Healthy Strawberry Shortcake Parfaits

I cannot get enough strawberries this time of year. 

After we went strawberry picking a couple weeks ago, my sister gave me two shortcakes she had leftover from a dinner party where she served strawberry shortcakes for dessert.

I thought about waiting until the following evening to eat the strawberry shortcakes for dessert, but by the next morning, I could no longer resist their allure.

I had some leftover heavy cream in the fridge from my own dinner party a few days before. (I used the heavy cream for risotto. It was amazing. Also, I now realize that it sounds like my sister and I host dinner parties a lot. We do, sort of. At least when school is over.)

The point of this story is that on Sunday morning, Adam and I had strawberry shortcakes for breakfast.  With butter laden shortcakes, real whipped cream, and strawberries perfectly macerated in sugar.  Weekend breakfasts are a time to splurge, in my opinion.

The problem was that on Monday morning, I was still craving strawberry shortcake for breakfast.  If you've been reading for a while, you know that I love baked oatmeal for breakfast because it has helped with my genetic disposition for high cholesterol.

Therefore, I needed to create a way to have both oatmeal and strawberry shortcake for breakfast. And that's what I did!

Ok, fine, this is not exactly like strawberry shortcake, but it's close enough for me.

To tell you the truth, it's a lot more virtuous and filling than the real version but perhaps less aesthetically appealing.  The gluten-free honey chia oatcakes, for example, are rather crumbly and homely. But that's ok, because with these parfaits, we are just going to crumble them up to fill the bottom of a bowl or glass.

Also, if you let these shortcake/parfaits sit for a while, the oatcakes will soak up some of the liquid from the yogurt and strawberries and become even more fluffy and cake like.

This is an all around healthy-dessert-breakfast win.  Try them and let me know what you think!

Gluten-Free Honey Chia Oatcakes

Ingredients:
1 cup oat flour (made from a heaping cup of oats pulsed in a food processor until fine)
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tablespoon chia seeds
2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup honey
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup coconut oil (solid)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray liberally with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine oat flour, oats, chia seeds, baking powder and salt.

In a small bowl, whisk together honey, egg, milk, and vanilla extract.

Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the coconut oil into the oat flour mixture until mixture is crumbly. Add milk/egg mixture and stir to combine.

Refrigerate dough for at least 15 minutes.

Remove dough from fridge. Roll into 1 inch balls.  (These oatcakes will spread out quite a bit as they bake, so the ball shape ensures they don't bleed into each other.)

Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Healthy Strawberry Shortcake Parfaits

Ingredients:
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pint strawberries, sliced
4 gluten-free honey chia oatcakes

Directions:
In a medium bowl, combine yogurt, honey and vanilla extract until smooth.

Place 1/4 of the strawberry mixture into each of two clear classes.  Crumble 2 oatcakes into each glass on top of the strawberries.  Dollop on half of the greek yogurt mixture. Evenly distribute the remaining strawberries between the two glasses.

Eat immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.