Look out Seattle! Our Cultured Caravan is once again hitting the road to bring our natural, oh-so delicious Tillamook Yogurt to The Emerald City. We’ll be spooning out coupons, free samples, recipes and more all around town—we can’t wait to see you there!  And don’t forget to let us know how your first bite of our natural yogurt is using #GoNatural!

By Tillamook

Today is….wait for it….National Strawberry Picking Day. And since it’s peak strawberry eating season (April – June), these little bursts of natural sweetness make the perfect afterschool or anytime snack. And so to celebrate, we’re hand-picking (pun intended) our top 5 things to dip strawberries into…once they’ve been picked, of course.

1. Tillamook French Vanilla Bean Yogurt – Light and naturally sweet, it’s like they were made for each other!

2. Lemon Curd – Tart, sweet…perfect. If you’re like us and believe everything tastes better with lemon curd, then this is a must try.

3. Peanut Butter – Give your apples a break and try something a little more seasonal with this yummy ode to PB&J.

4. Tillamook Sour Cream + Dark Brown Sugar – For the cheesecake lover in all of us, this is the perfect bite sized treat.

5. Nutella – Few things are simpler or more delicious than this decadent combo of chocolate, hazelnut, and strawberries.

How do you dip? Let us know at Facebook.com/Tillamook or on Twitter @TillamookCheese.

By Tillamook

The Cultured Caravan is on the road again and the next stop for our natural, oh-so-delicious Tillamook Yogurt is Sacramento. We’ll be serving up free samples, coupons, and recipes by the spoonful so we can’t wait to see you there! And don’t forget to let us know how your first bite was using #GoNatural!

By Tillamook

When life gives you lemons, we say wake up early and surprise Mom with Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes for Mother’s Day! This tangy, sweet and oh-so-satisfying combo of fresh, tart lemons, Tillamook French Vanilla Bean Yogurt, and crunchy poppy seeds is delicious on any given Sunday, but we think it’s particularly yummy as a special Mother’s Day treat.

Lemons are in recipes everywhere these days. And for good reason! They’re bright, tart, and they inspire all kinds of delicious delights (we got our own lemony inspiration here, here, and here). The lemon’s tanginess pairs so perfectly with the slightly sweet, cake-like consistency of these pancakes. Once we made ‘em, we knew they’d make the perfect centerpiece for our Mother’s Day brunch.

Overview
This recipe is simple and easily adaptable. While we made our pancakes from scratch using whole-wheat flour (for a healthy and sweet start to the day!), you can easily swap in all-purpose flour or a pancake mix—just be sure to add the Tillamook French Vanilla Bean Yogurt, lemon juice, lemon zest, and poppy seeds! These should be served warm (who could wait for them to cool, anyways!). We love pairing them with a dollop of Tillamook butter, pure maple syrup, and fresh berries on the side.

Ingredients
1½ cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoon sugar
1 6oz cup Tillamook French Vanilla Bean Yogurt
½ cup skim milk
3 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 large eggs
Poppy seeds (add to your liking)

Preparation
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. In a medium bowl, mix together Tillamook French Vanilla Bean Yogurt, lemon zest, lemon juice, milk, and eggs. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients, mixing until combined. Then stir in poppy seeds.

Heat a lightly greased (we like using Tillamook Butter!) pan or griddle over medium heat. Cook until the pancake starts to bubble and they are golden brown and then flip.

What will you be cooking up for Mother’s Day? Take a pic and let us know @TillamookCheese or post a photo to our Facebook wall!

By Tillamook

We’re on a tasty, delicious mission to share what eating natural yogurt is all about—and we’re starting in San Francisco! Our Cultured Caravan will be making stops by the spoonful all around the Bay Area giving out free yogurt, coupons and recipes. We can’t wait to see you there to try some Tillamook Yogurt! 

By Tillamook

What’s the best part of all these rainy, cold, sometimes even snowy days? Soup, of course! I love making soups with a variety of seasonal ingredients and having leftovers that last for days. Here are a few tasty winter soup suggestions to make your next meal a little soupier.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
Apple and the 3 B’s (bacon, butter, and butternut squash!) make a hearty soup for dinner.

Flickr/notahipster (Creative Commons)

Beer & Cheese Soup
This recipe uses two of my favorite things: beer and cheese. The combination is seriously mouthwatering. Try it with your favorite local beer (we like to use beer from the Widmer Brothers) and our Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar.

Flickr/Bryan Esler (Creative Commons)

Tomato Soup
Tomato soup: the perfect companion for homemade grilled cheese. Any flavor of Tillamook Cheese will do!

Flickr/adactio (Creative Commons)

Spinach and Yogurt Soup
That’s right. Yogurt. In soup. Give it a try with Tillamook Naturally Plain Yogurt.

Flickr/Ewan M (Creative Commons)

Carrot Soup with Miso and Sesame
Stuck with a million carrots from your January-induced diet? Mash them up into soup!

Flickr/James Cohen (Creative Commons)

By Katie

As a huge Tillamook Yogurt lover, I’m consistently faced with an abundance of plastic yogurt cups. I’m a huge supporter of recycling, but an even bigger supporter of repurposing. I’ve been collecting yogurt cups for a few weeks now, without knowing what I would create with them. Twenty yogurt cups later, and after a little time poking around Pinterest, I decided to create a holiday wreath.

