Muesli with chocolate chips

I didn't bother with too many new year's resolutions for 2011.  If 2010 taught me anything, it would have to be that life can sometimes just happen and will take all your best resolutions and intentions with it.  So this year I've decided to go for a slightly less rigid approach and my only resolution was to make more time for the simple things in life.  To live in the moment and to stop from time to time to take it all in. 

Just potter around with the kids.

Stroll through the garden and look at the flowers, not the weeds.

Stare at the clouds or the mountain for a few minutes.

Be more spiritual. 

And make time for breakfast.  Not the bacon and eggs, full-house kind.  Just something simple and easy.  I use to operate on breakfast but lost the habit somewhere along the way.  Not sure why or how, but I have a sneaky suspicion it just sort of happened in the midst of all the morning chaos of getting everybody else ready for the day.

So yesterday, I made a batch of muesli and this morning I spent a few minutes outside with M and our new puppy.  Just eating and pottering and enjoying the cuteness of both M and the Beagle.  

We named the puppy Bonga, which sort of mean thank you in the Zulu as we thought we had so much to be thankful for and because the kids could not stop saying thank you when she arrived.

And she could not resist the muesli either.  But then again at the moment she cannot resist most things.  Shoes, carpets, toys, just about anything get chewed.   And we love her more for it.

Muesli with chocolate chips

3 cups rolled oats
½ cup shredded coconut
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup nuts (hazelnuts, almond slivers, macadamia)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
½ cup chocolate chips (best quality you can find)
½ cup dried banana chips
½ cup dried fruit (sultanas, cranberries, apricots)


Preheat the oven to 100°C.
Place the oats, coconut, seeds and nuts on a tray and bake in the oven until slightly brown.
Let cool completely and then sprinkle the brown sugar over the mixture.  Mix with the chocolate chips and dried fruit and store in an airtight container.


Just add milk and enjoy.