It is two sealed packs inside – one is the hummus, the other is crunch pretzel chips:

The kit weighs 4.56 ounces and the plastic containers are very rugged (recyclable as well – #5). Normally I shy from lumpy containers (since you have to pack it out empty and/or crush it first) but what occurred to me is the pretzel half is a perfect drinking cup! Or rehydration vessel…..the two pieces snap together tightly. I wouldn’t use it for hot drinks but for cold, go for it! As well, if you need a cup for dunking it is small and easy to grab (great for filling hydration bladders). And when you get home? Recycle it! PS: If you have little ones, it would also make a great “leaf-rock-twig” holder!

Now onto the food in said cups – Sabra has long been my favorite hummus to buy. It is creamy and tasty. The red pepper one is my favorite of their varieties (it comes in 3 choices for the To Go Packs). If you are the type who has never cared for hummus – too much garlic, too sour, too whatever, give Sabra a try…it might change your view! I found it was the right amount for a snack.

I found the packs in the ready to grab section of the deli at my local Safeway – I would suggest looking around that area of your grocery store!

~Sarah

You are missed, Jer.

~Sarah

Each resealable bag is 1.2 ounces and around $4. A good deal overall for a quality product. They are both a product of the USA and Chile.

~Sarah

One of the best things you can do for your cholesterol levels is to eat oats – often! Kirk and I got addicted to eating various forms of oatmeal in 2011 (from one pot to baked, I made so many types!). It helped us knock our cholesterol levels in half and more so, kept us from getting as hungry. Well made oatmeal will have you desiring it, rather than eating that nutritionally less than stellar breakfast of champions, er backpackers, Pop-Tarts©. Oats are also great for your blood sugar (hence the reason you feel full longer) and are a great source of fiber (beta-glucan fiber, what binds the cholesterol).

The processing done to Old-Fashioned and 1 Minute oats isn’t anything bad – it simply breaks down the tough exterior of the oat making it easier to cook and eat. Ounce for ounce you get similar nutritional stats. The only time it isn’t is the pre-packaged instant packets that are full of sugar, salt and artificial flavorings/colorings. Considering you can make your own DIY packets and avoid all the salt/chemicals, you have no excuses! Most often I go for Old-Fashioned Oats as I enjoy the texture the most – and you can always do a quick grind to make them quicker cooking. And price-wise you just cannot beat them – go to Costco and you will be eating for next to nothing!

The key is that oats are bland, no matter what type you prefer. To taste great you need to be creative. They can be savory or sweet, but just like rice or couscous, you need to add in flavor. Cooking with milk (dairy or non-dairy) adds depth. Add in nuts, seeds, dried fruit, etc for more substance. Use spices! There isn’t much better than a bowl of oats sweetened with maple syrup and topped with just picked Huckleberries in August

So consider tomorrow a new start to a healthier you – learn to love oats and consider having them for meals when you backpack Need some ideas? Well, here ya go!

DIY Instant Oatmeal Packets

Carrot Cake Oatmeal

Sarah’s Fattening Coconut Berry Oatmeal

Trail-Nola, a cold cereal for those days when you don’t want to cook!

And need some ideas to get you going at home?

Baked Oatmeal is great for hiking. Make it at night and in the morning take a big wedge with you to eat on the way to the trailhead. Avoid the pre-hike rut of greasy gut-bombs from fast food places! Or have a bowl of hearty oatmeal before you hit the road. Your stomach (and heart) will thank you!

~Sarah

Breakfast Pistachio Rice Pudding

Rice, milk, cranberries, a little brown sugar and cinnamon and lovely green pistachios – yum!

~Sarah

Dried plums tend to be really sticky/messy so I don’t carry them often (especially in summer when they start sweating and get even more sticky) and chopping them up is even more of a mess so I was wondering how these would fare. The plums are diced up (very toddler friendly I might add) and are not sticky, yet are still plenty soft for easy chewing.

They are delicious eaten plain and in trail mix would be even better. Perfect as well for adding to oatmeal and even rice or pasta dishes (plums work well for both sweet and savory dishes!).

Find them with the dried fruit in grocery stores (I found the 9 ounce hard sided container for $2 on sale this week).

PS: The container would also recycle well into a cracker holder for later use!

~Sarah

This photo is what my year was. Walker at Paradise, at Mt. Rainier, on August 1st. There was still well over 5 feet of snow on the ground behind us. He was so happy, scampering around in it after this photo was taken:

In February with Walker, on a regional trail system at Cougar Mountain:

Mama and Baby out hiking:

On a cold morning hike in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains:

Cold but why waste a sunny day?

Walker is a big boy, I realized that when he went to a back carrier and I was carrying 45 lbs of him and gear!

Even in the late winter/spring the low foothills have their own bleak beauty:

Along the Cedar River in Washington:

Snuggled up warm n’ cozy in his BOB jogger stroller in spring, out on a rail to trail hike:

An overly excited hiking partner

What happens when two outdoor trail cooking mavens hike together and have lunch after hiking (That is Teresa of One Pan Wonders fame):

Along the Green River canyon having a post lunch hike:

On Whidbey Island at Ebey’s Landing with Kirk, going down to the Lagoons and the water:

On a trip out along the Carbon River at Mt. Rainier (when all else fails with snow levels, The Carbon is always pretty!):

Kirk and Walker contemplating a hike at Rainier:

On one of the forks of the Snoqualmie River:

Hiking near the city of Olympia, Washington at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge:

Silver Falls at Mt. Rainier in early summer:

At Sunrise, Mt. Rainier on the 4th of July. The snow was still 7 to 10 feet deep:

Mt. Rainier hid in the clouds in mid-July:

Mt. Rainier from near Chinook Pass in mid-summer:

Along the White River at Mt. Rainier:

Mt. Rainier in August, finally starting to melt out:

Paradise River (a creek these days):

Glacier Basin, at Mt. Rainier. Of all the hiking I did this year it was the hardest. I was about 3 months pregnant and very anemic. The trail had finally been restored, after being wiped out a few years ago, opened up the day before and I didn’t want to miss my chance to hike it. Lynn talked me the whole way, pushing me to do it. And it was worth it – in 2003 I had tried to go to Glacier Basin only to be turned back by deep snow and regretted never going back. We saw a black bear feasting on the way down and while it exhausted me, it was worth the normally easy 7 or so miles!

