Camping Food

So, this blog is coming a little late. I just wasn't in a "bloggy" mood this week but this is a good recipe so I need to post it for those of you who collect good recipes! It is a recipe for homemade granola bars. I love making granola for my breakfast and it is so versatile. You can literally put anything in it and it tastes great. The same holds true for granola bars. This recipe is peanut butter/chocolate chip so it is on the sweet side, kind of a candy bar type of granola bar. But you could experiment with more nuts and dried fruit and make a healthier version. These bars are pretty hearty too. One will definitely last for a while. 


The reason I made homemade granola bars was that I went camping last weekend with a group of friends up to Yosemite National Park. I was in charge of the food. Four days/ nine people. It was quite an undertaking, let me tell you. It was fun though. The organizational part of me LOVED pre-cooking and pre-chopping all of the food and having everything labeled in ziplock bags and ready to pack. It was about three full days of prep work but when we were actually camping, meals were a breeze because so much was done ahead of time. It was definitely the way to go. 


We did a lot of hiking and sight seeing while we were there. The first day we hiked Yosemite Falls. Well, I hiked half of it anyway. It was a pretty big hike! Beautiful though!

The next day we hiked Sentinel Dome which was much less strenuous but had a killer view at the top. When we were initially planning our trip we were talking about hiking the Half Dome. I was all for it until I got there and saw it:

Yikes! That is a 17 mile hike with a good portion of it nearly vertical! Definitely not for me. You can't do everything and this is one of the things I can't do! But as you know, I can cook, so here is the recipe for the granola bars, enjoy!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

3 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup toasted coconut
2/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup oat bran
1 Tbs. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups honey
1/4 cup melted butter
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line a 9x13 inch pan with aluminum foil.
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix in peanut butter, honey, and melted butter. Stir in chocolate chips. Press mixture firmly and evenly into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Let cool then refrigerate until hard, about 1 hour. Take out of pan and cut into bars (one 9x13 pan makes about 16 bars). Wrap each bar individually in Saran Wrap and freeze. This solidifies them so that they won’t crumble when you try to eat them.