In July I trekked the Larapinta trail, an epic hike in the Northern Territory starting from Alice Springs and heading west to Mount Sonder, about 223 kilometres. The Larapinta goes over the West MacDonnell Ranges and into some amazing gorges like Ormiston and Serpentine Gorges and through Standley Chasm. These are some pretty spectacular places to visit. I did this over 16 days with a cozy three rest days. I also had three food drops, which just so happened to be on the rest days so I didn’t have to carry so much food on the entire hike. Sounds good, right, and it was hard to wait before the trip.

Text and photosSonya Muhlsimmer

Ormiston Gorge, Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park, Northern Territory

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A lot went into the planning like getting fit, how to get there, where to camp, how to get home and most importantly what to eat.

The distances vary a lot: some days are up to 30 kilometres and others are around 15 kilometres. The shortest day’s walk is a mere nine kilometres; that day will be a walk in the park, right.

This trip I tried out some new recipes and also fell back on my old time favorites, but I was really looking forward to trying out some new meals. I hoped that my friend would be as excited as me. This proved to be the case, and she said the food was amazing. So taking into consideration there will be some pretty early starts to cover a lot of ground, I thought about trying a new recipe for a breakfast bar. This way it will be up early to pack the gear into the rucksack and off we go. So to save washing up on those long days an alternative is eating a breakfast bar, with a coffee of course.

I had a look at the supermarket and there is already a plethora of muesli bars, oat slices

and breakfast biscuits but I do find they are too sweet for me and are not very satisfying. On that note, I tried creating my own highly nutritious bar with a not so popular ingredient, amaranth and also another fairly popular ingredient such as whey powder. Amaranth was a staple food in the Inca, Maya and Aztec times and it is full of protein, fibre and micronutrients such as iron and magnesium, Amaranth is known as a super food, beneficial to one’s health, and has a high GI, just the type of nutrients we need on a multi-day hike. Whey powder packs a punch for protein and it is a common sports supplement. A lot of body builders use this as it can help build lean muscle mass and improve strength. So why not use these two ingredients and make a super nutritious breakfast bar?

This breakfast bar is so easy to make and how you cut the bars varies the serving size. This recipe cut into six suits me so I suggest you play around with this and get them to the size of your liking. Oh and by the way you can add chopped dates, cranberries or even chocolate or cacao nibs, the choice is endless as to what you can do with this bar.

Breakfast bars

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Ingredients

Wet ingredients

MethodPreheat a fan forced oven to 160 °C. Line a 28 x 18 cm baking tray with greaseproof paper. Place all the dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse for about 5-10 seconds, just enough that the mix is blended together. Then place these ingredients into a bowl and add the wet ingredients. With your hands mix the ingredients together until the mix sticks together. Place this mixture onto the lined tray, pad down with your hand then smooth out with a spoon firmly and bake for about 20 minutes. Then let the slice cool in the tin for about 10 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cut this into four or six bars. If you have a vacuum sealer, vacuum and seal the bars. Enjoy on your hike.

Celebration cakeOn another note, this edition is BWA's sixtieth edition, well done team. It has been an amazing journey over the years, reading many stories of adventures from our community. So, to celebrate how about a little bit of peanut butter lava cake to share? I have published this before, but it was a while ago now. So hey, who doesn’t like a piece of chocolate cake for a worthy celebration?

IngredientsBag

At home preparationPlace the ghee in a well-sealed, airtight container. Place all other dry ingredients into the bag. Label the bag, print out the method at camp instructions and pack with the bag.

Method at campAdd the ghee to the cake mix in the bag. Seal the bag and with your fingers work the ghee from the outside through the mix. Now add the water to the bag and mix well. The bag shouldn’t break when you do this. Boil about 2 cups of water in a pot and place the sealed bag in the water. Cover if you have a lid and cook for about 6 minutes. If you don’t have a lid cook the cake for an extra minute or two. Serve from the bag or empty onto a plate. Optional, sprinkle with golden flakes and enjoy. Serves 2 decent sized portions. Enjoy!

Celebration cake

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