Supplies
- Spray paint
- Tillamook Yogurt cups (I used 20, but you could make yours larger or smaller)
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks (I tried super glue, but it didn’t stick to the plastic as well as I’d hoped)
- Extra decorations
- A well-ventilated area to spray paint

Instructions
Clean all yogurt cups first (I ran them through the dishwasher) then spray-paint all cups. I painted the insides first, let them dry overnight, then painted the outsides of the cups. It took two coats of paint to cover the labels and get a good even coat to stick to the smooth plastic.

Lay out all cups in a ring and start hot-gluing them together at points of contact. I glued pairs of cups, then glued two pairs together, etc. until the whole wreath ring was built and connected.

Use hot glue to attach accessories like scented pine cones or fabric flowers onto the outside. I especially liked using cinnamon scented pine cones to help mask the lingering scent of spray paint. When I was done, I sprayed gold glitter spray paint over the whole thing to give it a unified sparkle.

Hang and enjoy!

What holiday crafts will create with your yogurt cups?

Update: You can also paint and decorate your wreath for other holidays. If you don’t have enough additional yogurt cups, you can repurpose your old wreath pretty effortlessly. I tore off the flowers and pine cones from my holiday wreath and repainted it with acrylic paint and a brush for Easter. With a few simple touches like some plastic eggs and felt shapes, you can have your new wreath up and ready to go in no time.

By Amalya

Pack a healthy yogurt meal to go for your Tillakid (and maybe one for yourself too!)

With all the after school activities my kids have signed up for, we are constantly on the go! From soccer practice to piano lessons, I’m always in the car taking a kid from one place to another. That can sure make keeping hunger pains at bay a challenge. I strive to always give my kids healthy snacks and Tillamook Light Yogurt is one of my go to resources.

While a cup of Tillamook Yogurt is easy and delicious, I’ve taken to making yogurt mason jars for on the go snacks. I can pack a whole meal in one jar that makes my kids happy while allowing me to give them something good for their growing bodies! You can make them out of anything you or your kids like and quantities always depend on how much I have on hand. Here are some of my ideas.

Morning Breakfast Cup
Tillamook Light Northwest Berry Patch Yogurt
Granola
Flax seed
Raspberries
Blueberries

Lemon Bar in a Jar
Tillamook Light Lemon Squeeze Yogurt
Shortbread cookie

Vanilla Chip Bliss
Tillamook Light Vanilla Bean Yogurt
Chocolate chips

For each of these snacks, I take what ingredients I have on hand, layer in a mason jar, and store in my fridge until they are needed! They keep great and taste even better. What other ingredients would you use?

By Kelly

The LA Zoo is home to one special super yogurt fan

This year marked our first Loaf Love Tour visit to the Los Angeles Zoo. In typical LLT fashion, it was a hot sunny day and we saw lots of orange clad fans! I was asked by a zoo employee if we had visited other zoos and I said, “Yes, but every one is different and filled with awesome memories.” Los Angeles did not disappoint!

Unlike our lucky friends and family at home, some Tillamook products are harder to find in Southern California. The exciting news is that our Tillamook Low Fat Yogurt can now be purchased at area stores so we decided to treat our fans at the zoo to samples of our delicious Marionberry Yogurt and Oregon Strawberry Yogurt in addition to mounds of tasty cheese cubes!

This family couldn't decide whether to show off their yogurt or our Yum bus!

Of course our delicious berry yogurts were a huge hit, but we had a truly unexpected fan of these yummy treats. Near the end of the day a Zookeeper stopped by our yogurt sampling station to tell us that one of the gorillas had been very sick. He hadn’t been willing to eat anything and they were very worried about him. However, when they offered the gorilla our Tillamook Yogurt, he started eating right away and loved it! We were so touched by this that we left a small stockpile for our gorilla on the mend and hope this Tillamook Yogurt fan gets well soon.

Do any Tillamook products make you feel better when you’re sick? For me, it’s Marionberry Pie Ice Cream all the way. Yum!

By Susan N.

Tillamook Yogurt is full of active cultures!

Tillamook Yogurt is the ultimate multi-tasker!  It’s convenient, a great on-the-go breakfast (it provides its own transportation vessel!), a possible dessert for those watching their waistline, an easy snack for your little ones after school, an ingredient for cooking, and if all that wasn’t enough, it also packs a healthy punch to your immune system!

Most yogurts contain active cultures needed to help fight off bad bacteria. Think of these little cultures acting as a “health army” fighting off bad bacteria trying to infiltrate your stomach and immune system.  Minus the fact that the names are incredibly hard to say (S. thermophilus, L. johnsonii, B. lactis, L. bulgaricus, and L. casei, huh?), these cultures are great partners when it comes to maintaining your health.

Adding active cultures to your diet has been said to help improve your immune system, aid in digestion, fight off a number of infections, help with the absorption of nutrients, and make it tolerable to enjoy yogurt for lactose intolerant folks, among other things!

Tillamook Yogurt is a delicious way to get some healthy active cultures into your diet.  If you aren’t a big fan of eating yogurt alone, try this yogurt-based smoothie recipe to sneak those active cultures in!

What Tillamook Yogurt flavor do you get your culture fix from?

By Candace