Muesli Granola Healthy Snacks :)

Rockwell UTT Winner #26: 
MUESLI GRANOLA KITCHEN & BAKESHOP
3.58 

72 foodies rated 5- Awesome! I would recommend it!
75 foodies rated 4- I love it!
85 foodies rated 3- We had a good time.
48 foodies rated 2- It is OK.
2 foodies rated 1- Thanks, but it could be better.

The Muesli Granola by Celia is our favorite healthy snack when we go on a road trip. Her granola bars are also among the favorite food finds in Mercato Centrale. They are yummy, guilt-free treats and perfect gifts for health-conscious foodies — even diabetics can enjoy them.

In the UTT in Rockwell, Celia proved that healthy snacks do not need to be boring and bland with her Chocolate-Dipped Bar Muncher. I also liked the crispy and chewy combination of the Monkey Bar with its peanut-y taste. Now, we have something new to bring on our next road food trip! 🙂 The UTT foodies also loved these healthy snack bars. Congratulations to Muesli Granola Kitchen!

The Story of Muesli Granola Kitchen & Bakeshop
by Celia B. Elumba

What do you do when you retire from the corporate life with many more productive years to go?

I had worked for a good number of years for multinational companies in buying operations for the export and retail sectors. When it came time to close shop, it was, at the onset, a welcome relief. But for someone who had worked all that time and led a fairly busy, active work life, I had to find something more to do.

So what do you do? You take what you have, what you have a liking for and go with it.

In my case, my family and I, we like to eat. I also have a sweet tooth and I like to munch. I have always been an occasional baker. It was my usual to take some days off in December and, with my trusty oven and mixer, bake products that I would then proffer to my good neighbours as our Christmas home-made gifts. It was what I liked to do (and my apologies to those whom I ”imposed” those early test recipes).

My liking for good food has a particular slant towards many things crunchy (that runs a long list from tortilla chips to crispy lechon skin). Here’s the rub: I am a moderate. I had to be. With diabetes running in the family (my mother had it, and her mother before her, too), I had to moderate my sweeteners. With illnesses (hello, hypertension on the hubby’s side of the family) running through the bloodlines, I had to moderate fats and sodium. With age running its own sweet course, I had to understand the functionality of foods. I believe in the concept of food as medicine. And here is where the melancholic temperament (nothing to do with sadness but more with an over-the-top need-to-know — okay this has to be moderated, too) kicked in.

One day, while grocery-shopping, I realized that much as I liked cereal and granola bars, the available offerings were all too sweet, too syrupy and too sugary for me.  Some had artificial flavourings or colorants; most had preservatives that sounded very Greek (not the language but, yes, a language one could not readily understand). I thought I would make a bar that would only use brown and muscovado sugar. I would delete white sugar (as much as this has been deleted from our household), the glucose and high fructose corn syrup additions, which, (although) more economical…with very good moist results, are absorbed much quicker in the bloodstream, resulting in a steep rise in blood sugar levels. I wanted to try and avoid the roller coaster ride of the sugar rush that eventually leads to a crash. This must wreak havoc in the system with the on-again, off-again levels of insulin production.

In doing Muesli Granola, I was therefore, in essence, my first customer.

I worked on my first bar, Crispy Crème Nut (nope, the variant was not inspired by my favourite donut brand; the name was just so appropriate for the bar) for over a year! It was crispy, crème-based and certainly nutty with almonds and cashew nuts. My next bar was another take on a daughter’s favourite, and I called it Crisp Ahoy! Yes, it (had) chocolate chips and walnuts, and the process took time to refine. The 3rd bar was The Monkey Bar, a peanut butter-based bar with banana chips and so-called because it promises to be the energy bar that will bring you across the monkey bar in the playground. SultaNut (a raisin and walnut bar), Mangga’t Kasoy, Fruity Nutty (a take on pretty nutty, huh? With  apricots or prunes with walnuts) and Muscovado & Walnut completed the nut-ted bars. And because I am a believer in options, we also have 3 nut-less variants: Crisp Ahoy!2 (hey, I am a chocolate crisp bar, too!), Nutless Fruity (a take on doubtless fruity, this time) and The No NutSense (precisely that, straightforward with whole grain cereal).

We have also since added two more variants along the same lines as functional foods: Gingerly Yours (with white and yellow ginger on muscovado and walnuts) and Nib-ble Me Choclit (which uses cacao nibs and dark chocolate).  My aspiration is to have a strong Filipino offering, hence, the use of as much local ingredients as I can find.

