Serving Up {Dessert}: Granola Pudding Parfait

After posting my recipe for Cashew Granola, I feel like I have to share with you one of my favorite ways to eat it....which would consist of layering it with pudding and fresh (or frozen) berries.  It makes for such a yummy, easy summertime dessert.  I could eat it every day and never tire of it!

Here in the Pacific Northwest, berries are plentiful for most of the summer season.  We frequently go to the berry farms and pick our own.  It is just one of my favorite "perks" of where we live.  Would you hate me if I admitted that last summer I filled and froze 15 one-gallon bags with the plumpest, largest blueberries from my next door neighbors bushes = free.  I bagged and froze another 100 pounds of blackberries, picked and delivered to my door for only $1.25/pound.  Yum!

I do have to make one STRONG recommendation that, I think, makes a huge difference in the outcome of your parfait.  If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, purchase their instant Vanilla Pudding for this dessert.  It is unlike the vanilla pudding of your childhood - made with a good whole milk, your instant pudding will be mistaken for a homemade custard.  I promise!  You deserve this!

Of course, you could always use yogurt in place of the pudding for an even healthier dessert - but when I use yogurt it is called breakfast :)

No recipe today folks - because really, it doesn't get any simpler than this!  Just get out your parfait glass and layer your pudding, some berries and some delicious granola (may I recommend this granola).  Then repeat your layers and prepare to swoon!