granola bars

So of course when Tanner and I decided to go camping, what I was most excited about was planning the menu. How would we sustain ourselves out in the middle of nowhere fighting freezing temperatures and scaling down mountains? When we are huddled around the fire mending small wounds and re-telling the story about the giant bear, what would we desire to munch on? What's light and tidy and small and requires no preparation so we can eat and run? It has to be tasty. And it has to be healthy.

With a little cooperation and team work, we worked out some food solutions. A couple of dehydrated "dishes" such as onion bread and veggie patties. A raw cocktail sauce for dipping and cinnamon- almond truffles for dessert. Fresh fruit and 5 gallons of water. The only thing we cooked for the trip were granola bars. They were a last minute decision on my part. Tired and cranky from a long week I was looking for the easiest way to make more food for the trip. I really just wanted to throw a bunch of stuff in my mixer and hope for a miracle. And for the most part, that's what I did.

This is like one of those everything but the kitchen sink type things where anything goes. I made these late at night, randomly grabbing ingrdients off the shelf, and while I measured all my ingrdients so I can give them to you, that's not necessarily what you have to do. Just pay attention to the consistency of the batter. You want it full of goodness, but there needs to be a binder so they don't crumble and you end up eating it as cereal (which would not be such a bad thing..). Peanut butter, tahini and agave nectar worked for me. Maybe try another nut butter or date paste. Nice and sticky.

As Tanner and I approached the fierce mountain, we passed a cute little campsite on the way and decided just to stay there. How can you not camp somewhere named "Piney"? And while all of our friends and family insisted we would freeze to death, instead we built a nice fire and sat there comfortably in our jeans and sweatshirts. We munched on granola bars not while mending wounds, but while drinking cheap red wine and listening to our neighbors radio play Dolly Parton, Robert Johnson and Johnny Cash. We were too hungover to scale the mountain, however, we felt just fine to take a peaceful 5 mile hike through the woods and carve our intials in a tree. I'm going to be honest here. We stuck to our menu just fine, but we had to taste the local flavor and try the all you can eat fried catfish buffet. Which completey satisfied my soul, but made me even more grateful I had yummy, healthy snacks for the rest of the night. I should really mention if I didn't before that yes, they are healthy, but better than that they taste superb!















you will need these:
one large mixing bowl
wooden mixing spoon or electric mixer
9 x 13 inch baking dish
rubber spatula (handy, not necessary)

2 C rolled oats (the instant kind)
1/4 C each, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, dried dates, shredded coconut, cacao nibs
1/2 C natural creamy peanut butter
1/4 C tahini
2 T olive oil
1/4 C +3 T agave nectar (if you are not vegan a little honey might be nice too)
pinch of salt (optional)

pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees

place dry oats and pumpkin seeds in your baking dish (ungreased for now) and let them toast for about 8-10 minutes or until oats are golden brown.

meanwhile, cream peanut butter, agave nectar, tahini and olive oil together until nice and creamy

add the oats first then add all other dry ingrdients and mix until well combined

grease the baking dish with olive oil and plop the mixture in and press down until it's flat and tightly packed

bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until oats are very golden and browning on the edges

when it comes out of the oven press down with spatula one more time to make sure it's as tight and flat as it can be

cool completely (i know, this is hard) and cut into little squares for a handy little snack