Mangia: Just Get Skinni: Skinnidip Frozen Yogurt

Small cup of Chocolate with Raspberries, $4.50

A few years ago, Portland went on an Italian gelato fad—suddenly gelaterias were everywhere. Then Portlanders realized that eating cups of gelato daily wasn’t that healthy. This summer is all about the frozen yogurt and I’m not talking about TCBY. These are trendy frozen yogurt shops with delicious yogurt, fresh fruits and other fun toppings. I have tried and tested many, in and out of Portland, but by far, Skinnidip outweighs them all (even Pinkberry). I attribute this to their ability to make their yogurt smoother than their competitors (grainy yogurt is no good) and having the freshest, most in season fruit.

Skinnidip takes real non-fat yogurt and flavors it with raspberry, mango, chocolate and original or plain— I have binged on all of them. Original, which is much tarter then the other flavors and less expensive, is really refreshing with a combination of fruits. If you don’t like the taste of non sweetened yogurt—like Nancy’s yogurt, go for one of the flavors. I love raspberry by itself. Chocolate is left for when I have real sweet tooth. I pair it with fresh raspberries and twirl it all together to get raspberry seeds in each bite!

Skinnidip is one of the more expensive yogurt places around town—which is why it’s an occasional treat—and a treat I don’t feel guilty about with only 100 calories per cup! That’s right and you receive all the benefits of live cultures as you would with any yogurt. I know this seems too good to be true and a little too much like the Seinfeld episode where Elaine is convinced the non-fat yogurt shop they keep going to is making her fat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIr6v5LYPdc but so far, my friends and I haven't noticed any sudden weight gains and we've been eating Skinnidip religiously for a year now.