Soured Yogurt or Healthy Yumminess?

I have always liked to eat somewhat healthy. Well, that's not entirely true. I like to eat some things that are healthy to offset the wonderfully rich goodness of others. For example, my Starbuck's drink is a Grande NONFAT white chocolate mocha WITH WHIP. See? Cancelled out. During college my roommate and I would eat simple meals - plain spaggetti and butter and parmesan cheese. We would add some peas on the side so the meal would appear well-rounded. Then afterward, of course, we would snack on double-stuffed oreos. Again, a wash. As a result, my diet was simple, easy to prepare, and relatively tasteless.

When I started dating Phil, though, my diet had to change. He simply wasn't content with plain chicken breasts or noodles with Johny's seasoning salt. Even if he did get rewarded afterward with brownies. He wanted flavor. Spice, grease, red meat, real vegetables, a regular array of foods. Though hesitant, (and mostly out of early-dating politeness) I began to inch out of my comfort zone. I learned to like (among others) broccoli, thai food, salmon, asparagas and squash, all of which I had previously strictly avoided. He opened my eyes to the beauty that is real whipped cream and egg nog (although I am still a holdout on things like gravy for breakfast).

Over the years my affinity for tasteless, low-fat foods has comingled with his love of rich, high-in-fat foods and we have come out better for it. (Believe it or not I actually weigh less now than when we first met, althoug I have no idea how) We now eat a more balanced, tasteful cuisine. But although we have come to the same conclusions with our tastebuds, there are still two areas where we often disagree.

1. I am very cheap. If I can get a bargain, I will certainly take advantage. I have no brand loyalty and am willing to go for the best bargain even if it means buying "Mom's best" Toasted O's.
2. Phil is a purist. He believes the best thing we can do for our health is actually look at the ingredients in what we eat. You should have seen the time I brought home margarine thinking "This is two bucks cheaper than butter!" He was on the internet in seconds, telling me how partially-hydrogenated oils will slowly kill us, one artery at a time. As a result, we don't use things like "Coffeemate," or eat processed foods very often. Though also a fellow cheapskate, he is willing to pay the extra funds it costs to eat "simple foods". (Though the health nut in me has to say it confuses me how a man who will not eat margarine downs biscuits and gravy with a side of sausage for breakfast, but that's another story.)

So here we are, last night, ready to sit down to a meal. We had a pork steak (that was fabulous, by the way), a green salad, and a baked potato. I was quite proud of myself for producing a low-cost, good-tasting meal. But my husband balked at me. I made a fatal error by placing THIS on the table.

I bought this at the store for $.25! It was some crazy sale and they were offering these 16 oz tubs of sour cream, four for a dollar. Lowfat, cheap, what bargain hunter could pass this up? Not I, surely.

But as I slid it across the table to him, he looked at me, appalled. "You don't want me to EAT this, do you?" He melodramatically picked up the container to study it closer. Smiling wryly he then took the tip of a spoon and gingerly dipped the very end of it into the tub. He dabbed his tongue with the offending stuff and said with a scrunched-up face "It tastes like sour yogurt."
"It does not!" I protested, laughing now. I had been caught.
"Oh yes it does! Who puts soured yogurt on their potato? Look! There isn't even any CREAM in this stuff! It's all skim milk! And gelatin! Gelatin is a meat product, and it's in your sour cream!"

$.25 deal or not, I am about to hear why this is the worst possible purchase on the planet.

"It's like 'Whipped Topping'. They can't say 'Whipped Cream' because there is no cream in it- nothing natural about it. This is false advertising! They should just call this Soured Topping. Here, would you like some Soured Topping with your nice, moist potato?" At this point he begins to talk about all of the awful things technology has allowed us to do with food.

Having heard the diatribe before, I mentally make a note NOT to buy fat free sour cream again. (Lite, then, I tell myself. I'll take my chances.)