So you're well-fed and rested, with both time and money abounding. Right?

Consider picking up some yogurt on your next trip to the store. Versatile, tasty, and healthy; yogurt can be a great snack, meal, or dessert. And transforming yogurt from a snack is easy. Really. Consider:

Snack
This one is about as easy as it gets: open, insert spoon, place spoon in mouth. If your yogurt is unsweetened, a little honey or sugar can make all the difference.

Meal
Breakfast is a great time to make yogurt into a meal. Just add some granola or cereal (puffed wheat works nicely) and some fruit (berries are great, but almost anything larger will work if you slice it). Again, maybe drizzle on some honey if you buy plain yogurt. If you're into presentation, you can even stack it in a tall glass like a parfait.

Dessert
Making yogurt into dessert is a lot like making it into a meal. Perhaps you want a smaller portion, and something a bit sweeter. Try yogurt and fruit with a few chocolate chips mixed in.

Frozen
No, not 'frozen yogurt'. Frozen 'yogurt'. It may sound a little unusual, but it's a personal favorite of the author for just about every occasion. A word (or two) of caution, however: be sure to stir the yogurt before placing it in the freezer if it's not already mixed. Also, if you put it in the freezer overnight, let it thaw a bit first. Say, set it on the counter and go take a shower. Start a problem set or an essay. You get the idea. Frozen yogurt has a great texture, and gives the impression of lasting longer than refrigerated yogurt.

Of course, yogurt can be used in all kinds of recipes if you have a bit more time on your hands. Perhaps the simplest and most obvious is the smoothie (see recipe below).

Now, you might be wondering (if you're not, perhaps you should be wondering) what kind of yogurt to buy when you actually get around to it. Let's take a moment to compare the various possibilities for yogurt (and for the author to put in a good word for Greek yogurt). Consider the following:

Notice anything? Okay, so you may notice several things, but take a look at the second-to-last row. That's more than half again as much protein that you get with Greek yogurt, relative to American (164%, if you care). To be fair, you might note that the increase in protein is accompanied by a decrease in calcium. But it's also important to note that you can only absorb about a third of your daily calcium in a meal (so any values above 30% aren't really significant). In other words, successfully performing the milk challenge isn't the best way to get your daily calcium. Well, for a lot of reasons, actually.

Some other notes on calcium absorption, for your edification:

• Consuming calcium with iron has been linked to decreased absorption of both¹
• Fat intake (particularly in relation to intake of dietary fiber) can positively affect calcium absorbtion²
• Vitamin D is critical to calcium absorption³. (Though vitamin D has historically been absorbed via sun exposure, almost all milk is now fortified with vitamin D. So if you drink milk, skip the cancer.)
• Alcohol consumption and lack of exercise can also lead to decreased calcium absorption

And finally, the smoothie recipe.

Fruit Smoothie
2 cups frozen fruit (using frozen fruit gets around the need for ice)
2½ bananas (if unripe) or 1 banana (if very ripe)
¼ cup vanilla yogurt
3 Tablespoons honey
2 cups orange juice or grapefruit juice.

Blend at high speed for two 7 second bursts. Add more honey, if desired, until smoothie is sufficiently sweet.

Makes about 60 ounces.

Happy yogurt!

*As a note to strict vegetarians, most yogurt contains gelatin. A bit of perseverence in scanning through ingredients, however, should turn up something.

¹Hallberg, Leif. “Does calcium interfere with iron absorption?” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1998;68:3-4.
²Wolf, R.L., Cauley, J.A., Baker, C.E., et al. "Factors associated with calcium absorption efficiency in pre-and perimenopausal women." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2000;72:466-471.
³National Institutes of Health. Office of Dietary Supplements. "Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Vitamin D". 2008.