A few weeks ago I posted on Facebook about attempting a hike to Rock Mountain near Stevens Pass and making it about a mile in before feeling lightheaded and nauseous causing me to turn around and leave the trail for another day. It was really hard to do but the smart choice to make for not only safety but I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy it if it was going to be a struggle the whole way.
The saying goes, the mountain will always be there for another day…
Well, I returned to complete the hike (starting much earlier under cooler conditions) a few weeks later and was rewarded solitude and beauty in what I like to refer to as my backyard. Looking around at the scenery before me, I could pick out trails and summits I have visited this year. It offers perspective and scale to be able to stand on a summit you admired from another peak just a short time before.
After this hike, I then went and hiked to another point the next day on the Meadow Creek Trail where I could look back and see more mountains I have visited this summer.
I stood over there…
One of the things I love most about my time in the mountains is the power of perspective that it affords. Whether it is feeling like I am on top of the world or just a minuscule part of a much large ecosystem, getting out and exploring the environment around me helps me learn more about who I am.
#bananas #strawberries #chocolatechips #cashews #pineapple #cacoabutterchips
I wanted to put together a trail mix recipe that one could make without or without dehydrating and when I started to think about flavor combinations, the idea of a banana split popped into my head.
Do you remember enjoying these as a child? When I was young, good grades were often rewarded with treats out and a banana split was high on my list of choices at a local ice cream parlor, once Farrell’s but then eventually Baskin Robbins or Dairy Queen. Three scoops of vanilla ice cream with chocolate, strawberry and pineapple sauce sprinkled with nuts? Oh, so sweet!
In my trail mix, I had in mind to have a high ratio of fat if possible and keep the sugars down. I also was looking to use cacoa butter chips in my trail mix as one of the folks over at Paleo Hikers and Backpackers had shared that he used them in his trail mixes and I had never thought to just eat them straight up before.
Cacoa butter is the edible fat that comes from cacoa beans and does not contain dairy. It is what gives dark chocolate its creaminess! It also contains a fair amount of vitamin K and E.
I found them at my local co-op and I have to admit they are an acquired taste. You have to enjoy eating fat for sure and whatever you eat them with needs to add some punch. You can order them online but I would suggest trying them first if possible to make sure you like them.
This recipe could easily be made without dehydrating but I did a combination of homemade banana chips and pineapple with store bought freeze-dried strawberries. Both bananas and pineapple are fairly easy to find dehydrated or freeze dried in the market. Even stores like Target now carry a good selection, that is where I found the strawberries!
If you want to go all out with your banana split, you could add dehydrated cherries but I wanted to keep the sugar as low as I could and still have enough to balance out super rich fattiness of the cacoa butter. If you like, you could use white chocolate chips instead of the cacoa butter but then you most likely will be adding more sugar. Oh yeah, my chocolate chips are 100% cacoa. This way, the only sugar in this mix comes from the dried fruit.
In case you are wondering, the difference between cocoa and cacoa is that cacoa is raw and cold pressed and believed to have extra health benefits by keeping the living enzymes and antioxidants found in the cacoa beans.
What I love about this mix is that it has just enough sweet to balance out the richness of the fat in the chips and cashews. A most decidedly healthier treat I can give myself than those banana splits of long ago!
Banana Split Trail Mix
Prep Time
5 minutes
Total Time
5 minutes
Course: Snack
Cuisine: Gluten Free, Paleo, Vegan, Whole Food
Servings: 9 1/2 cup servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup cashews
- 1 cup 100 % dark chocolate chips
- 1 cup cacoa butter chips
- 1/2 cup dehydrated/freeze dried banana chips
- 1/2 cup dehydrated/freeze dried pineapple
- 1/2 cup dehydrated/freeze dried strawberries
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container.
- You may want to break the cacoa butter chips up a bit to distribute better in your mix.
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