Yogurt Granola Parfait

What are mornings like in your house? In our house we go from slow motion (the boy wakes everyone before we’re ready, so we’re sluggish) to fast forward (Come on, come on, come on, we’re late!) in the blink of an eye. Well, really it’s 8:25. Right before our nanny arrives and we realize we’re all still in pajamas and nowhere near ready to face the outside world.

The kids know not to ask for pancakes for breakfast during the week but I’ve been feeling sort of bad that the alternatives are toast (what I would eat for every meal if left to my own devices, which I never am) or porridge. So I’ve been thinking of other weekday breakfasts that I could add to our rotation. Ben makes something called “Breakfast Explosion!” and yes you need the exclamation mark – it doesn’t work without it. The kids like to steal bites out of his bowl, which is piled high with yogurt, muesli, nuts, dried fruit, raw oats and, honestly, God knows what. It’s a bit too Memories of Gorp for me but it got me thinking.

I made this refined version on the weekend and it was a big, big hit. The kids are always trying to mooch frozen berries as snacks so I knew their inclusion would make this breakfast popular. And I pushed my luck by making it on a Sunday when they’d normally get something more French toast-ish. I used a home made granola (here’s the recipe, it’s pretty great) but you could absolutely use a store bought granola or muesli. Using plain yogurt and honey cuts the sugar roughly in half compared to a typical fruit yogurt. The whole thing comes together in under five minutes, which on a hectic weekday morning is key. But anything called a parfait sounds a little fancier than what you’d expect on a Wednesday morning, don’t you think?