We also have alternative sweetener offerings: coco sap bars for a 35 GI sweetener, and NoSugar-Added using Isomalt, a sugar replacer from white sugar beets, which has a GI of 2. The thrust towards healthier snacking would not be complete if we did not bring it through to our Muesli Mixes, barmunchers, cookies, granola and otherwise,  fruit loaves and muffins. All follow the idea of high grain, high fiber, better sweetener offerings without glucose and HFCS, zero transfats, zero artificial preservatives or additives.

We do think we can have our cereal and eat it, too.

Muesli Granola Kitchen & Bakeshop was established in 2006 as a personal response to (provide) cereal and granola bars that were not as sticky,  sugary, or syrupy as the available bars in the market. It was an opportunity to choose the better sweetener options with the use of natural ingredients. Today, we aim to combine health (relative to heart-health and digestive-health) with goodness (in taste and choice of ingredients) in a convenient bar-form. We aim to address the needs of  those on-the-go: men, women, young people, mature individuals and children whose time have been constrained by the demands of their busy, active lives. It is breakfast-on-the run, a snack bar, a meal-replacer for those who could not as yet sit down to a proper meal (for whatever reason), a dessert for those who have not munched enough, for the sports enthusiast or the health advocate. It is the Crunch-time Cereal Crunch Bar. And yes, it is health & goodness in a bar.

Monkey Bar and Dark Chocolate-Dipped Bar Muncher

Monkey Bar. Each bar weighs about 28-33 gms & are packed 5 to a bag (P175 regular brown sugar; P225 No-Sugar-Added or Coco SapSweetened) or in a Canister (P180 regular brown sugar; P230 for No-Sugar-Added or Coco SapSweetened), or Assorted box of 6 (P220/P280). Good with any cold or hot drink. Great with coffee. Excellent with tea. Refrigerate for a more toasty crunch & microwave out of the bag for 5-10 seconds for a chewier bite. Lasts over a month from date of purchase unrefrigerated (at 28C) & over 2 months when refrigerated. Store in cool (20C) dry place, away from direct light.

The Dark Chocolate-dipped Crispy Crème Nut or The noNutSense Barmuncher with flavonoid-rich 56-60% dark chocolate. P280 for the tall canister (10 fingers); P190 for the bites (20 bites).

Recommended Beer Pairing: Muesli Granola is best paired with Cerveza Negra.

Foodies’ Comments:

• chocodipped YUM!
• while delicious, kind of taste is on the dry side
• so-so..
• dark chocolate is the best among the 3
• cereal bar i could eat everyday
• great food:)
• i like the chocolate almond
• love!
• dark chocolate
• peanut butter!
• chocolate dipped!
• dark chocolate rocks!
• great sub for granola!
• quite filling! great!
• love it!
• dark choco is best
• great
• great taste!
• love the plain bar 🙂
• healthy but still yummy!
• good snack alternative
• healthy may be a bit “hard” to eat
• healthy, while still retaining the flavor & very informative poster. learned a lot!
• very tasty, chewy & crunchy
• choco dipped bar muncher is a new fave!
• i like the chocolate almond
• great snack! awesome!
• i bought all that they had us try!
• plain one good!
• sweet & healthy
• nice delicate crunch
• the whole grain was simple & delicious
• difficult to chew
• the HEALTH bar! love the chocolate one best!
• loved the dark choco bar. everything else was ok. not too sweet
• the chocolate is real dark chocolate
• all are good snacks!
• ok lang
• no nuts
• very tasty & healthy
• not my type
• healthy
• dark chocolate is ok
• choco dipped bar muncher the best!
• monkey bar was just the right combination
• healthy, improved
• dark choco is good
• healthy
• good
• really good
• i bought!
• dark choco granola yum!
• telling my boss about you!
• awesome!
• healthy is yummy!
• NAKAKAUMAY!
• enjoyed it
• hard
• good
• healthy! loved the dark chocolate dipped bar muncher 🙂
• i really liked the dark chocolate
• boring
• i love that it’s healthy but the taste is not really for me
• love the dark choco whole grain. peanut is a little hard but good
• i love the monkey bar
• best bar i’ve ever had.
• dark choco!
• love all the flavors
• unique!
• all cereal bars are good and healthy too
• love the peanut butter
• yummy!
• ok
• good taste!
• looks healthier than the usual muesli bars
• i love that there are no preservatives & syrups! we bought a take home pack!
• love granolas
• ultimately healthy
• love the crunch
• nothing special
• just an ordinary granola bar
• super like the cereals
• ok!
• healthy but yummy! great snack (on-the-go)
• PERFECT!
• great healthy snack
• it’s okey
• I love the one with the choco
• feels light
• healthy! But could be sweetened a bit more?
• good but dry
• too matigas the monkey bar
• very tasty for something healthy
• super healthy and delicious
• dark chocolate dipped bar muncher is the best

 

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