Trail Bars

[Katdaddy]

We purchase almost nothing for the trail as most of it has little health benefit for people in our age group (too much sodium, sugar, fat, high fructose corn syrups, preservatives, who knows what, etc.). Obviously some sodium and fat are necessary for the trail as calories are being burned at a high rate.

One of my personal favorite bars.

4C. quick cooking oats.
1C. flaked coconut.
1C. oat bran.
1C. raisins.
1C. semi-sweet chocolate chips.
2C. peanut butter.
1C. butter.
1/2 C. honey.
1tsp. ground cinnamon.

In a large bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. In a saucepan, heat the peanut butter, butter, honey and cinnamon until melted. Stir into the oat mixture. Press into a 13x9x2 inch pan. Cover and refrigerate. Cut into bars.

The above is so easy to make that even my 5-year-old granddaughter can make these without much help (we help her at the stove).


Protein bars for serious trail use: We ate these on our last trip on the Pacific Crest Trail. They provided plenty of energy between meals and really stuck with you.

Oven at 350-degrees.

4oz. soybean protein powder (purchase at health food store).
2-1/4 oz. oatbran.
2-3/4 oz. whole wheat flour.
3/4 oz. wheat germ.
1/2 tsp. salt.

Chop 3 oz. raisins & blueberries, each. Chop 2-1/2 oz. cherries & apricots, each. In another bowl, 12.3 oz. soft silken tofu, 4 oz. brown sugar, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup unfiltered apple juice, 2/3 cup peanut butter. Mix wet and dry ingredients and add fruit. Put all of this in a 9 x 13 dish w/oiled parchment paper (sets in the pan, pour ingredients into it). Bake 35 minutes and cool completely. Remove from pan and cut into bars.

*purchase the best or highest quality ingredients you can find. Cheap ingredients do little to supply what your body requires.

We build other trail bars, too, however the two above are fast and simple once you rustle up the ingredients.

Something a 5 year old can do. Now we're talkin!!! How do you carry these(tin foil, wax paper, baggie)? How do they do in a little heat?

 

[nydude]

i make a hard tack type food bar, with whole wheat flour, salt, pepper, and dates. basically just a dough baked in the oven then allowed to dry for several days until hard as a rock. Before baking i score a line in them so they are easy to break apart and dip into soup etc.\

This is interesting. I’ve never used flour. How long do these last?

I have made about ten good batches of granola bars. With pretty much anything I could find in the kitchen that looked good. The basics are oats and honey, a little salt, with some canola oil , baked and cut into squares.

I usually have a bunch of odd dried edibles that get thrown together. Peanuts, almonds, walnuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, mixed dried fruit, dates, raisins, craisins, chocolate chunks, m&m’s, dried shredded coconut.

The only problem is I have never measured anything and always use different ingredients, so I don’t have a cooking time and it can make them either too hard or too soft. Some times I just have a big chunk of it and rip pieces off.