Bircher Oatmeal

The other day I wrote about how I wanted to make Bircher Mueseli in attempt to re-create my favorite Swiss Oatmeal from Corner Bakery.


Yesterday I went to the store, bought the stuff and tried it out. This morning we ate it. And I'm proud to say that it turned out pretty good! I still want ot do some tweaking on it - but it's definitely something I'll be making again. And if you want ot try it too - remember that you can toy with this as much as you'd like. So feel free to change things to your personal liking (and of course, share with me what you did and how it turned out!)

Ingredients:
2 cups of Rolled Oats (not quick cooking oats)
Low Fat Milk (enough to cover oatmeal -- probably about 1 1/2 - 2 cups)
Dried fruit of your choice (I used cranberries and black currents)
Low Fat Yogurt
1/2 Granny Smith Apple - diced
Honey
Fresh Berries
Sliced Almonds
Directions:
In a bowl, mix together rolled oats and dried fruit. Pour in enough milk to cover the oatmeal. Cover the bowl and stick in fridge overnight.

Here's my oatmeal right after it came out of the fridge in the morning:

Dump in 2 good spoonfuls of low-fat yogurt, apples, and a good drizzle of honey. Mix together.

Divide up into spearate serving bowls and top with fresh berries and sliced almonds. Enjoy!

Here's the finished product (one for me and one for Rylee):

Now, here's the things I want to try tweaking:

• I used currants because that's what Corner Bakery said that they use. But I must not have bought the right kind of currants b/c I didn't care for them too much. Next time, I'll stick with the cranberris but then throw in a different kind of dried fruit.
  
• It wasn't as sweet as I was hoping or expecting. So I think that next time I'm going to try Vanilla yogurt instead of plain yogurt. I tried to add some vanialla extract but it didn't taste the same as vanilla yogurt.
  
• The other day I tried Almond Milk (vanilla) from my sister in law's house. It was pretty good and really sweet. I want to try to use this instead of regular milk. I'm sure it'll add a whole other demision of sweetness (and then I might not need to add honey or anything) and for those that are lactose intolerant - this is a great sustitute! You could also use whatever other milk substitute you'd like.
  

I also wanted to list my grocery list. The whole point of this was to re-create a dish I really liked for much cheaper than it would cost me to go and buy it. I shopped at Sprouts, so I utlitized their bulk items - only getting the specific amounts I needed. For the dried fruit and almonds, I basciaully just got a handful or two. Here's my list:

Rolled Oats -- 1 lb @ $0.59/lbs ......................................0.59

Dried Cranberries -- 0.16lbs @ $3.74/lb ......................0.60

Dried Black Currants -- 0.06lbs @ $5.99/lbs .............. 0.36
Sliced Almonds -- 0.07lbs @ $4.49/lbs ......................... 0.31

Milk (16 cups = 1 gallon) -- 2 cups @3.19/gallon ....... 0.40

**Not included: Yogurt -- I bought a 2lb tub of yogurt for $2.79 and I only used a couple spoonfuls. So as you can imagine - it's only a couple pennies. ; Fresh Berries - I already had these on hand from the Farmers Market. And I only used a couple to garnish it.

GRAND TOTAL for 2 -3 servings = $2.26. $1.13 - $0.76 per serving! (Corner Bakery Swiss Oatmeal costs $4.49 for one serving!)