Travels With Emilie–or Breakfast in the Middle of the Rhine

muesli breakfast cereal.jpgBy the time you read this, I’ll be in Europe.  As part of my husband’s sabbatical, we’ll be cruising the Rhine for two weeks, exploring countries we’ve always wanted to visit.  Somehow in our travels we’ve missed Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.  We have been to France, but only (only?) Paris.  So now we’ll have a chance to experience portions of them at a leisurely pace.  I’ll still be posting, thanks to my helpful assistant Marna.  But I’ll tell you about the trip once I’m home again.  With maybe a photo or two? 

For now, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite recipes.  I first had museli in Australia, where I could never seem to eat enough.  Then I discovered that muesli is a European delicacy–originally Swiss–and I ate it everywhere I traveled.  Unfortunately the commercial version in the U.S. is terribly sweet, nothing like the version we’d learned to love.  So little by little, my husband and I have developed our own.  We eat it every morning with fresh fruit.  I use it in bread.  I roll bread dough in it before I bake it.  Note that it has the three sacred ingredients we hear so much about these days: oats, blueberries and walnuts.

So eat along with me as I cruise through European waters.  I can’t imagine anything healthier than this recipe or more delightful.  You  might get hooked, too. 

Michael’s Museli

  • 10 cups of regular rolled oats, lightly toasted on cookie sheet or jelly roll pan for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
  • 1 cup each: Dried blueberries, untoasted and unsalted sunflower seeds, untoasted and unsalted pumpkin seeds, coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
  • Add approximately 2 to 3 cups of whole grain, high fiber cereal–we like Kashi Go Lean.

Mix together and store in moisture-proof container.  Serve with milk or use it on good, natural yogurt. Top with fruit.

Could anything be easier?  And of course, there’s lots of room to experiment. The batch in our pantry right now has pecans and dried mangos and pineapples.  Nuts, seeds, dried fruits, different flaked cereals.  You be the chef.  If you try it, tell me how you most enjoyed it and what, if anything, you changed. 

Bon appetite! Guter appetit! Goede eetlust! And happy eating! 

**Don’t forget to enter the Happiness Key Beach Bag giveaway. See Contest Page for details.

2 Comments

  1. Ingrid King on September 15, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    The Muesli recipe sound wonderful! I’m printing it out.
    I grew up eating Muesli in Germany, and was terribly disappointed when I moved to the US twentysome years ago to find that it wasn’t something that was readily available. At least now, lots of different varieties are available in stores, but nothing tastes like the kind I remember eating as a child. There are some versions that have come close, though. Your recipe just might be one of them!

  2. Patricia Barraclough on September 17, 2009 at 11:15 pm

    Sounds wonderful. The commercial varieties are often a bit too sweet. This should be perfect. Can’t wait to try it.

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