While you may think making a choice of breakfast cereal or muesli in the supermarket aisle is difficult, it’s even harder making the choice of ingredients for your own home blend. You could make a million different mixes depending on what’s in the pantry and it can be quite hard to constrain yourself to 5 or 6 add-ins at times.
My favourite off-the-shelf mueslis have always been filled with big chunky pieces of nuts and dried fruit. At home my own combos have become quite similar, great texture and taste with plenty of nuts, seeds and other wholefood ingredients. I make muesli depending on what I have on hand at the time, and now what I have growing in the garden. It’s much more inexpensive and flavourful compared to store-bought and breakfast is a bit more enticing when looking forward to your own personalised breakfast blend.
Sweet and fragrant, this grain-free muesli combines vibrant dried strawberries and goji with a whole host of flavourful add-ins. Strawberries would make my list of top five fruits (with golden kiwi, apples, bananas and rockmelon) and after weeks of only getting 3 or 4 a day from the garden I found 20 ripe ones yesterday. Dehydrating strawberries means that I can enjoy them long after the season has finished; my whole house also smells intoxicatingly like berries for 10ish hours while they dry (yum!). While I find it to be a fantastic tool, don’t be frightened that I’ve mentioned a dehydrator, you can also use an oven on a low or high temperature or incorporate other bought dried fruits into this easy mix.
You can see lots of goodies in this big jar – lots of nuts and seeds, dried fruit, coconut, flaxmeal and cinnamon. What you might also notice though is there are no oats, no rolled grains of any kind actually. Full of texture and taste there’s still an abundance of healthy carbs, fat and protein to rev you up in the morning. It needs to live in the fridge (because of the heat sensitive flaxmeal) and is perfect on top of steamy porridge or big dollops of yoghurt or kefir in the morning.
The ten minutes I’ve stated in the prep time is really the time it takes to open up food packets, measure out what you need, mix in a bowl and spoon into a jar/s. It’s untoasted which means you’re one step closer to spooning it onto your morning breakfast and is lower in sugar, being sweetened with coconut flakes and warming cinnamon instead of honey like granola. This grain-free muesli is so easy to mess around with, just replace an ingredient with the same amount of one you like better, e.g. 1/3 cup sultanas instead of goji, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds instead of pepitas. I’d love to hear about any variations you’ve tried!
- 1 cup dried strawberries (bought or see instructions below)
- ⅓ cup dried goji berries
- ¼ cup raw buckwheat
- ¼ cup halved macadamia nuts
- ⅓ cup flaked almonds
- ¼ cup flaked coconut
- ¼ cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
- ¼ cup ground flax meal
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- 3 tsp ground cinnamon
- Use dehydrator to dry strawberries: Hull and cut fresh strawberries in half. Lay on dehydrator sheets, cut side up. Dehydrate for 8 - 10 hours on 52C/125F OR 12 hours on 46C/115F - A great option for a raw muesli blend!
- Use oven to dry strawberries: Hull and cut fresh strawberries in half. Lay on parchment lined baking trays, cut side up. Bake on lowest setting for 10 - 12 hours, checking every 2 hours from 8 hours on OR bake at 210C/410F for 3 hours OR bake at 140C (or the lowest temperature your oven goes) for 8 hours, checking often.
- Combine dried strawberries and all other ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon into a large jar or resealable container and refrigerate.
Comments 22
Saw this on TasteSpotting. Been looking for a new meal to add in to my raw food recipe list! Will definitely be making this as soon as I get some dried strawberries.
Author
Oh yay! Hope you like it, I’ve nearly finished my jar and need to make more!
Oh yummmmm…!! I pinned this even before trying it. 😉 I have several ingredients on hand, but I’m going to the store tomorrow for more. Can’t wait to try this! Thanks as always!
Author
My pleasure gorgeous, your comments always leave me beaming! Hope you make some yummy muesli!
It was more than yummy–I polished off a pint-sized jar of it in one night (with a little help from my hubs)! I’ve made another double batch and given some to my brother and sis-in-law. Thanks again for sharing your amazing talents and recipes with us over here in SoCal! 🙂
Author
Oh yum, so happy you loved it enough to share it around! I’ve hidden a jar in the back of the fridge at the moment, all so I can eat some before my boyfriend Kam devours it all. He’s one of those people that doesn’t move things to find food in the fridge hehe.
Lol. I have a shorter version of a fridge forager. 😉 Mine is sitting ATOP our fridge and out of his line of vision. Teehee.
Author
Hahaha that’s a great place to hide it! I’m making a new batchthis weekend after I dehydrate some nectarines and apricots 😀
Now that is one beautiful blend of super-foods that you’re not about to find in any cereal box! It looks amazing, and I’m also excited that it’s a dry, shelf-stable food to keep on hand in case of emergencies… I’m certainly learned a thing or two from my hurricane experiences.
Author
I’m sure you have learned a lot and I hope life for your family returns to some semblance of normalcy as soon as possible. My heart has been going out to all the people affected lately, reading your blog the other day was the first first-hand account I had read since the hurricane. I can’t imagine how devastating the storm really was, it’s definitely made me consider how I would survive if something similar was to happen here.
Gorgeous. You site is so modern and easy to use. Fab photos too. xox
Author
Thankyou Emily, I love getting feedback and glad to hear it’s easy to use 🙂
I’ve been having a lot of fun looking through your blog today, I’ve fallen totally in love with your layered ice-cream cake *swoon*
I actually found all of the ingredients at a bulk store! I am so happy, totally making this delicious mixture!
Author
I’m so happy too, I can’t wait to hear how you go making it 😀
Love your recipes! I’m going to use it to my everyday oatmeal:)
Author
Thanks Adrianna! I’ll be doing the same thing with my oatmeal once it gets chilly here in Melbourne 😀
Sooooo yummy looking! I wish I had this to snack on right now. I miss snacks.
Author
Thanks for the comment! I’ve been making batch after batch of this muesli for snacks and breakfasts. I think I need to make some variations soon as strawberries are starting to disappear!
This looks great! If the flax is omitted, it’s safe to keep non-refrigerated, correct?
Author
That’s correct mxm, thanks for the question. Flax, when unrefrigerated goes rancid very quickly – quite unpleasant!
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