This recipe is one I have adapted from my mother's method over the years. Below I share my current recipe, but you can also adapt it to suit your family. When my children were small, I made it with the chopped rolled oats, used 1 dsp brown sugar in the liquid mix, and I added handfuls of chocolate or yoghurt covered raisins from the bulk bins after toasting, which convinced them it was at least as good as Hubbard's cereals and they loved to eat it. :-) To me, that small extravagance back then was worth it, as it set the up for a lifetime of healthy breakfast choices. Now everyone is big, I use whole-grain rolled oats and forego the special raisins and brown sugar. I decided this time around to work out just what this currently costs to make too - so you can compare it to store-bought cereals. More on that below.
Method:
Preheat oven to 100C. In a small pot on the stove, place 3/4 cup oil (I use olive), 1 dsp honey, and 1 dsp sugar or substitute (I currently use a stevia/erythritol blend). Heat gently just enough to combine.
Meanwhile, in a large roasting dish place:
1 kg rolled oats
Handfuls of nuts and seeds of your choice. I use:
3 handfuls each sliced almonds and whole cashews or cashew pieces
3 handfuls each pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds
1 cup linseed (ground in coffee grinder)
1-1 1/2 cups seseme seed (ground in coffee grinder).
Stir to combine
Preheat oven to 100C. In a small pot on the stove, place 3/4 cup oil (I use olive), 1 dsp honey, and 1 dsp sugar or substitute (I currently use a stevia/erythritol blend). Heat gently just enough to combine.
Meanwhile, in a large roasting dish place:
1 kg rolled oats
Handfuls of nuts and seeds of your choice. I use:
3 handfuls each sliced almonds and whole cashews or cashew pieces
3 handfuls each pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds
1 cup linseed (ground in coffee grinder)
1-1 1/2 cups seseme seed (ground in coffee grinder).
Stir to combine
Drizzle oil mixture over the top, then stir thoroughly to coat everything. Bake for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, stirring every 20 mins or so. It's quite forgiving - if you go off and leave it for a hour or so, it won't hurt anything. Alternatively, you can increase the temp to 125C and do it for a shorter period, but keep a close eye on it if you do that, as over-cooked oats and nuts are not very nice! Once toasted to your satisfaction, turn the oven off, and leave the muesli in there until cold or overnight.
Finally, add some dried fruit of your choice - I generally add raisins, or sometimes home grown and dried berries if I have them. Store in an air tight container. This mixture easily fills my 4.2 litre cereal container.
Finally, add some dried fruit of your choice - I generally add raisins, or sometimes home grown and dried berries if I have them. Store in an air tight container. This mixture easily fills my 4.2 litre cereal container.
Healthy and filling, this muesli is a great way to start the day!
Cost:
It is always a useful exercise to add up the cost of commonly-made recipes from time to time, to make sure you're not going to extra effort to produce something more expensive than the supermarket's ones! Of course, by doing it yourself, you can ensure only the best ingredients and no nasty fillers, so take that into consideration! Let's look at what a batch of this muesli costs me to make. Since I have a Price Book it is easy for me to find the per kg price; all I needed to do was measure how much I use in each batch of each ingredient.
It is always a useful exercise to add up the cost of commonly-made recipes from time to time, to make sure you're not going to extra effort to produce something more expensive than the supermarket's ones! Of course, by doing it yourself, you can ensure only the best ingredients and no nasty fillers, so take that into consideration! Let's look at what a batch of this muesli costs me to make. Since I have a Price Book it is easy for me to find the per kg price; all I needed to do was measure how much I use in each batch of each ingredient.
Ingredient |
Price per kg & where bought |
Amount used per batch |
Cost per batch |
Whole grain rolled oats |
$3.29 - Pak'n Save |
1 kg |
$3.29 |
Sliced almonds |
$29.23 - Gilmours |
160g |
$4.68 |
Cashew nuts |
$18.20 - Gilmours |
200g |
$3.64 |
Pumpkin seeds |
$20.37 - Gilmours |
140g |
$2.85 |
Sunflower seeds |
$7.18 - Gilmours |
130g |
$0.93 |
Linseed |
$6.50 - Pak'n Save |
150g |
$0.98 |
Seseme seeds |
$7.66 - Gilmours |
135g |
$1.03 |
Raisins |
$5.73 - New World |
135g |
$0.77 |
Olive oil |
$6.99/750ml - Pak 'n save |
175 ml |
$1.63 |
Honey |
Free - our bees |
1 dsp |
$0.00 |
Stevia/erythritol blend |
$35 - Steve's Wholefoods |
10g |
$0.35 |
Total cost: |
Value |
$20.15 |
Total weight of finished batch of muesli: 2.186 kg. At a cost of $20.15, that means it costs $9.22/kg
I have yet to go to the store and read lots of muesli packets to find which ones compare best. The closest I can see online is the bulk bin natural unsweetened or toasted muesli from New World (which appear to have far less nuts and seeds in them) at $13.90/kg. Most of the packeted varieties I have checked out recently contain a lot of wheat and other grain fillers which don't suit us. Of course, I could cut back on the amount of nuts and seeds, but the result would probably be far less satisfying or nutritious.
I will confess, this has been an interesting exercise; I hadn't realised just how much the cost added up these days! If I were buying ingredients from the supermarket bulk bins, it would cost even more.
How about you? Do you make your own breakfast cereals? Do you know how much it costs you?
I will confess, this has been an interesting exercise; I hadn't realised just how much the cost added up these days! If I were buying ingredients from the supermarket bulk bins, it would cost even more.
How about you? Do you make your own breakfast cereals? Do you know how much it costs you?
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