European breakfast

This morning I woke up and took one look at my luscious basket of fruit and immediately knew what to do with it. Muesli! Muesli is a Germanic Swiss invention of dairy (usually yogurt, but sometimes cream or milk), fruit, raw or toasted grains, nuts or seeds and a sweetener. It is now eaten all over Europe, and through European backpackers in many other parts of the world. Here I've veganized it using soy yogurt.

In South America, they often make this dish with Acai, a small, deep purple fruit which grows on one of the many species of palm there. It's popular with locals and backpackers alike. In the US, we can get this fruit crushed and frozen in the freezer section of many health food stores (it spoils very quickly and is unavailable fresh outside South America). It's often sold as a smoothie additive. If you're having trouble finding it, you can buy online at sambazon.com. Get the unsweetened smoothie pack for this bowl. This fruit is absolutely packed with antioxidants and is delicious. Oh, and I suppose you could put it in a smoothie too ;)

Acai Muesli Bowl
by Virginia's Vegan World Kitchen

For each bowl:

1/2 banana sliced
1/4 apple (I like green for this) finely diced
1/4 cup fruit of your choice (I used blood orange segments)
1 cup soy yogurt (vanilla or plain)
I packet unsweetened acai, defrosted
1/4 cup raw rolled oats
1/8 cup seeds or nuts of your choice (sesame seeds, pine nuts, and shelled pumpkin seeds are all good)
Liquid sweetener (agave nectar, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, etc.)

Layer the ingredients in your bowl in the order above. If your soy yogurt is sweetened, you may not need the sweetener, but I always like a little swirl of agave nectar on top of mine.

This dish can also easily be made raw. Just omit the yogurt and use an entire very ripe banana. Instead of slicing the banana, mash it together with the acai, then proceed as above.
Yumm!!!!!If you're planning on packing this to go (in a bento box or plastic containers) pack the yogurt and acai together, the fruit in another container, and the raw oats and nuts in a third. This is an easy dish to put together at work.