Banana Yogurt Parfaits

Really?  Banana-flavoured yogurt? 

Sure enough, the local grocery store sells their own brand of banana yogurt.  It's sweet and smooth, no bananas in sight. 

So, how do you make home made banana yogurt, then?  Surely if you put bananas into home made yogurt, they'll spoil the yogurt and turn it black and seperate it.  Fruit can do that to yogurt.  You gotta be careful about adding stuff to home made yogurt.  The no preservatives thing can be a challenge.

I thought about adding banana-flavoured pudding--that would even make it nice and thick.  But pudding ain't paleo.  Kinda defeated the purpose.  I could just layer bananas with yogurt and serve it that way.  But then I'd have to prep and serve it each time they wanted it.  Like they'd go to that much effort alone, and they'd still complain it was sour.

Then I had a plan.



It went like this:

First, make sure you make your home made yogurt extra thick--2 packets of gelatin at least, or chia, or tapioca starch or whatever you need to do to thicken your yogurt.  Find my home made yogurt recipe here - just skip the final step of straining to thicken it.  This is NOT greek yogurt.  (I prefer to add 2 packets of gelatin for this style of yogurt--dissolve into a bit of cold milk/water, then stir into yogurt when it's almost heated to 180 degrees, just before you begin cooling it.  Stir VERY thoroughly).  You will find that as soon as you start to add things to your yogurt, it begins to thin down.  If you don't use thickened yogurt, this recipe will basically make a Yop drink.

For Yogurt:

1 750-g tub of home made yogurt (I re-use old yogurt containers)
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp banana extract
4 scoops stevia powder (or stevia liquid equal 4 tsp sugar)

Stir into yogurt.  That's it.  It's seriously that easy.

For Cereal/Crumble Topping:

1/3 c dried dates
1 c almonds
1/4 c coconut flour
1/4 c flax meal
1 tsp honey
1 tbs arrowroot powder
2-3 tbsp butter
pinch salt

Heat oven to 325 degrees.  Throw dates and almonds into food processor and puree until fine crumbs.  Add all else just until combined and broken into small crumbles.  Spread out onto a baking sheet and bake for about 1/2 hour, stirring every 10 minutes.  Allow to cool fully.  This makes a great cereal with almond milk, too, but don't tell my teens or they'll eat it all up.....

Serve yogurt, crumble and sliced fruit in layers.  My daughter's favourite is layers of strawberry AND banana.  Serve in brandy glasses!