Free food time! Every six months or so, Bob’s Red Mill sends me a box of awesome as part of their Heroes of the Mill program. I think my membership in this program is a remnant from when I was a serious food blogger, and I am definitely not complaining.

This time, the box arrived with a full-sized package of muesli and two coupons for free single-serve packs of Stonyfield yogurt. Erik literally ran down the hill to Shaw’s with the coupons and returned triumphantly with the yogurt in tow.

We mixed it immediately with some of the muesli for a beautiful Sunday morning bay window breakfast.

I love BRM muesli because it is packed with nuts, seeds, raisins, dates, oats, and more.

At its simplest, muesli prep can be totally hands-off: just mix with yogurt and let sit for at least 10 minutes. I am in favor of anything that makes my mornings more streamlined. Especially when it is free.

I noticed a recipe for chocolate chip muesli cookies on the back of the package, so of course I had to explore that, too … with the help of Beatrice and Elmo.

This baby loves her apron.

As usual, I did not have all the ingredients. I substituted maple syrup for the sugar and replaced the chocolate chips with roughly chopped chunks of unsweetened baking chocolate. The cookies came out perfectly!

Exhibits A, B, & C: chocolatey-mouthed baby, Elmo sporting an elegant dusting of flour, and cookies that look like cookies.

The rest of the muesli got the regular oatmeal treatment on a chilly morning last week. I just cooked it in the pot with a little bit of water for five minutes until the oats were done. Again, I was very happy that raisins and nuts and the like were already included so I didn’t have to go foraging for all that stuff to add separately.

Beatrice couldn’t quite finish her bowl on Thursday, so I blended what was left into a Friday morning muesli smoothie for her with a few strawberries and some more water. Also delicious! She happily bounded around the apartment with her squeezy pouch, thrilled to have a breakfast free from the constraints of her high chair.

In other words, Beatrice had extra time to torment the neighborhood from her lookout post in the bay window. HIIIIIIIIIII KITTY CAT!!!!!! Where’s that lady going? DOGGY!!!!! Mama, that man is walking a doggy. Taxi! Who’s that in the taxi? HIIIIIIIIIII! MamAAAAAAAAA!

This child doesn’t miss a trick, and all our neighbors probably feel like they are living under a microscope. If they only knew what we got up to with muesli in here …