Recipes

Kitchen > Recipes > “Dad’s Muesli”

“Dad’s Muesli”

Dad's Muesli | Border Park Kitchen
Dairy free icon | Border Park Kitchen

Dairy Free

Gluten free icon | Border Park Kitchen

Gluten Free

For food allergies and intolerances, please carefully check the ingredient list on each product before using or consuming.

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:

  • 700g (8 cups) rolled oats (not quick oats)
  • 150g (1 cup) mixed nuts (chopped if desired, but I don’t bother)
  • 150g (1 cup) pepitas
  • 150g (1 cup) sunflower seeds
  • 75g (1 cup) shredded or flaked coconut
  • 75g (½ cup) chia seeds or sesame seeds
  • 50g (½ cup) flax meal
  • optional – 2 tsp cinnamon, or ½ tsp nutmeg + ¼ tsp ground cloves

 

Wet Ingredients:

  • 150g – 300g (1/2 – 1 cup) honey or maple syrup, depending sweetness desired
  • 200g (1 cup) olive oil or deoderised coconut oil

 

After Cooking Add-ins: (only add in once muesli is cooked and cooled)

  • 200g (1 1/2 cups) sultanas, cranberries, diced dates/ apricots/ figs / apple
  • Several tbsp finely chopped glace ginger
  • 1 tbsp orange zest (or 2 – 4 drops food grade essential oils of choice)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 150 °C (lower if your oven is hot).
  2. Add dry ingredients. Dump all dry ingredients into large 12 x 14″ baking pan (approx 30cm x 37cm) and mix well.
  3. Add wet ingredients. Evenly distributing them, drizzle oil and honey over the dry ingredients.
  4. Cook, stirring often. Cook for approx 1 1/2 – 2 hours. Stir every 1/2 hour, making sure you get right to the bottom of the pan.
  5. If mixture is still looking too dry, add some more honey and oil.
  6. Continue to cook til muesli is dark golden brown and moisture from oil and honey is absorbed and cooked. Remove from oven.
  7. Cool completely, covering with a tea towel to dissuade little fingers 😉 Note: if you used honey as your sweetener, stir muesli once or twice as it’s cooling so it doesn’t sit in a big clump.
  8. Stir through Add-ins. Mix through dried fruit and flavourings of choice.
Serve with:  

Yoghurt, fresh fruit and milk of choice.

Allergy-Friendly:  
  • For a gluten-free option, use certified gluten-free rolled oats (available from health food shops or online).
  • For a grain-free option, try replacing the rolled oats with ‘buckinis’ (activated buckwheat kernals) or quinoa flakes (it may need less cooking time).
Substitutions:  

This recipe is very forgiving. You can add and substitute ingredients depending on what you have on hand, and your tastes.

Boost the flavour:  
  • Use 250ml cubed butter in place of the oil which gives a lovely rich flavour.
  • Please also note, this muesli isn’t overly sweet (especially if you’re used to the shop-bought varieties). If you prefer more clumps like a granola, double the honey, but keep an eye on it because it will brown more quickly.
Storage suggestions:  
  • Will keep well in an airtight container for up to 2 months (perhaps more, but ours doesn’t last this long!) I recommend using Fido jars as they give a complete airtight seal.
  • Alternatively, muesli can be placed in a silicone or ziplock bag and frozen for up to 4 months.
Time Saving Tips:  

If you’re a muesli-loving family, make a double batch (using 2 baking pans). It won’t take any longer, but will save you re-making it next week 😉

Peri’s Tip:  

Please promise me you’ll set a timer when cooking this muesli so you don’t forget to stir it. It needs regular stirring because of the honey and ingredients that naturally contain fats (nuts and seeds). I’ve over-cooked enough batches now to know that I always get distracted … and I don’t want this to happen to you!

Recipe Notes:

* Wherever possible, we buy our ingredients in bulk and choose organically grown.

* To remove any cooked on bits on the bottom of the baking pan, place back in a warm oven (about 130 deg) for 5 minutes or until they can be easily scraped off. These crunchy bits are a favourite in our house.

