Toasted Oat & Apricot Muesli

My Saturday morning ritual involves a brisk walk by the Charles River with my beagle and making some cereal. Homemade muesli is great to have hanging around your kitchen. Muesli is a made with dried fruit and oats. It's typically eaten with cold milk. You can also sprinkle it on yogurt, which is how my husband likes it. Throw some nuts, coconut, chocolate chips or banana chips in it for a quick energy boosting snack. 

Boring whole grain breakfasts are a thing of the past if you make this muesli. Eaten with cold milk, it has a delicious peaches and cream flavor. Lots of diced apricots are key. It's not too sweet, but sweet enough. Millet lends warm, toasty notes to this cereal.  A bit of sea salt enhances all the flavors. It'll keep you full for hours.   

Happy New Year Everyone!

xx ~ Jilly

 Toasted Oats & Apricot Muesli 
 Makes about 6 Cups  

Some Notes & Tips

You can swap the dried apricots for dried peaches. 

Pure apricot extract is the secret ingredient to maximizing the peaches and cream flavor. I use OliveNation Brand. If you don't want to search for it, it'll still taste great without it or use vanilla extract instead. 

Feel free to use more or less maple syrup in this recipe if that's what you'd prefer.

I just mix the ingredients on the tray instead of bothering with a bowl. 

If you're going to use nuts make sure you either add them at the very end of cooking or once the cereal comes out of the oven to avoid burning.

I recently discovered Trader Joe's Roasted Coconut Chips. They're great tossed into this cereal too. Some dark chocolate chips are also nice.  

Store it in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Ingredients 

• 4 cups rolled oats (do not use instant)
• 25-30 dried apricots, diced
• 1/3 cup quinoa (optional)
• 1/3 cup millet
• 1/2 cup of flaked or shredded coconut. I use unsweetened.  
• 1/3 cup oil such as sunflower
• 10 tablespoons of real maple syrup (around 1/2 cup) or to your taste
• 1/2 tablespoon pure apricot extract or vanilla extract. I use OliveNation Brand Pure Apricot Extract.   
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon 
• Cooking spray (optional)
• Sprinkle of salt. I use sea salt.
• Mix-Ins: a few crumbled banana chips, nuts, chocolate chips, sunflower seeds, flax seeds 

Instructions  

Preheat oven to 325

Line a large baking sheet with foil and spray liberally with cooking spray or use some oil to grease it. Set the shredded coconut and diced apricots aside. Mix all the other ingredients together and spread the mixture out in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Take out of the oven. Stir in the reserved coconut and diced apricots. Transfer to a bowl and let cool. Enjoy!