Hallelujah!  Spring is finally here!

I, for one, am pumped about the warmer weather, longer days, and you guessed it, the spring fruits and veggies.

After a long winter, there’s nothing I want more than a big ol’ bowl of sweet fresh fruit.  And lucky for us, strawberries are one of the first foods to come back into season.

Turning up fresh in our grocery stores sometime in April, these jewel-like beauties can be eaten on salads, baked into muffins and pancakes, heaped onto cereal and ice-cream, or eaten just as they are, straight out of your hand.

Don’t let their decadently-sweet taste fool you:  strawberries are one healthy food.  A handful of strawberries packs more Vitamin C than an orange (I know!), and also serves up a good dose of folate, potassium, fiber, and anti-oxidants.

Fun Fact:  Did you know that the ancient Romans believed that these magical little berries cured everything from melancholy, fainting, and inflammation to fever, sore throats, kidney stones, and halitosis?  While I’m not sure I buy into the ancient Romans’ specific, ahem, claims, I do agree that we should be munching on more of them.

One of my favorite ways to eat strawberries is in a yogurt parfait.  I love the sweetness of the berries mixed with the creamy yogurt and crunchy granola.  It’s the total package.  The best part is that it takes all of 5 minutes to assemble (and about 5 minutes to eat, but let’s not talk about that).

Here’s what you need:

4-5 strawberries, washed with the stems cut off

½ cup plain low-fat yogurt

1 tsp honey

¼ cup of your favorite granola (I like Whole Foods’ Low-fat strawberry & raspberry granola)

Here’s what you do:

Slice the strawberries into bite-size chunks.  Mix the honey into the yogurt until it is well blended.  Spoon ½ the yogurt mixture into the bottom of a short glass.  Top with ½ the sliced strawberries and then half the granola.  Repeat the layering, and enjoy!

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Want more healthy snack ideas?  Or a great way to organize your kitchen to psych kids into healthy eating?  Or just lots of kid-friendly healthy recipes?