Fruit and yogurt muesli parfaits

My kids love breakfast! Their go to requests are cereal and yogurt for my son and yogurt and fruit for my daughter. When I combined both in a 'fancy' wine glass they thought I had created 'the best thing ever'. Lol. Yes, they are easy to impress! Now they both want parfaits or 'parfets' as my daughter calls them every morning! The best thing about it is when I use muesli (my son is loving Dorset Cereals 'super cranberry, cherry, and almond' muesli right now), I can make them the night before and leave them in the fridge for them to grab when they wake up (and possibly grab a few more minutes of sleep for me)!

How to make them is pretty obvious, just layer your favorite yogurt, muesli or granola, and fruit in a bowl or fancy glass. I recommend eating granola parfaits right away or the granola will get soggy. Go the muesli route is you want to make them the night before. Also, you can use frozen fruit if you make them ahead of time so they can thaw a bit before eating.

If you REALLY need a recipe...

Makes 2.

Ingredients

2 cups yogourt
2/3 cup muesli or granola
1 cup fruit

Instructions

Place 1/3 c yogurt on bottom of glass/bowl, sprinkle 1/3 cup muesli/granola over yogurt, spread 1/3 cup yogurt over muesli/granola, place 1/4 cup of fruit on top, layer another 1/3 c of yogurt, add 1/4 cup fruit.

Repeat in second glass/bowl.

Strawberry Muesli Smoothie

Ever since I bought a Nutriblender, the entire family is on a smoothie kick. The kids want them every morning. We usually keep it to just fruit and milk but when it's more of a meal on the run vs a snack we've been adding muesli and yogourt to "beef" them up. Our muesli brand of choice is Dorset Cereals. In this smoothie we used "simply nutty" but this morning we opened their "super cranberry, cherry and almond" muesli - yet another delicious box! We made some no bake chocolate muesli "cookies" (they are more like a confection) with it - a future blog post!

This is the smoothie we had today.

Ingredients

1/2 cup greek yogourt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup muesli (I used Dorset Cereal's Simply Nutty)
6 fresh strawberries
1/2 cup frozen peaches
1 small orange (peeled of course)

Instructions

Blend until desired consistency is reached.
Makes two smoothies.

Muesli Fruit Crisp with Strawberries and Apples

Add a little frozen strawberry Greek yogourt and this muesli crisp is fit for a Queen!

Do you like muesli?  I have to admit that the muesli I have tried is usually too bland, dry, raw and dusty for my tastes. But I'm always looking for healthy new foods for my young kids. My 7 year old son loves oats so I thought I'd let him try muesli to see if he likes it. He did! So when I had an opportunity to try some samples of muesli and granola from Dorset Cereals I took it. I wasn't expecting to like it myself but I was pleasantly surprised. I was sent 6 boxes of muesli and one box of granola which represents their entire line offered in Canada. That's a lot of cereal!*

Dorset Cereals - love the muesli, granola and the boxes!

I have to say they have converted me to a muesli lover! Today we are eating "Simply Nutty" muesli which is loaded with ...well...nuts...brazil nuts, cashews, almonds and hazelnuts. There's also dates, raisins and oats. There are no added sugars or fats. For breakfast, we mix it with yogourt or make parfaits - layers of muesli, yogourt, fruit and sometimes a little honey.

I couldn't convert my 8 year old daughter to a muesli lover but she does love their "Honey Granola". I asked why she liked it. Her response was "It tastes really good. I like the honey." I agree. I also like the sunflower seeds as it lends a flavour that isn't in the other granolas we've tried.

I wanted to find a few other uses for muesli besides just as a breakfast. I'll be sharing a few recipes over the next week or so. The first one is this muesli fruit crisp. For this recipe, I used Dorset's "Simply Delicious" variety. If you don't have muesli you could substitute oats and perhaps throw in a few raisins or nuts if desired. I used strawberries and apples but most fruits/berries will work. I also divided the fruit amongst five creme brulee bowls but you could put it all in a 8 or 9 inch square pan.

Ingredients

Topping

2 cups muesli
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (can use all purpose if desired)
1 cup unsalted butter, cold
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 freshly grated nutmeg or tsp ground
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Base

4-5 medium sized apples, peeled cored and thinly sliced
1 lb strawberries, sliced
1/2 tsp cardamom
zest of one lemon
1 tbsp cornstarch
juice of one lemon

Instructions

1. In small bowl, combine lemon juice and cornstarch. 
2. Place all of the fruit, lemon zest and cardamom in a large bowl and gently combine. 
3. Add the lemon juice/cornstarch. Combine again.

To make the topping:

1. Whisk together all the topping ingredients except the butter.
2. Cut the cold butter into 1/2 inch bits and add to the topping.
3. Using your hands, rub the butter pieces into the flour mixture until the butter is about the size of peas.

To finish dessert:

1. Evenly divide the fruit amongst 5 shallow dishes.
2. Add a handful of topping onto each dish (should work out to using half the topping).
3. Place dishes on a cookie sheet to catch any overflowing juices.
4. Bake for 12 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and evenly divide the remaining topping over each dish. 
6. Place back in oven for approximately 15-20 minutes or until topping is golden and juices are bubbling.
7. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Check out Dorset Cereals website for more details on there different varieties and where to buy it. In Canada, it is currently available in Ontario and British Columbia.

*Dorset Cereals provided their cereal to me without charge but all opinions are my own.