Jun 25 2014

Banana Split Yogurt Parfait

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When I made that Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Nutella Granola the other day I was all over it like it was my job! I mean by the handful I was shoveling it in! Now even though it’s healthy and a bajillion times more better for you than the pre-packaged stuff out there you still need to eat anything in moderation. Since I wasn’t ready to quit cold turkey I decided to make it into even something more healthy for me and totally delicious!

I had just returned from my weekly grocery shopping trip and had bought a ton of Greek Yogurt. I had hit up the farmer’s market and grabbed 5 pounds of blueberries, strawberries, bananas and assorted other fruit as well. Now fresh fruit is one thing I seriously have a hard time keeping in our house as no sooner as I unpack it and it’s gone. We both just inhale the stuff. Which I can’t complain about as it is good for us and I use it in not only dessert/fruit salad recipes but savory ones as well. FYI…. fresh blueberries in a salad with shredded chicken, grapes, apples and a cilantro lime sauce is KILLER!!!

So as I put the stuff away I saw that jar of granola staring at me; enticing me with it’s sinful ways. Fortunately my hands were full with yogurt in one hand and berries in the other else that jar of granola would have gotten punished! LOL

While I was putting it away I truly started to get hungry. One of the hardest things I had to teach myself was to listen to my body and know the difference when I was really hungry and when I was ‘fake hungry’. Fake hungry is one of those mental states where you think you should be eating because you’re used to eating all the time; almost subconsciously forcing yourself to eat even though you’re not hungry. It’s a bad, bad habit that I had for years. That’s one of my biggest issues why I was so overweight. I ate not because I was hungry, or sad or what not, I ate out of habit. If you’ve never been overweight it’s hard to explain and it’s even harder to break that habit. But fortunately I started to truly pay attention to my body and understand the differences between hunger pains and eating because I was used to it.

Now that I live a completely different lifestyle – I didn’t have a bad eating lifestyle prior, I just had bad habits, I wanted something still yummy but healthier and with protein. Since I’m now a bonafide “gym rat” I eat a very high protein diet. Since I had to somehow incorporate a little of the granola in my meal I opted for something ‘dessertish’ but still healthy. This is one of those dishes you can have for breakfast, lunch, dinner, post workout, snack or late night.

My only advice is do not make these up ahead of time. You can and it won’t hurt anything but for me I like a crunchy granola with a creamy yogurt. It’s a texture balance thing. Plus to make this up took 5 minutes. You can mix and match the flavors of fruit with the flavors of yogurt as well.

And of course, just like clockwork no sooner did I just get done making this when you know who came out to the kitchen. I swear to God that man has impeccable timing! “OHHHHHHHHHHH what’s that! Wait are you eating ice cream??? Where’s mine? You shouldn’t eat that baby. You worked out so hard this week in the gym. Here let me take care of that for you.” LOL *sigh* So before I could say “it’s yogurt” in went the spoon and out came the “Hey this isn’t ice cream! WTH… wait, is this yogurt? Oh wow this is awesome! You should try this!” as he walks away with my.. MY…lunch! So love that man!

So as you can see I made another one as I had to take pictures and trust me, this was AWESOME!!! What I would do if you wanted to take this to work is put the fruit and yogurt in separate containers, same with granola. Just assemble when you’re ready to eat and be the envy of the lunch room!