The title is obviously a bit clickbait and highly subjective. But after making and eating countless batches of granola and muesli, I have come to favour something different and more diverse in flavour, texture, and health.
Many years ago, I had a type of mix without any oats or grains, which consisted only of seeds and nuts. As granola and muesli are made from either cooked or raw oats, this is not really granola or muesli! And I think this mix is much more fun, and not boring at all. At least to me (the struggling philosopher who cooks more than philosophizing).
I love yoghurt, and I mostly eat it just as is. I can eat so much of the stuff in one sitting that I think it is not healthy any longer. Alas, it is sometimes nice to vary and alternate between just bland yoghurt and putting something on it. For a long time, I used homemade granola or muesli, but I have eaten so much of it and I always tend to prefer the nuts in the mix. Why not make a mix consisting just of nuts and seeds then?
The obvious first reason why not is that it is more expensive. Nuts and seeds are not as cheap as rolled oats, especially if you buy it in bulk. If you can buy seeds and nuts in bulk as well you might find it cheaper, but the fact is, rolled oats are much cheaper.
The second reason is that it takes a lot more effort and work to make it. You cannot add the whole nut, as they are a lot bigger than say the seeds, and the nuts come in different sizes. Walnuts are, for example, much bigger than almonds. You want a mixture of sizes, but you also want some homogeny in size.
And thirdly, nuts contain more fats and oils, and when you cut them they might oxidise quite quickly. Depending on the narrative you follow, this might not be the healthiest of things in the world.
But all of this said, I think this option is still way better than muesli or granola!
Talking of effort, I bought myself a mixture of candied cashews, raw walnuts, roasted/salted almonds, raw pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and dates. I cut these individual elements into more homogenous sizes, so that every bite might contain each of these elements.
In the end, I made 800 grams of mix for a total price of about R200 (or about US $11.) To put this into perspective, a similar weight in granola or muesli of about 750 grams costs roughly R80 (or about US $5). So, the obvious statement is that it is half the price more expensive than its counterparts, but the thing is it is just nuts and seeds (except for the bit of sugar on the caramel nuts and the dates). But there are ZERO added sugar or additives (except the caramel sugar). There are no fillers, no extra junk that they added to make the granola or muesli even cheaper for them to produce/make.
And the other great plus is that you have control over what you add. I added the caramel nuts because I love them, they add some texture, and some sugar - sugar is not always bad! But you can change this and add other nuts, without sugar, without salt; you are in control of what you add!
In the end, it depends on how you want to eat. Our modern diets are so uniform and unvarying, muesli and granola consisting of mostly oats and grains are a good example of this problem. Scattered sparsely throughout the mix might be a nut or two, a dried fruit piece, or a rock-hard raisen.
With this mix, my goal was multifaceted.
Firstly, I wanted to add diverse and varied ingredients. Variety is the spice of life as my (PhD) supervisor always tells me. This is even more important for our diets, as we modern humans stick to a very uniform and unvarying diet.
Secondly, I love to play with textures. The dates are soft and gooey; the raw nuts/seeds are soft; the salted nuts are harder; and the candied nuts provide that "crunchy" texture.
Thirdly, the different tastes combine into something greater than the parts, but the attentive taster will also distinguish between all of the different elements and disregard the whole. The candied caramel cashews along with the sweet dates provide a rich and deep taste, the raw nuts and seeds give a unique taste to the mix, and the salted nuts balance the overall mix.
In the end, this mix is a highly personal one, one which can infinitely be changed and mixed to suit your palate and needs/tastes. You can use it for more than just putting it on yoghurt, because it is basically a kind of trail mix!
My goal was not just to add some variety to my diet, but also to spice things up by making it fun. A clash of textures and tastes. I hope that you will make this delicious mix for yourself!
All of the writings and musings are my own, unless hyperlinked. This is not necessarily a recipe post, hence why it is not in the foodie community. These are some subjective and biased opinions, hence my own. The photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300.