Home Made Goodies

I read over at the Texas Survivalist blog about boring trail foods and about making your own. They were not too happy with GORP (good old raisins and peanuts).
I always liked GORP.
But, over the years, I have developed my own combos for trail foods or snacking.

Some of the ones I have tried (and loved!) are:
Walnuts + Dried Apple (cut it up in small pieces) sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon and a touch of sugar
and mix up.
Walnuts + Dried Cranberries
Walnuts + Dried Cherries
Almonds + Dried Apricots (snip apricots up to smaller sizes)
Almonds + Dried Pineapple + Coconut Flakes
Pecans + Carob covered Raisins
Pecans + Dried Cranberries
Filberts (Hazelnuts) + Dried Cherries
Filberts + Dried Apricots

Mix it up a bit! Use nuts and dried fruit that you prefer. Mix several kinds of fruit with your favorite nut. Spice your mixes. Cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices can give you a nice *pop* of flavor in your mix.
Sprinkle dried fruit with orange juice or pineapple juice, mix to coat and let set in the fridge overnight. Then mix with your favorite nut. Only do this if you are going to eat it pretty quick, within one or two days max, otherwise the nuts may go soft from absorbing the juice.
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It has been a bit chilly here and I am craving...unreasonably craving lentils.
I LOVE lentils.
Green lentils, the lovely orange/red lentils, French lentils...I just love some lentils during cold weather.
Lentil chili is an amazing dish in cold weather. Thick and rich--no meat needed!
There are LOADS of recipes for lentil chili online. Go check some out.
I plan on making a lentil chili verde', that means no tomato sauce!
I cheat a bit and use a large can of green enchilada sauce in my green lentil chili.
I use a mix of white beans (navy beans) and green lentils. A jalapeno or two (depends on taste), a bit of salt and pepper and I serve with grated cheese on top.And a dollop of sour cream...
Making myself hungry here! Guess I know what is for dinner tomorrow!

Lentils are a good meat substitute. They are inexpensive, tasty and nutritious. They cook quickly and will readily adsorb the taste of spices or other foods.They are light-weight and blend well in dishes with beans, rice and other grains.
I like to toss some cooked lentils into salads and pita bread sandwiches.
Lentils also work well to stretch meat in a dish. Use cooked lentils as a substitute for half the meat in chili, spaghetti sauce, even hamburger helper! Making tuna salad? Open your can of tuna the day before and mix with an equal amount of cooked lentils, then refrigerate overnight. Next day, make your tuna salad as usual, just treat the lentils as tuna.Same for chicken salad. Add cooked lentils to sausage as you cook it up (loose sausage, not links or patties) to stretch out the sausage.

Get some lentils and experiment!