Sugar High Friday #10: GORP Balls

GORP. Gorp, you say? What in the world is gorp? For those that don’t know, here’s something from wikipedia:

Gorp (an acronym for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts or Granola Oats Raisins and Peanuts; also often called trail mix) is a food product used in outdoor recreational activities such as hiking, backpacking, mountaineering and camping. This food mixure is termed scroggin in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Gorp is a mix of food that usually includes those listed and many more. While pre-packaged commercial variants of Gorp are readily available, many outdoorsmen prefer to produce a homemade batch.

Different people have different recipes for Gorp, so I will leave it up to you to make your own. I usually start out with 1/2 cup each of an organic nut butter plus 1/2 cup of honey, then add the solids. I like a mixture of toasted oats or whatever cereal I have, some chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds, mini-chocolate chips or some dark chocolate chopped finely, some sunflower, poppy and/or pumpkin seeds, and chopped fruit like apricots (no sulfur please), raisins, dried cranberries and/or dried cherries. Just toss everything in a bowl. Put enough nut butter and honey in so it holds together, but not too much that it gets too goopy to handle. The proportions are totally up to you — I vary mine based on mood and what’s in the pantry. Mine have been dipped in cocoa powder, but you can use espresso powder too, or no powder at all.

You don’t have to be a backpacker to enjoy this; sometimes when I feel like pampering the hubby I whip this up really quickly and pack a few chilled balls with his lunch. I thought it particularly appropriate to post today, since today we celebrate 15 years and 7 months of being married, or 17 years and 7 months of being together. I got a rose, and he got these honey balls. And I kept this month’s entry to SHF simple, because I need to get ready for the monthly date:D. Ciao!

Edited to say: Forgot to say THANKS to Nic of Baking Sheet for hosting this month’s SHF. Here’s the roundup of entries!