A few years ago, Mark Bittman come out with his book and cookbook, VB6, where he championed eating vegetarian before 6 pm and after 6 pm eating whatever you want within reason. It was an intriguing idea but, ultimately, it didn’t work for me. While I didn’t adopt the VB6 lifestyle I did adopt many VB6 recipes into my recipe rotation.
My favorite VB6 recipe is for Mark Bittman’s Homemade Cold Cereal. It is basically a combination of dried flaked grains, seeds, spices, and dried fruit that you soak in milk, juice or yogurt before you eat it. Bittman’s ideas isn’t new. You might be more familiar with this idea as the overnight oatmeal that was all over the internet a few years ago.
Mark Bittman’s recipe is actually a form of Muesli. Muesli is a breakfast that was created in the 1890s. The great thing about muesli is that it is incredibly flexible. You can use whatever bits and pieces of stuff you have in the pantry. I used the triticale, rye and spelt flakes I had in my pantry because of my flake experiments but you can use any flakes you have or just use old fashioned rolled oats. I love eating muesli in the spring and summer when it is too hot to cook.
Mark Bittman's Homemade Cold Cereal
3 ½ cups rolled oats
½ cup mixed chopped nut and seeds
½ cup raisins or other dried fruit
¼ cup unsweetened grated coconut
½ tsp cinnamon or other spices, to taste
Pinch salt
Milk to serve with
Combine the oats, nuts and seeds, raisins, coconut and spices in a large bowl. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 months. To serve, put about ½ cup of oat mixture in a bowl and top with ½ cup milk. If you have time, let the bowl sit for 5 – 10 minutes to let the oats absorb some of the milk so they’ll soften and sweeten.
Homemade Cold Muesli
Ingredients
1 cup rolled Triticale flakes
1 cup rolled rye flakes
1 cup rolled spelt flakes
1/2 cup rolled oats
½ cup mixed chopped nut and seeds
½ cup raisins or other dried fruit
½ tsp cinnamon or other spices, to taste
Pinch salt
Milk to serve with
Combine the oats, nuts and seeds, dried fruit, coconut and spices in a large bowl. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 months. To serve, put about ½ cup of the flake mixture in a bowl and top with ½ cup milk. If you have time, let the bowl sit for 5 – 10 minutes to let the oats absorb some of the milk so they’ll soften and sweeten.
Both these recipes make more than one serving. I make a batch and store it in a gallon size plastic bag. I have kept this on my pantry shelf for months and never had a batch go bad.
A Cuppa And Conversation 