Homemade Granola Meets Matcha Parfait

Like most of us do but shouldn’t, I skip out on breakfast a lot. I know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day (see mom, I listen!) but I just never seem to take the time to make myself breakfast. I was getting sick of cereal every day, making pancakes or french toast seems to take too much time, and I don’t like eggs so that just left me avoiding breakfast all together. Not okay!

Sami has been putting a lot of effort into creating healthy eating habits for himself this past month, which has inspired me to stop making excuses and find a healthy breakfast recipe that is easy to make. I grabbed a recipe book from my bookcase and stumbled upon a homemade granola recipe. The mornings I would find myself too hungry to wait for lunch I would mix together store bought granola with yogurt and berries, but I found that most store bought granola is packed with sugar. Making it from scratch means that I can control what’s in it and I can add some dried fruits and seeds to make it even healthier. Obviously I managed to include some of our matcha green tea in there as well because let’s face it, I put that s*** on everything.

From a health standpoint, adding matcha to your food will fuel your body with an extra kick of antioxidants. I also added it in these recipes for the flavor, which I love. Matcha has a distinct vegetative flavor that compliments the nuttiness of the granola really well. If you are a fan of matcha, you’re going to love this new way of using your matcha. If you are not a fan of matcha(yet), of course you can leave it out without ruining the recipe but give it a shot at least, you might be pleasantly surprised!

With a few ingredient tweaks to cater to my own taste buds, this recipe I found turned out to be delicious and honestly, it wasn’t nearly as complicated to make as I had imagined. I have also included the recipe for the parfait I created in the photo below because as chefs say “you always eat with your eyes first”. I recommend that you personalize the granola and parfait as you please, but this is a great beginner recipe for those of you looking for a tasty, quick, and simple breakfast option.

4 cups rolled oats

½ cup maple syrup (the real stuff, not Aunt Jemima!)

1 cup crushed walnuts

¼ cup coconut oil, melted

1 tsp. matcha

1/4 cup of ground almond

1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

1 cup of dried cranberries

¼ cup goji berries or raisins

1/3 cup chia seeds

Preheat oven to 275° Fahrenheit.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the oats, walnuts, maple syrup, coconut oil, matcha, and ground almond. Spread the mixture on a 9 x 13 square baking pan and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove baking pan from the oven and stir the mixture with a spatula. Bake for another 20 minutes. Repeat this step once more until the granola is golden and crisp.

Transfer the granola back into the large mixing bowl. Add chocolate and desired dried fruits and seeds such as cranberries, raisins, goji berries, and chia seeds.

2 cups plain greek yogurt

2 tbs. maple syrup

1tbs. matcha

2 cups granola

1 cup mixed berries

In a medium mixing bowl, mix yogurt, maple syrup, and matcha.

In 4 serving glasses. Add 2-3 tablespoons of yogurt mixture to the bottom of each glass. 

Top with ¼ cup of granola. Add some mixed berries over the granola and repeat layers, ending with the yogurt mixture and more mixed berries.

Serve immediately. You could store it in the fridge for up to 1 day in the refrigerator but the granola will start softening right away.

Notes: If you don't have or like greek yogurt, you can substitute it for vanilla yogurt and omit the maple syrup.

Give this recipe a try and comment down below with your feedback, I would love to hear what you think! Oh and our matcha is 15% off for the rest of the week!