Princess of the World

So, inspired by Graeme’s cousin making her own muesli, I thought I’d give it a shot. We have been paying just under 6 bucks for a tub of organic muesli that lasts us around 4 or 5 days. That, my friends, is shitty economics. Especially as the stuff we were buying (low fat) tasted like a mouth full of punches. Bland punches.

I looked around at the internet for some recipes and they’re all relatively similar. Firstly it had to be flavorsome enough to not need nuts (as the husband would die) and I wanted it to be relatively low in calories and sugar but have a bit of bang for buck nutrients wise. Whilst all the ingredients are actually quite high in calories, they’re pretty good for you. I started figuring out the calorie count and my estimate is around 120-140ish calories per 1/3 cup. I know 1/3 cup sounds like not much but there are a lot of grains and fat and some protein in the seeds, and it fills me up just fine before I go to the gym in the morning.

So I took the bits I liked from all the recipes and did this…

5 cups rolled oats
2 tbsp maple syrup (I used dark, so Grade 3, it’s a little less sweet)
2 tbsp wildflower honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
0.5c sunflower seeds (raw)
0.5c pumpkin seeds (raw)
0.75c dried apple
0.5c thompson raisins
good sploosh of cinnamon

I warmed the syrup and honey in a little pot to make it runnier, then poured it over the oats with the vanilla. I found that amount of liquid enough to coat everything.

I added the seeds to the oats and mixed it all together.

I lined a baking tray with tin foil and put a layer of the mix on it and popped it in the oven at 140C. It wasn’t a super thin mix, about half a centimetre or something. I shook it every fifteen minutes or so to allow all the bits to get toasty, and after 45 minutes took it out. I had to do it in two batches as my oven and tray are small.

Once that was done, I stirred in the fruit and cinnamon and let it cool.

And that’s it!

There are definitely a few things I think I’ll try next time I do this. Firstly, I might toast it slightly less, maybe half an hour? It is pretty toasty flavored, which is not bad, just, like, toasty. There are quite a lot of seeds in there, maybe a few less of them? Also, the apple became very dry very quickly, and I prefer the chewiness of dried apple. Given that they are pretty high in calories, I feel like they don’t add enough to the mix to be worth it (just another dried thingy in there) so I feel like maybe I’ll add them separately on a day to day basis? I think the flavor of the apple will be stronger then, and add some texture.

Most of the recipes I found use more syrup and honey (between 1/4 – 1/3 cup). This would probably be WAY MORE DELICIOUS but in order to eat Cadbury Creme Eggs every day, I gotta cut calories in other places. Consider adding more deliciousness if you are not a big dork who likes Creme Eggs, it’ll probably be worth it.

All the ingredients (and they were all organic, as well as the maple syrup and honey which were bought from the farm last summer and live in our pantry) came to about $10, and I certainly have enough for another batch. This batch has lasted two of us a week so far, with probably 4 days left?

It’s definitely cheaper and more delicious than what we were buying, so my next step is to improve on this and to start making my own yoghurt. Wheeee! Please send me amazing ideas for improvements and additions if you have any, this is by no means the end of my quest for muesli satisfaction. Good luck!