Honey Oat Trail Mix

When I was little, my parents loved to drag, I mean, take us to various attractions around wherever we happened to be living at the time.  I won't get into the agony of the winery trips in this post...I'll save that for another day.

One of my favorites were trips into the mountains.  There was a particular trail that went right by a stream that had tons of these REALLY BIG rocks.  My brother and I could hardly wait for lunch to be consumed so we could scramble over the rocks, back and forth across the water.  And then we'd go hiking in the woods, looking at the gorgeous colors around us, inhaling that crisp fall air, and reveling in the quiet of nature.

On some of these hikes, not all, we'd bring trail mix.  On really, really, really rare occasions, that trail mix would be GORP.  The kind with the M&M's.  Oh yeah, yumminess.

This like a tricked out GORP.

Honey Oat Trail Mix
Recipe adapted from Food Network Magazine

1 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 tbsp honey
3 cups mixed dried fruit [I used apricots and apple slices because pre-mixed packages were WAY expensive]
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 cups mixed nuts [I used roasted cashews and almonds, and a little honey-roasted peanuts that I found in the pantry]
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup peanut butter M&M's

1.  Preheat the oven to 325. Mist a baking sheet with cooking spray. Toss the oats with 2 tablespoons water, the canola oil, wheat germ and honey. Form small clusters of the mixture on the baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 15 minutes. 

I made my clusters a bit on the large side

2.  Add the dried fruit to the baking sheet, sprinkle with the cinnamon and bake 3 to 5 more minutes. Let cool, then toss with the nuts, sunflower seeds, cranberries, and M&M's. Store in an airtight container.

Ready to scoop and eat!