Mountain Bars - Gluten Free, Awesome, Addictive

Chomping on an energy bar at Healy Pass

I've been making this these Mountain bars since I adapted an energy bar recipe in 2009 from the Joy of Cooking.  They have come with Meghan and I on so many backcountry trips I can't keep track... Bugaboos, Assiniboine, Wapta, Egypt Lake, Fundy, Loch Alva and many more. There are a huge hit with everyone we travel with.

They are especially great in the winter - the cold keeps them from crumbling and yet they don't get rock hard like so many other bars do. They are packed with calories to keep your furnace burning on ski and climbing trips. I've tried many recipes and after find that these bars sit well in my stomach.  Just the right combination of fat, carbs, and proteins for quick and sustained energy.

They hold together pretty well (I recommend freezing them before cutting). For longer trips I wrap them individually in parchment paper and store in a ziploc bag (this also keeps us honest to our daily rations!). They don't last long around the house so better to make them just before the trip!





Ingrediants

• 1 cup Rolled Oats (I use Only Oats because they are Gluten Free and delicious)
• 3/4 cup Flour (*I make them Gluten Free* See note below)
• 1 cup (packed) Brown Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cup Dried Fruit (could be a mix of raisins, chopped apricots, cranberries)
• 1 cup chopped Nuts/Seeds (In this order depending on what I have on hand- Almonds, Walnuts, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Buckwheat groats)

• 3/4 C Melted Butter (Dairytown Butter if you can get it!)
• 2 tsp Vanilla

Options:
Ginger Version is so good! 1/2 cup Chopped Crystallized Ginger  & 1 Tbsp Ginger Powder
1/2 cup chopped Milk Chocolate
*Gluten Free*: If you're making them Gluten Free like I do, then I would recommend GF Oats, standard featherlight flour (white rice, potato flour, and tapioca starch) and 1-2 tsp of ground Chia Seeds or 1/2 tsp Xanthum gum. 

Directions:

Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl (oats, flour, nuts, fruit, etc)

Melt Butter in Microwave/stove until liquid. Add Vanilla.

Now add the melted butter to the dry ingredients and stir together well.

Pour this sticky-gloppy mixture into a 9"x9" greased (buttered) cake pan.

Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes until top is browned. You'll see some butter bubbling around the edges.

Let cool/freeze before cutting to keep them from crumbling. Keep the extras in the freezer. They freeze well because there isn't any water in the recipe, just fat!

Sticky but not wet texture

Tamped down ready to bake

Bars on our ski camping trip to Skoki

 gluten free, energy bar, granola bar, camping, skiing, graham waugh, wapta, skoki, assiniboine,

How to Use "Labels" to create Topic Pages

Time to get nerdy about Blogs!

When I started this blog I wanted just one platform to write about my various interests - the outdoors, food, and bicycling. I didn't want to frig around with separate blogs for these topics. So I faced the dilemma of a non-specific blog - and the issue of various topics cluttering and hiding each other. For example if my Mom :) came to read my recipes I wanted her to be able to focus in on just those posts and not wade through photos from climbing and hiking.

Over the course of a year I fiddled around with blogger, wordpress, and tumblr to find a way that I could separate out my topics into different pages. At first I tried setting up actual "Pages" but I found these to be static. I wanted each topic page to be look and act like blog.

I figured it out first with Wordpress and then just recently with Blogger. I chose Blogger in the end because of how easy it was add photos through Picasa and online albums. Wordpress has a sleek look but it's painfully clunky in the photo department and has limited space. 

So here's a step by step way to get your Blog Topics to act like Pages:

** I added notes to the screenshots. You may need to open them to read more easily.

The "Labels" you select will show up like Pages below your header. Each will take the reader to a list of all posts fitting into that category.

When you write Posts give them Labels. You can create any label you'd like to fit your topic. Think of them as categories/topics/ or tags. The Labels that you create here will be available as links below your header (you choose which).

Go to your "Layout" page and add the "Labels" Widget. You can place it along the bottom, sidebar, or top. I prefer putting it at the top so that it mimics "Pages". 

In this dialog box you can select which Labels you want to appear. You may find it cleaner to select only a few primary Labels to display (so that it's not messy with 2 dozen different labels).  For instance I chose generic labels such as "Outdoors" and "Food" to display on my main page.

But you needn't be limited to just those principle labels on your posts. When I gave something the "Outdoors" label I also further identified it with "climbing", "rockies", "winter".

Happy blogging