This healthy muesli recipe made me think back to the 1970’s in England, when muesli was a very new idea.
When I was a child we were lucky to have ponies and we did a lot of showjumping. My parents knew some local trainers as well, so during the holidays we’d also ride out thoroughbred racehorses on the gallops, and I was always getting run away with when I’d often fall off and have to walk home.
It was a very active childhood and the accent wasn’t on food, or fast food, and treats were pretty scarce.
I loved my horsey days, and they completely took my mind of everything else, including boys, until about the age of 16, when it all changed.
Of course when the notion of boys entered the scene, so did my focus on any form of exercise except mental exercise thinking about the likes of Donny Osmond (I know!)
Body image and diet, words which hadn’t really been in my vocabulary before became words of some importance in my late teen years. Less mucking out and grooming meant more time for eating toast and marmite, or Devon cream teas, and drinking Taunton scrumpy or cider (if I could get hold of it) with friends at the local disco, and so the puppy fat multiplied.
How I came to know about oats and Muesli
However, I didn’t let it deter me much. After all if you wanted to fatten a horse up, you gave it bran. If you wanted its coat to shine you gave it linseed. And if you wanted it to be frisky and fit you fed it oats.
I needed to lose a bit of weight.
Too easy. I needed oats!
So for breakfast, lunch and dinners I changed my diet and ate a lot of oats, mixed in a little bran and some linseed, ingredients which, back then, were just appearing in various muesli’s or toasted oat cereals.
And was surprised to find that the weight didn’t exactly melt off!
These days, I’m a little more savvy about the whole input/output food vs exercise idea, but I do still favour oats, which my 84 year old Mum swears keep her cholesterol levels at bay as long as she has a daily dose.
So when Emma suggested making some healthy home made muesli the other day, I was all for it.
Hope you enjoy what we came up with – we do! Here are the ingredients we used.
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup dry roasted almonds – crushed
- 1 cup banana chips
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 1 cup trail mix *
- 1 cup all bran
- 2 cups Special K Advantage
- 1 cup pitted dates – chopped
- 1 tablespoon Chia Seeds
- Crush the almonds in a food processor, until crunchy, not smooth.
- Chop the dates.
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Tip into an airtight container.
- Enjoy in moderation with yoghurt or milk.
- *I buy trail mix at the supermarket, it’s a mixture of seeds, sultanas and cranberries. You could make up your own.
Do you have a favourite muesli recipe? What else do you add in?
Until next time,
11 Tips for Success from Dale Alcock
Nice recipe – I love oats and Muesli. Your story about trying to lose weight eating oats in your teens reminded me that I did just about the same thing at about 20 — I tried going the oats and granola route to lose weight — didn’t work. Oh, Donny Osmond?? I wasn’t a fan. 🙂
Oh that’s too funny Cathy! Glad you could relate … Although not to the Donny Osmond love 😉 Wonder if you had a teen idol?
Thanks for visiting my blog. This sounds like the perfect antidote for my too-heavy meal:-)
Hope so Irene! but your meal sounded yummy all the same 😉
This is terrific, Jo! I’m absolutely going to make this muesli as it’s just the healthy snack I’ve been looking for to have handy at work. We always ate trail mix as a kid and of course it was a staple when backpacking. Btw…I burst out laughing at Donny Osmond!! I got to meet the Osmonds at The Nugget here in Reno, Nv USA when I worked as a bellman there a couple lifetimes ago 😉
Too funny Mike! And by the way I am green with envy! He was my teen Idol!! Glad you like the muesli recipe and hope it has you bouncing with good health 😉 Thanks for popping by.
I would have to have dried apricots in mine. I used to make musli years ago when I had young children. I don’t know why I don’t make it now! Musli must be the go right now because my blogging friend over at The Red Bistro has just posted a recipe for Musli & fig muffins.
I don’t know why we didn’t add some dried apricots Jill. Love them. Thanks for the reminder. Those muesli fog muffins sound good too 🙂
Great timing I need some more muesli. I was thinking about doing that 10 day challenge that Amanda had on her FB page a link to a client. xxx Rae
Well, I’m so glad Rae, that the timing was good. I hope you like the recipe. Please let us know if you add anything else that’s yummy and healthy. I’m going to have a look at the 10 day challenge – sounds great 🙂
Thanks for bringing back memories of when I had my own horse. I loved my cowgirl boots and riding on our farm. I don’t have a favorite muesli recipe, but I’m going to try yours.
Now why did I think that you would be one to own a horse, Neva! I bet you were a daredevil too 🙂 Hope you like the recipe, and as always with recipes, I’d be interested to see if you come up with any additions to the ingredients.