Frozen Yogurt Time!

Every mouthful so smooth, cold, and creamy...nothing quite like it. I was hooked the very first time I tasted soft serve frozen yogurt on our honeymoon in Nantucket, a long time ago.

Frozen yogurt's popularity seems to be on the upswing again, as evidenced by all the new shops popping up everywhere. I just returned from Richmond, Virginia, getting together with family to celebrate my niece Hannah's high school graduation. Evidently, niece Juliette had already been plotting where to take Aunt Barb for frozen yogurt. Gotta love it!

The kids chose to head to Menchie's. It appeared like every other self-serve frozen yogurt shop around these days: grab your own dish, head to the wall displaying all the different yogurt flavors, spout it out, carefully dump on your favorite toppings, then head to the middle where you pay by weight.

But at Menchie's, I zeroed in on the way they displayed their nutrition information. After picking up your dish, you walk right by a poster that explained all of the symbols they used on small posters above each yogurt selection. Some indicated low-fat, low-sugar, gluten-free, and kosher, among many others. All extremely helpful to people with all kinds of health issues. Granted, I haven't walked in to the several new frozen yogurt shops around where we live, so it could be that  others are just on top of things with nutrition information.

My choice: Vanilla Snow
Nutrition symbols along sides

The vanilla and chocolate I swirled together were both low-fat and listed 110 calories for a 4 ounce serving. And, there's the catch. I checked my dish. In very tiny print, it declared it held 16 ounces. If I had really tried, I could have gotten 24 ounces mounded high in there. Easily. And that would have been 6 times the 4 ounce serving, zipping it up to a scary 660 calories. Between my daughter and I, we had a 14 ounce portion, roughly 7 ounces each. And, depending on what it is, toppings can really add up. Luckily, I'm a purist. I don't like toppings to interfere with the creamy goodness. I figured I enjoyed every single bite of cold bliss for a 220 calorie price tag. And it was worth every one!