Heather: Hey guys, this is Heather from healthyveganrecipes.net.
So today I am not in the kitchen, I am showing you a recipe that is so easy you can make
it sitting on the couch and you can have it for breakfast, you can have it as a snack,
we’d name muesli.
So a lot of people think of granolas when they think of healthy eating and think like
health nut, granola head, all that kind of stuff.
And granola is fine but if you look at the ingredients on some of the granolas that you
buy in a box, there is a ton of sugar in those things and a ton of refined hydrogenated oils
a lot of the times.
So it’s always good to make your own.
So you make your own granola or you can make and even healthier version is to do muesli,
but muesli isn’t baked.
So it doesn’t need any additional oil or anything like that.
If you buy muesli in a store, it’s often a lot healthier than granola because it doesn’t
have that mass amount of sugar and oil in it.
So check the ingredients when you are buying a box and you should see healthy things like
whole oat flakes, wheat flakes, rye flakes, almonds, nuts, seeds, raisins, dates, things
like that.
And then whenever I read ingredients like that, I mean it’s great to buy box if you
are traveling or something and it’s really easy but then I think let’s just buy things
and make it myself.
So that’s what I do a lot of the times.
Phil really enjoys this as an actual stack.
What I start with is a container.
This one is perfect because it opens and you can just pour it out.
And all you are going to do is mix together some ingredients.
So I have got some oat flakes, I am just going to pour some of those in and I don’t tend
to measure; I just look at ratios.
What we are doing is on the couch, just be careful you don’t spill too much.
It’s time to be very careful with my flakes.
These are some spelt flakes.
Now spelt is a relative of wheat, so if you have gluten intolerance issues, then you want
to look into something else.
I’ve seen in stores that I go to rolled rice flakes and Quinoa flakes and all that
kind of fun stuff.
So you can keep your eye open for that.
Then I’ve got some unsweetened coconut.
That’s very important to not get to the sweetened kind because it will be coated in
icing sugar which is refined and not very good for you.
If you get the unsweetened coconut, you do some excellent healthy nutrients, it’s good
fats and all that kind of stuff.
Then let me put in here.
I am going to do some raisins.
Raisins are another one; you want to check the ingredients when you buy them because
they actually put oil on them to keep them moist and sometimes they even put some glucose
syrup or other sugars on to raisins to keep them fresh, make them sweeter, but raisins,
they are sweet enough on their own, right?
So just heads up when you are buying raisins, something that I learned recently.
Then I’ve got some sunflower seeds.
When you buy these, also look at the ingredients.
They can be raw which these ones are or they can be dry toasted which means they are toasted
without any oil or they might be roasted and this is the same with any nut or seed; when
they are roasted they are done with oil and they are often done with the cheap refined
oils that aren’t very good for you.
So again, look at the ingredients; I’ve got some almonds here as well.
These are really nice if you chop them up but I am just throwing them in whole because
I am lazy.
Same thing with almonds, look for raw or dry toasted almonds.
Then you can get into a few more little fun things.
So one thing that I like to put in to make it a little bit crunchy are some puffed cereal.
These are Kamut Puffs, you can also find rice puffs.
Now this is different from Rice Krispies.
Rice Krispies, what they do is they grind down the rice into flour and then mix it with
some sugar and extrude it, meaning they put it through a really high heat process.
So the end result is that it’s pretty heavily processed, whereas puffed cereal is where
they take a grain and you can actually see that this looks like a grain, and they just
pop it like popcorn kind of where it’s just put into heat and it puffs.
This is different from extrusion because that puts it through really high pressure and heat
and anyway; different process, puffed cereals are healthier.
Okay, I think you can put in whatever variety of other stuff you like.
So I put in raisins and I’ve also got some dried figs that I’ve chopped up.
I can put in here, dates are really nice, dried apricots are one that I put in fairly
often.
Dried apple, dried mango, when you are looking for dried fruits, I mentioned that raisins
are often coated in oil.
Dates are often coated in glucose syrup.
So try to look for dates that don’t have that and they often, like apricots are often
done with sulfites, it’s a preservative and they are often treated with coloring to
make them really vibrant shades of whatever color they are going for.
So you want to stick as natural as possible, look for things that don’t have that.
And last but not least, I have a special little treat in here for Phil, some vegan choco chips.
Now these are not the epitome of healthy eating, but you know what, you kind of have some fun
sometimes and that’s not very much considering how big of muesli I have.
I don’t even know if there is muesli itself.
So we’ll see how many times he eats this before he notices that there -- okay, when
you put the lid on and shake it up, here’s the fun part.
Now I forgot one super special Heather ingredient.
I like to put in a little spoon full of cinnamon, makes it just a little bit tastier.
We also like to put in ground ginger sometimes, nutmeg or anything like that.
Just gives it a bit more flavor, makes the taste more interesting.
So lovely, healthy, handmade muesli you’ve got in your hands.
What you are going to do with it?
Well, you can pour some almond milk, rice milk, put milk on top.
You can also deal with juice; I’ve done apple juice, cranberry juice, really delicious.
You can also pair it with apple sauce.
That’s one of my favorite things to do with it or a soy yogurt or something like that.
Lots of options, I also can sometimes sprinkle it on top of morning porridge so I cook some
and then just pour some of this on top for flavor and crunch and yeah, very delicious
and makes for a nice, full length snack to give you energy for your afternoon.
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
You can try combination of nut, seeds, grains, puff grains that you like.
Give it a go.
I put the ingredients that I put in here today over on healthyveganrecipes.net and you can
also find lots of other recipes over there, of course.
So that’s it, that’s all.
Bye, see you guys next time.