Veronique’s Trail Mix Cookies

My friend Veronique and I met while snowshoeing the Grouse Mountain Snowshoe Grind in Vancouver one winter. Hooray for making friends on the trail!

Here is V’s recipe for yummy energy cookies made with cereal and oats! Don’t they look delicious? In the photos, she included dried cranberries, shredded coconut, and sunflower seeds. This recipe makes about 12-16 cookies, depending on size.

V’s Energy Cookies

1 cup Müslix cereal or other granola type of cereal. V says, “Sometimes I use the Kashi Blueberry Oat Clusters & Flakes cereal for a change”

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1.5 teaspoons Baking Powder (7 ml)

1 teaspoon cinnamon (5 ml)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter

1 mashed banana

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk (30 ml)

2 teaspoons vanilla (10 ml)

3 tablespoons honey (45 ml)

In a large bowl, combine cereal, oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, mix the margarine, banana, egg, milk, vanilla and honey. Add wet to dry ingredients and mix well.

Divide the dough into cookies on a nonstick baking sheet and flatten cookies with a fork.

Bake at 350F (180C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

Add-in Options:

• Chopped nuts
• Sunflower seeds
• Dried cranberries
• Shredded coconut
• Chocolate chips
• Raisins
• Cocoa powder
• Matcha green tea powder

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Check out my e-book Easy Hiking Recipes for more recipes like this!

Coconut Granola Breakfast Squares

Sometimes I just can’t be bothered to make breakfast in the morning when I’m getting ready for a hike. These tasty little squares are like granola, but softer. They’re  a great cereal option if you’re camping or just in a hurry. Eat them on their own, or put a couple in a bowl with a splash of milk. I like to put three squares in a bowl with some soymilk, and heat it up for a few seconds for “fancy” oatmeal.

In this recipe I use coconut oil, my new favorite seasoning 🙂 Coconut oil lends a light tropical essence of coconut to your cooking and is a source of healthy saturated fats and may contain antiviral properties. But mostly, it just tasted delicious! The oil is solid at room temperature, so you must melt it before mixing it in with the oats. You can also halve this recipe to make a smaller batch.

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats

¼ cup organic virgin coconut oil

¾ cup peanut butter

¼ cup honey

½ cup shredded coconut

¼ cup chopped nuts

¼ cup raisins

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup water

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9”x9” baking pan with parchment paper or foil, all the way up the edges.

In a small pot, heat the peanut butter, honey, vanilla, water, and coconut oil on low heat until thoroughly mixed.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together. Whisk in the peanut butter concoction. The dough should be sticky but a bit crumbly still. Add a little extra water if the dough is too dry to mostly stick together.

Press the mixture firmly into the pan with the back of a spoon. Bake for 40 minutes, then cool completely. Remove from the pan, and peel off the foil. Slice carefully into squares – it’s a bit crumbly. Enjoy!