About six weeks ago I decided to become someone who exercised in the morning. I’d long been an evening gym goer, but was finding it increasingly hard to muster the motivation in those later hours. While it was hard to convince myself to get up, dressed, and out the door in those first couple weeks, it’s become a pretty dependable habit and it working nicely for me.
There has been one unanticipated outcome of this morning exercise routine is that is has totally changed what I want to eat for breakfast. Cooked oatmeal, one of my regular breakfast items, has become totally unappealing. Enter muesli!
It requires no cooking, can be set to soak with a little milk to soften before I head out to run (slowly and not all that far), and much like my beloved hot oatmeal, is tasty with a heap of fresh fruit. And did I mention that it is blessedly cool?
The thing about muesli is that there really aren’t a whole lot of rules. It’s really just a combination of oats, nuts, and seeds, in whatever proportions you want. I added some puffed brown rice cereal to lighten it a little, but you skip that if you don’t want to invest in a box of cereal to make more cereal. My recipe is below, but you can really mix it up any way you’d like.
Single Quart Muesli for Breakfast
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup puffed brown rice cereal
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup flaked coconut
- 1/4 cup dried blueberries
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and toss well to combine. Funnel the muesli into a quart jar, gently tapping the jar to settle the cereal in.
- I like to set the muesli to soak with milk half an hour to an hour before I'm going to eat it.
Thanks for another cereal mix to try, I really liked the fruit butter granola. Not so sweet and I did like it after a bit.
I discovered muesli on a cruise to Alaska about 10 years ago and couldn’t get enough of it. Passed up all the breakfast goodies available and filled up on it every morning. Since then I have been trying to duplicate the combination they used but it is never quite the same. Maybe the atmosphere had something to do with it. One thing I’ve always done is make it the night before and let it soak longer. Have you tried this Marisa? Also I use about half and half yogurt and milk.
What ratio of milk to dry ingredients do you use?
I use a one to one ratio.
Love muesli – but as with so many things these days, I’m generally too lazy to make it (I know, I know…..!). For those of you in or close to West Philly, Mariposa food co-op has a nice version in their bulk food bins. Not too sweet, unlike many pre-made granolas, which often are.
I totally hear you on the pre-made version. I just already had all the ingredients in my pantry, so making a batch didn’t feel like that much work.
Where do you find your brown puffed rice? The only kind I found was about 3x as much as any other cereal in the cereal aisle and about half the size.
I often have a box of the Erewhon puffed brown rice cereal on hand. It doesn’t come in a huge package.
So it just appears thanks to the puffed brown rice cereal fairy? Or do you buy it somewhere?
I realize now that I misread your original question. I buy mine at Whole Foods. If it’s still too spendy, you could swap in some other puffed whole grain cereal. Some are pretty inexpensive.