My senior year of college at CSU I got a job working at the bakery on campus. It was such a fun job! Most college students would have hated it because I had to be at work at 5am. Yes, I was a senior in college and woke up Monday through Friday at 4:00am… yet I loved it. My dad always told me that the morning was the best part of the day. I thought he was full of it my whole life, that is, until I starting working at the bakery. Turns out, I am very much a morning person!
The bake shop on campus was not a retail bakery. We actually made all the food for the dorms and would occasionally do other events in Fort Collins. They ran the whole operation like a real business. Each dorm/dining hall was suppose to place an order with us for the items that they wanted. We would order the supplies/food we needed and then prepare and deliver the order to the dining halls. I was one of the few real student employees of the bakery. There were 4-5 non-student bakers that worked full time there (as their real-adult-job). Then were a few of us students that came in to help, depending on our class schedules.
We made all sorts of things at the bakery. I was on the “cookie” side and we made, well, cookies, but also cakes, cupcakes, muffins, brownies, angel food cakes, etc. On the other side it was the “bread” side. They made bread (shocking, I know) but also took care of pies (they were not homemade) and donuts. The head baker of the bread side liked to experiment with different breads so we got to try all of his test runs. I literally gained 15 lbs in 9 months working there!
Once I worked there long enough, Maria, my head baker, started trusting me to do the more in-depth tasks. For muffin or cake orders we would make one large batch of a generic batter and then portion out the “mix-ins” to make the different flavors that the dining halls ordered (blueberry, chocolate chip, mocha chocolate chip, banana nut, etc). Maria would make the batter and then she started letting me do the math to figure out the correct amount of ingredients for the different cake/muffin recipes.
My favorite muffin flavor was lemon blueberry. We made blueberry muffins a couple times a week, but occasionally we would get to make the lemon-blueberry ones! They were fantastic! I still love this combo, so thought I’d recreate it in a healthy recipe. At the bakery, we used lemon extract that came in a large container and was 100% artificial. With this recipe, nothing is artificial.
Lemon zest and lemon juice are used to flavor the yogurt and fresh blueberries are added on top. Frozen blueberries can be used, just make sure they don’t have added sugar in them (the only ingredient on the bag should be “blueberries”).
I’ve mentioned this with the Watermelon-Honeydew salad, but don’t skip the zest. The zest adds a ton of citrus flavor! If you are weary of it, then start with a little bit and then add more as you go along to increase the lemon flavor.
Try topping the parfait with some other things as well. I suggest sliced almonds, chopped walnuts, chia seed, flax seed, granola…. a little crunch never hurt anyone! You could substitute other berries too if you don’t have blueberries. Raspberries would be a great addition and strawberries might be good too!
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt, 0% or 2% fat
- 2 Tbsp vanilla protein powder
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice, fresh squeezed
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 1 cup blueberries
- Mix yogurt and protein powder together in a small mixing bowl. Stir in the lemon juice and the lemon zest. Top with blueberries.
- Try adding other toppings as well including walnuts, almonds, chia, flax seed or granola!
Do you like to bake? What is your favorite muffin recipe?