In September hiking on the Green to Cedar Rivers Trail near where we live, enjoying the easy months

More urban “hiking” with Walker. Moochie ducks and little boys go hand in hand:

In the late fall I took Kirk out for lunch at Salish Lodge – with a certain little one with us. After lunch we walked along the viewpoints for Snoqualmie Falls where someone had way too much fun on the rocks. Oh, it wasn’t “wildernessey” but who cares. He had fun. So did we. And that is all that matters!

But as fall came and got further along I quit hiking, I even quit the gym. Spending my late fall and coming winter just being lazy. Spring will be here soon enough, the trails will melt out and the flowers will come again. And the hiking will start again (as will that pesky gym). For now I fill my time with a lot of Mommy/food blogging on my personal website.

May you all enjoy the Solstice coming up soon and think of the coming spring!

~Sarah

Yum! A Chocolate Peppermint Stick bar and ooh….a matching all natural lipbalm. Lets just say that the “seasonal flavors” of the bars are some of my favorite and the lipbalm is even better. The bummer is it doesn’t appear teh balm is sold, it is promotional only. HintHint Lunabar – this stuff needs to be sold! It is smooth, tasty and has no petroleum products in it. Now to hide it away for this winter where no else can find it……

~Sarah

FTC Disclaimer: We received these products complimentary.

Boxes of 12 sticks, they sell for $3.99 and are reduced sodium (less than 400 mg per stick). Of course, if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby that isn’t any help!

There has been an option for the company that makes the sticks, Savory Choice, to get the whole line of flavors (TJ’s flops back and forth on what they carry) but they are not cheap. Packitgourmet also carries the line as well. The line is all equally good in taste and well worth the cost. But the one issue is finding the products. So when I saw these today I was interested:

Swanson Flavor Boost sticks, sold in packs of 8 in three flavors. The upside is it will be easy to find, the downside is it has twice the sodium as the other brands (over 800 mg per stick). Still, it is a great find and will be great in trail meals!

~Sarah

But I always wondered how much I could truly write about the outdoors? I’d say that having a run from 2004 to the present has been pretty phenomenal. Many give up in just a couple of months, some make it a year or two. But even I see myself petering for that first time in 7 or so years. My posts come farther apart, sometimes a month passes or longer. Mostly I realize I don’t have as much to talk about or dwell upon when it comes to the outdoors. My life changing has part of that to blame. I had kept a personal blog I wrote that after the birth of my second son, Walker, in March of 2010, became ever so slowly my choice of where I wrote. Mostly because my outdoor life isn’t separate from my everyday life – my family is part of that. As I wrote months ago I found I angered men who had read this blog that I talked about gear for babies, food items for babies, etc that was related to hiking. So I took all that to my personal blog where I could be a ‘mommy blogger’ and have a receptive audience (shockingly enough there are plenty of women and men who DO have an interest in that!) It left a sourness though to my outdoor writing, I felt cornered and that I couldn’t express myself, I waited after every post to see someone post negative remarks on Twitter that I was talking about babies again. I found myself even posting trip reports on my personal blog when I went hiking this past year. There I didn’t feel that someone would complain that I had *gasp* shown too many photos of my youngest giggling in his Deuter backpack.Or him walking up a trail on his own….

It just became easier to have a personal blog where I owed no one anything and if it bugged someone they didn’t have to read it. What I found was a warm group of readers who were trying to balance family and hobbies. My life changed more than I thought after I had Walker. When it was just Ford and I all those years ago, hiking all over, it was just that – hiking and being outside. He wasn’t a typical kid, he was a rare one, who liked hiking and didn’t question too often about why I dragged him everywhere. But as he entered his teen years I quit writing about him. I believe teens should have privacy. But once Kirk and I added another child (Walker) things changed. I calmed down a bit and found new hobbies in the outdoors. I found I could be just as happy pushing a jogger stroller on a paved rail to trail as I was doing a 20 mile day on the PCT. For me the simple act of being outdoors has always been what matters, not where I was. And being pregnant this fall has changed me more. I know that my life will change even more once our third child is here this winter. I will be limited where I go for another year unless Ford carries the burden of his brother and I am not sure I am willing to ask that of him. But I can happily push my stroller with my babies and my my oldest walking next to me down a moss lined trail in the Cascade mountains. And simply smell the air. Will I get back to where I was three years ago, backpacking constantly? I do not think so, at least for a couple of years. But again I am OK with it. My interest in tents and sleeping bags isn’t as high anymore, where as daypacks and jogger strollers are.

For now I give no promises on how often my blog posts here will come. I happily write my column for Washington Trails Association’s magazine, Wa Trails, and keep developing new recipes for the Trailcooking website. I am often posting items on the Facebook fan page as well – and love reading post from readers on FB. But as I get farther along with this baby my heart lies in blogging on Gazing In more and more. So if periodically being forced to look at photos of my children doesn’t cause gagging, please check out my writings. I warn though hiking is maybe 10% of it but you never know….you might enjoy the upcoming recipes of Candy-Fest 2011 (Candy-Fest 2010 was amazing I might add). Hah…….

~Sarah