Trail Mixin'!

Since I am not currently employed, I'm helping The Boy prepare for his backpacking trip. Today, I mixed up 12 bags of trail mix. We planned on 1 gallon sized bag per week - he's going to be gone for almost 7 weeks, and his brother (for whom he is buying food) will be on the trail for 3. Since Bro is 6'7" and eats about twice as much as an average person, we figured approx. 5 weeks of trail mix would cover him for his 3 weeks on the trail. Thus, 12 weeks (12 1-gallon bags) total. Math!

Last night, we went to the new West Berkeley Bowl because their bulk section is much nicer than the one at the "old" Berkeley Bowl.

Our booty:
roasted salted cashews
roasted salted pecans
honey roasted pecans
roasted salted peanuts
dried apple rings
golden raisins
dark raisins
dried cranberries
Guittard mini chocolate chips
roasted salted pistachios
dried apricots
orange cranberry granola

Check out the crazy amount of nuts. That's a LOT of nuts!

Since (according to The Boy's much more complicated math...ok, it was basic math, but lots of it), he will still be low on daily calories, we're going to add some M&Ms and perhaps dried blueberries and more granola as well. Personally, I think this is pretty fun! :-)

12 bags weighing 2.5 lbs each

I actually *almost* perfectly divided them up when I made them. One was 3 lbs, one was 2 lbs, and I just scooped .5 lb out of one and into the other. Oh yes, such complicated work...but I was pretty impressed that 10/12 bags were exactly the same weight!

PS - HOLYCOWGUITTARD. Guittard chocolate is amazing. WAY better than any other chocolate chip I have ever tasted. From now on, I will be buying chocolate chips in bulk. Sorry Trader Joe's and Nestle, but these are just way better.

PPS - this is not *technically* cooking/baking, but I'm categorizing it there anyway.