The Not-So-Healthy But Really Tastey Trail Bars

 

All the hiking and biking we've done this summer has had me on the look out for some good bars. After checking some recipes and noticing that they all call for some sort of corn syrup or rice syrup, which I don't really want in my bars, I decided to just throw something together and see how it stuck together.

 

This was very spur of the moment, this deciding thing. I had a pan with chocolate chips on the stove before I really knew what was happening and when Spence said "whatcha making?" I didn't really have an answer.

 

I had about 2/3 cup of dark chocolate chips, I added a couple tbsp. honey, two marshmallows, and 3/4 peanut butter. After it was all melted and smooth I poured it over 2 cups of rolled oats, a small bag of Tropical Medley dried fruit and 2/3 cup of sunflower seeds.

 

I pressed it between two pieces of parchment paper in a baking dish and coerced it into a rectangle. Then I put it in the fridge until it was firm, sliced it up and ate some(maybe two and half). Yum. So good!

It's pretty sweet, I probably didn't need the honey, but it's actually a lot of oats versus chocolate stuff so it's pretty hearty.

 

What do you do for bars on the go?  

Another Way To Use Up Multiple Eggplants...

This week at our CSA they had a table set up in the barn with three crates full of Asian eggplant. And signs that said "Help Yourself". I took four. FOUR! What was I thinking? I still had two in the fridge!

I was thinking about 30 hypothetical things I could do with them. And I couldn't remember a single one when I got home.

 

After thinking and scratching my head and chewing my pen I decided to come up with some sort of  sandwich with thin crispy pieces of eggplant that allow you to actually taste the eggplant, unlike eggplant parmesan.

 

Tyson walked in and said "Wow, it smells like a restaurant in here!" A few minutes later he took a bite and said "...That's why! Because this tastes like a restaurant!"

Whoo-hoo! Ten points for the midweek meal!

 

Here's how it happened.

 

Fried Eggplant "Restaurant" Sandwich

 

for the eggplant:

2 Asian eggplants, cut into three pieces and then sliced the long way 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick (see pictures)

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 flour

salt and paprika

4 eggs whisked in a large bowl

 

Mix your flour and cornmeal, salt and paprika on a baking sheet. Oil another baking sheet and have at the ready. Preheat your oven to 425 Fahrenheit.

Dip and drip the slices in the egg.

Lay them in the cornmeal mixture and make sure both sides are evenly covered.

Arranged on oiled pan and bake for 6 minutes or until crispy. Flip over and bake another 6 minutes.

 

 

for sandwich:

1 Loaf of bread, mine was about the size of a football, sliced the long way through the middle

2 tbsp. mayo mixed with one clove minced garlic

3 leafs of Romaine

4 slices of red onion

Cheddar cheese to make sufficiently cheesey

Oregano (garnish)

 Thinly sliced Red Bell Pepper (garnish)

 

I put my bread cut side down right on the oven rack for the last 6 minutes of my eggplant.

Spread the mayo and arrange romaine. lay eggplant in an overlapping chevron pattern (see pictures).

Follow with onion, cheddar, peppers and oregano.

 

Place 'sandwich' open faced on your oiled pan and place in oven until melted.

Slice huge chunks and serve.

 

This week we've had a cool spell (cue heavenly choir) so we took advantage of this and went to get more blueberries. This time some friends with kids came along. There was 8 month old Millie and 3 year old Clara. They all had such a good time.

London surprised me by walked the whooole way again. Last time we hiked in the morning, this time it was after lunch, but she happily insisted on doing it herself. She walked over rocks and through some mud. Lying along the trail at one point was a fallen tree with a bunch of those little white mushrooms that look like steps. London says "Look! A mushroom piano!" And she sits next to it and 'plays' the mushroom the piano.

I thought that maybe with friends she wouldn't be as into the picking as she was on Monday but she followed my into the underbrush and climbed onto rocks to reach the good ones. She kept going "Oooo, Mommy, found bue-berras! Good ones..." She was so much fun to have around!

Spencer brought a buddy his age and after about the first quarter mile we didn't see them again until the top and even then only as blurs of red and green t-shirts while they ran after each other, green blueberries zinging through the air around them. Needless to say, no pictures of them this time...

I got to carry Millie in the backpack for a while and while we were taking a break on a big rock London climbed up next to me and ever-so-gently pet her head. Dried apricots forgotten, she continued to stroke her and tell her about the mountain we were hiking while Clara took a potty break. Then she turns to me and says with the sweetest smile and the cutest voice:
"Have mines baby someday" Me:
"You are? Do you really like babies?"
Her: "Yeah. Wrap them up. Rock them, hold them..."
It was so sweet, and Millie just looked and babbled at her the whole time. Funny to think someday we'll call them the 'same' age. A year and a half seems like such a huge difference now...

On the way down Clara got a piggyback ride which meant everyone was walking with much longer legs so we ended up hiking down just the two of us. She told me she was a zebra.
"When did you turn into a zebra?" I asked "I didn't notice that happening."
Her: " Uhhmmmm... Saturday"
Me: "Really. Let's see we were with Roger and Goia on Saturday."
Her: "Yeah. Jussdid."

Blueberry Picking On Gap Mountain

Taking a snack break. She was such a trooper! She walked all the way up and 9/10ths of the way down.

"Sitting Tree"

She patiently and meticulously filled her "bucket" three times and ate them all before she decided to fill it and bring them home.

There's a very large mountain in that cloud. Take my word for it. It's right there.