No Bake Hippy Balls the Hiking Snack of Champions
Planning a day hike with the family? Here’s a delicious and nutritious treat that will help keep your family moving!
Since we are a family of hikers. Being in the woods = our happy place. My boys are river dwellers, would prefer sleeping in a tent as opposed to their comfy beds, and they love snacking on the trail. Our favorite thing to do on a beautiful day is to pack up our kid carrying hiking packs with all the necessities and set out on a new adventure. Necessities when hiking with young children include a lot of snacks and drinks! Our favorite way to carry our water on the trail is with a water hydration backpack (we have a Platypus brand). You can add some coconut water to it as well for the extra electrolytes, or some of your favorite sports drink powder.
Stay away from snacks that are heavy and high in processed sugar. We like to pack healthy and high protein snacks that don’t need any refrigeration…you don’t want to have to carry the extra weight of an ice pack to keep a snack cool!
Here are a few quick and easy hiking snack ideas that the whole family will love:
Banana tortilla wraps: Take a large tortilla, spread some peanut butter (or Sunbutter to keep it nut free) all across the wrap, then spread some honey on the wrap, place a full peeled banana on one side of the wrap and then roll. This can be eaten whole or can be cut into “sushi” type bites.
Kale Chips: Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Toss fresh Kale leaves with about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with some sea salt. Bake for about 20 min. or until crispy! Perfect for trail snacking without weighing you down.
These are my family’s personal favorite:
No Bake Trail Mix Peanut Butter Balls (Aka Hippy Balls)
Yields about 20 balls
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of peanut butter (creamy). (You can substitute Sunbutter for a nut free version)
- 1 1/4 cup oatmeal (dry, old fashioned)
- 1/3 cup real maple syrup
- 1/3 cup 60% cacao chocolate (use your favorite kind of chocolate here!), chopped in food processor
- 2/3 cup raisins, chopped in food processor (cherries, figs, cranberries will work too)
- 1/3 cup ground almonds, ground in food processor (you can omit for a nut free version, but they will be a bit sticky)
- 2 tbsp ground flax seed (optional)
Directions:
- After chopping chocolate, raisins, and almonds, mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Place bowl in the fridge for 20 minutes to chill.
- Roll mixture into small bite sized balls.
- Keep extras in the fridge
Enjoy and happy trails!
This recipe was originally posted on LiveAndLetWander.com, where the Rispoli family shares tips for outdoorsy families. We highly recommend bookmarking their blog and following them on Instagram.
The Rispolis — Elisa, Matt, Holden (4) and Reid (2) — are family of nature lovers, wanderers and adventure seekers. They snowboard, scuba dive, snowshoe, kayak, bike, raft, climb and hike, and have done so all over this great world, but their home and hearts are on the East Coast. Matt is a police officer by day, and a mountain man during any other off time of the day or night. Elisa handles the home-base acting as full-time mom and CAO (Chief Adventure Officer). Elisa and Matt are brand ambassadors for some of their favorite outdoor companies including: Deuter, Cloudline, and Munkpack. Elisa also is a freelance travel and food writer and the editor for her local NJ Macaroni Kid newsletter. In their spare time, Elisa and Matt volunteer as branch leads for their local Hike It Baby chapter and keep up the family blog.
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