* To make this muesli even more nourishing, try soaking it overnight in milk or non-dairy milk, yoghurt or kefir with a squeeze of lemon juice in a 1:1 ratio. No need to pop in the fridge, just leave it on the bench so the natural enzymes and other helpful organisms can begin fermenting the grains. See this article for more information.

Peri's Recipe Reflections:

It’s difficult to over-estimate the importance of this muesli in our family.

Dad's Muesli | Border Park Kitchen
My dear Mum, who started the whole muesli trend for our family way back in the ’70s.

It remains the most consistently made recipe in my repertoire. It’s eaten by at least one person every single day of the year. I make it in gigantic quantities (think 15kg plus!). It’s the one food I always have in the pantry, even when the budget is tight or I’ve lost my cooking mojo. And even if I sometimes become a little tired of making it, it’s always met with an enthusiastic response.

Even so, I’m always staggered by how quickly it’s eaten. (I set aside time roughly every 40 days to make another huge batch).

Really, though, I shouldn’t be. When you’ve got a wholesome recipe as good as this one, it would be more surprising if it didn’t get eaten quickly!

And hey, if your teens are having a bowl of homemade muesli at midnight, then cheers to them for making a wise food choice 😊

Dad's Muesli | Border Park Kitchen
The original packet of Endeavour Shredded Coconut that featured the recipe that inspired Dad’s muesli

‘Dad’s Muesli’ has been a family favourite for as long as I can remember. It’s based loosely on a recipe that my dear Mum discovered on the back of a packet of Endeavour Shredded Coconut in the mid 1970’s. She’s been making it consistently for the past 45 years, so making muesli in bulk is a routine that I inherited from her ♥

You may be wondering how a recipe that was passed down from my mother became known as ‘Dad’s Muesli’! It was a simple process …. even though I made the muesli, it was never a favourite of mine. But for Josh, he resolutely states he couldn’t live without it! It comes on every trip (whether overnight or for several weeks), it was the perfect thing to eat when he arrived home at 3am, a little peckish after a long shift at the factory, and has been eaten for breakfast almost without exception for the 21 years we’ve been married!

So, as he’s the biggest fan, we re-named this muesli in his honour 😊 Honestly, Josh doesn’t mind what we call it, as long as there’s enough for his breakfast in the morning!

Over the years I’ve modified the recipe to suit our family’s tastes and eating requirements. I’ve increased the amount of rolled oats to make it more economical, and made it quicker by no longer measuring ingredients (sorry Mum!) or chopping the nuts.

Each batch I make is unique.

I use a mixture of seeds, nuts, dried fruit and flavourings that appeal to me on the day and what I have on hand. It may be almond and cranberry, macadamia and ginger, pecan and orange or the ‘plain Jane’ version.

Whatever the flavours, it’s always on a base of organic rolled oats, because to us, it’s important to reduce chemical exposure in the foods we eat.

Having a jar of ‘Dad’s Muesli’ in our cupboard takes the hassle out of what to eat for breakfast, it’s perfect as a snack, and it’s saved the ‘what’s for dinner?’ dilemma on many occasions.

What about you …. can you see yourself making a batch for your family?

Peri x

 

 

P.S. If you make one of my recipes, could you do me a quick favour? Please leave a star rating and review directly on my website. It takes just 2 minutes!

Your feedback is super-helpful, both for me and for others. It also shows search engines like Google know that my recipes are worth sharing. This helps me continue to provide you with lots of free recipes 😊 Thank you.

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 4.7 / 5. Vote count: 3

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

Enjoy that? Never miss a delicious recipe. Subscribe today!

(We won’t spam you. Promise) 

If you’re looking specifically for beef, lamb or mutton recipes, check out the recipes on our sister site, Border Park Organics.

Return home to see all Border Park Kitchen offers or browse our Free Resources. If you have any questions, drop us a line.

Follow Us On

Instagram

Free Download