With the start of warm weather, I always start craving ice cream, and by ice cream, I mean Ben & Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. But this year, I really have berries on my mind so I decided to get the ingredients for some fruit parfaits, and the results were mind-bogglingly delicious! Easy, healthy, 3 minutes to prepare...just my kind of recipe.
First, start with fresh or frozen berries (or other fruit) of your choice. I like a good mixed berry medley, and I usually go for frozen berries because they are available year-round, are ready to eat (no cutting off strawberry tops, etc.), and are at least as nutritious as fresh (and they may be even better). I love this Woodstock brand organic mixed berry medley that has an amazing taste and texture, but use whatever you like. Just make sure you get fruit hasn't been frozen with sugar added.
Frozen berries heat up perfectly in the microwave - no need to defrost in advance. 1 cup of berries heated for 1 minute on High is just right. You will still see a bit of ice crystals on your fruit, but the berries are spoon tender, just not at all mushy.
Second, you will want to add yogurt. I use Fage brand plain Greek yogurt, but you can use any plain yogurt. I have tried both 2% and 5% milkfat and either one works quite well.
Finally, add some granola for additional flavor and crunch. I love oats so I use a simple oats and honey granola, but pick your favorite. I like this Nature Valley Protein oats & honey granola...which I picked because it was the best-tasting granola of 12 brands blind tasted tested by Taste of Home. It has that really old-school granola vibe, like the hard, dry Nature Valley granola bars of my childhood. It's not great as a stand-alone snack, but it stands up extremely well to the wet fruit and yogurt of the parfait and I think the taste is great.
If you have a sweet tooth, you certainly can add a touch of sugar to the bowl after scooping in the yogurt. I will leave that to your personal choice. With high quality berries and the addition of granola, it's nicely sweetened without extra sugar, so you might try that first.
You'll see that I have not layered the ingredients in a fancy way like many parfait recipes do. I find that the granola stays crunchier when placed on the very top rather than interspersed with all the liquid from the yogurt and fruit. But of course you can put your ingredients together any way you like.
3 Ingredient Perfect Fruit Parfait (one serving):
1 cup frozen fruit, heated in microwave for 1 minute on High (e.g. Woodstock organic mixed berries) or fresh fruit
1/2 to 1 cup plain yogurt (e.g. Fage plain Greek yogurt, 2% or 5% milkfat)
1/4 cup granola (e.g. Nature Valley Protein oats & honey granola)
Optional: a touch of sugar
Do you crave ice cream in the summer? Do you like fruit and yogurt parfaits? Do you prefer frozen or fresh fruit?
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