Fresh apple muesli

One of my worst bad habits is not eating breakfast. I know I should and I have sincere plans to do it, but every morning I can barely make it out of the house with both shoes on. Sitting down to a good breakfast almost nevery happens; I'll always go for the extra 10 minutes in bed!
When I do grab a few minutes to eat breakfast I'm a bit stuck for ideas. I don't like cereal or sweet foods in the morning- jams, honey, yoghurts....nope, I can't cope with that sugar injection first thing in the day. A muesli bar in the car on the way to work? Aieeee- my teeth hurt at the thought. And it's not enough to fill me up. I usually go for some grainy toast with Vegemite, but even that leaves me unsatisfied. Actually taking the time to eat something seems to actually makes me hungrier, and then I'm scrounging around for something not long after getting to work. Strangely, not eating breakfast doesn't leave me as hungry, but I know I really ought to. No, the situation is unsatisfactory, dammit!
One of the alternatives suggested to me by many books and doctors is a cooked breakfast. Eggs, and tomatoes and spinach and mushrooms and stuff. Hello?? Like, SURE that's going to happen! I'm not standing over a frying pan straight out of bed, when I could be using that time in bed/in the shower/doing my hair/getting to work early! And then coming home to the dirty pans? Tasty idea, but realistically, not going to happen.

Fresh muesli is something I had been unfamiliar with until recently. To me, muesli was just another dry boxed cereal and I didn't like them. It looked like horse feed. But one day in a cafe a friend ordered some fresh museli and it arrived looking all moist and fruity and yoghurty and damn attractive. I kept sneaking bits from his plate. It was explained to me that it was Swiss bircher muesli; from then I was interested. This was something I could eat, but I couldn't go out for breakfast every morning, could I? I never considered making my own. I'd dabbled in making my own granola last year. It was tasty, but really took organisation and time to make, and really isn't as healthy because it uses sugars, syrups and oil.

But a few months ago, at a 2nd hand book stall I found Jill Dupleix's 'New Food'. Her first book (?) published in 1993, it was quite forward thinking and its recipes hold up really well today. Design-wise it's amusing; it's at the real cross-roads between the minimalist design style of the 90s and the overblown, blowsy, gilt-rimmed crockery and overcrowded country-house table photographs of the 80s. I laugh every time I see a photo of some khaki-coloured grapes piled onto a tizzy silver platter. Eugh.
In the breakfast section, Jill includes the fresh muesli recipe of a Swiss friend. It looked dead easy to make and I gave it a go. It was so good that now I make it every other week. It does require a tiny amount of organisation, because you have to soak the oats overnight, but I can just about cope with that. And would you believe it's the only thing I've ever found that actually fills me up in the morning and leaves me feeling full until lunchtime.? Yay! All those slow-release, low GI oats that expand in my stomach I guess. It's not too sweet, so it doesn't offend my tastebuds. I use Jalna fat-free yoghurt, so it's even healthier, and I add a few spoons of cinnamon (hence the pretty unappealing brown colour of the mush in the photo) to go with the apple. The honey instead of refined sugar makes it better for you too.
It's tasty, it's healthy and it's filling. Woo-hoo!

Read on for the recipe:


Fresh apple muesli
from Jill Dupleix 'New Food'

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup water
1/2 cup natural yoghurt
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon wheatgerm
2 tablespoons chopped nuts
1 banana, mashed
1 greem apple, coarsely grated (with skin)
Any fruits or berries you like
*Cinnamon to taste (optional)

-Soak rolled oats overnight in water
-Add yoghurt, honey, wheatgerm, nuts, banana, apple and fruits
-Top with more grated apple and serve
Serves 4

NB - Even though you have to be a millionaire to buy bananas these days, don't be tempted to skip this ingredient. I tried it and it really wasn't very good. So, dig deep and buy that one $2 banana.
Tagged with breakfast