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Frozen Yogurt vs. Ice Cream
Froyo – my favorite post-race treat. ;) Ever since self-serve frozen yogurt joints started springing up all over the place, my friends and I love to stop in during movie nights or shopping trips. It helps that they boast non-fat flavors and plenty of healthy fruit toppings. As an ice cream lover, it seems like a healthier choice over a pint of Ben n’ Jerry’s, right?!
Since ice cream is made with heavy cream, it’s unavoidably a fattening dessert. There’s really no getting around it, although most companies are making lower-fat and lower-sugar varieties which definitely reduce calories and fat.
Already, frozen yogurt is less fattening because many flavors use a non-fat yogurt base. (Be careful – not all do! Anything with ‘Peanut Butter’ or ‘Cheesecake’ is probably a dead giveaway that it is not non-fat. Look at the labels.)
Some Surprising Truths:
I compared 1 cup of soft-serve Golden Vanilla frozen yogurt to 1 cup of Ben n’ Jerry’s Vanilla ice cream. One point for froyo as is clocks in at about half the calories – 240cals vs 460.
Frozen yogurt contained 75% MORE sodium though! It contained 130mg, or 5% of our daily value. I didn’t expect yogurt to have a significant amount of sodium.
The two were equal in carbohydrate content, 46 grams.
Frozen yogurt, fat-free or not, is still very high in sugar. 1 cup holds 35 grams of sugar, compared to ice cream’s 40.
While ice cream has significantly more fat, it really is just about moderation. I don’t think frozen yogurt is drastically more healthy than ice cream, if you know portion control!
(Well….anything’s gotta be better for you than this right?)
Remember the story of the pig and the trough?
Your toppings can really make or break the nutrition value of your cup! When in doubt, pile on the fruit ;) Sliced almonds, pecans, pretzels, dark chocolate chips or carob chips are also great.
Your best bet? Make your own! Try Peaches n’ Pecan Greek Frozen Yogurt or Strawberry S’mores Greek Frozen Yogurt at home!
Sunday Sundae and The Pig’s Trough
I have some alarming news: health nuts eat dessert too. And it isn’t always sugar-free non-fat soy protein jello either.
Sometimes, I splurge on an indulgence. My weakness? Ice Cream. A favorite I inherited from my dad and grandpa. I can turn down a doughnut anyday; I’ll say “no thank you” to cake, cookies and candy. But ice cream? The obvious answer is DUH!
I’ve been to Dairy Queen, Cold Stone and Thrify’s exactly zero times this summer…that is a first. So since my summer vacation is ending in less than a week, we planned a trip to Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour where the story of the pig and the trough begins:
Farrell’s is an adorably-themed restaurant with an old fashioned ice cream parlour and many one-of-a-kind desserts that come with not just a spoon but a song and dance too. There’s this thing called the “Pig’s Trough” and for whatever reason, my dad thought that sounded enticing.
Oink Oink!
That is TWO banana splits: 2 bananas, 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream stacked with strawberry sauce, 2 scoops of chocolate ice cream with pineapple sauce, and 2 scoops of strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce. Don’t forget the can of whipped cream, almonds and cherries. When you order a trough, you are accepting a challenge: finish the entire pig’s trough and receive a prized blue ribbon. Not to mention the HILARIOUS song the entire staff sang, an ice cream version of I Like Big Butts (“I like pig’s trough and I cannot lie”). My father, I am proud to say, found his inner swine and devoured that ice cream trough :)
The Proud Pig
My mom and I were not attracted to anything on the menu that compared it’s customer to a farm animal. Look at what I found though!
When I saw the title “Mocha Nut” I knew I wouldn’t find anything else more perfect for me. Coffee ice cream, Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream, and Butter Pecan ice cream. It’s like I designed it myself! Aside from the whip cream and cherry which I promptly plopped off, I finished the whole thing. Sadly this earned me no ribbon though..
I’d rather be a Nut than a Pig!
My family had a great time at this cute restuarant, though I can’t say we’d come back often – this was a rare splurge but totally worth it. (How many times do you come away from a restarant with a ribbon for finishing dessert?!) We had made small efforts through out the week to offset this huge diet deviation. This was our lunch AND dinner for the day, after a week of skipping desserts and adding in extra evening walks. I don’t feel too guilty about the indulgence but we are definitely back on oatmeal, smoothies and salads today ;)
Ice Cream Trifecta
Dining Out: Jason’s Deli
It’s easy to prepare a healthy dish in your own kitchen when you control the portions and the ingredients. But in a restaurant, making healthy choices is a bit more difficult with so many items on the menu over-saturated with cheese, oil, sodium or cream sauces.
Today, my mom and I went out to lunch together. I picked Jason’s Deli, and both my mom and I got the salad bar with a cup of chicken tortilla soup. The salad bar is full of lots more than just veggies: pasta salad, egg salad, nuts and seeds, granola, trail mix, fruit and yogurt, mini cornbread and gingerbread muffins, hummus and crackers. If you’re not careful, a trip to the salad bar can be just as many calories as their broccoli cheddar baked potato!
I forgot to snap a picture until after I’d had a scoop of tabbouleh. With so many toppings, my plate filled up FAST. It was such a hodge-podge though…
(Chicken tortilla Soup) It’s a lot easier to eat healthily at a restaurant when you have someone else with you doing the same. I’m fortunate enough that my mom has the same attitude as me towards working out and eating and we love trying new things! But of course we had to treat ourselves to some of the free soft serve ice cream (it is 104 degrees outside!)
Little cup of vanilla chocolate swirl with a broken up graham cracker was the perfect way to end the meal! Yes, this lunch was probably a few hundred calories more than my usual, but that just means I shift my daily calories around to adjust. For instance, this morning I avoided carbs and had a strawberry banana smoothie, and tonight I will keep it light and simple.
