Friday Favorites!

So this dessert is a new favorite of mine. It's based on the yogurt parfait at McDonald's. While spending a buck for it is not really a big deal, it's so much better when you can make it yourself! Here's how I did it.

Penny Pincher's Parfait

I started off trying to find the perfect yogurt, which for me was Dannon's Vanilla Yogurt. I followed that with some simple frozen mixed berries. I'm partial to strawberries at berries go. That's the beauty of making it yourself. You can make it just the way you want. You could use low fat yogurt or sugar free if they have it. (I like sugar and fat so that won't work for me!) The hardest thing to find was the granola. I wanted the kind that looked like the one at McDonald's but could never find it, or it was more than I was willing to pay. Then, I came across a recipe for granola that was so easy that even I could do it. It made enough granola to fill a gallon size storage bag and we also use it as cereal so we cut down on buying cereal! I like having a one, two punch to boot! To make the parfait you just add the yogurt to your serving dish top with the berries, add more yogurt, then more berries and so on until you get to the top. Let your last layer be yogourt with just a garnish of berries and then had the granola. Here's the recipe for the granola.

Easy Granola

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup oil (canola is fine)

1/2 cup of honey

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. vanilla

7 cups oats (I've used quick cooking and old fashioned and old fashioned is better)

1. Mix brown sugar, oil, and honey in a small saucepan. Bring to a low boil.

2. Remove from heat. Stir in cinnamon and vanilla.

3. Pour over oats in a large bowl. Stir until well coated.

4. Spread oats in a 9x13 pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

5. Take out and stir.

6. Return pan to oven. Turn oven off.

7. You can either leave it overnight or go back to it after 45 minutes to an hour and enjoy!

It's so good y'all! (An ode to Paula Deen!) This doesn't last very long in our house. You can add roasted pecans or other nuts, dried fruit for a trail mix or anything else you can come up with. I just came across a recipe for making your own yogurt in a crock pot! I'll let you know how that comes out when I try it. Just because cooking is all in a day's work, doesn't mean it can't be your favorite activity! Just keep it fun and tasty! Everyone loves a parfait!

Until next time,

Carmen