If you have a fancy last minute brunch, a “day after the wedding” breakfast for guests or suddenly the Queen of England knocks on your door at 5 AM and asks to use your bathroom, it is pretty poor form to say “I’m on a budget” and offer guests a few crumbs out of the end of a generic vesion of Corn Pops and a stale piece of toast.
Make your guests think you just walked over to one of those expensive chain coffee shops and brought them all yogurt parfaits.
1) Firstly, scour the world for Kashi coupons. There sometimes are coupon codes from Kashi, including occasional deals on Amazon, but you can also try to combine electronic coupons, your store sale, and manufacturers coupons. What you’ll want to buy is the Honey Almond Flax cereal. Then scare up one tiny container of in-season fruit. You’ll only need a slice or two for each parfait.
2) Get out your good crystal. If you don’t have any, before the party, visit the thrift store and consignment shops for mismatched water goblets and fancy wine flutes. Sometimes you can find whole sets, but sometimes you can cheaply buy mismatched singles.
3) Fill the goblets with a few spoonfuls of Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal, then add a few dollops of plain yogurt. After that, add a few slices of strawberries or even a drop of chocolate syrpup, then more yogurt and Kashi. Ultimately, the top layer should be raspberries or some other more expensive fruit.
4) Inspect for chips. If one is chipped but won’t cut a lip, all the better. You now can knowingly gaze over to the guest with the chip and announce that they have either won the prize or feign embarrassment while you scoop the goblet up and tell the story of rich but crazy Aunt Felicity who brought the goblet over on the Mayflower. Actually, use “Uncle Oceanus.” Apparently, someone named Oceanus was either born on the ship or born slightly later in the “new world” and folks could actually look up and verify that he was a real person.
One last thing, you’ll want to purchase one actual yogurt parfait from the pricey coffee shop. This way, you can have a receipt lying around somewhere, so everyone will know that you at least spent $3-7 a piece for them, and they’ll do the math.
As far as clean up? Just set them on the back porch. When no one sees goblets in the sink or on the counter, they’ll assume you have a staff.
