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Thursday 29 November 2012

Soaked Museli

Tom today,

Vegan breakfasts can seem daunting, as everything requires either eggs, milk, bacon or all three (bacon panackes - I'll have to get on to making a vegan version of these soon!). However, I have this museli with a portion of fruit (1/2 cup) each morning and find it keeps me full until lunch just fine. It can be made the night before if (like me) you are not a morning person. I really mean it. Getting up is just not my thing.

This is a recipe from my mum who is really into raw foods cooking (if it can be called cooking). She has very kindly bought me a years supply of each of these ingredients, which of course I have nearly finished three months later, however I realise these aren't necessarily ingredients which people have around the house. However, any good health food store should supply you with these, and buying them in bulk is always the cheaper way to do it! I make this every morning for breakfast and love it, combined with some fresh fruit makes a filling, healthy breakfast that I never get tired of. It's also extremely low fat and relatively low in calories (in comparison to other breakfasts) because it uses soaked oats instead of milk.

As a vegan I often use oat milk (along with hazelnut and almond), which is simply soaked oats which have then been sieved by someone in a big factory off somewhere (they may also heat it, I don't know the exact process) so by soaking these oats briefly, you create the creamy sensation of milky cereal without the need for extra calories. Linseeds are also very good for you, as are all seeds, but the energy and nutrients contained within are thought to be more easily accessible once they have been soaked (again, my mum could show you studies that suggest this to be the case, if anyone would like to hear them email and I'll ask her, I have seen enough to think it is worth trying but don't pretend to know everything about this). Raisins are also, in my opinion, infinitely better when soaked, and pumpkin and sunflower seeds are also better for you when soaked, though the difference is less so than with linseeds (when you do it you'll see, they get almost a coating around them).

Anyway on with the recipe!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of Oats
1/2 tbsp Linseeds
1 tbsp Sunflower Seeds
1 tsp Pumpkin Seeds
Handful of raisins (probably about 7-9, I really dislike too many)

Method:

There are two ways you can make this, a quick way (using hot water and cold water) and a long way (using cold water).
Oats, pumpkin and sunflower seeds require about half an hour's soaking in cold water - I wouldn't use hot water to soak these - mainly because if you add boiling water to oats you basically make porridge (which I can't stand - seriously, why would you give me lumpy grey tasteless mush first thing in the morning and expect a gracious smile. Not going to happen).
First the long way; what I normally do is make about 2 weeks worth mixed up in a jar. This then needs at least an hours soaking in cold water (I often make it in a tub overnight so I can grab it and eat it on the bus when I inevitably oversleep my alarm and run off to lectures). Overnight is better, an hour is fine.
The quick way simply involves not mixing it beforehand. This way you can soak the oats and sunflower/pumpkin seeds for just half an hour. Then you can soak the linseeds and raisins; pour boiling water over them (I usually do this in a mug) and leave to cool. For ease I usually just leave it for the same amount of time as the oats and then mix it all together. This works just as well, but I like to have it all ready in a jar that I can pour easily (I'm not organised enough to do this separately each morning like my mum). Plus the jars look nice lined up on my worktop!

Hope you enjoy this museli as much as I do, nutritional information to follow. As always, feel free to alter this recipe, add your own dried fruits or different seeds, and let us know your ideas at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com.

Serving suggestions: sometimes I add toasted candied nuts (agan something I often make in bulk - recipe to follow) for a nice flavour. Also dried blueberries and a teaspoon cinnamon sugar (add 1 tsp of cinnamon to half a cup of golden granulated sugar and store in a jar) make a nice addition.


and everyone loves a kilner jar on the worktop. Makes me feel like a real adult.
Nutritional Information:

                      Calories   Carbs     Fat     Protein     Sodium     Sugar
          Total:      312         42        11         10            3             9

1/2 a cup of fruit adds around 23 calories.

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