Homemade Museli / Granola - A Healthy Breakfast | Healthy Diet Plan #1

Though there are a mix and match of healthy recipes in this space I wanted to go for a week healthy...... So whats up for the coming days - For a week, I will be posting healthy diet recipes which will comprise of a breakfast, lunch, dessert, teatime drink, a snack and ending up with a dinner idea so its going to be 6 recipes for this series . How does that sound?!

So am starting off with my favourite breakfast - homemade museli / granola. You can check out my granola bars here.These days its become very common even in india in most of homes to start off the day with healthy cereals / museli and we are no exception to it.

Homemade Museli / Granola Recipe



Ingredients:

• Oats - 1 cup
• Corn flakes - 1/2 cup
• Badams - 3 tbsp (sliced thin)
• Walnuts chopped - 3 tbsp
• Dates - 3 tbsp (finely chopped)
• Other dryfruits - 2 tbsp
• Honey - 1/4 cup
• Butter - 1 tbsp (optional)
• Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Chop all the nuts and dry fruits roughy, keep aside.
2. In a sauce pan, dry roast oats, cornflakes, walnuts, almonds , dry fruits and nuts till golden brown or till a nice aroma comes. Keep aside.
3. Now in the same pan, add butter let it melt then add honey and salt. Allow it boil till bubbles are seen it may take 4-5mins. Now add the toasted oats, cornflakes nuts mixture. Mix well.
4. Allow the honey butter mixture to coat the toasted oats, cornflakes nuts mixture. It may take 2-3 mins. Switch off and allow it to cool for few mins.
5. Bake the mixture at 200 deg C for 5 mins to make it more crispy. Cool down and store it in an airtight container. Serve it with chilled milk.

You can also see my other healthy breakfast ideas :

• Instant Oats Dosa
• Oats Idli
• Oats Appam
• Pesarattu Dosa
• Wheat Dosai
• Eggless French Toast (Sweet & Savoury)

My Notes :

• The baking at the last step is purely optional but I do this for extra crispness and this will also make the museli stay crisp for longer - Tip from Prathiba
• Store it in an airtight container for the crispness to stay longer.
• Museli is totally flexible, you can just have the cup measurement in mind and add in any nuts and dry fruits of your choice.
• Add milk preferably cold but if you like it hot, then go ahead.

Homemade Granola Bars (Healthy Chewy Snack Bars) | Oats Snack Recipes

We are just back from a short trip to Palakkad and Nelliampathy the much needed break from the usual routine I would say! I'm back only physically :) the mountains, valleys, mist, monkeys ,deep forest areas,greeneries all around is still passing by my eyes.And my long time desire of eating puttu with kadala curry has finally happened and I thoroughlly enjoyed it that I forgot to click them;)

Okay coming to these tasty granola bars...me and amma are greatly addicted to it. Everytime there is no snacks at home with no second thought I would jump to make these tasty and healthy bars. And my lil one likes it in the form of museli.

I've been experimenting these bars many times and finally here I am with the recipe with correct measurements.

Granola Bars Recipe

Makes 5 small bars

Ingredients:

• Quick cooking oats - 1 cup
• Cornflakes - 1/4 cup
• Honey - 1/2 cup
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Brown Sugar - 1 tbsp (You can use normal sugar too)
• Water - 1 tbsp
• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Nuts & Dry Fruits :(this should come to a round of 1/2 cup)

• Almonds - 5 chopped finely
• Walnut - 2 tbsp broken into tiny pieces
• Golden, black raisins and Dates /(any other dry fruit) - 1/4 cup

Method:

• First dry roast oats, cornflakes, nuts and dry fruits in a pan until a nice aroma comes and oats starts slightly browning up. Keep aside.
• Now in the same pan, add butter heat it till it melts. Now add honey, sugar, vanilla essence and water, heat it until the mixture starts bubbling up.
• At this stage add the roasted oats, cornflakes and nuts mixture and mix well until the honey mixture is coated on all sides of the oats cornflakes mixture.
• Then transfer to a butter paper and spread it using a spoon or a wooden laddle to 1/4 or 1/2 inch thickness. Straighten the edges and make it as a square or rectangle.Cover it with another butter paper and press them down gently.
• Allow them to cool for 5mins then cut into bars and store them in airtight container.

You can make these bars in oven too but I prefer stove top method easier than the oven method.I like my granola bars for munching during tea time with a cup of milk.Its your choice to make them into bars or squares as per your convenience. If you like oats then am sure you will like these bars too.

Granola bars are readily available in super markets with different combinations of nuts and dry fruits.

My Notes:

• Dont over roast , as it will give a burnt flavour and spoil the taste.
• If you try to reduce the amount of honey then it will be hard to make pieces/bars.
• You can use any type of nuts and dry fruits, the only thing to note down is the quantity.
• Store them in an airtight container and enjoy them any time.

Oats,Cornflakes Fruit and Nut Bars | Breakfast Bars

I tried these oats cornflakes fruit and nut bars long back, And since then its often in my do list atleast once a month. I have modified the recipe after trying with 2-3 variations of measurements and finally sticking to this one. This is ideal for breakfast with a cup of milk which is very filling at the same time you can be happy to have started the day on a healthy note. Isnt that nice?!

Ingredients: [Recipe Source : Sunitas world]

Yields 9 bite sized squares

• Oats - 1 cup (100gms)
• Cornflakes/Wheat flakes - 1/2 cup (50gms) - I used wheat flakes
• Wheat flour - 2 tbsp
• Raisins - 1.5 tsp
• Walnuts - 1.5 tbsp chopped
• Choco Chips - 1/2 tbsp
• Jaggery - 1/2 cup (50gms)
• Yogurt - 1/2 cup (50 gms)
• Cooking oil - 1.5 tbsp
• Coco powder - 1 tsp [optional]

Method:

1. In a wide bowl, mix together oats,wheat flakes, wheat flour, walnuts, raisins and choco chips, coco powder together. Just crush the wheat flakes with your hands if the flakes are very big.



2. Just add water to jaggery till immersing level say 1tbsp and leave it for few mins for it to become a syrupy consistency. Then add it to the flour oats mixture. Now add yogurt and oil to the mixture. Just mix to bring everything together.



3. Preheat oven to 180 deg C for 10mins. Meanwhile grease a baking tray with little oil and spread the mixture on it with 1/2 inch thickness. Use back of a spoon to smoothen the top.



4. Bake it for 35-40 mins till it is nicely browned. Keep an eye after 30mins because mine got baked perfectly in 35mins. Transfer it to the wire rack and cool it for 10mins before marking squares.Store it in airtight container and enjoy.

Nuts and oats combination is not only healthy, they are very tasty and ideal for on the go breakfast.The batter looks a bit sticky...These bars sounds close to granola bars but tastes different with the addition of wheat flour, yogurt and jaggery.

I like to try different types of cereal bars as they are not only healthy and ideal for breakfast, at the same time they fill in our after 3PM tummy cravings too. Only the baking time is a little more, otherwise the preperations are nothing at all.

My Notes

• I wanted to try the chocolate flavour so added coco powder, you can omit that too. I have tried both ways and luved both of them :)



• The nuts and dry fruits that goes in the bars are purely our choice, Some variations can be adding dates, black currant etc. The top is slightly crispy and softer, chewy inside.