You know I love to share my lunch time joys and woes with you. So I had to tell you all about this! First off, some background info for anyone who doesn’t read here regularly – I just went to the dentist to have a tooth extraction – ouch! I’m not on a liquid diet per say but I am avoiding anything that requires much chewing until I go back for my implant. One of the things I picked up to eat during my “recovery period” this week was a few little tubs of Rachel’s Cottage Cheese. I’ve seen her cottage cheese and yogurt in our grocery store for awhile now but hadn’t picked them up yet as they are a bit more expensive than the Dannon / Yoplait varieties. But if my diet options were going to shrink drastically, I figured I’d treat myself.

Today I had a bottle of chocolate Ensure and Rachel’s Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Cottage Cheese for lunch. Jealous? Maybe you should be because, well, the Ensure wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and the cottage cheese? Amazing. The flavors were fantastically bold – it was almost like eating a big bowl of carbalicious pasta, except only 130 calories and no cooking was involved. What could be better to a tired, sleep deprived new mom trying to lose weight and eat healthy without having to chew? I’m planning to try the Lemon Verbena Berry tomorrow. After spending some time scourging their website today I’m becoming a big Rachel’s fan.

Fun fact: “All Rachel’s products are free of artificial flavors, preservatives or sweeteners, including no high fructose corn syrup, and are made using milk from cows not given artificial growth hormones.” They are big into Big Flavors from around the world – their cottage cheese comes in three savory flavors and three sweet flavors – so whatever you are craving, they’ve got you covered. Don’t like cottage cheese – don’t forget their yogurt!

“The story of Rachel’s® began in Wales in the 1940’s on Elizabeth Jones’ small dairy farm. The first-ever woman Dairy Technologist at Aberystwyth University, Elizabeth was a dairy pioneer and early advocate for sustainable farming practices.

Elizabeth passed the family farm to her daughter, Dinah, and ultimately to her granddaughter – the original Rachel. Along with the herd and the land, Dinah and Rachel inherited Elizabeth’s deep-rooted passion for wholesome, natural authentic food.

Today, Rachel’s is a flourishing UK brand, built on decades of excellence in dairy craftsmanship. Rachel’s US launched in 2007, delighting American consumers with quality, integrity and extraordinary natural dairy.”

– from Rachel’s website

Their website is gorgeous and filled with great information like (hurray!) recipes! Here are a few that I’d like to try…

• Savory Spinach Shells made with Rachel’s Sun Dried Tomato Pesto cottage cheese
• Creamy Orange Fruit Dip made with Rachel’s Pomegranate Orange Cranberry cottage cheese
• Brie and Plum Fillo Bites made with Rachel’s Plum Honey Lavender Yogurt
• Banana Chai Pancakes made with Rachel’s Vanilla Chai yogurt

And if you want to try Rachel’s Cottage Cheese or Yogurt, you can look for it in the dairy department at a store near you.

What did you have for lunch today?