Not only are we on the eve of a long holiday weekend, but my office planned a lunch together today and I’m meeting a new friend at a new coffee shop later on after work. Remember before I moved here, I wondered if I would be able to find a job and/or friends?! Well I’m not an unemployed homebody, so it looks like it all worked out okay :)

Last night I stayed up extra late (which, for my standards, means past 10pm…) to create my 4th of July festive recipe. There’s absolutely nothing ridiculously patriotic about this recipe that prevents it from being perfect on the other 364 days of the year either.

This recipe was a total experiment, as I had a general idea of what I wanted the end-product to look like but no real game plan to follow. All of the ingredients were simply things in my pantry, and I targeted the coconut flakes and blueberries as my festive and patriotic contributions. I searched around for something red (I eat fresh strawberries too rapidly to have any left on hand by the end of the week) and found some dried cranberries that would do the trick. Bright goji berries would be a fun alternative!

I created this Toasted Coconut Breakfast Parfait with Blueberry Sauce – Greek yogurt, homemade granola, toasted coconut and fresh blueberries with some bright dried cranberries (white chocolate chips would be good too!) for some extra festive flair.

This might be one of my most intricate recipes. If you’re overwhelmed by too many steps, just know that you can easily substitute in pre-made granola and already-toasted coconut. But if you have some extra time on your hands, it’s actually a lot of fun to make from scratch and totally worth the messy dishes. (I always turn on Spotify and listen to a new album when I’m cleaning up and this time I checked out Dierk’s Bentley’s new album Black. If you are a fellow country music LOVER, go do the same!)

Toasted Coconut Breakfast Parfait with Blueberry Sauce: 

• FOR THE GRANOLA:
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 2 tablespoons stevia (or brown sugar)
• 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil (melted)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
• FOR THE PARFAIT:
• 3 cups Greek Yogurt (I went with Light n’ Fit non-fat blueberry Greek Yogurt)
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 tablespoon stevia (or any sugar)

1.) Preheat oven to 350 and line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2.) Spread coconut out on baking sheet and toast for 2 minutes until edges are golden brown.

3.) In a mixing bowl, combine the granola ingredients (including the toasted coconut flakes). Spread out on parchment paper and bake for 25 minutes, occasionally tossing. Let cool on pan for 10 minutes.

4.) While granola is cooking/cooling, we can prepare the blueberries. Add the blueberries, stevia and a pinch of salt to a small saucepan. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until they begin to pop open. Stir and remove from heat.

6.) Assembly Time! In your parfait cups/bowls, add layers of: Greek Yogurt, Blueberry Sauce, and Toasted Coconut Granola.This is where I added the dried cranberries to make it Red, White & Blue!

Be creative. I mean you just spent a significant amount of time prepping these ingredients; you can spend a few extra seconds to make it look Instagram-worthy ;)

This is my first holiday in Idaho, and I can’t wait to celebrate our country’s freedom Idaho-style! We are dressing up in our most patriotic garb for work today and one of my new running buddies invited me to a backyard BBQ on Monday. The Boise River is also open for floating now so maybe we’ll grab a couple inner tubes and some drinks and drift along for a few hours this weekend. Of course we’ll also find the hot spot for fireworks – which is totally different here because it’s not even dark out until 10pm. Hope you and your family enjoy the weekend and let me know if you try out this recipe!

XO Kenz.