Recipe of the Week: Jen’s DIY Trail Snack Bars

The following cold-mix recipe for Do-It-Yourself Trail Snack Bars is from SurvivalBlog reader Jen B.

She says:  “This recipe requires no heat. It sure beats paying for expensive Lara Bars or Clif Bars, and I have the comfort of knowing exactly what is in them. This recipe can be doubled.”

Ingredients
  • 1 cup pitted dates
  • 1 cup quick-cooking oats
  • cups crisp rice cereal
  • ¼ cup coarsely chopped peanuts
  • 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
  • ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon of salt (Use less or none if you are on a low-salt diet.)
  • ½ cup creamy-style peanut butter
  • cup brown rice syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (Or more, if you are a chocaholic.)
Directions
  1. Spray an 8×8-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray, and set that aside.
  2. Place the dates in a food processor and pulse it until finely chopped. (Or you can chop them the old-fashioned way, on a cutting board.)
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the chopped dates with the cereal, oats, peanuts, flaxseed, cinnamon, and salt
  4. In a small saucepan, combine the peanut butter and brown rice syrup over medium heat, stirring until melted and completely blended. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
  5. Pour the peanut butter mixture over the oat mixture and stir it all until well-combined.
  6. Gently stir in the chocolate chips.
  7. Pour the mixture into the 8x8pan and press firmly to pack the mixture into the pan.
  8. Let the mixture sit until completely cool and set, for at least 1 hour.
  9. Cut into equal-size bars, then wrap them individually in plastic wrap and store them in your refrigerator.

Do you have a well-tested recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long-term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven recipes, slow cooker recipes, and any recipes that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!