Okay so I might just be the worlds worst Paleo…I ate a mince pie on the very first day of my Paleo journey! And last night we had homemade pizza for dinner…possibly the most anti-paleo meal you can eat. What can I say?! At least I am honest! In all seriousness though going Paleo has turned out to be a lot more difficult than I first anticipated. There’s just so much that you cannot eat and I LOVE food. All food. I have decided to lower my expectations and rather than being strictly paleo I’m just going to eat less dairy (bar the occasional pizza shaped treat here and there) I already have either cashew or coconut milk as a cows milk substitute. I have also cut out all whey from my diet and I am having Vegan protein powder. Admittedly it’s not as nice, but it is much better for the digestive system. I am also going to lower my intake of grains…but not all grains. If you follow my instagram you probably know about my obsession with oats (sad I know) and although grains are very much off of the paleo menu I personally find that porridge or proats to be a healthy, delicious and cost effective breakfast choice.
Breakfasts were actually my first challenge when it came to trying a paleo lifestyle. Being a creature of habit when it comes to food my breakfasts were the same everyday and always involved oats. Eggs were not an option, I have a mild intolerance to them and if I eat too many of them I get stomach aches, and as much as I love things like bacon I really couldn’t see myself eating meat for breakfast every morning. Plus I am a mum of a 11 month old who is now crawling and standing and therefore requires me to watch him all the time for fear he will each something he shouldn’t/ start biting the coffee table (this keeps happening…the biting of the coffee table not eating things he shouldn’t.) I can’t be doing a full cooked breakfast every morning. So when I spied The Foodie Market Paleo Muesli in Aldi I decided to give it a try.
I chose the ‘fruity’ option, there is a nut version aswell. The muesli is completely Paleo and does not contain any grains and is made up of a mixture of nuts, seeds, date paste, honey and freeze dried blackcurrants and redcurrants. Because it is made up entirely of seeds and nuts it does have a high fat and calorie content. Good fats admittedly but still high. Per 45g suggested serving size the muesli has 271kcals and 22g grams of fat of which just 5.1g is saturated. However it does also contain a rather impressive 9.2g of protein aswell. The salt content is very low, it contains no artificial colours, preservatives or preservatives and it is high in fibre aswell.
In terms of actual taste the muesli has more the texture of a granola, quite hard and chewy (very chewy actually). But if you are accustomed to super sweet granola and other cereals this is quite different. Although it does have a sweetness from the date paste and the honey it is not overly or artificially sweet and it is more subtlety so. It contains coconut chips and cashews both of which I love which make the taste quite pleasant, but it also has hemp seeds which despite being very healthy have quite and over powering flavour and are quite crunchy. Now being the rather novice reviewer that I am I failed to keep my receipt and therefore I am not completely sure of the price but I do know that it was £2….something for a 340g box. Although this is quite a small box for the amount of nuts and seeds that it contains I would say that it’s worth that. I would also say that if you weigh out the recommended 45g serving size it does look very small however this muesli is very filling and it actually is enough. I had mine with Alpro Cashew milk which is actually slightly sweetened, but if I wasn’t having that I would probably add a bit extra honey on serving or a chopped ripe banana just to further sweeten it up a bit more…but then I do have a very sweet tooth…one of my many healthy eating downfalls!
My overall opinion is that if following a Paleo diet this muesli would be great to have in the cupboard as a quick and convenient, but also healthy breakfast option. It contains some great ingredients and the fact that it is completely natural is brilliant and quite rare to find in a muesli. As mentioned it is also really nice with chopped banana or other fresh fruit just to make it a bit more interesting. Even if you aren’t following a Paleo diet this muesli is a great way to add some fibre and good fats to your diet and work well as a ‘topper’ for porridge and Greek yoghurt etc.
Jess xox
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