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Weekday mornings are always rushed for almost everyone, therefore demanding simple breakfast recipes. Here is a quick and healthy recipe of yogurt parfait with homemade low GI granola. Yogurt parfait is layers of yogurt and fresh (or frozen) fruit(s) and then topped with a granola scoop. Store-bought parfaits are unhealthy due to the excessive amount of added sugar used in the yogurt and granola, both. I prefer to buy Green Mountain creamery’s plain greek yogurt for the recipe and add a couple of vanilla extract drops. The yogurt is soft, creamy, and incredibly delicious. I like their 5% fat plain greek yogurt variation. Generally, store-bought vanilla beans greek yogurt has added sugar so, I recommend buying plain greek yogurt and adding vanilla extract or essence at home. Optionally, you can add 1 tsp of erythritol, a healthy alternative to sugar in your yogurt. Green Mountain Creamery’s yogurt is available in Sprouts and Costco. Homemade ‘healthy’ granola, greek yogurt, and fresh fruits are what you need to make healthy parfait for your breakfast or snack time. A healthy granola recipe is available on my blog here.

INGREDIENTS

(Serves 2)

• 1 cup plain greek yogurt.
  (Greek yogurt is basically is strained yogurt. I highly recommend Green Mountain Creamery’s plain greek yogurt. If it’s not easy to find, Trader Joe’s plain greek yogurt also works well. If Greek yogurt is not available in your area, you can strain regular plain yogurt using a strainer and make Greek yogurt at home.)
• 1/2 cup homemade granola
  (I prefer to make granola at home so that I can control its glycemic index to some extent, the recipe is available on my blog)
• A couple of drops of vanilla extract or essence.
  (It’s an optional step, sometimes I just use plain yogurt.)
• Optionally, 2 tsp erythritol or as per your taste.
  (It’s a healthier sugar alternative. More details about it can be found here. If your health, diet, doctor, and nutritionist permits, replace it with regular cane sugar.)
• 1/2 cup blueberries.
• 1/2 cup strawberries, hulled and quartered.
• 10-12 raspberries.
• Optionally, honey to drizzle on top. (I skipped it)

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RECIPE

• The recipe can’t get simpler than this, and it takes less than 5 minutes when you’ve granola ready in an air-tight container.
• An optional step, add vanilla essence or extract and erythritol in the yogurt and whisk it. Once the whisked yogurt is ready, it’s just the layering of fruits, granola, and yogurt as per your preference.
• Divide yogurt, berries, and granola into half. In two glasses, add granola at the bottom, followed by layers of berries and yogurt. Continue with another layer of granola, yogurt, and berries or arrange as per your liking.
• Optionally, drizzle with honey.
• You can garnish the parfait with chia seeds, quinoa or amaranth puffs.
• I like to eat chilled parfait, so I refrigerate the glass before digging into it!

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Fresh vs. frozen choice of berries – I prefer to use fresh berries; they make pretty parfaits; however, frozen berries create a syrup as they thaw. That doesn’t make the layers look their best, but the syrup adds a natural sweetness and turns the plain yogurt into fruit-flavored yogurt. The good news is Parfaits can be premade. They keep well when refrigerated for a couple of days. Sometimes I like to add quinoa or amaranth puffs as toppings for the variation in the recipe.