Roasted Blueberry Coconut Quinoa Parfaits with Coconut Granola Recipe

Before I left for vacation, I ate this every single day.

I mean it — every single day.

It was an easy choice. If I wasn’t traveling, my husband was, which meant meals often looked like whatever a twenty-something might consider a full dinner. It was unbearably hot, and aside from a few ill-advised oven sessions, most of my meals came straight from the refrigerator: cold, refreshing, and effortless.

Want to know what else happened right before the trip?

Indulge me for a second. It was terrifying.

The night before we left I was rushing around trying to finish things — editing photos while eating the last mini cheesecake in the fridge so it wouldn’t go bad. Important priorities.

Finally, I crawled into bed, hoping for four hours of sleep before our early departure. Instead I spent half an hour scrolling on my phone — like I always do — looking at random nonsense, including the same pair of Nine West peep toe shoes I’d been stalking for months. Spoiler: they weren’t back in stock.

When I was finally so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, I set the phone on the nightstand and settled in to watch Friends while drifting off. Then I felt something on my arm, like a crumb. Ten seconds later I realized it could be a bug. I shot out of bed, flicked on the light, and saw a huge, hideous insect scurrying across the covers.

My worst nightmare.

If you know anything about me, it’s that I loathe bugs. Call it childish, call it irrational — but I have an ongoing fear that something will crawl into my mouth while I sleep. Now there was a bug on my bed, only centimeters from where my head had been. I mentally freaked out, but tried to contain it and kill the critter without waking my husband, who had to be up in three hours.

Which of course meant I was awake in three hours, too.

By the time I worked up the nerve to get back under the covers, visions of things crawling beneath the sheets kept me up for another hour. Needless to say: I was still very tired the next day.

So yes — two things I did before vacation: eat an absurd number of roasted blueberry parfaits and almost sleep with an insect. The parfaits were the clear winner.

I’ve been making quinoa parfaits since I first saw Brittany share hers years ago, and I quickly became obsessed. They’re simple, full of flavor, and wonderfully textured. Lately I’ve been into coconut breakfast quinoa, and I couldn’t stop thinking about roasted blueberries. Putting them together felt like the most logical solution — a little love child of two favorites.

Even makes bugs and bad nights a little better.