Written by Catherine Saxelby
on Wednesday, 09 April 2014.
Tagged: breakfast, breakfast cereals, fibre, healthy eating, nuts, oats, seeds
Muesli, aka granola, is a great example of a once-hippy alternative breakfast food that’s made the transition from health food stores into mainstream supermarkets. I’m pleased as nutritionally it ticks a lot of boxes for me and is a great way to sneak things into your diet that you’d otherwise struggle to eat. Muesli is one of those fab foods that are easy to make your own or ‘enhance’ the store-bought ones as I explain here…
No matter how ‘good’ or how ‘pricey’, I always find I need to add more nuts and seeds to any store-bought muesli. This lets me take in good things like linseed or wheat germ or psyllium (for extra fibre) that are pretty dull on their own and hard to add to your diet unless you’re into smoothies (which I’m not a big fan of, I must admit! Think liquid calories!) It’s also fairly cheap to make yourself and the nuts/seeds/fruits taste fresher. So here’s what I usually do:
Mix all the ingredients with a big spoon to combine well. Ladle into 2 or 3 airtight containers or tall, wide-mouth, glass Mason jars.
Keeps well for 2 months in the cupboard – in hot weather I store mine in the fridge in my battle against the pantry moth, but a cool dark place is fine.
Makes 1.35 kg or 12 cups or 36 serves (third-cup)
Muesli is ‘dense’ in that it packs in a lot of calories and carbs into a small volume, much more so than flaked or popped ‘light’ cereals. This is one of the reasons it takes time to eat and sticks with you. My one-third cup of muesli weighs 40 grams which is one WHOLE cup or more of other commercial cereals. So be sure to check out how much you put in your bowl. The ideal serve size is anywhere from ¼ to ½ cup which looks small in the bowl but once you add some fruit and yoghurt it looks like the substantial breakfast it is.
According to Wisegeek.com, the term "muesli" comes from the Swiss-German word mus, which means "mixture" which truly does describe my bowl of morning mess! They say muesli was first created by Dr Max Bircher-Benner, who ran a sanatorium in Switzerland, in the early 20th century. I have associated his name with the pre-soaked oats that one grates a fresh apple into – for which I have a recipe (see below). I associate muesli with the granola-style cereals that first appeared at the Kellogg sanatorium in Battle Creek at the same time.
This famous oat breakfast makes a delicious way to take the goodness of both oats and fruit. It makes a filling breakfast - nice on those mornings when you don't want hot oats but are craving something more substantial.
You simply measure out and soak rolled oats overnight in water, milk or juice and it takes up the liquid and is ready to eat by morning.
I like to grate in a small apple but there’s heaps of variations including berries, diced rockmelon or mango, sliced banana, as well as chopped nuts and seeds.
You can even use a basic muesli to bake a healthy slice.Yes it's sweet but it’s filling so you only need a small square of it - which I guarantee really hits the spot.
If you like something sweet between meals, this is a lot healthier than sweet biscuits or chocolate and the kids will love it too. Print it out here.
Gluten-free muesli
Muesli can work without the oats or any form of wheat flakes or wheat bran as long as you rely on getting the flavour from seeds and nuts. Puffed millet, buckwheat flakes, puffed rice and amaranth can all be used as the base grains. Brookfarm at Byron Bay make lovely interesting gluten-free macadamia mueslis that don't taste like cardboard.
Fruit-free muesli
Many people can't eat dried fruit (eg fructose intolerance) or don't like the sweetness of it or don't want the fruit sugars from it (dried fruit like sultanas, for instance, are concentrated high-calorie forms of fresh grapes so you can end up eating a lot of fruit sugar even though there's no added sugar). Carmen's muesli is one of the more popular mueslis and her original variant is the fruit-free version that you'll find in supermarkets.
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