5-Ingredient Samoa Cereal Bowls

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This quick & easy 5-ingredient Greek yogurt cereal bowl features toasted coconut, chocolate, caramel, and crispy cereal – an ode to one of my favorite cookies, the Samoa!

A few months ago my nephew was in town  from Las Vegas visiting New York for the very first time. We were showing him around Times Square, when we walked past Kellogg’s NYC.

I thought it was a museum at first, but upon walking in, I realized it was something SO much more special than that! It was a whole restaurant that reimagined what “a bowl of cereal” could be.

Guys. TIL there’s a @kelloggsnyc where you can get #cereal bowls (regular w milk, Greek #yogurt or #icecream) until late at night. Ah-mazing!!

A post shared by Ashley Covelli (@bigflavors) on Oct 23, 2016 at 6:33pm PDT

I’ve always been a fan of breakfast at any time of day, but seeing a menu full of items that could be served traditionally as cereal with milk, parfait-style with Greek yogurt, or as ice cream toppings totally blew my mind.

Ever since that day, my husband and I have been making our own Greek yogurt cereal bowls at home. They’re perfect late-night snacks, and work for breakfast and dessert, too.

We love thinking outside of the standard cereal bowl by mixing and matching whatever items are in our pantry to make our cereal bowls more exciting. The combination possibilities are endless!

So in thinking about what type of cereal bowl to share first here on Big Flavors, I decided to head over to Target to scope out the cereal aisle.

There were tons of options, and I was stoked to see that the large sized Kellogg cereals were on sale for $2.99 (both in-store and online at Target.com). I grabbed an 18 ounce box of Rice Krispies and a 17 ounce box of Apple Jacks to get creative with in my tiny kitchen.

I decided to combine my obsession with these cereal bowls with one of my favorite cookies – the Samoa (which, I recently learned, is also known as the Caramel deLite, depending on which bakery makes it).

I picked up some sweetened flaked coconut to toast up, as well as some chocolate sauce and little caramel bits to melt down for drizzling.

This recipe is so super simple to put together, and the flavor is phenomenal! The most involved thing you need to do is toast the coconut. And, truthfully, you could buy already toasted coconut chips if you want even more of a shortcut here.

We’re all busy – I get it. Don’t let a little extra time in the kitchen get between you and this delicious bowl.

A post shared by Ashley Covelli (@bigflavors) on Apr 30, 2017 at 6:47pm PDT

When you’re toasting your coconut, the first few minutes don’t seem like they’re doing anything. You’ll be tempted to raise the heat on your skillet.

Don’t do it.

Once the browning does finally start to happen, you’ll need to stir more frequently to prevent the golden brown bits from burning. Once my coconut got partially toasted, I turned the heat off and just kept stirring it for a few minutes before moving it into a bowl to cool down.

If you have caramel sauce on hand, it’ll work perfectly in this recipe. I picked up some little caramel bits that I microwaved carefully, stirring every 15 seconds or so, until smooth. Mine was a little thick so I added a splash of milk to it, which helped.

Assembling these bowls is a cinch! Just add in your yogurt and sprinkle and drizzle the rest of the ingredients on top. Grab a spoon and you’re ready to rock!

And something that totally surprised me – the Rice Krispies actually started to snap, crackle, and pop once they hit the yogurt. It totally brought me back to my childhood. Nothing like a bit of nostalgia with dessert, right?

Ooh! And if you have leftover toasted coconut, keep it in an airtight container and make these again the next day – and maybe try it out over ice cream this time around!

A post shared by Ashley Covelli (@bigflavors) on Apr 30, 2017 at 10:05pm PDT

What’s in your favorite cereal bowl? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below!

To get even more delicious inspiration from Kellogg, check out the social hub here!

Looking for more delicious ways to start your day? Here are some of our favorite breakfast recipes:

• Waffle Pulled Pork Eggs Benedict
• Our Favorite Buttermilk Pancakes
• Brie Waffle Bites
• Zoodle Frittata
• Kiwi, Spinach, Pineapple & Banana Smoothie Bowls
• Wobble Café’s Pain Perdu
• Mediterranean Quiche Duo with Cucumber-Chickpea Salad