Tomorrow is my birthday! To celebrate, I made a spiced honey yogurt with fresh diced strawberries and some blueberries. I love making flavored yogurt and this version is absolutely splendid. A couple years ago, I started spicing up my Greek yogurt in the mornings before bringing a small container of yogurt to work. I find plain Greek yogurt just a bit too tart for my taste. Initially, I started with just a couple dollops of honey, but over time, I started playing around with other flavorings and came up with my favorite combination—cinnamon, almond extract, vanilla extract, and honey. The spiced honey yogurt turned out absolutely amazing. For me, a simple spiced yogurt is just the way to celebrate on a weekday. It’s light, filling, and the perfect portion for one person. I even contemplated adding some rainbow sprinkles to make the yogurt just a little bit more festive. The best part about my birthday this year is it landed on a Thursday. It landed on the day right after two consecutive days of final exams (one yesterday and another today). The feeling of accomplishment after finishing an exam is so exhilarating. The moment I got home, I made some lemon cacio e pepe pasta, did some light writing, and started planning ahead to finish some of my final assignments for next week. When I’m in study mode, I blast pop music. When I’m in post-finals mode, I turn on some relaxing nature sounds. I know this probably seems backwards, but I find nature music so relaxing after an exam. When I finished my pasta dinner, I wanted some spiced honey yogurt with fresh fruit for dessert. I definitely go through phases where I crave the same foods over and over again for a whole month. This month, I guess my go-to breakfast/snack/dessert is my spiced honey yogurt. It’s impossibly easy to whip together and it definitely gets you through the morning without feeling hungry two hours after eating breakfast. You can easily throw the yogurt in a small container with some fresh fruit and you are good to go in the morning. The spiced honey yogurt is best consumed immediately. The total time it takes to make the spiced honey yogurt is less than five minutes, so if you can squeeze in a few minutes in the morning, you’ll have a simple, filling breakfast in the morning. Even if I’m extremely tired in the evening, I know I can wake up in the morning and whip up a serving of this yogurt for breakfast in just a few minutes.
For the spiced honey yogurt:
· 1-2 cups plain Greek yogurt
· 1-2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
· ¼ teaspoon almond extract
· ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
· ½-1 tablespoon honey
Directions:
1) In a bowl, combine the yogurt, cinnamon, extracts, and honey. Stir together all ingredients until they are well mixed. Serve with some fresh fruit or your favorite granola.
Takeaways: The spiced honey yogurt can be served with any fresh or dried fruits, nuts, and/or granola of your choice. My favorite fruit toppings are fresh diced strawberries and whole blueberries, but I also love diced apples, and dried cranberries. I like my yogurt just lightly sweetened. You can feel free to adjust the sweetness level depending on your taste.