Apricot & Almond Toasted Muesli

I know. It would be so much easier to just grab a box of cereal off the supermarket shelf. But I've seen too many radioactive-looking pineapple chunks, cardboard banana chips and insipid flakes of coconut in my time.

Turn the packaging over to take a look at the nutritional content, and there's usually too much refined sugar and not enough fibre or protein.

So in an attempt to create something a little more inspiring, and with a slightly improved nutritional profile, I'll usually mix two or three different cereals together, then add extra nuts, seeds, fresh fruit and yoghurt.

But then, I thought, why not create my own breakfast cereal from scratch? That way I know exactly what's gone into it.

While it may seem like a comparative faff, it honestly isn't - promise! - and you'll have a week's worth of breakfasts sorted in less than 20 minutes.

Makes 12 servings

Ingredients

• 30g coconut oil

• 30g honey

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 300g jumbo oats

• 20g sunflower seeds

• 10g golden linseed

• 30g flaked almonds

• 150g dried apricots

Method

• Preheat your oven to 170ºC (340ºF) and grab 2 large baking sheets or trays.

• Depending on the air temperature, your coconut oil may be liquid or solid. If it's in liquid form, stir in the honey and vanilla extract and mix well; if your coconut oil is solid, spoon into a saucepan and melt gently over a low heat before mixing in the honey and vanilla. Set aside.

• Combine the oats, sunflower seeds and linseed in a large bowl then gradually pour over the coconut oil mix, stirring well to combine. You want to make sure all the oats get a good covering of oil, so get your hands in there to mix it all up.

• Now tip in the flaked almonds, and stir gently to avoid breaking them up.

• Pour out half the mix onto one baking tray, and half onto the other. Spread the mix out evenly to cover each tray, then place in the oven. Set a timer for 5 minutes.

• After 5 minutes, remove the trays from the oven, give the muesli a shake (you want the oats to cook evenly, but those on top will start going brown sooner so give them a stir to get a more even toasting) and return the trays to the oven for a further 5 minutes.

• Once toasted, remove the trays from the oven and allow the muesli to cool completely.

• Meanwhile, chop the dried apricots into small squares (about 0.5cm) and once the muesli has reached room temperature, stir through the apricot pieces.

• Serve with your choice of yoghurt, milk, fresh fruits and honey.

• The muesli will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Nutrition

	Per 100g	Per serve (48g)
Calories	391 kcal	188 kcal
Carbohydrate	500. g	24.0 g
of which sugars	4.0 g	1.9 g
Fat	14.5 g	7.0 g
of which saturates	5.7 g	2.7 g
Protein	8.9 g	4.3 g
Fibre	11.0 g	5.3 g