I can NOT find organic WHOLE MILK yogurt cups in my local grocer. They carry the big 32oz tubs, but nothing in the smaller cups. Our health food store does occasionally – but they are SO expensive and never go on sale. It just isn’t in our budget. Low fat yogurt is pointless. All of the nourishment has been destroyed through the skimming processing and they don’t fill you up. It’s really just a cup of sugar to be honest.
• It is cheaper. Especially when I can catch a sale or print out a Stoneyfield coupon, I can get much more bang for my buck buying the larger 32oz tubs of yogurt vs the small cups. Mine come out to less than a dollar per cup, and for organic that is really great.
• Less sugar. I don’t necessarily have a problem with the organic whole milk cups I have seen in the store – but I know I can make them myself with WAY less sugar – especially when I make them for my girls who don’t know any different. I can also use a more natural source of sugar like fruit, raw honey, or pure maple syrup instead of just sugar.
• I do make my own yogurt some from spring through summer when our raw milk share is higher and we have an abundance of milk…this makes it even cheaper!

It really takes me just 5 minutes sometime on Sunday to get these ready for a whole week of yogurt. I just have 5 small containers with lids I fill up (I really love THESE containers – I use them for baby food making too!). There is an easy spot in the fridge I stack them up, and he can pull them out to throw in his lunch bag in the morning. He usually takes an apple or banana and a sandwich with him and he’s set. I will post how we do up easy chicken sandwiches without the toxic lunch meat in my next post!

The containers go right in the dishwasher and are ready for the next week. It is no more effort than the 5 minutes to get them into the cups!

My husband isn’t a huge fruit and yogurt person, so we pretty much stick to the vanilla/maple syrup yogurt. The girls and I love fruit and yogurt so that is usually how we roll. Here are a few combos you can try!

Vanilla Yogurt Cups:
Organic whole milk yogurt
Organic vanilla extract
Pure maple syrup

Strawberry “Fruit on the Bottom” Yogurt Cups:
Organic whole milk yogurt
1-2 frozen or fresh strawberries
Raw honey or pure maple syrup

Blueberry “Fruit on the Bottom” Yogurt Cups:
Organic whole milk yogurt
1-2 TB frozen or fresh blueberries
Raw honey or pure maple syrup

Use whatever measurements you wish to your family’s tastes! I usually line up 5 containers – they each hold about a cup of contents. I don’t measure but I just go down the line adding the ingredients – it goes so fast. For the vanilla cups it ends up being about 2 teaspoons of maple syrup and a splash of vanilla, in each and then I pour in the yogurt.

For berry cups, I stick the frozen fruit at the bottom of the cup with a teaspoon or 2 of raw honey, and then pour the yogurt over top. The fruit will thaw out on its own! If you are using fresh fruit, you may want to dice or mash it up first – you could even puree it with the honey and make it more like the fruit purees on the bottom of those “fruit on the bottom” cups. The frozen berries squish up really well while you stir once they are thawed out.

There you have it! Give it a try for a couple weeks and let me know how It goes!

This post was shared at Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday, The Polikva Family’s Family Table Tuesday, and Holistic Squid’s Party Wave Wednesday!