This blueberry farro yogurt bowl is a hearty breakfast alternative to oatmeal. A quick wild blueberry jam is swirled into blueberry yogurt and cooked farro.

Scrolling through Instagram yesterday morning I realized two things:

1. I miss being a kid and seeing like 20 presents under the tree for me (adulthood sucks) and

2. It’s super interesting to me what people eat on Christmas morning.

From casseroles, to cinnamon rolls, to pancakes, to the hardcore health freaks (who I’m not even sure why I follow sometimes) with their normal eggs/veg/fat plates (people, live it up, it’s Christmas!), not a single person eats what we do Christmas morning, which is an entire loaf of pandoro.

I’m betting most of you don’t even know what that is so, let me enlighten you.

Pandoro is a specialty Italian bread baked into a star shape you’ll find in any NY Italian deli worth it’s weight.

It’s super moist and filled with so much butter it’s virtually impossible not to love it.

My grandma would buy each family one every year and we would anxiously wait for Christmas morning to devour it. 

Without her any more, my mom has started doing the same and even at 32, I still wake up with just as much excitement over Christmas breakfast.

The problem with pandoro, however, is that it’s about 2,000 (or more maybe, I don’t even want to know) empty calories that do absolutely nothing to keep you feeling satisfied.

Which is exactly why it’s a once a year treat and I’m thankful stores don’t even carry at other times of the year to tempt me.

Pandoro also signifies a mental switch for me with food.

After what seems like a month of non-stop indulging from Thanksgiving to Christmas, pandoro is the last treat I want to eat before I’m ready to clean things up again.

Screw waiting until New Year’s, why not start now?

And that doesn’t mean I’m going to turn into one of the boring healthy freak fitness feeds on Instagram with broccoli on my plate in the morning, but it does mean something other than butter laden bread covered in powdered sugar (oh, did I mention you shake the pandoro in a plastic bag with powdered sugar right before serving so the whole things is coated in even more deliciousness?) for breakfast.

Something simple, hearty and filling is exactly what I’m after when it comes to breakfast.

Something exactly like this blueberry farro yogurt bowl.

Farro has been “in” for awhile now but I actually had a hard time finding it without making a special trip to Whole Foods or a bulk store until recently.

I finally spotted some though and used it in almost every meal for about 4 days until it was gone.

It’s so similar to barley, that most people probably think of it as a lunch or dinner food but grain bowls are one of my favorite kinds of breakfasts and really great for when you’re just plain sick of oatmeal.

This creamy millet porridge is another great recipe when that happens.

For this breakfast bowl, yogurt is mixed with cooked farro and a quick and easy wild blueberry chia jam. The farro is kind of like a granola replacement. Less sugar, more nutrients and satiety. Although, I can’t turn down a good homemade granola like this coconut almond granola recipe (which would be delicious on this yogurt bowl as well!)

The thick and creamy Icelandic yogurt is made without any artificial preservatives from cows that aren’t treated with growth hormones and without tons of sugar.

It’s a simple, healthy yogurt (as it yogurt should be!) and it’s the perfect addition to this hearty breakfast bowl for kicking off 2015 in a healthier way than half a loaf of pandoro.

Try these other breakfast bowl recipes for more deliciously healthy ways to start the day:

Strawberry Oatmeal
Instant Pot Sweet Potato Steel Cut Oats
Overnight Muesli with Strawberries and Lemon
Tart Cherry Ginger Muesli Yogurt Bowls
Strawberry Coconut Polenta Breakfast Bowls

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of siggi’s Dairy. The opinions and text are all mine.