Muesli: An Alternative to Cereal Killers

I'm a huge fan of elaborate, well-balanced breakfasts, but I'm usually running extremely late in the mornings and have to resort to scarfing down a bowl of cereal. Unfortunately, even some of the healthier cereals have high-fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient. As for children's cereals, many have more sugar per serving than a Hostess Twinkie. This may seem irrelevant, but nearly 60% kid's cereal consumers are actually adults!

Thankfully, I've recently stumbled upon a much cheaper and healthier alternative: home-made cereal. This recipe for home-made muesli takes less than 20 minutes, makes at least three times as much cereal as store-bought boxes for under $4 and is absolutely delicious. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs rolled oats
1.5 cups dried fruit
0.5 cup nuts
maple syrup (or honey)

Start out by raiding your local bulk bins for ingredients--get creative! (For this recipe, I used a pound of rolled oats and a half pound of "6-grain hot cereal" from a local store, with whole wheat, rye, oats, barley, sunflower and red wheat.) Grab a large bowl and pour in your rolled oats.

Next, mix in your dried fruits and nuts. Chop up anything larger than raisins and crush any whole nuts with the bottom of your measuring cup. (I used dried apricot, raisins, dried pineapple bits, dates and almonds.)

Finally, mix your ingredients well and lay them out on a cookie sheet. Drizzle maple syrup or honey and broil for 3-5 minutes.

 

Just pick out any slightly burned raisins (it's absolutely impossible for me to not burn anything when I'm cooking!)  and let cool. Put the muesli in your favorite jar and enjoy with milk or yogurt.

Let me know if you have any questions, and good luck!