
When the summer heat is in full force, it’s hard to imagine eating anything hot or super filling for breakfast, let alone think about turning on the stove or oven. Well, we’ve got your first meal of the day covered for the season with these perfectly portable, icy cool Breakfast Parfait Popsicles. This recipe has everything you love about a healthy yogurt parfait — creamy yogurt, sweet fresh fruit and crunchy granola — but transformed into an icy pop you can eat on the go. Not to mention you can easily make a quick batch of these on the weekend to grab and go through the rest of your week. Your morning routine never looked so sweet.
Ingredients:
– yogurt
– granola
– fresh fruit
– juice from ½ a lemon
– 2-3 tablespoons honey
– ¼ teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Tools:
– popsicle molds and sticks
Note: Measurements may vary depending on the size and number of popsicles you make — estimate about ¼ cup of yogurt and 2-3 tablespoons each of fruit and granola per popsicle.
Instructions:
- Slice and chop your fruit into small bite-size pieces. We recommend you cut your blueberries in half and your strawberries into tall, thin slices.
- Transfer the fruit to a bowl and add the lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of honey. Stir to combine and coat all the fruit, then set aside for 10-15 minutes to marinate.
- If you’re using plain yogurt, add a bit of honey and vanilla to taste. Feel free to use your own fave flavored yogurt in place of plain and just skip this step. Note: If you’re using thick Greek-style yogurt, add a few tablespoons of milk to thin it out so it’s easier to spoon into the popsicle molds.
- Add about ¼ cup of your yogurt mix or any leftover yogurt to the granola and mix to coat and slightly moisten the granola. This will help the granola to freeze and incorporate into the popsicle.
- Now start filling your molds! Â Add 1-2 spoonfuls of yogurt, followed by a spoonful of fruit and a spoonful of granola. Continue to layer in this order until the mold is almost full, then finish with a thin layer of yogurt and a sprinkle of granola.
- Repeat this process until all of your molds are filled and then add your popsicle sticks.
- Place your molds in the freezer until fully frozen, at least 6 hours. To remove the popsicle from the mold, run it under warm water for a few seconds to help it release cleanly and then — voila! You’re ready to eat.
Use your fave combination of fresh fruit and slice them up into small, bite-size pieces.
Adding lemon juice and honey to your fruit helps to macerate the pieces, amping up the flavor and drawing out some of the extra water. This makes the fruit the perfect texture for freezing.
If you’re using plain yogurt, add some honey and vanilla to taste to add some flavor. If you’re using Greek yogurt, remember to add some milk to thin it out for a more pourable consistency.
Adding a bit of yogurt to the granola helps it to freeze into the yogurt and create a more solid popsicle.
Time to start layering your ingredients! Start with yogurt, then add a spoonful of fruit and granola and repeat until full. It helps to press the fruit and granola down into the mold a bit so that there are no air pockets.
Add your popsicle sticks and they’re ready for the freezer!
The perfect summer breakfast!
Ready to dig in! These would do well as a totally delicious healthy after-school snack for the kiddies.
It’s hard to resist this classic combination of fruit, granola and yogurt. Get experimental and play with different combos of fruit or flavorings for the yogurt.
Tell us how you’re planning to beat the heat this summer in our comments below!
Welcome to Selfmade Finance School, our new money series with Block Advisors to help small business owners with their tax, bookkeeping, and payroll needs year-round. This week, we explore the tax implications of bringing family members into your business.
The question for today is this: Does hiring your family members make sense for your business? Let me be clear. This is not a piece about whether hiring your family members makes sense for your relationships with those family members. As someone who is part of a family business, I could fill up a lot more than 600 words on my opinions about that. For today's purposes, we focus on whether it makes sense from an overall "good business and tax implication" perspective. As it turns out, there is a decent amount of tax nuance when it comes to employing your family. Let's break it down based on relationship to the employee:
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Spouses Who Are In Business Together
Personally, if I had to be in business with my husband, it would not go well. However, many couples build viable, strong businesses together and I say, good for them! Depending on how you have your business entity structured, it will make a big difference on the tax treatment of you and your spouse working as partners. Because a business jointly owned and operated by a married couple is generally treated as a partnership for Federal tax purposes, the spouses must comply with filing and record keeping requirements imposed on partnerships and their partners. The election to file two Schedule C (Form 1040) forms, (one for each spouse) permits certain married co-owners to avoid filing partnership returns, provided that each spouse separately reports a share of all the businesses' items of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit. Under the election, both spouses will be subject to self-employment tax and on net earnings from self-employment and receive credit for Social Security earnings.
One Spouse Employs Another
If you have a dynamic where your spouse is an employee of your business, then your spouse's wages are subject to income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes. If you are self-employed (not a corporation or a partnership), your spouse's pay does not have to be included in your federal unemployment tax account (FUTA) contributions and payments. However, if your business is a corporation or a partnership you must include that spouse's pay in your unemployment tax contribution calculation.
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You Employ Your Child
First, let's be clear. I work in my family business, but I am an adult, so I am treated just like a normal employee. However, if you, for example, run a family restaurant and want to hire your children under 18 to work for you, there are some tax benefits. But first, you should check with your state for rules on how many hours minors can work (in non-agricultural jobs) and reference the Fair Labor Standards Act for information on limitations on the kinds of work children can perform.
"This is an often overlooked or under-utilized strategy. Paying your children for true services they provide in your business can be a powerful tax-saving tool," says Cathi Reed, Block Advisors Regional Director. "If you are a sole-proprietorship or single member LLC, and the child is less than 18 years of age, the business is not required to withhold FICA or payroll taxes. The child can use his or her standard deduction against income you pay."
You Hire Your Parent
Oh dear. If you are brave enough to do this, know that you will need to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on your parent's wages and make the appropriate withholdings, but you don't have to pay unemployment taxes. Now all you have to do is convince your parent that you are the boss. Have fun with that!
Is Hiring Family Members Worth It For The Tax Benefits?
"There are some positive tax advantages to hiring family members. It's important to treat a family member like any other employee. Hiring your children can result in substantial savings for businesses. Make sure your child has real, age-appropriate work to do and a reasonable pay rate, comparable to other employees. Consult with a Block Advisors small business certified tax pro to ensure that you are complying with all requirements," advises Reed. "Block Advisors, a team within H&R Block, is dedicated to meeting the tax, bookkeeping and payroll needs of small business owners year-round. To start working with the tax experts at Block Advisors, visit blockadvisors.com."
In my opinion, you should not hire a family member solely because of the tax benefits. You should always hire based on whether that person is right for the job and keep in mind how this hire could materially impact your relationship with that person and others in your family. Finally, as I mentioned, make sure you have a tax professional on your team when making these determinations. As you can see, things can get a little tricky!
*All details were sourced from IRS.gov and blockadvisors.com
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra Investment Services, LLC or Kestra Advisory Services, LLC. This is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for any individual. It is suggested that you consult your financial professional, attorney, or tax advisor with regards to your individual situation. Comments concerning the past performance are not intended to be forward looking and should not be viewed as an indication of future results. Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. O'Keeffe Financial Partners and any other entity listed herein is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS Investor Disclosures: https://bit.ly/KF-Disclosures