Hello there,
One thing I miss when I am on the road, particularly in parts of Asia, is a good bowl of homemade muesli. One often doesn’t have the option of a kitchen to cook in when travelling but on this occasion, we did have access to the kitchen. Well, a gas burner to be precise. My girls welcomed the freshly made muesli the next morning as there are only so many pancakes and eggs one can eat for breakfast (I only say that as we are in our 3rd month of travelling now).
I have to say I’m quite proud of this recipe – not because it is any kind of culinary creation (it’s far from that) but because I proved to myself that it is possible, on very limited resources, to create a healthy alternative when the odds are against you.
I managed to pull this muesli together in a remote house that can only be accessed by boat and that runs primarily on solar and gas (and no oven). Surprisingly I also managed to get most of the ingredients at the local supermarket and was then able to rustle up this ‘stir-fried’ muesli.
Stir Fried Muesli
Here in Palawan, an incredibly beautiful island in the Philippines, the food options are limited (admittedly a tough act to follow after Bali). I was fairly underwhelmed by my visit to the supermarket: it seemed that almost every product I picked up was full of corn syrup, sugar or both, especially in the breakfast aisle. However, I did manage to find some key ingredients to make my own muesli.
Surprisingly, oats are quite common in many Asian supermarkets (the ones I have been that least) and things like cashew nuts, coconut products, and sesame seeds are common staples so are also easy to find.
You don’t need to be traveling to make this muesli; it’s a great base muesli, which you can add other seeds, nuts and fruit to. It was impossible to make a gluten-free option here but you could always replace the oats for puffed quinoa, amaranth or millet, or alternatively use gluten-free oats. I have a similar recipe for my homemade muesli here.
I had to stir fry this muesli because we had no oven and it actually worked out really well. A less labour intensive option is to pop it in the oven (200C) and stir at regular intervals until golden brown.
A note on Palawan:
It was a fairly late decision to come to the Palawan but even with the 3 flights to get here, the 3-hour car ride to the ferry, and a final boat ride to our home, this place completely blew us away with its unspoiled beauty. It was such a relief for me to know that places like this still exist and are not overrun with tourists (yet). For the first part of our trip, we stayed outside of Port Barton, where we have an entire palm-fringed beach on our doorstep and not another Westerner to be seen.
Our little family bonded so deeply in this special place primarily because there were no distractions, no markets to drag the kids around, no people to catch up with, no historical sites to see, no gadgets, almost no internet – just us and nature. I could write an entire blog on the power of being in a place like this. This simplicity of life is what I have been unconsciously craving and the deep happiness we have felt like a family here is beyond words.
