Green Valley Lactose Free Review by Gracie Ann

I am not a huge milk fan.  If I have an abundance of chocolate, I will drink milk.  If I eat cereal, I will drink milk.  Otherwise, count me out!  My grandmother used to have to put SUGAR in my milk for me to drink it - that's how much I disliked milk.  So naturally, when I was asked to review a product called "Kefir" I was a little leery.  First of all, I had never, in my entire life, heard of Kefir.  

My journey began when I received two product coupons for Green Valley Organics.  I had never heard of the company but that is probably because I had never looked into eating lactose free products.

I looked up Green Valley Organics and their slogan immediately made me smile: "Peace & Harmony In Your Stomach" - rotating pictures of the peace and love sign made me want to just sit and stare at the screen.  That's when I remembered I had products to review!

Unfortunately, Green Valley Organics is not sold where I live in South Bend, Indiana.  I wasn't going to give up though.  I had found peace and harmony on their website for a short time, maybe their products would promise the same.

I ventured off to Chicago to a Whole Foods Market.  Chicago is about an hour and a half away from where I live.  I'm sure everyone is thinking "she wasted all that gas just to use a couple of coupons? Insane!"  

I have to tell you that although it may sound insane to some, I appreciate new products and especially the effort that manufacturers put into advertising their product and providing coupons for new users to try.

Green Valley Organics promises real dairy yogurt, kefir and sour cream as lactose free options.  When I picked up the yogurt, I noticed the word "Flourish" written on it.  Flourish is Green Valley Organics proprietary blend of 10 live and active cultures.  I chose the blueberry yogurt since it is one of my favorite flavors of yogurt.  The yogurt pleasantly surprised me.  I LOVE yogurt with fruit on the bottom that you mix in throughout the yogurt and this was one of those yogurts!  It didn't have an aftertaste like I expected it to have.  It tasted just like any other brand of yogurt out there but provided more benefits.  For example, not only does it have the Flourish in it, but it is lactose free, probiotic-rich, kosher certified, gluten free and organic.  Hello! Can you say overachievers!?  Impressive!

Next, I tried the Kefir.  

I have to tell you that I smelled it and swirled it around a bunch of times before I actually swallowed my nerve and drank it.  I chose the Blueberry, Pom & Acai flavor.  It wasn't what I expected.  It markets itself as a Grade A Low Fat Pasteurized Cultured Milk.  It tasted like a smoothie.  And guess who loves smoothies?  ME!  So I decided to have some fun with it.  I mixed about half a cup in a blender with ice and made it more slushy.  Delicious.  Why stop there?  I then added some powdered mix I had in my pantry that was Caramel Mocha flavored.  I AM ADDICTED!  Blueberry, Pom, Acai, Caramel Mocha Smoothie?  150 calories for one cup??  SOLD!  

My smoothie:

I'm very conscientious about my calorie intake and I was very happy to see that one cup of the Kefir is 150 calories.  One 6oz serving of the blueberry yogurt is 140 calories.  I had a delicious breakfast for 290 calories and was full until lunchtime...that, to me, is peace and harmony!  

So was it worth the drive? Absolutely!  Now I only wish we had these products closer to home....I would love to try the regular flavor of the Kefir so I can use it as a "milk" substitute in my cereal.  I would also love to try some of the other flavors of the yogurt as well. 

To learn more about Green Valley Organics' products, find out what other flavors the Kefir & yogurt come in, or to simply stare at the screen for peace and harmony, visit them at:   http://greenvalleylactosefree.com.

Thank you Gracie Ann for such an amazing review! You can check out more of Gracie Ann's reviews by visiting her page!

Gracie Ann received 2 coupons, one for kefir and one for yogurt from Green Valley Organics. She was not compensated in any way for her review, so she is not making any money on it . Her review is in no way influenced by anything other than her personal opinion.