In America today, food choices are abundant. Unfortunately, many choices are not healthy for our bodies to consume on a regular basis. Foods like many processed pre-packaged meals, fast food, white sugar laden foods are just a few. There are so many additives and preservatives out there as well. I have chosen to make a concerted effort to buy and cook nutritious foods for my family. This blog reflects healthy recipes and information on healthy eating. I try to reflect a balanced diet where healthy eating is the norm.
Here in my home, my daughter and I have really enjoyed homemade muesli. We eat it with warm milk, whole grain toast and an egg. We also eat it sprinkled on some plain yogurt. It's simple to make and you can add your own dried fruits and such to it. Here's what I usually do:
Homemade Muesli
In whatever container I plan to store it in, I fill it slightly less than 3/4 full of whole rolled oats. Sometimes I sprinkle a little salt in it. Sometimes I don't. I add dried prunes, chopped up. I also add a good bit of raisins. The container I use I put about 5-6 cups of oats in it. To that I probably add 1/2 - 1 cup nuts (usually chopped walnuts or almonds). You can add different kinds of dried fruit. I've added dried apples before. I also tried dried apricots but didn't much care for those in it. I've added unsweetened coconut before as well. You really can be creative with this. I store mine in the refrigerator and it keeps well.
1 1/2 cups + 1 tbsp. whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. milled flax seed
1/4 cup oats
1 tsp. cinnamon
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
about 2 cups milk
water as needed to thin out the batter
Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add the milk and combine. This batter will be lumpy because of the oats. Spoon into hot skillet and cook. As the batter sits while you're cooking the pancakes, it may get a little thick. Simply add enough water to thin it out to the consistency you want.
This recipe is great with dried fruit added to the batter. I made homemade syrup using organic evaporated cane juice, water, salt, and maple flavoring. I used some cornstarch to thicken the syrup. I put some fresh sliced strawberries on top and drizzled syrup over it. If you don't want to use syrup, you could top the pancakes with some all-fruit spread (that has no sugar). You could also top with fresh fruit.
Here is a picture of one of our staple breakfast meals.
Here you will see one piece of whole grain toast, 1 egg, and a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit. Here are the details. My typical breakfast here would be as follows:
1 piece of whole grain toast with about 1/3 teaspoon butter (not margarine)
1/2 to 1 egg with salt and pepper cooked in very little oil
1/2 cup cooked oatmeal with a little salt, raisins and flax seeds, fresh fruit on top, no sugar
Ideally, you would have dry toast. But at this point, I prefer to have a little butter. However, I do use real butter - no margarine - no fake stuff. This breakfast is good and very filling. It is packed with nutrition. The whole grain toast gives the needed nutrition found in whole grains. The egg provides a good source of protein. The oats are loaded with nutrition as is the fresh fruit and flax seeds. I will be doing some posts soon on the benefits of each of these items so you can see just how healthy and nutritious these foods are.
