Breakfast Delights.

There's people who eat breakfast, and people who don't, and I've been in both groups at different times in my life. I've never been someone to skip a special occasion breakfast, though - you can always get me with a good breakfast buffet, which means that staying at a hotel with breakfast, for whatever reason, always feels like an extra-special treat for me.

Recently, I've been introduced to Bircher Muesli (by my brother-in-law, from Switzerland, fittingly) - and it has become one of my weekday breakfast delights since. I've never been really fond of the typical German Müsli, which is rolled oats and other grains together with dried fruits, plus some flakes or pops; you pour milk over this and eat it. The grains are rather hard, which I don't find too pleasant, and the flakes and pops go soggy quickly, which I also don't find pleasant, and the dried fruit is just... eh. Especially if it's raisins. (It's usually raisins.)

Bircher Muesli, however, is basically overnight oats, only invented way before they became the current In Thing. The original version is a bit of oats with a good amount of apple and some hazelnuts; the oats are soaked overnight, the apple is added fresh, as are the ground or chopped nuts.

Obviously, there's a gazillion of variations (this Guardian article gives you some); I soak my oats in low-fat yoghurt and a bit of water, add a small apple (about 120 g), coarsely grated, to 60 g of oats and about 120 g of yoghurt, leave out the hazelnuts and put in a dash of lemon juice, plus some additional fruit such as a bit of sliced banana and diced orange. That makes for two servings - half of it just goes back into the fridge and is just fine the day after.



The oats are nice and soft and squishy, the yoghurt and lemon plus a tart apple add some tang, and the grated apple makes the consistency somehow fluffy, which I really like. The extra fruit adds some interest and variation plus sweetness, and if not enough of the latter, a little bit of honey drizzled on top does the job nicely.

So in case you're looking for a breakfast idea - give it a try, you might be surprised!