Greek Yogurt Dessert, "with le-mon" (zest)

Today I was fortunate enough to get to celebrate one of my dear friends, Jamie, at a surprise birthday party that her sister Cindy threw for her. The party was Greek themed, in terms of the menu, so everyone brought their favorite Greek dish. I was at a loss as to what I would bring, not having ever cooked any Greek dishes. But then, my friend Kathy, who is Greek, told me about a dessert her mother makes, using Greek yogurt. 

Aside: I love Greek yogurt. I have been buying a tub each weekend and eating it throughout the week. I buy it plain, and then mix in honey to sweeten it. Sometimes I will add granola as well, but usually the honey is all that is necessary. It is now an essential part of the first meal of my day.

So, Kathy told me that her mom would add all sorts of yummy, sweet things to the yogurt, transforming it into a dessert dish, but a healthy one. It sounded perfect, and doable for me, so I gave it a go! Here below is the recipe, though I warn you, I am not including any measurements since all you're doing is mixing things into the yogurt. Choose the amounts that you think you will like. Also, there are many variations on this, and I will include some of the variations in parentheses. The ingredients not in parentheses are the ones I used.  

Ingredients:

Plain Greek yogurt (I use the Fage brand)

Vanilla extract

Honey

Poppy seed filling (the moist mixture used in baked goods)

Lemon zest (you can also use orange zest, but with the poppy seeds I found the lemon zest resulted in a lemon poppy seed kind of flavor, which was fabulous)

Golden and red raspberries (this is where you can really mix it up--pun intended, ha--by using any kind of berry you choose, though be warned that blueberries will stain the yogurt; another option is peaches, either uncooked or baked with brown sugar, mmmm)

Shaved chocolate (as a topping)

Basically, all you do is mix in each ingredient. I did each one individually, and in the order listed above. I waited until I served it to add the chocolate which, by the way, was an amazing addition and worth the work of grating it. Also, another variation on the ingredients would be to add nuts. 

With chocolate added, just before serving.

A delicious helping.

Yeah, that disappeared fast. 

It came out scrumptious, and I'm so thrilled I discovered an easy-to-make, healthy dessert!